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Jury Homily: By the Honorable Keith P. Ellison The Journey of a Federal Immigration Judge and Navy Reservist: A Story of Triumph Service to Country and the Law: An Interview With Veteran Matthew J. Hefti Seeds of Hope: Shawn Raymond, Gregg Costa, and the Sunflower County Freedom Project The Important Role of the Child Advocate nch Legal Resources for Veterans and Their Attorneys

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THE HOUSTON

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Volume 62 – Number 3

November/December 2024

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contents November/December 2024

Volume 62 Number 3

FEATURES

10

14

Homily: By the Honorable 10 Jury Keith P. Ellison Introduction by Andrew Pearce

Journey of a Federal 14 The Immigration Judge and Navy

Reservist: A Story of Triumph

By Matthew J. Alarcon

to Country and the Law: An 16 Service Interview With Veteran Matthew J. Hefti

By Johnny Day

of Hope: Shawn Raymond, Gregg 19 Seeds Costa, and the Sunflower County

16

19

Freedom Project

By Lane Morrison

Important Role of the Child 22 The Advocate

Finding Fulfillment as a Child Advocate

By Chastiti N. Horne Why I Advocate for Children

By Bridgett Matthes The Rewards of Child Advocacy

By Eddy De Los Santos Making a Positive Difference in the Lives of Children

By THE HONORABLE Frank Rynd

Resources for Veterans and 26 Legal Their Attorneys

22

28

By Eric D’Olive

in the Harris County Veterans’ 28 Support Treatment Court Program

By Ciara Perritano and Julisa Rodriguez

Annual Harvest Celebration: 34 75th Celebrating Pro Bono and the Power of Houston’s Legal Community

The Houston Lawyer

36 Harvest Celebration Underwriters

The Houston Lawyer (ISSN 0439-660X, U.S.P.S 008-175) is published bimonthly by The Houston Bar Association, 1111 Bagby Street, FLB 200, Houston, TX 77002. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas. Subscription rate: $12 for members. $25.00 non-members. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Houston Lawyer, 1111 Bagby Street, FLB 200, Houston, TX 77002. Telephone: 713-759-1133. All editorial inquiries should be addressed to The Houston Lawyer at the above address. All advertising inquiries should be addressed to: Quantum/SUR, 10306 Olympia Dr., Houston, TX 77042, 281-955-2449 ext 1, www.thehoustonlawyer.com, e-mail: leo@quantumsur. com. Views expressed in The Houston Lawyer are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the Houston Bar Association. Publishing of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of any product or service offered. ©The Houston Bar Association/QuantumSUR, Inc., 2024. All rights reserved.

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contents November/December 2024

Volume 62 Number 3

departments

38

39

Message 6 President’s Celebrating America

By David Harrell

the Editor 8 From Making a Meaningful Difference

By Andrew Pearce

THE RECORD 38 OFF Spreading Joy With the

Thiessens: A Costume Collection Full of Creativity and Fun

By Amanda Pierson

in professionalism 39 ATheProfile Honorable Sofia Adrogué

40

41

Judge, Eleventh Business Court Division

Spotlight 40 committee Answering the Call: The HBA

LegalLine Committee

By Ellyn Haikin Josef and Matthew Reasoner Spotlight 41 Section HBA Real Estate Law Section:

Keeping Its Sights on the Landscape

By Rosemary B. Jackson

trends 42 Legal Texas District Courts Question NLRB

Constitutionality

43

By Corey E. Devine reviews 43 Media 10,000 Depositions Later:

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The Houston Lawyer

44 Litigation MarketPlace

4 November/December 2024

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November/December 2024

5

president’s message

By David Harrell Locke Lord

The Houston Lawyer

O

Celebrating America

ver the last months, I’ve had several opportuniand what can be achieved through tenacity, dedication, and ties to celebrate American citizenship. hard work.

On Constitution Day in September, I volunAnd, of course, November brought Election Day. Over teered to read to students at my children’s school, 150 million votes were cast across the country. In Harris Trinity Klein Lutheran School, through the HBA County alone, 1.5 million voters had the opportunity to Lawyers for Literacy Committee’s Constitution Day Readselect their executives, representatives, and judges for the ing Program. This year’s selection was If I Were coming years.

President, told from the perspective of a young These experiences highlight various prochild musing about what it would like to be presigrams and committees available through the dent of the United States of America. Throughout HBA. The HBA’s mission is to “serve the needs In October, of Houston-area lawyers and enhance the legal the morning, the students peppered me with questions that not only reflected their engagement, but I had the oppor- profession,” and one way the HBA meets that also their genuine interest in our government, tunity to speak mission is to promote “service to our commuits leadership, and citizens’ role in shaping that nity through law-related or high-impact and at a naturaliza- high-involvement projects.” In advance of the government. I am pleased to report that the 2024 HBA Constitution Day Reading Program reached tion ceremony start of early voting in the November elections, approximately 7,000 students in 15 districts and the HBA released its Judicial Preference Poll as as thousands private schools. a service to the community. The poll provides of people real- HBA members with an opportunity to indicate In October, I had the opportunity to speak at a naturalization ceremony as thousands of people ized a decades- their candidate choices in the various conrealized a decades-long dream of becoming an tested judicial races impacting Houstonians. long dream of The Lawyers for Literacy Committee, which American citizen. Many of the new Americans, including several members of the United States becoming an organizes and sponsors the Constitution Day Armed Forces, brought family members to share American readings, also sponsors the Annual HBA Book their joy and accomplishment. I was proud to Drive, where donated books support local litcitizen.” eracy agencies and HBA Little Free Libraries. speak on behalf of the HBA, which is comprised of more than 11,000 members who have dedicatOf course, the HBA has programming dedied themselves to upholding the rule of law. cated to serving the community year-round, both in terms of I recently had the privilege of giving remarks at the investhe legal profession and greater Houston. That includes our titure ceremony for Judge Grant Dorfman and Judge Sofia mentorship programs through the Professionalism; ComAdrogué, who were appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abmunities In Schools (CIS); Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; bott to serve as the inaugural judges of the Eleventh Business Gender Fairness; and Military & Veterans committees. HBA Court Division. Before his appointment to the Texas Busimembers interested in providing a direct impact to their ness Court, Judge Dorfman dedicated himself to public sercommunity can find volunteerism opportunities through a vice as a district court judge, clerk for the Fifth Circuit Court variety of committees, including each of these: Campaign of Appeals, and Deputy First Assistant Attorney General in to End Homelessness & Hunger, HAY Center, Lawyers for the Office of the Texas Attorney General. Judge Adrogué ima Beautiful Houston (L4BH), Lawyers for Literacy, Special migrated to the United States when she was 8 years old. Her Olympics, and Teach Texas. dedication to public service has included a clerkship for the I invite you to join the HBA in its work serving the commuFifth Circuit Court of Appeals, serving on over 15 boards, nity. You can learn more about our 30+ committees and adand winning several accolades for her professional accomditional ways the HBA serves both the legal community and plishments. She is the personification of the American Dream the larger community by visiting hba.org/committees.

6 November/December 2024

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS President

Secretary

President-Elect

Treasurer

First Vice President

Immediate Past President

David Harrell

Kaylan Dunn

Daniella Landers

Greg Ulmer

Jeff Oldham

Diana Gomez

Second Vice President

Collin Cox

DIRECTORS (2023-2025)

Carter Dugan Greg Moore Colin Pogge

DIRECTORS (2024-2025) Todd Frankfort

DIRECTORS (2024-2026) Keri Brown Seepan V. Parseghian

Robert Painter Samantha Torres

editorial staff Editor in Chief

Andrew Pearce Associate Editors

Anna M. Archer Nikki Morris Braden Riley

Sydney Huber Bateman Lane Morrison Kyle Steingreaber Editorial Board

Anietie Akpan Jessica Crutcher Corey Devine Felicia Harris Hoss Denise Khoury Dave Louie Ciara Perritano Hon. Josefina M. Rendón Jennifer Smith Carey Worrell

Jaclyn Barbosa Jonathan Day Traci Gibson Jeffrey Johnston David T. López Emily Mott Rinku Ray Benjamin Roberts Rachael Thompson Nicolette Zulli

Managing Editor

Maggie Martin

HBA office staff Executive Director.................... Vinh Ho Associate Executive Director....... Ashley G. Steininger Executive Assistant and Director of Board Affairs............ Gina Pendleton Controller ............................... Sarah Kole Director, Marketing and Communications ..................... Maggie Martin Communications Specialist........ Briana Ramirez Education Coordinator ................. Alli Hessel Director, Projects and Events...... Bonnie Simmons Projects and Events Assistant..... Georgina Peña Director, Membership and Technology Services................. Ron Riojas

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November/December 2024

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from the editor

By Andrew Pearce BoyarMiller

Associate Editors

Anna M. Archer U.S. District Court

Sydney Huber Bateman Horne Rota Moos

Nikki Morris BakerHostetler

Lane Morrison Bush Seyferth

The Houston Lawyer

Braden Riley Marrow & Sheppard

Kyle C. Steingreaber Wright Close & Barger

T

Making a Meaningful Difference

his issue is a bit of a full circle moment for me. In 2010, I was in my third year practicing law. A civil matter I was working on had morphed into a criminal matter in the Southern District of Texas. I had the opportunity to help coordinate witnesses and generally interact with an Assistant U.S. Attorney named Gregg Costa. I was beyond impressed. He was smart, talented, and accomplished, but equally kind, gracious, and unassuming.

When the criminal trial began, Judge Keith Ellison gave his opening remarks to the jury panel. He spoke of the inconveniences and hardships of serving on a jury, but then spoke to the history and purpose of jury service. Those remarks have stuck with me ever since, and we are privileged to publish an updated version provided by Judge Ellison in this issue. Almost 15 years later, his words are truer and more poignant than ever.

Then, in 2020, BoyarMiller rolled out its Legal Assistance for Black-owned Businesses program (the LABB).

Inspired by a goal to create equitable access to quality legal services, the LABB was developed to provide legal services for black-owned businesses while contributing in a meaningful way to the community. I had the chance to write about it in the July/August 2023 issue of The Houston Lawyer. One of the program’s first clients was referred to us by Shawn Raymond with Susman Godfrey, a lawyer and law firm I knew well by reputation, but a person I had never met.

Fast forward to 2024. I watched Shawn receive the ADL’s 2024 Karen H. Susman Jurisprudence Award and he was introduced by his good friend, Gregg Costa. I had no idea of their shared history, and I will not spoil it here. Rather, I hope you will read Lane Morrison’s outstanding article, which tells the story of two young men who began as strangers but became the closest of friends after embarking on an adventure that changed both a community and each of them in profound ways.

The opportunity to highlight Judge Keith Ellison,

8 November/December 2024

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Gregg Costa, and Shawn Raymond—each of whom has been a role model for me—is a major privilege of being the current editor in chief. A different but equally valuable privilege of serving as editor is being introduced to new stories and role models, several of whom are included in this issue. My sincere thanks to Johnny Day for sharing his conversation with Matthew J. Hefti, to Matthew J. Alarcon for profiling the remarkable journey of Judge Christopher V. Phan, and to Eric D’Olive for providing valuable guidance for anyone presented with an opportunity to support our Houston-area military veterans.

I also hope our readers will be as moved as I was when reading about Child Advocates, a program that mobilizes court-appointed volunteers to break the vicious cycle of child abuse, from the unique perspectives of four of its volunteers: Eddy De Los Santos, Chastiti N. Horne, Bridgett Matthes, and the Honorable Frank Rynd. Each of their stories is truly inspiring. You can learn more about the program and how to get involved at childadvocates.org. Sydney Huber Bateman suggested this idea and it was a terrific one.

In this issue, we continue highlighting Harris County’s six specialty courts; this time, Ciara Perritano and Julisa Rodriguez introduce us to the Harris County Veterans’ Treatment Court Program, whose mission is to increase access to mental health and addictions treatment for those veterans with felony and misdemeanor offenses by diverting veterans directly into VA treatment, reducing jail time, costs, and criminal recidivism, while improving mental health recovery and successful re-entry into the community.

Finally, in an issue that seeks to tell stories of those who are making a meaningful difference in people’s lives, I want to thank Rinku Ray, who stepped up to perform an amazing job as guest editor, and Kyle Steingreaber, who stepped in on short notice to serve as articles editor for this issue. My sincere appreciation and thanks to both of them.

