Floyd Real Estate Wins AYLA Sponsor Award

Floyd Real Estate, LLC has been awarded AYLA’s 2023 Sponsor Award!  Floyd Real Estate is owned by AYLA sustaining members Dave Floyd and Sara Foskitt. In addition to being attorneys, they are both also real estate brokers.  Floyd and Foskitt have both served on many different AYLA committees, taken part in the inaugural class of the AYLA/Austin Bar Leadership Academy, …

AYLA Wins Four ABA Awards of Achievement

The Austin Young Lawyers Association won four 2023 American Bar Association (ABA) awards – the most of any organization this year. AYLA won Most Outstanding Single Project – Service to the Bar for the 2022 Family Fall Festival. For Texas District 25, AYLA also won Service to the Public – Local Level – Division C for the 2022 Crawfish Boil …

What I Did Last Summer: Part 3 | Gathering Opinions on New Legal Writers

Editor’s Note This is Wayne Schiess’ final column for Austin Lawyer. His first “Opening Statement” column appeared in the July/August 2007 issue. Since then, he has consistently contributed to our magazine. His dedication to the improvement of legal writing has been invaluable to Austin Lawyer and its readers. From everyone at the Austin Bar, we sincerely thank you, Wayne, for …

December 2023/January 2024 Briefs

Congratulations to Austin Bar member and former Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who has joined Fritz Byrne PLLC as partner. Adler will handle eminent-domain cases for the firm while also maintaining his teaching positions at St. Edward’s University, UT’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and Huston-Tillotson University. Congratulations to Austin Bar member Rep. Lulu Flores, who won the Texas …

2024 Austin Bar Foundation Gala Award Winners Announced

The Austin Bar Association and Austin Bar Foundation are proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Distinguished Lawyer and David H. Walter Community Excellence awards! Edna Ramón Butts, Marcy Hogan Greer, and Randy Howry have won Distinguished Lawyer awards, and Jeff Edwards has won the David H. Walter Community Excellence Award. The Distinguished Lawyer Award  recognizes the dedication and …

UT Study Finds Hospital Systems Can Artificially Inflate Prices

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin found that a hospital system with a single IT platform can easily collude with rival hospital systems to keep prices above competitive levels. In the study, McCombs School of Business Associate Professor Hüseyin Tanriverdi found that a hospital system with a single IT platform: A hospital system with a single IT platform …

Study Recommends New Standards for Public Defender Felony Caseloads

Is 14 hours enough for a public defender (PD) to handle a felony case? “No,” is the conclusion of a new study sponsored by the Rand Corporation. In 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals determined that a PD can handle a yearly maximum of 150 felony cases, 400 misdemeanors, 200 mental health cases, 200 juvenile …

Austin Police to Begin Releasing Monthly Data Reports

The Austin Police Department (APD) will soon start releasing a monthly report that includes number of arrests, instances of use of force, officer staffing, and overtime use. Currently known only as the APD Open Policing Data Release, the monthly release was requested by Austin City Councilmember Chito Vela, and was approved on Sept. 14. “What we’re doing today is bringing …