As the bar year ends, I want to thank you for being part of the Austin Bar family. From Bench Bar to the record-breaking Gala, it’s been an incredible year, and we could not have done it without your membership, engagement, and support of our events. I would like to take the opportunity to recognize the many people who worked …
Thank you to the nearly 200 people who came out for the 2024 Bench Bar Conference! This year’s conference took place at Kalahari Resorts in Round Rock, and featured plenty of members of the bench. Bench Bar Committee Co-Chair Scott Brutocao kicked off the morning by introducing Corinne Smith, a life coach and Austin attorney. Smith led the crowd in …
The Austin Bar Foundation is now accepting applications for the LGBTQ+ Scholarship program! The program is a joint effort of the foundation and the LGBTQ+ Law Section of the Austin Bar Association. This is the scholarship program’s ninth year, and we have four $5,000 scholarships to award. Applicants must be enrolled at a Texas law school and can include 2024 …
Austin Bar Member Paul Matula, Assistant City Attorney’s Office, for Respondents Borgelt v. Austin Firefighters Assoc. IAFF Local 975, No. 22-1149 The main issue in this case is whether a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that allocates a pool of paid leave to further a union’s interests violates any “Gift Clause” in the Texas Constitution (Art. III, Secs. 50, 51, 52(a) and …
The Austin chapters of the American Inns of Court are accepting applications for the 2024-25 terms. The American Inns of Court are designed to improve the skills, professionalism, and ethics of the bench and bar. Information about the American Inns of Court can be found at www.innsofcourt.org. Each inn meets monthly. The deadline to apply is May 31, 2024. Interested applicants should …
On behalf of the Austin Bar Association’s DEI Committee, I am excited to invite members of the Austin legal community to our annual Equity Summit. This year’s CLE program will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus, 1212 Rio Grande St, Austin, TX 78701. The theme for …
By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune Republished with permission from The Texas Tribune. Michael Simington wasn’t one to see a doctor. But when the 67-year-old retired welder started having trouble urinating, he knew something was wrong. He saw Dr. Ruben Garcia, a urologist in Corsicana in October 2019. A biopsy showed he had prostate cancer. But Garcia didn’t share those …
It is with immense gratitude that I write to announce that I will retire from service as associate judge for the District Courts of Travis County on May 31, 2024. I have enjoyed my service on the bench as an associate judge in Travis County and, before that, as the first associate judge for the Child Protection Court of Central …
At the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the formation of a Department of Justice (DOJ)-run rewards program for whistleblowers. “The premise is simple,” Monaco said during her remarks in San Francisco on March 7, 2024. “If an individual helps DOJ discover significant corporate or financial misconduct—otherwise unknown to …
The following are summaries of selected criminal opinions issued by the Third Court of Appeals in October 2023. The summaries are overviews of particular aspects of the opinions; please review the entire opinions. Subsequent histories are current as of April 1, 2024. BURDEN OF PROOF – DUE DILIGENCE: Trial co… To view the rest of this article, please log into …