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November/December 2024

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Introduction by Andrew Pearce

Jury Homily:

By the Honorable Keith P. Ellison

A

s a young lawyer, I had the opportunity to observe a criminal trial presided over by Judge Keith Ellison. Outside of his courtroom, Judge Ellison’s chambers were filled with interesting photos and note cards on display, including “thank you” notes from several folks who had served on his juries. I was struck by both the number of them and the sincere gratitude expressed in each. A short time later, I heard Judge Ellison’s opening remarks and I felt the same as those jurors surely had. When he finished, every person who first begrudged their bad luck in getting called to serve on a jury seemed to sit up a little straighter and hold their head a little higher at the honor.

We are privileged to publish an updated version provided by Judge Ellison. Almost 15 years later, his words are truer and more poignant than ever.

Good morning, and welcome.

In asking you to join us this morning, we realize that we represent an enormous intrusion. We know we have complicated your life and the lives of members of your family. We acknowledge that, and we apologize for it. We make this imposition because we have important work for you to do. This is work that cannot get done without you.

At the conclusion of this trial, you will be asked to pass judgment on the two men who are defendants in the case you will hear. It is a tremendous responsibility. It may very well be the gravest responsibility asked of any American citizen short of armed combat.

Whenever we convene a jury, I am tugged by strong personal and patriotic emotions. As for the personal, my parents lived long enough to see me become a judge. They had no familiarity with matters of the law. But, they were fascinated by all my jury trials. They wanted to know what was the balance of men versus women, what were some of the jobs and occupations represented, what about the home towns, what was the age range. They were fascinated by all of this because they well remembered the times when it was their turn to serve as jurors.

And they well remembered a generation earlier when they watched their parents jolted out of their normal daily routine and take their turn as jurors.

For those of you who have young chil-

dren, you may have—without realizing dence, in the body of the Constitution, it—created a lasting memory. In 15 or 20 and in the Bill of Rights. years, when your offspring John Adams, our nation’s receive their first jury sumsecond president, referred mons, they will think back to jury trials as “the hearts on today and remember and lungs of liberty.” Much Beyond the more recently, the late Juswhen their breakfast hour was rushed, and when mom personal, I am tice Antonin Scalia, who and dad had to make special served three decades on the also uplifted by arrangements to take them to Supreme Court, said that the sense of a when courts interpret the school and have them picked up. The day mom or dad had constitutional right to a jury trial, they to go downtown where the touch “the spinal column mandate that of American democracy.” traffic is bad and the parking is worse. attaches to jury I often reflect on how our Beyond the personal, I am trials. That man- nation’s Founders might realso uplifted by the sense of act if today they were magidate extends cally returned to life and a constitutional mandate that attaches to jury trials. That throughout surveyed what had become mandate extends throughout of the constitutional prothe life of our the life of our country, a long tections they afforded us country.” all. As to the First Amendand honored continuum. The right to a jury trial is the ment rights, the Founders only one of our rights to receive explicit would not know what to make of televiemphasis in the Declaration of Indepension and radio, much less the internet. As

‘‘

to the Second Amendment, the Founders would be astonished at the variety and capability of 21st century weaponry. As to the Fourth Amendment, which regulates searches and seizures, the Founders would not understand telephones, so they wouldn’t understand wire taps.

They wouldn’t understand automobiles, so they wouldn’t understand any of the voluminous issues concerning searches of motor vehicles. The Founders would not know anything about heat detection devices, or DNA, or face recognition technology. But when it comes to the protections of the Fifth, Sixth, or Seventh Amendments, which protect the right to a jury trial, any of the Founders could walk into a modern courtroom and would understand exactly where they were and exactly what was going on.

The Founders would see lawyers for each side doing their solemn best to discharge that immense responsibility of representing the totality of another person’s rights and obligations. They would

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November/December 2024

11

see the judge sitting in a raised bench counts as more than one, and most asin his or her ancient dress, and, most suredly no person counts as less than importantly, they would see the jury in one. Thus, leaders of business, educathe jury box—twelve citizens sworn and tion, entertainment, and government are true upon whom the outcome of the trial regularly called into court. would come to rest.

I am sure some of you are wonderAnd, the Founders would not only uning, “If the trial process is so sacred, derstand what was why shouldn’t it be happening, they left to the judges?” would feel great That is the biggest pride in seeing that misapprehension of their core principles all. There is no way were not only intact a single judge can but present in romatch the wisdom bust form: the right and experience of to the assistance of twelve jurors. For counsel, the right starters, there will against self-incrimbe twelve of you. ination, the right You can discuss to an independent your reactions to judiciary, and most different witnesses, importantly, the compare the meanright to have legal ings you derived disputes resolved from various exhibThe Honorable Keith P. Ellison, United States by a jury of peers. district judge of the United States District Court its, argue about how Some of you for the Southern District of Texas. each jury question may think that the right to a jury trial should be answered. I won’t have that was once useful but is now antiquated. opportunity. There is only one of me.

I would suggest to you that there are Beyond that, I live an artificial life. I sit thousands of people who are languishup here and people from below call me ing in prisons all over the world with“Your Honor” and I get to thinking I am out access to a jury. I am confident they a lot smarter than I am. You, on the othcould persuade you very quickly of the er hand, live in the real world, where you continuing need for the right to a jury earn your living, raise your family, wortrial. ship your god. You have experience from Others of you may say that jury trials which my job cuts me off. On top of all were important in the 18th century, and that, the ultimate authority should be may be important to some people today, the jury and not the judge. And this wisbut not to me or anyone I care about. dom has served us very well for a quarter Here, again, you have reason to reconof a millennium. As one old-time lawyer sider. once told me, “Keith, it is awfully hard The Founders could have chosen a systo sneak a lie past 12 pairs of eyes.” tem of justice that applied differently to I know, of course, no matter what I people with the “right” ancestry, or the say, some of you are determined to feel “right” religion, or those with enough very sorry for yourselves. Quite certain wealth. To their eternal credit and our that no one in history has ever been eternal good fortune, the Founders inconvenienced as much as you are bechose exactly the opposite system. No ing inconvenienced. If you are going to matter what our relationship or status feel sorry for yourselves, at least intromay be in the outside world, once we duce some semblance of proportionalwalk through those courtroom doors, ity, think of the sacrifices that have been each person counts as one, no person asked of others.

12 November/December 2024

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I hope you have had a chance to visit at some point the blog, Our Fallen Heroes. It lists the names of soldiers who have died in service to their country.

Let’s remember three who recently lost their lives in Jordan near the Syrian border, far from home and family: • Sergeant William J. Rivers, male, age 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; • Specialist Kennedy L. Sanders, female, age 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and • Specialist Breonna A. Moffett, female, age 23, of Savannah, Georgia.

The list goes on. And, there are other lists. Lists of those who have lost arms, legs.

Lists of those who have lost intellectual and other life functions.

Now, I am not going to debate whether any particular military operation was wise or necessary. These brave young men and women did not get to debate it either. They went where their country asked them to go when their country asked them to go there. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the same position you are in.

The soldiers responded with a sense of duty, honor, and sacrifice. They reminded us that, notwithstanding our country’s many challenges, the flag is still there. Now, in a very different context, but with the same sense of duty, honor, and sacrifice, it is our turn to do the same.

The Honorable Keith P. Ellison U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, October 29, 2024.

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By Matthew J. Alarcon

The Journey of a Federal Immigration Judge and Navy Reservist:

A Story of Triumph

J

udge Christopher V. Phan’s journey is a striking narrative of the noble pursuit of service. From fleeing a war-torn Vietnam as a child, to becoming a distinguished Navy Judge Advocate General, and then to being a federal judge, Phan embodies the spirit of service. Overcoming the odds of displacement, cultural barriers, and the realities of war, he has transformed these challenges into a powerful drive to protect the freedoms and rights of others.

Phan pursued a legal career that has spanned military, civilian, and governmental roles, earning him recognition as a staunch advocate for justice. His story is one of dedication, sacrifice, and service.

Phan’s father escaped Vietnam when Saigon fell to communism, leaving Phan and his mother behind. They later immigrated to the United States when Phan’s father sponsored them. Phan was 8 years old. He arrived in Indiana in the winter of 1981 and started second grade after the Christmas holiday as the only minority student in the entire school. “It was sink or swim time,” Phan recalled, as he learned English within a year. Growing up in a war-torn country, military service was always on his mind, and he aspired to defend his second home.

When asked how Phan merged his military service with practicing law, he shared his desire to serve and protect our nation.

His early experiences shaped his understanding of the critical role the law plays in safeguarding rights and freedoms. “Growing up in a communist country, we had no freedom. Our home and property were confiscated without due process, so I wanted to be a lawyer to protect those who could not protect themselves.” Phan’s determination 14 November/December 2024

for the law was driven by a sincere belief that through service and justice, he could repay the opportunities he had been given.

For Phan, learning the law was never just an academic pursuit; it was a pathway to

strengthening our nation.

Phan attended Indiana University at Indianapolis for his undergraduate studies in biology. Afterward, he received a scholarship to Southern Illinois Law School, where he planned to obtain a J.D./MD degree.

He completed his J.D. but, needing to support his family, he decided to forgo the MD and used his J.D. to gain acceptance into the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Phan’s interest in becoming a Navy JAG was sparked by a college friend who worked for the Navy. Phan applied eagerly, believing that “the Navy was the best way to see the world, serve our nation, and get paid for having fun.” Phan found a platform to defend our nation’s values and advocate for justice in some of the most complex environments.

Phan reported to Naval Legal Service Office, Branch Office Earle, New Jersey for his first tour of duty in April 2001. He served as defense counsel, legal assistance attorney, and branch head. At Naval Weapons Station Earle, he defended Marines, sailors,

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and Coast Guard members facing criminal charges. He also provided legal advice to service members and their dependents on matters such as wills, family law, and other legal issues. After his initial tour as defense counsel, he was then assigned to be a Navy prosecutor. Phan explained, “We are assigned billets as we gain seniority.”

In July 2003, Phan reported to the Trial Service Office in Yokosuka, Japan, where he served as a Navy prosecutor. During this time, he had the opportunity to work alongside prominent figures, including his senior trial counsel, Lia Reynolds, who is now the second female Navy JAG Admiral.

Phan also collaborated with Vice Admiral (Ret.) Nanette DeRenzi, the first woman to serve as a Navy JAG. Working closely with these distinguished women contributed to Phan’s growth as a legal professional.

Reflecting on his time as a defense counsel and Navy prosecutor, Phan highlighted a rewarding case. His earlier experience with a shaken baby case in Guam helped him improve his approach in a similar trial in Japan. That earlier acquittal taught him how to better question expert witnesses and simplify complex scientific concepts for the jury, contributing to a successful outcome.

From 2005 to 2007, Phan served as Staff Judge Advocate for Commander, Naval Special Warfare Group One acting as in-house counsel for the SEAL teams. In this role, he provided guidance on the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict. During this time, he deployed to Iraq with a Navy SEAL squadron. These unique circumstances influenced his approach to law. He detailed that in operational environments with SEALs, JAG officers must be more flexible than in typical legal settings. Due to how fast and decisive SEALs operate, JAGs sometimes need to shift from strict legal adherence to finding solutions that align with the mission. He soon realized his ability to navigate high-stakes environments would be key in future high-level assignments.

Phan’s commitment to serve extended beyond the military. After returning from Iraq

Grove ended, Phan and his wife wanted to in 2008, he transitioned to civilian life in grow their family and sought support from California by opening his own law firm, sperelatives. With his wife’s parents living in cializing in immigration and criminal law.

Houston, they decided to move closer to He chose Garden Grove, which is known for them. This relocation in its high concentration 2017 led to Phan securof Vietnamese Ameriing a position as an ascans, with the intensistant district attorney tion of serving his for Harris County. community. In 2010, Two years later, in Phan was recalled to 2019, Phan was appointactive duty, serving ed by William Barr, the as legal counsel attorney general under for the Wounded Judge Phan at the President Trump, as Warrior program Swords of Victory a federal judge at the at the Portsmouth parade ground in Sacramento, CaliforNaval Hospital in Baghdad Iraq (2007). nia immigration court, Norfolk, Virginia. where he adjudicated After returnJudge Phan’s official asylum and removal ing home, Phan photo as Navy commander (2020). cases. In 2021, he transdecided to run for ferred to his current location—the Houston Garden Grove City Council in 2012, and Greenspoint Park Immigration Court— he spent 10 months walking to meet voters. when it opened during COVID. This move This role allowed him to further his goal of allowed him to return home and be closer to serving his local community and deepenhis family, who remained in Houston while ing his connections with the Vietnamese he worked in Sacramento. In addition to American community. At the same time, he worked as an Orange County deputy district attorney, further establishing himself as a public servant.

In addition to his civilian roles, Phan’s military service continued. He was recalled once again to active duty in 2016, serving at the Pentagon in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel & Readiness), Legal Policy. He later deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as litigation support section chief, where he “learned that stress can ease away with a swim in the Caribbean Ocean.”

When asked how a military background can influence the approach to civilian roles, Phan noted that military service instills “discipline to show up, perform consistently, and rely on faith in the process, even when outcomes are uncertain,” all of which are beneficial to civilian roles. He also gave a lot of credit for his success to his family, pointing out that his “wife became the bridge that got us through.” During Phan’s assignments in Cuba and the Pentagon, he and his wife had a daughter and son. Together, their strong family bond played an instrumental role in getting Phan to where he is now.

After his city council term in Garden

serving as an immigration judge, Phan also continues to serve in the Navy Reserves as a commander and is currently the executive officer of Navy Reserve Defense Service Office West.

Judge Phan strongly encourages young legal professionals interested in public service to engage not only in military service but also in any public sector roles. He believes that such involvement demonstrates a genuine commitment to improving the community and serving those around them.

Matthew J. Alarcon is a University of Houston graduate and former Marine. He is a second-year law student (2L) at South Texas College of Law Houston and serves as president of the Veteran Law Students Association. His experience includes working at mid-sized and boutique firms in real estate, construction, and business law, as well as working with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

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By Johnny Day

Service to Country and the Law:

An Interview With Veteran Matthew J. Hefti

J

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” - Micah 6:8

ohnny Day, a trial lawyer specializing in catastrophic personal injury and complex commercial litigation, had a chance to visit with his friend and colleague, Matthew J. Hefti, about Matthew’s service in the military and how those experiences shaped and informed his practice as a criminal defense attorney.

ment Program very soon after the attacks of September 11, 2001. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.

Day: How did you come to be an explosive ordnance disposal technician?

Hefti: Essentially, I got bamboozled by the recruiter. I initially wanted to be a linJohnny Day: Thanks guist, and I shared for agreeing to do that with my local this interview. Tell us recruiter. “No probwhere you work and lem,” he told me. So, what type of law you I took a Greyhound practice. to the Military EnMatthew J. Hefti: trance Processing StaI work at Looney, Matthew J. Hefti (left) and Johnny Day. Hefti is a tion, where I did the Smith & Conrad, husband, father, veteran, author, musician, and P.C. We practice lawyer. He practices criminal defense at Looney, full day of tests, the medical exams, etc. criminal defense law Smith & Conrad, P.C., in Houston, Texas.

At the end of the day, I sat down to pick a in both state and federal courts, everything career field, and the recruiter there told me, from misdemeanors to murders, from pre“Congratulations, you scored well enough trial all the way through appeal and postto do whatever job you want.” I told him I conviction writs. wanted to be a linguist. Then he said, “Well, Day: Why did you choose the quote above? you can’t do that because there’s a separate Hefti: A few reasons. First, you asked me to test for that job.” So, I told him to give me choose a quote. Second, my faith animates that test. He told me he couldn’t because they what I do. This verse encapsulates a lot about only give that test on Wednesdays. I told him how I view my role in the legal profession I’d be back on Wednesday. He said I had to and in the criminal justice system, in parpick a job first before I could take the test ticular. to be a linguist because I had to have a fallback job in case I failed. They only had three Day: When did you join the military and why? “backup” jobs available. The first was secuHefti: I left for boot camp immediately after rity forces, or military police. Nope. I wasn’t my freshman year of college in May of 2002, going to be a cop. The second was in-flight but I joined the Air Force’s Delayed Enlistrefueler. Nope. I had already told the Navy 16 November/December 2024

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recruiter who wanted me to be a submariner that I didn’t want to spend my life stuck in a metal tube. The third was explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD. I had never heard of that. “They get all the cool toys,” the recruiter told me. EOD gets to travel, blow stuff up on the range, work with the Secret Service. It’s the good life. That sounded pretty good as a fallback plan. The next day my local recruiter called me and informed me the fallback plan was now the plan, and there was no going back.

Day: Is that how you met your wife?

Hefti: Exactly. Joining EOD was the best mistake I ever made because right after graduating boot camp, I started the Air Force’s preliminary course for EOD school, and who walks into my class but the most beautiful young lady I ever met, my future wife, Monica. We went through EOD school together, got married, served together, had three beautiful daughters together, and have been married for 21 years now.

Day: And you served four combat tours, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan?

Hefti: Yes. Day: Were you aware at the time you joined EOD that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be fought with improvised explosive devices?

Hefti: No. When I joined, I had no idea what an improvised explosive device was. I had no idea what ordnance was. And, of course, Iraq hadn’t even started yet.

Day: Maybe the best way to start talking about what your life looked like on the ground in Iraq would be to discuss the word “improvised.” What kind of improvisations did you encounter?

Hefti: All kinds. I had buddies in Iraq who built an outside movie theater using the concrete blast walls. My friends, Nick and Nate, made the tastiest dishes out of the nastiest shelf-stable ingredients. We designed and built sound systems in our Humvees. On my first tour to Iraq, we still had a shortage of fully armored vehicles, so guys had to improvise armor for the trucks. In environments like that, everyone learns to be a

MacGyver.

And, of course, there were all the improvised explosive devices, limited only by the bomber’s imagination.

Day: In your present-day life you like to take improv comedy classes, right? A different kind of improvisation?

Hefti: That’s right. Some mentors of mine in the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association encouraged me to do improv. It helps with the soft skills of trial—connecting to an audience, thinking on your feet, getting out of your own head, and being authentic. And of course, it’s great fun.

Day: Is it true there is a “red” wire and a “blue” wire?

Hefti: Sure. And every other color coating you can think of. But it’s the wire inside the coating that does the work.

Day: Did you ever encounter a ticking time bomb or one that had James Bond LED numbers counting down to zero?

Hefti: I’ve encountered bombs rigged up with washing machine timers and other kinds of timers. And I’ve dealt with remotecontrolled devices with a little Motorola radio as the triggering mechanism, and you could see the LED screen traversing all 99 channels waiting to receive a signal on any of them.

rights to my publisher my 1L year, and it was published during my 2L year.

history, often at night when there was no hustle and bustle.

Day: I have heard it is a whirlwind getting published. How did you feel when you found out your book was going to be printed and distributed all over the world?

Hefti: It was great. A dream come true at the time. I call it the “George McFly” moment.

That moment like in Back to the Future when you open the box of advance copies and hold the physical thing in your hands, the result of all that work. It’s pretty cool.

Day: When during the wars did you start taking higher education classes?

Hefti: I never stopped, in a way. I “dropped out” of college after my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to enlist, but I immediately went into EOD school, one of the most academically challenging schools in the Department of Defense in which the fail rate is near 80%. Once my training was finished, I took online classes to keep working toward that English degree that I had started.

When I was deployed, I’d be setting up the satellite computer on the side of some remote Afghanistan mountain to turn in my homework, or I’d be emailing my professors with excuses like, “Oh, sorry my assignment is late.

We got blown up today and then in a gunfight that kind of went longer than expected.”

Day: Hard to argue with that excuse!

Hefti: When I was stateside, I’d get home from work and do homework with the babies and toddlers on my lap. My wife finished

Day: You also worked with the Secret Service?

Hefti: Yes, military EOD teams provide support to, and work with, the Secret Service and Department of State all over the world to help protect the president, vice president, secretary of state, and other U.S. and foreign dignitaries.

Day: You were on the White House patrol for a time, right? Tell us what it was like walking around in the White House night after night.

Hefti: It was much smaller than I expected.

But it was surreal walking around all that

Day: Other than your improv jokes, do you still work with bombs?

Hefti: Good one. No, I don’t do hands-on work with bombs anymore. But I provide confidential consulting services for lawyers all over the country working on cases involving destructive devices or bombings. I also testify as an expert witness on destructive devices and post-blast investigations in state and federal courts.

Day: You wrote a novel about the war that was published and well received?

Hefti: Yes, it’s called A Hard and Heavy Thing.

It’s still in print with the publisher, Gallery/ Simon and Schuster, and available for anyone who wants to check it out. I wrote it mostly while still enlisted. I went straight from the Air Force into law school. My agent sold the thehoustonlawyer.com

November/December 2024

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her bachelor’s the same way. Homework in one hand, kid in the other. After I finished the English degree that I started before I joined the military, I kept going and finished my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in the same way.

Day: After the military, you enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Law School on the GI Bill?

Hefti: Yes. It wasn’t easy going back to school full time with a family of 5, but between the GI Bill, a scholarship, some student loans, some side hustles, and some writing income, we made it work.

Day: You were fortunate to find mentors?

Hefti: Absolutely. Mentorship is the quiet kind of service that goes too often unacknowledged or unsung, but it can change lives and careers. Great mentors have helped me every step of the way, and I try to emulate their example and pay that forward.

Day: Did you always want to be the next Clarence Darrow? By that I mean: was criminal defense a focus in law school?

Hefti: I don’t think I knew who Clarence Darrow was before I went to law school, but I wanted to be the next Toni QuinnO’Neill, a criminal defense JAG attorney I had gotten to know in the Air Force. She was one of the people who inspired and encouraged me to go to law school.

Criminal defense was very much a focus in law school and one of the reasons I chose the University of Wisconsin. They have one of the best criminal defense clinical programs in the country with a focus on law-in-action education.

I served two years with the Wisconsin Innocence Project. I also served with the Public Defender Project, the Criminal Appeals Project, and the Juvenile Life Without Parole project.

Day: Please tell us about how your life changed as a 1st year at UW when Brian Stevenson visited on his book tour.

Hefti: Bryan Stevenson is a civil rights giant. He was on tour after publishing his 18 November/December 2024

book, Just Mercy, and he gave a lecture at the school early in my 1L year. The way he spoke—with such heart and compassion—about capital punishment, indigent defense, and basic human rights really moved me.

Day: After learning about the Equal Justice Initiative from Brian Stevenson’s visit, who did you next meet on what Johnny Cochran calls our “Journey to Justice”?

Hefti: My civ pro professor was this great guy named Ion Meyn. He did fascinating scholarship geared toward advocating for criminal discovery rules to move toward those of the civil discovery rules. It’s crazy that people fighting over money have more power for discovery in many ways than the criminal defendants fighting for their lives.

Day: As a civil trial lawyer, I cannot imagine trying a case without depositions.

Hefti: Yet it happens every day down at the Justice Center. Anyway, Ion and I got along well, and I told him that after hearing Bryan Stevenson talk and after reading his book, capital defense really intrigued me. I hadn’t given much thought to capital punishment before then because Wisconsin isn’t a death penalty state.

Ion told me I needed to apply to the Wisconsin Innocence Project because they had some excellent capital defense attorneys and even some capital cases.

Day: And that led you to the Gulf Region Advocacy Center (GRACE)?

Hefti: Yes, Ion pointed me to Cristina Borde and her husband, Greg Wiercioch, both professors in the Wisconsin Innocence Project. They became two particularly important mentors to me. Cristina had long done capital habeas work in California, and Greg helped co-found Texas Defender Service, a capital defense nonprofit.

Greg brought me on to one of his Texas capital cases. Under the student practice rules, I got to travel to Texas and argue post-conviction DNA motions on behalf of our client. Greg introduced me to Da-

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nalynn Recer, a brilliant lawyer, and the founder of GRACE. One thing led to another, and I moved to Houston to work for GRACE as research and writing counsel as my first job out of law school.

Day: Are there many capital cases in Houston?

Hefti: Yes. Harris County is historically the capital of capital punishment. More people have been sentenced to die out of Harris County than any other state in the Union besides Texas.

Day: What are lessons that you learned in the military that you still carry and apply to the practice of law?

Hefti: There are so many. I think the most practical lesson is to “read the manual.”

Every single operation as an EOD tech, we opened the manual for that specific kind of ordnance or operation, no matter how well we thought we knew it.

People forget things. Law changes. I use that same lesson all the time in my law practice. No matter how many times I do something, I go to the statutes, the rules, and relevant cases. It’s amazing how many problems can be solved in the law by simply reading the law first.

Day: Makes perfect sense. So, whether it’s an ordinance or ordnance, read the manual. Any final words?

Hefti: A final word. Integrity. The first thing I learned in boot camp was the Air Force core values: Integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. As lawyers, our integrity, credibility, and reputation are our most valuable assets. Service is what we do. Our clients, the courts, our colleagues, the public, and the entire adversarial system all depend on each one of us striving for excellence and doing our jobs well.

Johnny Day is a trial lawyer with a practice focused on catastrophic personal injury and complex commercial litigation.

By Lane Morrison

Seeds of Hope:

stood up, smiled, shook Shawn’s hand, and announced “then special ed it is.” Gregg often jokes that Shawn’s experience—not speaking up and receiving a tougher, high school assignment—must have taught Shawn quite a lesson because that was the last time Shawn stayed quiet. In any event, they would all teach in Sunflower County— a place that Principal Gardner described as Mayberry on weekdays and Gunsmoke on weekends, and a place they would all soon come to love.

Sunflower County sits in Mississippi’s northwest quadrant. It is part of the Delta, an area rich in soil and music but poor in power and wealth for Black people, who have long been the majority. The vestiges of slavery—and After a short time its kin, Jim Crow— in Arkansas, Shawn have long shadows and Gregg met the there. By the midthird major player nineties, its populain this story—Chris tion had declined Myers Asch. They all went to Houston for (L to R) Shawn and Chris at the “Arboretum” in to below 40,000, including thousands a six-week orienta- downtown Sunflower circa 1998. of inmates of Mississippi’s oldest and most tion before heading to the Mississippi Delta notorious prison: Parchman. And, like other for their permanent teaching assignments. places that played a role in the Civil Rights That assignment sent the trio, along with a Movement, Sunflower County was once fourth corps member, Linda Liang, to Ruhome to those staunchly opposed to equal leville, in Sunflower County, where they met rights—like U.S. Senator James Eastland— with principals in a tiny, un-air-conditioned and those made famous for their tireless high school conference room. During the efforts in pursuit of equal rights—like Fanmeeting, Bessie Gardner, then the principal nie Lou Hamer. As Chris later wrote, these of East Sunflower Elementary School, burst paradoxes continued long after the 1960s: through the door and asked if any of them “It stood at the epicenter of the civil rights wanted to teach elementary school. Gregg movement, yet still suffers from racial inand Chris spoke up first, and she immediequality.”1 ately claimed them, ushered them into her Walking into this atmosphere, the trio pickup, and headed for Sunflower—a town did not receive the warmest welcome. They of a few hundred about 14 miles south of Rufound a rental near East Sunflower Elemenleville. Linda was scooped up by Ruleville’s tary. The house was across the abandoned elementary school principal, leaving Shawn railroad tracks on the so-called “White side” alone with the high school principal. of Sunflower; the school was across the Stunned by the quickness of it all and not tracks on the so-called “Black side.” A few sure if he would ever see the others again, weeks after school started, several students Shawn was given two high school options: from the school came by to play baseball (1) replace the choir teacher, who had just in their front yard. Soon, though, a pickup died; or (2) special education. Shawn joked truck appeared, with an older white man that he had a terrible singing voice, so the and his grandson in the cab. The old man principal at Ruleville Central High School

Shawn Raymond, Gregg Costa, and the Sunflower County Freedom Project

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n the summer of 1994, 21-year old Gregg Costa stepped off a plane in Memphis, not knowing what to expect. Fresh out of Dartmouth College, he was starting his first summer with Teach for America (“TFA”)—the then-chaotic-startup-butnow-stalwart nonprofit that recruits college graduates for two-year teaching stints in underserved public schools. A TFA representative told Gregg that someone would be waiting for him at the gate. So, when he saw a shaggy-headed young man wearing a torn t-shirt, shorts, and Tevas, he thought it was nice that TFA had sent one of his soon-to-be students to retrieve him. That “disheveled” (according to Gregg) youth was 22-yearold Shawn Raymond, who was not one of Gregg’s students, but rather one of his fellow TFA colleagues. Shawn had just graduated from George Washington University, and TFA had sent him—like Gregg—to Helena, Arkansas, for what they thought would be an introduction to their teaching assignment before orientation. Though they had no way to know then, that summer day in Memphis would be the start of their lifelong friendship and commitment to public service, which would grow from teaching in two Mississippi public schools to creating a lasting legacy helping students across the state with the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Along the way would be quite the ride.

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school and summer program and built the end of their 2L year, when Gregg was editor screamed threats: “You have two minutes to LEAD (Love, Education, Action, Discipline) in chief and Shawn was managing editor of get these [N-word]s out of here, or I will do it Center to serve as the hub of the SCFP and The Texas Law Review, that they and Chris for you.” After the kids took off back across various programs and affiliates throughout devised the Sunflower County Freedom the tracks, the older man said the kids did the state.

Project (“SCFP”). not belong on that side With all this growth, though, they needed At first, the SCFP of town, though he aca permanent building. In downtown Sunwas meant to be a sumknowledged that the flower, there was an empty strip of dilapimer program that suptrio obviously did not dated buildings that had been that way for plemented the public yet know “the rules.” many years and were filled with weeds and school curriculum in The man calmly extrees. Gregg, Shawn, and Chris called it the reading and math but plained, “I send my “Arboretum.” Their owner? The same racist kids to Indianola Acad- (L to R) Shawn, Gregg, and Chris in Sunflow- also added instruction former deputy sheriff who had years before that the three had seen emy”—one of the many er, August 22, 1994. schooled Gregg, Shawn, and Chris about that their schools lacked—like music, art, “segregationist academies” that popped up the racial “rules” in the county. The SCFP physical education, and field trips (despite after school integration began—“to get away bought the buildings at a steal and wrote off being just 50 miles from the Mississippi Rivfrom those [N-word]s.” He drove away. The the gap between the sales price and market er, many of their students had never seen it). guys would later find out the man had been price as a donation, which made the former But they also wanted it to be a place where the county’s deputy sheriff in the 1960s deputy sheriff—for some time—the largest children could understand and appreciate and had a long history of enforcing the rasingle donor to the SCFP. the gravity of the place they were in, where cial “rules” in the county—his wife was the Today, the SCFP is part of the Freedom Fannie Lou Hamer and others had worked mayor of Sunflower.

Project Network, an umbrella nonprofit that so hard for equality. In 1998, to make sure That was not the last pushback. A few Gregg, Shawn, and Chris created, which they could truly meet the community’s needs days later, Gregg, Shawn, and Chris found serves more than 100 with their new project, broken glass bottles underneath their vestudents a year and has they held town halls in hicle tires, which were parked on the street. two other locations Ruleville and Sunflower A few weeks later, they learned of a petition across the state. It has exchurches. It was during going around the “White” part of town that panded to serve elementhis “roadshow” that a was seeking to run them out of Sunflower— tary through high school local Black farmer casuit was not successful. ally observed that “edu- SCFP students in front of the LEAD Center students, and even stuAfter their jarring introduction, Gregg and dents beyond. One of cation is the seed of free- in Sunflower.

Shawn had two life-changing years teaching. its programs, the Freedom Fellowship, is a dom.” This turned into the project’s mantra Gregg taught third and fourth grade. Shawn 10-year commitment between students and and reflected Gregg’s, Shawn’s, and Chris’ taught high school special education. He also the SCFP. In the seventh grade, fellows bebelief that if you give children opportunities coached special teams for the high school gin to participate in school-year arts workto learn by planting a seed of knowledge and football team (legend is that he led the team shops, study sessions, and trips. During high curiosity, they will grow on their own and in personal fouls). While teaching, they saw school, fellows then participate in the SCFP’s have the freedom to choose the kind of life both the promise of many of the kids and the school-year workshops and begin to think they want to lead. toll that some of the lingering issues in Sunabout their post-graduation future. They The SCFP started in 1999 as a summer flower County were already taking on them. also participate in the Freedom Summer program in a small classroom at a communiDespite the struggles they sometimes saw, Collegiate Program, where they take collegety college building in the middle of a MoorGregg and Shawn found teaching extraordilevel courses with PhD candidates and have head, Mississippi, field—mostly with kids narily rewarding. the opportunity to receive college credit. that the three had taught with TFA. The proThey left Sunflower County in 1996 as Then, during college, the fellows can join gram had math and reading, but also taught different men than when they arrived. And the Alumni College Success Program, where website design, organized a play, and had the though they bid farewell to Chris, Gregg and they are supported through weekly check-in kids complete an oral history project where Shawn went straight to Austin, starting law calls with peers and mentors and with acathey interviewed their grandparents about school (and rooming together again) in the demic tutoring, mental health resources, and their early lives and involvement with the fall. Both adjusted quickly to the rigors of a monthly stipend.2 It has helped hundreds Civil Rights Movement. In the years to come, law school but never forgot the impact that the SCFP continued to grow, changing to TFA and Sunflower County had made on of students since its founding. meet the children and their parents where them. They were constantly trying to think The monumental impact of the SCFP is, of they were and expanding to reach more stuof ways they would give back to the place course, hard to quantify, but its successes are plain. Many of its former students have gone dents. It eventually added a year-round afterthat had made such an impact. It was at the 20 November/December 2024

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on to highly successful careers and some have even grown into its current leaders—two of the SCFP’s current board members were part of its earliest classes, and the executive director is a former Freedom Fellow, too.

Desiree Norwood is a striking example.

Gregg taught her in third and fourth grade.

When SCFP got off the ground, she was one of its first Freedom Fellows. During her fellowship, Gregg was clerking for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and arranged a summer internship for Desiree and another SCFP student at the U.S. Supreme Court’s library and print shop—housing them with local families for the several-week stint. Today, Desiree is the mayor of Sunflower and has a particular passion for providing quality primary and reproductive care throughout the Delta using mobile medical units.3 Desiree is perhaps the epitome of the SCFP’s purpose: to provide education and opportunities for Sunflower County students to flourish in today’s world but also instill a sense of pride and giving back to the place where so many others worked so hard to advance the cause for equality.

The impact of TFA and SCFP on Gregg and Shawn, too, has been huge. After law school, Gregg clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Chief Justice Rehnquist. Though he first joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges, he soon became an Assistant U.S. Attorney where, among other high-profile cases, he successfully prosecuted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford. He was appointed as a federal district judge in Galveston in 2012 and then elevated to the Fifth Circuit in 2014. He left the court in 2022 to join Gibson Dunn, where he chairs the firm’s Trial Practice Group. He is still involved with SCFP and remains a fervent supporter of educational initiatives of all types. Gregg believes his experience in Sunflower County was the best training he ever received for becoming a lawyer—it taught him how to educate. “The best trial lawyers don’t argue, they educate,” he said.

Given that the key is always simplifying the issues, teaching third and fourth grade taught him much more than law school. The teaching mindset he learned through TFA and SCFP has infused everything, from his legal arguments in complex fraud cases as a practitioner to his Fifth Circuit opinions.

As for Shawn, after law school and a federal district court clerkship in Galveston, he joined Susman Godfrey in 2000. Susman successfully recruited him there because, in part, it made what was then the second-largest single donation to the SCFP (behind only that of the former deputy sheriff). At Susman, he has litigated and tried cases worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But he continues supporting the community—here and in Sunflower. His service has included the Houston board for TFA, the Houston Area Women’s Center, and KIPP Texas. Shawn is also still involved with SCFP and has taken his four sons to Sunflower to witness for themselves its amazing work. He knows that TFA and the SCFP matured him greatly and believes that the biggest lesson for him was to always be authentic. This lesson has been a “huge gift,” Shawn says, to his legal practice, where juries can be just as unforgiving as high schoolers—juries, too, can identify disingenuousness and can impose quite the hurt in their own right.

Both Gregg and Shawn remain convinced

that TFA and the SCFP helped make them into the lawyers they are today. They hope to continue giving back—something they feel is their duty to society as people who have had the types of opportunities and accomplishments that they have had—both here and in Sunflower County, the place that so shaped them into who they are today.

Lane Morrison is a senior litigation associate at BSP Law. He concentrates on product liability and class action defense, focusing on critical trial motions and appeals. He is the Legal Trends editor for The Houston Lawyer.

Endnotes 1. The Chris Myers Asch, The Senator & the Sharecropper (cover) (2008), 2. The Freedom Fellowship, Sunflower County Freedom Project, https://www.sunflowerfreedom.org/the-freedom-fellowship.

3. Camilla Potts, Meet Desiree Norwood —A Young Woman with a Heart for Youth and Community, The Enterprise-Tocsin (July 4, 2024), https://www.enterprise-tocsin.com/localcontent/meet-desiree-norwood-young-woman-heart-youthand-community?e_term_id=All.

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The Important Role of the Child Advocate

Child Advocates, Inc. is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. In its four decades, the organization has changed the lives of thousands of abused and neglected children throughout Houston. Many Houston lawyers dedicate their valuable free time to serve the organization, donating their legal skills as court-appointed special advocates, as well as serving on the Child Advocates board. We asked a few of those Houston lawyers to share their experiences. If you are interested in giving back to this incredible organization, visit childadvocates.org.

T

Finding Fulfillment as a Child Advocate

By Chastiti N. Horne

see that someone is there cheering for them. Child Advocates, Inc. encourages volunteers to fill the void for those things that here is nothing more important in the world than proseem little to us but are monumental to the children we serve. tecting children. As a first-year law student at South TexEvery single day, children in Houston (and beyond) suffer as College of Law Houston, I read an article about Child horrific neglect and abuse at the hands of Advocates, Inc. and decided to atthose who are supposed to cherish them. tend their orientation. I cried all the way Advocating for abused children is not just home. The training started several months about immediate intervention; it is about later, I became a volunteer Guardian Ad Lifostering long-term change and creating a tem in the fall of 1996, and I have never safer, more supportive environment for all looked back. children, thereby eradicating the cycle of I was assigned my first case that same abuse. year, where I met then-four-year-old BranI have a very busy civil litigation practice dy, two-year-old Mandy, and six-month-old that fills me up and keeps me on my toes.

Matthew. I have since advocated for more But people still ask me about my volunteer than 40 children in the CPS system and Chastiti with Brandy, one of the kids from her each child has left an indelible mark on my first case, at the 2024 Pull for Kids Classic ben- work and tell me that they could not handle something so heartbreaking. My response heart. Never in my wildest dreams did I efiting Child Advocates, Inc. is, “How could you not?” Children are still the only group of citithink that 28 years later I would still be a Child Advocates, Inc. zens that are beaten/neglected daily with impunity all over this court-appointed special advocate volunteer. country. We have to use our voices to stop the inequitable treatOur volunteers represent children who have been removed ment they face. So, for those who claim, “I don’t have time to volfrom their homes due to abuse or neglect. We make recommenunteer,” I say that nobody has the time; you make the time!. dations to the court to ensure that the children receive proper medical and psychological care, that their educational needs are Chastiti N. Horne is the managing partner of being met, and that they are in a safe home/placement. Many Horne Rota Moos, LLP. She has been involved of these children have never been told that they are smart, that in various roles with Child Advocates, Inc., they are beautiful, or that they are loved. Child Advocates, Inc. including as guardian ad litem since 1996, makes correcting this lack of validation and attention a priority. serves on the executive board of directors, As a child advocate, I have gone to school programs, graduaand has been involved in various multimedia tions, birthday celebrations, dance recitals, sporting events, and campaign efforts to raise awareness, money, even a Future Farmers of America pig showing! I attend these and volunteers for the organization. events because I want the children to look up in the stands and

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I

Why I Advocate for Children

By Bridgett Matthes

shared with them.

I volunteer with Child Advocates because I love helping chilvolunteer for Child Advocates because children in foster care dren who need help the most. can become victims without a voice, powerless to the cirI volunteer because no child is ever responcumstances that brought them into care. As sible for the abuse or neglect that an adult casts a guardian ad litem, I serve as a constant, upon them. reliable adult during what can be a scary and I volunteer because supporting an abused or unstable time. And for some kids, foster care neglected child’s healthy recovery is vital to a placement can include temporary arrangesuccessful and happy forever-home placement. ments that can amplify their fears, pain, and I volunteer because I have a strong voice with trauma. While the main job of a guardian ad no limit to the number of children I can advolitem is to provide a recommendation to the court as to the best permanent home for a Bridgett participating in Run for a Rea- cate for.

And I volunteer because I deeply believe in child, equally important is the support for re- son, benefiting Child Advocates, Inc. the mission of Child Advocates. covery, health, and heart.

I have comforted a teenage girl after a very difficult first night Bridgett Matthes is chief litigation counsel for in a group home. I have replaced the trash bags a sibling trio were Corebridge Financial. She began her service as using as luggage with backpacks and sports duffel bags adorned a guardian ad litem with Child Advocates in with cartoon characters and superhero symbols. I have celebrated 2001, has hosted volunteer and birthday present numerous birthdays and delivered tons of holiday presents. And I gift drives with Corebridge Financial, has raised have witnessed joyful adoption hearings and family reunifications.

Run for a Reason funds, and currently serves on I will never forget the faces of the children I have served, and the board of directors of Child Advocates. how they looked at both the saddest and happiest moments I

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S

The Rewards of Child Advocacy

By Eddy De Los Santos

paign efforts to raise awareness, money, and volunteers for the organization. Over the years, I have been involved in the ince 2001, I have known about the needs of abused Childspree, Santa’s Wish List, Volunteer Appreciation Event, and neglected children in the Harris County child Pull For Kids Classic, Superhero Run, and various advisory protective services system. These children come into board luncheons. the system’s care through no The role of a child advocate is such a fault of their own, and they often need critical one because I and other volunsomeone’s voice to advocate on their teers serve as the eyes and ears of the behalf. Child Advocates, Inc. is the family courts. We often appear as the Harris County organization responone constant in the children’s chaotic sible for training and providing volunlives, and ultimately guarantee they teer advocates/guardians ad litem to do not fall through the cracks of the guide the children through the system system. We are tasked with gathering to a safe, loving environment where as much information as possible rethey can thrive. lated to the children and ensure that I began my role as a child advocate recommendations are made to the because I recognized that someone family courts to help guide decisions needed to help these children and that are in the children’s best interests. asked myself why it shouldn’t be me These recommendations can include to step up. I learned that on any given educational assistance, medical care, day in Harris County, over 4,000 chiltherapy, family visitation, placement, dren were in the system and in need of entertainment, home safety, and famassistance. I was determined to make ily searches. Additionally, advocates a difference in their lives and to be a small part of breaking the cycle of Eddie at Santa’s Workshop assembling toys for chil- regularly secure and provide financial assistance and/or in-kind donations child abuse. Even before having my dren in CPS custody. for various life events for these kids, including birthdays, own children, I could not imagine camps, sporting events, and prom. In advocating for decisions the events that would cause a child to that are in the child’s best interests, we strive to create some come into the system, and felt a callsense of normalcy in the scary and often confusing world of The role ing to the mission of Child Advocates. the system.

Experiencing first-hand the impact of a child a volunteer can have on a child’s life It is truly amazing to see so many courageous kids successfully navigate their difficult circumstances. These children advocate is is beyond rewarding. Being a father just want to be loved and have a safe, permanent home. Child of four provides all the perspective I such a critical need to continue my drive in working Advocates is the only organization that I have ever been a part of where you can tangibly see the difference you are making one because I with this wonderful organization. in the life of a child. There is nothing more important than During my time as an advocate, and other vol- I have served 21 children in six bi- helping protect these children, ensuring placement in a lovunteers serve lingual cases that—fortunately—all ing home, and working with their parents and caregivers to break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. A profound differas the eyes and concluded in family reunification. I ence can be made by saving one child at a time. have been a member of the Child Adears of the fam- vocates Board of Directors since 2007, Eddy De Los Santos is a shareholder ily courts.” where I have served on various committees, did a two-year term as board at Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C. chair, and serve as legal counsel. In He has been involved in various roles with my role as legal counsel, I assist the organization with its Child Advocates, including as a guardian legal contracts, personnel matters, litigation, discovery disad litem since 2001, board member since putes involving Child Advocates, and specific case issues. In 2007, and currently serves as the organizaaddition, I have been involved in various multimedia camtion’s legal counsel.

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Making a Positive Difference in the Lives of Children

By The Honorable Frank Rynd

y introduction to Child Advocates occurred in the 1980s. A good friend of my mother was a volunteer advocate. She invited me to a Child Advocate lunch, during which outstanding volunteers were recognized. The work of Child Advocates left a very strong, positive impression on me. Interestingly, my mother’s friend had two children who were lawyers and is the grandmother of two attorneys who practice in Houston. I will always be grateful to her for introducing me to Child Advocates.

In 1998, I began serving as the associate judge of the 257th Family District Court. Later, I became the presiding judge of the 309th Family District Court. Both courts handle numerous cases where children were the subjects of suits brought by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (CPS). Fortunately, many of these children have advocates appointed by the court to work in their best interests.

I appreciate the fresh approach that the child advocates provide to families and to the court. These volunteers are, for the most part, not professional social workers; they are members of our community who care genuinely about children’s welfare. The advocates are not jaded; they are enthusiastic and truly hope to make a difference for the children. They often communicate well with the parents. Sometimes, the parents regard CPS as the “enemy,” and while the parents’ hostility to CPS can be understandable, it does not help the situation. Advocates frequently try to engage parents in working the parenting plans ordered by the court. When appropriate, advocates promote more contact between parents and their children. They often locate appropriate family members with whom the children can be placed while the case is pending, as a relative placement is usually less traumatic for the children.

As a district judge, I began appointing a child advocate to almost every CPS case on the court’s docket. I knew they could make a positive difference in the lives of the children with whom they

worked. At the request of her advocate, I met with a teenage girl. I asked the teenager whether she was happy to have an advocate involved in her case. The teenager responded that, other than relatives, she had never had an adult involved in her life who was not being paid. Her advocate was not one of her many paid case workers, not the paid counselor, not the paid teacher. Her advocate was not doing this for money.

That distinction signified something important to this teenager who deeply appreciated her advocate, and I know that advocate made a significant difference in this child’s life.

When I left the bench, I was pleased to be asked to serve on the board of directors of Child Advocates. It is a wonderful organization, and the volunteers are frequently a lifeline for the children with whom they work.

The Honorable Frank Rynd has been a board member of Child Advocates, Inc. for over 10 years. Prior to serving on the board, he was the judge of the 309th Family District Court in Harris County, Texas.

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By Eric D’Olive

Legal Resources for Veterans and Their Attorneys Situation: A veteran approaches you for legal advice about matters that are outside your area of practice and may not have the economic means to secure representation elsewhere.

Mission: Conduct decisive operations to provide access to justice for the veteran and service to our community.

Execution: Through direct action and the action of friendly forces, achieve an end state where the veteran’s matters are resolved on favorable terms.

Sustainment: Support and services are available for a wide range of scenarios through many government and non-government organizations.

Command: You decide how much to be personally involved in assisting the veteran.

Though the above operations order is obviously fictional and extremely abbreviated, the scenario is often very real. The mission of this article is to provide you with the support to, in turn, support our Houston-area U.S. military veterans.

Veterans are more numerous, and somewhat younger, than common perceptions.

Veterans make up about 6% of the United States population.1 Around 43% of all living veterans served since 1990, often called Gulf War-Era veterans, and another 30% served during the Vietnam War. About 78% of U.S. veterans served during wartime. The Houston metropolitan area is home to over 280,000 veterans. By some estimates, there are more than 300,000. Harris County has the largest county-level veteran population in the U.S., at about 177,000 veterans, and Houston has the second-largest veteran population of any U.S. city. 2, 3, 4 By age, nationally, 28% of veterans are un26 November/December 2024

der 50 years old, 36% are 50-69 years old, and 37% are at least 70 years old. Houston-area veterans are 12% female and 88% male.5, 6 More than 25% of Houston’s homeless population are veterans, according to many expert estimates.7 Veterans’ legal needs are partly a product of veteran demographics. A common request is assistance with a will, not only among older veterans but also among younger veterans with families. The newest veterans may need help with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain a discharge upgrade or disability compensation. Veterans with housing insecurity, on the other hand, have a very different set of common needs, from landlord-tenant disputes to inpatient treatment programs.

Select legal resources available to veterans (and their attorneys) in the greater Houston area.

The Houston Bar Association Veterans Legal Initiative (VLI) provides free legal advice and representation to veterans and the spouses of deceased veterans through clinics at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and other community locations. Legal issues may include family law, wills and probate, consumer law, real estate and property, tax law, disability and veterans benefits, and more. The veterans meet one-on-one with an attorney volunteer for legal advice. The attorney volunteers serving at the clinics are supported by staff attorneys. For many matters that require further representation, the clinic can refer low-income veterans to the Houston Volunteer Lawyers, the pro bono legal arm of the Houston Bar Association. The DeBakey clinics are held on Fridays 1:00 to 3:30 p.m.

No appointments necessary. Visit hba.org to learn more.

Lone Star Legal Aid’s Military and Veterans Unit (MVU) offers free civil legal services to low-income veterans, their dependents, and surviving spouses. Lone Star Legal Aid

thehoustonlawyer.com

has an office at the DeBakey VA Medical Center and conducts in-person outreach on Tuesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Lone Star Legal Aid assists veterans with a wide range of matters, including health and employment, with a comprehensive list of its veterans services on its website at lonestar legal.org.

The Texas Veterans Legal Assistance Project (VLAP) provides free legal assistance by phone to eligible veterans statewide, including Houston-area veterans. The VLAP offers help in a very broad range of legal matters with over 12 areas of practice. Additionally, the VLAP has resources to assist veterans in pro se matters, and in some instances, may be able to refer the veteran to an attorney who has agreed to accept a reduced fee. The VLAP’s website is tlsc.org.

The National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates, Inc. (NOVA) is an association of attorneys and other qualified advocates who practice veterans law, with a focus on veterans claims. NOVA members are required to be accredited with the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and meet continuing legal education requirements. NOVA members are fee practitioners, however, NOVA has a pro bono track with discounted membership and CLE rates for attorneys who represent VA benefit claimants without compensation, which does not require CAVC accreditation.

For veterans who do not qualify for low-income legal aid, and attorney volunteers who would like to expand their pro bono efforts to VA claims, further details about NOVA are on its website at vetadvocates.org.

Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans is a State Bar of Texas program that helps connect veterans with free legal clinics and resources.

You can learn more about the program at txltxv.org.

Military OneSource is a U.S. Department of Defense program that provides great resources for veterans, including items relating to discharges and VA benefits. Visit military onesource.mil to learn more.

The Harris County Veterans’ Court Program (VC) provides veterans charged with misdemeanor or felony crimes with options that take into consideration the invisible wounds of war and the substance abuse issues that often accompany them. The Veterans’ Court Program works with veterans who have certain qualifying injuries, illnesses,

disorders, and trauma resulting from military service, and with veterans where the totality of the circumstances indicates that the program would rehabilitate the veteran.8

sist veterans suffering from a mental health crisis, including contacts relating to involuntary commitments.10 The MOVMA website is at houstontx.gov/vetaffairs.

Legal resources available to unhoused veterans, and related legal matters.

Houston, together with local, state, and federal partners, has made great progress in reducing the historical prevalence of veteran homelessness. However, the continuing overrepresentation of veterans in the unhoused population remains a deeply concerning situation here and in many other large cities of the U.S. The higher prevalence of traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder that puts veterans at greater risk of homelessness often also results in substance abuse and mental health crises.9 The VA administers the 24/7 National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AIDVET (877-424-3838), which places callers, including attorneys, in touch with a staff member who can coordinate the VA resources that best fit the veteran’s needs. The VA coordinates various programs for emergency, temporary, and permanent housing. The hotline has the option to route the caller directly to a staff member, and the staff answers immediately and helpfully. For Houston-area veterans, the appropriate personnel at the Michael DeBakey VA Hospital will contact the veteran one business day after they’ve contacted the hotline.

The PTSD Foundation of America has numerous resources dedicated to helping veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and commonly-related conditions.

Here in Houston, the PTSD Foundation of America operates Camp Hope, an interim housing program with mentoring, peer support, and visiting licensed healthcare professionals. There is no charge to the veteran.

Camp Hope’s goal is to relieve combat trauma so that veterans can return to their lives in six to nine months. The PTSD Foundation of America operates non-resident peer support chapters, as well. More information is available on its website: ptsdusa.org/camp-hope.

The City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Veterans and Military Affairs (MOVMA) provides links to numerous resources, including City of Houston benefits available to veterans. MOVMA has a very useful crisis intervention guide that succinctly provides the contact information for organizations that as-

The opportunity to serve veterans is available, whether directly or through allied forces.

With the support and services available to us, Houston-area attorneys can help veterans by representing veterans at clinics, through pro bono placements, or by making a well-informed referral to organizations that can provide specialized legal assistance and more.

The few hours of extra effort you put into helping a veteran resolve his or her legal issue will show more gratitude for the veteran’s military service than handshakes and social media posts ever could.

Eric D’Olive is a member of the HBA Military and Veterans Committee and is the general counsel of Emmanor Group Inc.

Endnotes 1. Katherine Schaeffer, The Changing Face of America’s Veteran Population, PEW RESEARCH CTR. (Nov. 8, 2023), https:// www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/08/the-changingface-of-americas-veteran-population/.

2. CITY OF HOUSTON, OFFICE OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, CITY OF HOUSTON, TEXAS (2017), available at https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww. houstontx.gov%2Fcouncil%2Fcommittees%2Fhousing%2F20 190319%2FVA-Presentation.pptx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK. 3. TEXAS VETERAN POPULATION BY COUNTY, STATE BAR OF TEXAS, (2024), available at https://www.texasbar.com/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutUs/StateBarPresident/TexasLawyersforTexasVeterans/TexasVeteranPopulationbyCounty.pdf.

4. John Egan, Houston Rises in the Ranks of Best Cities for Veteran Entrepreneurs, INNOVATION MAP (Oct. 28, 2022, 1:57 PM), https://houston.innovationmap.com/veteran-entrepreneurshouston-texas-report-2022-2658566204.html.

5. Houston City, Texas, UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU, https://data.census.gov/profile/Houston_city,_Texas?g= 160XX00US4835000 (last viewed October 16, 2024).

6. Cheryl Mercedes, How Many Veterans Live in Houston, KHOU 11 NEWS (Nov. 11, 2024, 6:28 PM), https://www. khou.com/article/news/local/how-many-veterans-live-inhouston/285-8d242975-d15c-47ee-8df0-d2d32cbdb7f6.

7. Id. 8. TEX. GOV’T CODE § 124.001, et seq.; see also Specialty Courts, HARRIS COUNTY COMMUNITY SUPERVISION & CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT, https://cscd.harriscountytx.gov/ Programs/Specialty-Courts (last visited October 16, 2024) (outlining the objectives of Harris County’s five (5) specialty courts).

9. Allison Erickson, Homelessness Among Veterans has been Cut in Half Since 2010, VA Says, TEX. TRIB. (Jan. 26, 2023, 5:00 AM), at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/26/texas-homelessveterans-affairs-va/.

10. CRISIS INTERVENTION RESOURCES, CITY OF HOUSTON MAYOR’S OFFICE OF VETERANS AND MILITARY AFFAIRS (2024), available at https://www.houstontx.gov/vetaffairs/Crisis-Intervention-Guide-English.pdf.

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By Johnny Day

By Ciara Perritano and Julisa Rodriguez

Support in the Harris County Veterans’ Treatment Court Program

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ccording to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), there are an estimated 17.9 million veterans in the United States.1 About 1.5 million of those veterans reside in Texas.2 In response to veterans’ heightened risk of mental health needs, correlated substance use, and interaction with the criminal justice system, state and federal courts nationwide have launched specialty courts to assist veterans navigating the judicial process and recovery. The first official specialty veterans court in the country began in 2008 in Buffalo, New York.3 Texas soon followed with passage of Texas Senate Bill 1940,

which took effect on September 1, 2009, authorizing funding for pre-trial veterans’ court programs in Texas. Senate Bill 1940 and other subsequent Acts are codified in Texas Government Code Section 124 Veterans Treatment Court Program.4 Harris County became home to the first Veterans’ Treatment Court program (the “VTC”) in Texas under the supervision of Judge Marc Carter. Harris County’s VTC garnered national recognition and was featured on CBS 60 Minutes and PBS Need to Know. Similar veterans’ court programs are now available in more than 400 communities nationwide.5 Studies show that some military veterans have challenges returning to post-employment civilian life due to being more likely to struggle with mental health disorders—such as mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury (“TBI”), depression, anxiety, substance abuse disorders, homelessness, and unemployment— than non-veterans.6 This often positions these servicemen and women to be uniquely at risk for arrest and criminal justice system involvement, exhibiting criminal behavior, which can be attributed to service-related illness or trauma.

Although the VTC is by no means a “get out of jail free” program, the program aims to utilize familiar military experiences and intensive structure to better comport with veterans’ shared experiences and backgrounds, ensuring that VTC participants receive the appropriate support and guidance necessary for recovery and success within the criminal justice system.

The primary goals of the VTC include: 1. Improving access to needed mental health and addiction treatment for veterans; 2. Reducing criminal recidivism through successful treatment outcomes and community reintegration; 3. Improving long-term mental health recovery and community reintegration through involvement in structured, comprehensive treatment;

4. Reducing jail time and resolving felony charges related primarily to mental health, TBI, and addiction issues; and 5. Reducing costs associated with unnecessary incarceration.

Judge Christopher Morton and Judge Andrea Beall of the 230th Criminal District Court and 185th District Court, respectively, currently serve as the two supervising judges of the VTC specialty program. Ms. Ariel Sanchez serves as the VTC’s coordinator. Judge Morton and Ms. Sanchez spoke with The Houston Lawyer about the meaningful work of the VTC. Having served in the Army National Guard from 1991 to 1999, Judge Morton understands the unique circumstances veterans face. In addition to his military service, Judge Morton participated in Harris County’s earliest VTC program as a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. He emphasized that the goal of the VTC is to provide an intensive and supportive program for those who have sacrificed for our country. The end goal for all participants is recovery and the complete reduction of recidivism. As a nation, state, city, and community, we have a responsibility to support those who have taken on the burden of serving and protecting our nation. The military does an excellent job preparing soldiers for life in the military, but many individuals are left completely unprepared for the transition to civilian post-military life. The VTC provides a second chance at success in the civilian world for those who have slipped through the cracks.

The VTC imposes requirements and is not a carte blanche option for all veterans.

Harris County’s VTC adheres to the following eligibility criteria: • Honorable discharge or general discharge from active duty, reserves or guard;

pant’s assigned judge—currently, Judge Morton or Judge Beall—and biweekly office visits with probation officers and outside service providers, including the VA. Each subsequent phase is tailored to ensure ongoing success. One of the pillars of the program’s success is consistent and constant contact between the VTC, the participant, and those assigned outside specialty support persons.

Although the program is not an option for all veterans, it has a history of success for its participants. Some of the additional benefits of the VTC include: access to free vocational services, community service reduction programs, financial assistance for alcohol monitoring devices, and reward and incentive programs.

• Have mental health, traumatic brain It is important for attorneys working injury, and/or substance use diagwith veterans to understand the unique noses that is related to the criminal circumstances veterans face. Judge Moroffense; ton wants attorneys to understand the • Eligible for services from the U.S. importance of getting to know their cliDepartment of Veterans Affairs ents. In addition to the routine intake (the “VA); and, and legal questions attorneys often work • First offender status and/or through with their clients, served in combat and/or it is equally important to hazardous duty. understand a client’s personal life and background, Veterans hoping to utilize One important including whether they the VTC must complete an application and be accepted into lesson of have served in the military, and whether that service the program. Applications are working with has adversely affected their available upon request to the VTC. Once accepted into the veterans is the life.

Attorneys should be VTC, participants must comconsequences aware of, and utilize, the plete a four-phase intensive convictions and resources available to vetprogram wherein each participant is required to meet with judgments erans. Continuing legal education and self-study their assigned case manager can have on related to the specific needs to design and complete a personalized treatment and important VA of veterans are critical to the successful representaprogram plan. Each plan is benefits.” tion of military members personalized to ensure every and veterans. participant is equipped with the One important lesson of working with tools and individualization necessary veterans is the consequences convictions to achieve success. The program begins and judgments can have on important VA with biweekly visits before the partici• Eligible offense; and consent of prosecutor and court in which the criminal case is pending; • Legal resident of or citizen of the United States of America; • Resident of Harris and/or surrounding counties;

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benefits. For example, an incarcerated veteran receiving VA benefits is subject to a reduction in payment depending on the type of benefit and reason for incarceration. Veterans who receive a VA pension will have the pension terminated on day 61 of incarceration.7 A veteran who is convicted of a felony, imprisoned for more than 60 days, and rated at A spouse, 20% or more for children, and disability comdependent par- pensation will have their payents of an incar- ment reduced to cerated veteran the 10% disability rate on day 61 may be eligible of incarceration. to receive the A veteran with amount of VA a 10% disability rate will see the compensation payment reduced not paid to the by one-half.8 A spouse, chilincarcerated dren, and depenveteran.” dent parents of an incarcerated veteran may be eligible to receive the amount of VA compensation not paid to the incarcerated veteran. This is based on individual need, taking into consideration their income, living expenses, and special needs. Dependents must apply for apportionment of an incarcerated veteran’s VA benefits by submitting a VA Form 21—788 to the VA. Apportionment is not automatic. Contact the Micheal E. DeBakey VA Medical Center Veteran Justice Outreach Center at vhastxswsvjo@ va.gov. for more information.9 As is the case in every court, the VTC would not be successful without its passionate staff. Ms. Sanchez has served as the VTC’s coordinator for the past five years. Her journey at the VTC began when she felt the call to give back to the community, help save lives, and assist in a leadership role. The VTC provided Ms. Sanchez the perfect opportunity to fulfill the call and change the lives of veterans in need of a second chance. Ms. Sanchez

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attributes her success as the court’s coordinator to her mentor Ms. Mary Covington, who assisted in the creation of the VTC and the Harris County STAR Drug Court over a decade ago.

Both Judge Morton and Ms. Sanchez emphasized the joy and passion they have for helping the program. Ms. Sanchez stated that although some attorneys and hopeful participants hesitate regarding their qualifications, her best advice is for everyone to apply. She is available and eager to answer any questions related to the VTC. Her information can be found on the Harris County Specialty Courts website at justex.net/specialty.

Ciara Perritano is a litigation associate at Winstead PC and a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board. She is the proud daughter, granddaughter, and spouse of USAF and USMC veterans.

Julisa Rodriguez is a Texas A&M University alumna and a 2L at South Texas College of Law Houston, where she serves as a board member for the Veterans Law Student Association. She is proud to be part of a large military family.

Endnotes 1. National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, U.S. DEP’T OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, https://www.va.gov/vetdata/veteran_population.asp (last visited Oct. 18, 2024).

2. Id. 3. Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 27, No. 3, Military Sentencing: Another Federal Sentencing System (Part II) (February 2015), p. 178.

4. TEX. GOV’T CODE § 124.001.

5. Todd Goodman, Veterans Court changes lives by offering second chance, VA NEWS (Dec. 9, 2019), https://news.va.gov/69241/ veterans-court-changes-lives-offering-second-chance/.

6. Veterans Treatment Court, MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA OF GREATER HOUSTON, https://mhahouston.org/programs/ veterans-behavioral/veteran-court/ (last visited Oct. 18, 2024).

7. Incarcerated Veterans, U.S. DEP’T OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, https://www.benefits.va.gov/persona/veteran-incarcerated.asp (last visited Oct. 21, 2024).

8. VA Homeless Programs, U.S. DEP’T OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, https://www.va.gov/homeless/vjo.asp (last visited Oct. 21, 2024).

9. JUSTICE INVOLVED VETERANS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (2020) available at https://benefits. va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/misc/JusticeInvolved.pdf.

Local Solutions. Global Reach.

Equal Access Champions The firms and corporations listed below have agreed to assume a leadership role in providing equal access to justice for all Harris County citizens. Each has made a commitment to provide representation in a certain number of cases through the Houston Volunteers Lawyers.

Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Angela Solice, Attorney at Law Archie Law PLLC Baker Botts L.L.P. BakerHostetler LLP Baker Hughes Beck Redden LLP Blank Rome LLP Bracewell LLP CenterPoint Energy, Inc. Chamberlain Hrdlicka Chevron USA Coane & Associates Dentons US LLP Elizabeth S. Pagel, PLLC Eversheds Sutherland US LLP Exxon Mobil Corporation Fleurinord Law PLLC Foley & Lardner LLP Fuqua & Associates, P.C. Gibbs & Bruns LLP Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Gray Reed Greenberg Traurig, LLP Halliburton Hasley Scarano, L.L.P. Haynes and Boone, LLP Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP Jackson Walker LLP Jenkins & Kamin, LLP King & Spalding LLP 32 November/December 2024

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Kirkland & Ellis LLP Law Office of Cindi L. Rickman Law Office of Norma Levine Trusch Law Offices of Omonzusi Imobioh Limbaga Law Locke Lord LLP LyondellBasell Industries Martin R.G. Marasigan Law Offices McDowell & Hetherington LLP McGarvey PLLC Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Northum Law Norton Rose Fulbright O’Melveny & Myers LLP Painter Law Firm PLLC Reed Smith LLP Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, LLP Sanchez Law Firm Shell USA, Inc. Shipley Snell Montgomery LLP Shortt & Nguyen, P.C. Sidley Austin LLP Sorrels Law Squire Patton Boggs The Ericksen Law Firm The Jurek Law Group, PLLC Vasquez Waite Vinson & Elkins LLP Weycer, Kaplan, Pulaski & Zuber, P.C. Wilson, Cribbs, & Goren, P.C. Winstead PC Winston & Strawn LLP Yetter Coleman LLP

75th Annual Harvest Celebration:

Celebrating Pro Bono and the Power of Houston’s Legal Community

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hank you to the generosity of the Houston legal community for your support of the 75th Annual Harvest Celebration.

100% of net proceeds benefit Houston Volunteer Lawyers. Below are a few photos from the event, held on November 11

Photos by Deborah Wallace, Barfield Photography at the River Oaks Country Club.

(L to R) University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes, Judge Sofia Adrogué of the Eleventh Business Court Division, and HBA Past President Roland Garcia (2001-2002).

(L to R) Tracy Hester, HBF Chair Linda Hester, Tammie Harrell, and HBA President David Harrell.

(L to R) Shantal Formia, South Texas College of Law Houston Interim President and Dean Jeff Rensberger, HBA Executive Director Vinh Ho, and Darcy Douglas.

(L to R) Sandy Sales, HBF Past Chair Susan L. Bickley (20202021), and HBA Past President Travis J. Sales (2008-2009).

(L to R) The Honorable Robert Schaffer of the 152nd Civil District Court, Chris Tritico, and the Honorable Richard W. Bennett, U.S. Magistrate Judge.

The Honorable Angela Graves-Harrington of the 246th Family District Court (right) with Enita Hughes and Judie Sadler.

(L to R) The Honorable Ken Wise, Haley Stewart, and HBA Director Todd Frankfort.

(L to R) John McFarland, the Honorable Beau Miller of the 190th Civil District Court, Ferg McNiel, and Patty McNiel.

HBF Past Chair Travis Torrence (2019-2020) and Heath LaPray.

HBF Director Sejal Brahmbhatt and Robert Shuttlesworth.

Brandon Holcomb, John Adkins, George R. Diaz-Arrastia, and Maria Gomez Diaz-Arrastia.

(L to R) Anna Archer, Mike Archer, and Shannon Quadros.

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Benefiting Houston Volunteer Lawyers 100% of net proceeds benefiting Houston Volunteer Lawyers

Thank you, Houston legal community, for generously supporting pro bono legal services provided by Houston Volunteer Lawyers.

Diamond Sponsors

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37

OFF THE RECORD

Spreading Joy With the Thiessens:

I

A Costume Collection Full of Creativity and Fun

The Houston Lawyer

By Amanda Pierson

and whimsy in all aspects n the legal world, the names Mark and Taly Thiessen resoof their lives. Mark can’t nate with professionalism and expertise, particularly in wait to don his costume the fields of DWI, criminal defense, and family law. Outand join Taly in spreading side the courtroom, however, the couple shares a unique joy. passion that adds a vibrant flair to their lives: an extensive Mark and Taly’s coscollection of creative and whimsical costumes. Their love for tume collection is not dressing up goes beyond mere hobby. It reflects their personlimited to Halloween; it alities and the joy they find in embracing the extraordinary. spans various themes and Mark and Taly’s journey into the occasions throughout the world of costumes began as a playful year. Whether it is a holiescape from the rigors of their legal day party, a themed event, careers. They discovered that dressing or even a court hearing, Mark and Taly up not only allowed them to express have a costume ready to make a statetheir creativity, but also served as a ment. Not only are the costumes fun, fantastic way to bond with each oththey are engaging. When presenting at er and their friends. From elaborate CLEs, Mark has found that dressing up ensembles to spontaneous costume helps keep his audience’s attention. This parties, their collection has grown to dedication to creativity not only showinclude an impressive array of outcases their personalities; it encourages fits, ranging from classic Halloween those around them to embrace the fun themes to more eccentric and original of dressing up. designs. Even their dog joins in on the In a world where lawyers are often costume fun, although a bit more reseen as stern figures, Mark and Taly luctantly than his parents.

Thiessen’s whimsical costume collecWhat makes their costume colMark and Taly Thiessen tion serves as a delightful reminder that lection particularly special is the story wore costumes for their Halloween-themed wedding. creativity and joy can flourish even in behind their wedding. Tying the knot the most serious of professions. Their on Halloween, the couple opted for a The Thiessens also ensure playful spirit and commitment to comthemed celebration that perfectly encapto have costumes for their dog, too. munity engagement inspire not only sulated their playful spirit. The couple’s their peers but also those around them to embrace the lighter choice to embrace costumes on their side of life, one costume at a time. Whether in the courtroom wedding day set the tone for a relationship built on fun, creor dressed as a quirky character, the Thiessens exemplify the ativity, and the willingness to step outside the norm. beauty of spreading joy and living life to the fullest.

The Thiessen family is treated to the majority of their costumes by Taly, who makes as many as she can by hand. For this year’s Halloween celebrations, Taly decided to create ceAmanda Pierson is an estate planning attorney and the real-themed costumes, complete with a meticulously crafted founder of the Heights Law Group, where she helps clients paper mâché bowl. This DIY project showcased not only her leave clear roadmaps for their loved ones in the event of death creativity but also the couple’s shared commitment to fun or incapacity.

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A Profile

in pro f e s s io n a l i s m

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THE HONORABLE SOFIA ADROGUÉ Judge, Eleventh Business Court Division

s a lawyer, I have served as an advocate, a facilitator, and a conciliator, resolving a litany of issues, from the simplest to the most complex. From taking the oath of U.S. citizenship 35 years ago to the oath of an officer of the court as a member of the Texas Bar 32 years ago, my American Dream is now realized with the opportunity to serve, with privilege and commensurate responsibility, as a judge. Although over 5,000 miles away from my place of birth, there is no doubt that as a Houstonian I am inordinately proud of the endless possibilities of our city, our state, our country, and, always, our esteemed profession.

My goal has been to “walk the talk,” from my commitment to our highest standards through hard work, to connecting with all people for the greater good. My triad of passions has been my profession, my community leadership, and, of course, my family. As I commence my next phase, my gratitude for my colleagues, friends, mentors, and, most of all, my family, is without measure.

The formidable traits we may emulate from our Texas trailblazers on the importance of integrity, ethical courage, and public service/social responsibility that define these Texans’ contributions to the legal profession are palpable and merit articulation.

“Justice is not partial, unequal, or unfair. It is even-handed. It applies the same way to all, across the board.”

–The Hon. Nathan L. Hecht “The imperative is to define what is right and do it.”

–The Hon. Barbara Jordan The Hon. James A. Baker, III serves as the paradigm of the art and value of compromise. It, like the trial, has become a hallmark that legal giants like Stephen D. Susman pioneered and dedicated his life and talents to preserving. Steve’s approach to litigation, including his trial by agreement, was principled, pragmatic, and fair as the life of the law should be.

Feliz Cumpleaños (35) to our Texas Lawyer’s Creed! “[C]ommonly regarded as one of the best standards of professionalism in the country,” its poignancy is evident and adherence is outcome-determinative. Requiring “humility, selfreflection and self-examination,” it begins with its inordinately “powerful” preamble.

–The Hon. George C. Hanks, Jr. I am a lawyer. I am entrusted by the People of Texas to preserve and improve our legal system. I am licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. I must therefore abide by the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, but I know that Professionalism requires more than merely avoiding the violation of laws and rules. I am committed to this Creed for no other reason than it is right.

Let us all practice our profession in a manner exemplified by the HBA’s Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Award and the UHLC Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Jurist-in-Residence Lectureship in Legal Ethics, reflecting on Justice Sondock’s enduring legacy in our Texas legal community, always doing it and getting it right.

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COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT

Answering the Call:

The HBA LegalLine Committee

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The Houston Lawyer

By Ellyn Haikin Josef and Matthew Reasoner

roviding pro bono legal services to the Houston community is part of the fabric of the Houston Bar Association. Those legal services come in all shapes and sizes—taking cases from Houston Volunteer Lawyers, representing local arts organizations, helping veterans and servicemen at the VA Hospital, and providing wills for our first responders, along with countless other examples.

One of the mainstays in this space has always been LegalLine—a hotline program where lawyers answer legal questions from the community during specified time slots. In the olden days, there would be set dates and times where lawyers would take shifts at the HBA office, eating pizza and answering calls. This continued for years, with lawyers providing valuable legal advice all throughout our Houston community.

Just as with everything else, 2020 gave us an opportunity to rethink how LegalLine plays into our pro bono landscape. We were no longer able to meet in-person or take calls as a group, but those legal questions still existed. Our community still needed our help.

While the HBA LegalLine Committee was originally tasked with overseeing the LegalLine program and making sure all of the volunteer slots were filled and the calls were answered, the pandemic brought some challenges the committee needed to address. With a steadfast eye towards making sure the services we provide to the community continued without interruption, the committee helped the HBA transition LegalLine to a fully remote opportunity. This initiative included making valuable resources available online to volunteers and citizens at all hours. The calls were then able to be made from home, from offices, or from hotel rooms. While this took some adjustment, and we were conscious of the loss of some of a community feel without the pizza dinners, we felt that continuing to provide this service was our first priority and we would press forward.

The LegalLine Committee was incredibly proud to see that the volunteer sign-ups continued apace, the calls continued

40 November/December 2024

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to be made, and access to justice continued to be provided to our fellow Houstonians. In addition to the changes that 2020 brought us, the LegalLine Committee’s work was not done. In an effort to streamline volunteer opportunities and standardize how we conducted LegalLine, the committee worked with Houston Volunteer Lawyers to merge their weekly call-in clinic with HBA LegalLine to create one, robust legal question-answering program. This transition has been seamless, and the volunteers have been thrilled to have a place to sign up to help. The HBA’s LegalLine Powered by HVL allows for more citizens to be served with not just simple legal information, but robust legal advice and counsel, possibly the only guidance they will receive. Resources are tailored to assist volunteers in their advice and mentors are available during consultations.

Not only do the services provided by LegalLine benefit the community, but the volunteers that contribute find the experience very rewarding. Volunteers can hone their legal skills while tackling the issues that members of the Houston community face. Newer attorneys are able to gain invaluable, client-facing experience where they need to think on their feet responding to legal questions. The committee encourages all attorneys in Houston to volunteer for LegalLine to gain experience and confidence as an attorney, while also giving back to the community.

We are so incredibly proud of both the service that LegalLine provides to the community and the work that the LegalLine Committee did to flex and grow as our community needs shifted and changed. We will continue to put Houstonian’s legal needs as our first priority and make sure we are meeting those needs in the most nimble and accessible way possible.

If you have not yet, please consider signing up for a shift by visiting hba.org/LegalLine.

Ellyn Haikin Josef is pro bono counsel at Vinson & Elkins LLP. and Matthew Reasoner is an associate at Bracewell. They are the cochairs of the HBA LegalLine Committee.

Section Spotlight

HBA Real Estate Law Section:

Keeping Its Sights on the Landscape

F

By Rosemary B. Jackson

ounded in 1977, the Real Estate Law Section is one of the oldest sections of the HBA, and with a current membership of more than 570 attorneys, is one of the largest.

In parallel with the diverse Houston real estate market, the section is made up of members specializing in niche practice areas, such as real estate lending, commercial leases, and property owners’ associations, as well as a sizable number who are engaged in the general fields of real estate transactions and litigation. Notwithstanding the diversity of the real property practice areas, the section members’ notable common characteristic is their devotion to nurturing excellence in real estate law practice.

Real Property Law Star Power Each month, the section hosts a speaker luncheon held in-person at Gray Reed with live streaming and on-demand recording available to view the presentation remotely. Speakers hail from statewide locations and the most eminent reaches of real estate law practice who present educative and apposite real property topics.

The luncheons are unequaled opportunities for members of the Houston real estate law community to forge professional relationships and benefit from the professional knowledge imparted by skilled colleagues.

The upcoming featured programs of the 2025 luncheons are: marital property (February), real estate finance trends (March), easement disputes (April), and an update on the Corporate Transparency Act (May). At the June 18, 2025 meeting, David Weatherbie will round off the year’s speaker luncheon series with his esteemed annual case law update, providing the latest developments in real estate jurisprudence.

Community Fundraising, Scholarships Supporting Houston Law Students, and New Member Benefits The Real Estate Law Section is a proud supporter of local fundraising organizations and programs, routinely making meaningful financial and volunteer resource contributions to Habitat for Humanity, the Harvest Celebration, and the HBA Eikenburg Fun Run.

Because of its unfailing commitment to the promotion of excellence in the practice of real property law, a signature community enhancement activity of the section is the award of annual scholarships to deserving law students at each of the three Houston law schools. A committee of the Real Estate Law Section Council chooses the recipients based on demonstrated interest in practicing real estate law, outstanding grades, and need of financial assistance. Further, new licensees, third-year law students, and LL.M. candidates are eligible for free section membership for one year to introduce the outstanding CLE programs and valuable contacts provided by the section to new arrivals to the profession.

How to Join Us for Lunch and Stay in Touch The luncheons take place on either the second or third Wednesday of each month. The dates, annual subscription details, and online registration are available at hba.org/sections. Subscribers receive a discounted price. You can also find information on upcoming events and other Real Estate Law Section notices and resources on our social media pages on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Current Leadership The 2024-2025 section officers are Lindsey Jandal Postula (chair), Lindsey Valenta (chair-elect), Megan Schmid (secretary-treasurer), and Yigal Saghian (immediate past chair). This year’s council members, including myself, are Madison Bennett, Lauren Hunsaker, Joseph Holloway, and Stephen Uzick.

The officers and council members are all dedicated volunteers, pledged to sustain the traditions, high standards, and culture of the Real Estate Law Section, and to make their own contributions to advance the section’s objectives for the betterment of the field of real estate law.

Rosemary B. Jackson is a member of the HBA Real Estate Law Section Council. She is the principal attorney of Rosemary B. Jackson, PC, focusing on real estate development and property owners associations, and is a frequent author and presenter for CLE courses for the State Bar of Texas. thehoustonlawyer.com

November/December 2024

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LEGAL TRENDS

Texas District Courts Question NLRB Constitutionality

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By Corey E. Devine

The Houston Lawyer

hree Texas federal district judges recently issued extraordinary rulings that could torpedo the power of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”).

In the cases, the judges preliminarily enjoined the NLRB from prosecuting unfair labor practice charges in its administrative courts. According to the judges, the NLRB’s structure violates the U.S. Constitution because it does not properly allow for removal of NLRB administrative law judges by the president.

The Texas District Court Injunctions Each case—Space Exploration Tech.

Corp. v. NLRB1; Energy Transfer, LP v.

NLRB 2; Aunt Bertha v. NLRB 3; and Ascension Seton Med. Ctr. Austin v. NLRB 4 —involved the NLRB’s pursuit of unfair labor practice charges against employers for allegedly retaliating against employees who engaged in NLRA-protected concerted activity. After NLRB investigations found the charges to have merit, it issued complaints and notices of evidentiary hearings to be held before NLRB Administrative Law Judges (“ALJs”).

The employers responded by filing federal lawsuits seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions restraining the NLRB from further prosecution in its administrative courts.

In granting preliminary injunctions, Judges Albright (SpaceX, Ascension), Brown (Energy Transfer), and Pittman (Aunt Bertha) relied heavily on Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Comm., a 2022 Fifth Circuit decision finding 42 November/December 2024

the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) administrative court structure to be unconstitutional.5 The preliminary injunction orders analogize NLRB ALJs to SEC ALJs in terms of their impermissible insulation from presidential removal. Judge Albright further concluded that NLRB members are principal executive officers who are similarly unconstitutionally insulated from removal.

In each case, the NLRB argued that the injunctive relief sought was improper because the court could simply sever from the NLRA the allegedly unconstitutional ALJ removal protections.

But the judges found severance to be premature at the preliminary injunction stage, allowing only that it might be a means of curing the constitutional defect on consideration of the merits.

The injunction orders do not attempt to explain how severance would work in practice, and Judge Albright expressed some doubt about the practicality of this relief.

The NLRB has challenged the SpaceX, Energy Transfer, and Aunt Bertha preliminary injunctions. Those pending appeals have been consolidated and briefing is underway.6 The NLRB has indicated that it will also challenge the Ascension preliminary injunction.

Fifth Circuit Ruling Expected It is possible that the consolidated appeal will be rendered moot by an earlierfiled appeal involving SpaceX, which is currently pending in the Fifth Circuit.

The earlier appeal arises from unfair labor practice allegations that SpaceX illegally fired workers in California who criticized company founder Elon Musk.

The earlier-filed SpaceX appeal does not arise from a district court preliminary injunction order, but the case includes SpaceX’s argument that NLRB ALJs are unconstitutionally insulated from presidential removal. SpaceX also argues that

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the NLRB’s administrative legal process unconstitutionally denies employers their right to trial by jury and violates employers’ due process rights by improperly commingling prosecutorial, adjudicative, and policymaking powers.7 The Fifth Circuit heard oral argument in both the earlier SpaceX appeal and a nearly identical appeal involving e-commerce giant Amazon on November 18, 2024.8 There is no guarantee that it will reach the merits of SpaceX’s and Amazon’s constitutional claims in either case.

Additional Challenges Likely Until the Fifth Circuit weighs in on the constitutionality of the NLRB, it is likely that additional challenges seeking to preliminarily enjoin NLRA enforcement actions will continue to be filed in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. And if the Fifth Circuit ultimately rules that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional, it will in doing so not only encourage the filing of further challenges, but also possibly tee up a circuit split paving a path for the U.S. Supreme Court to finally resolve the issue.

Corey E. Devine is board certified in labor and employment law.

He is a partner in Muskat Devine LLP, a boutique firm representing management in labor and employment matters.

Endnotes

1. No. 24-CV-00203, 2024 WL 3512082 (W.D. Tex. July 23, 2024).

2. No. 3:24-CV-198, 2024 WL 3571494 (S.D. Tex. July 29, 2024).

3. No. 4:24-cv-798 (N.D. Tex. Sept. 16, 2024).

4. No. 1-24-CV-01176, 2024 WL 4678057 (W.D. Tex. Oct. 18, 2024).

5. See Jarkesy v. SEC, 34 F.4th 446 (5th Cir. 2022). In 2024, the Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit, finding that structure of the SEC’s administrative courts is unconstitutional, but on the alternative Seventh Amendment grounds raised there.

See SEC v. Jarkesy, 144 S. Ct. 2117 (2024).

6. See Nos. 24-50627, 24-40533, & 24-10855 (5th Cir.).

7. See Space Exploration Tech. Corp. v. NLRB, No. 2450627 (5th Cir.).

8. See Amazon.com Servs. LLC v. NLRB, No. 24-50761 (5th Cir.).

Media Reviews

10,000 Depositions Later: The Premier Litigation Guide for Superior Deposition Practice

By Jim Garrity Published by Ross & Rubin, Publishers LLC Reviewed by Johnny Day

T

his is a book of strategy and tactics. Jim Garrity describes himself as an “Employee Rights Lawyer” who has not, and will not, “help any employer in a dispute with an employee.” He passionately believes deposition skills “make or break you as a litigator.” This is because “depositions are the new trials, the only place any witness will ever testify.” And depositions are the only chance to get evidence “unfiltered” by opposing counsel. Mr. Garrity’s intended audience is thus “hardcore front-line litigators.”

How did Mr. Garrity determine that he took 10,000 depositions? He researched every online CM/ECF case in which he has appeared as lead counsel.

He found more than 1,000. His practice is roughly divided equally between state and federal courts; therefore, he multiplied this federal case count by two for more than 2,000 cases as lead lawyer. Then, Mr. Garrity estimated that in a typical case he takes between 10 and 25 depositions. Hence, 10,000 depositions taken (at least—the book could really be called 20,000 Depositions Later).

Mr. Garrity uses that experience to focus on nitty gritty deposition tactics (i.e., “micro-advantages”), with key notes about strategy. Mr. Garrity wants to help, and he makes it easy to identify specific tactics: he painstakingly created a 14-page table of contents beginning with Chief Functions of the Deposition and ending with Taxation of Deposition Costs.

There is a feast of information for any lawyer hungry to learn the dark arts of deposition dominance. Here are a few of the headings I read first: Who Goes First?; Cross Noticing Depositions; Dealing with Non-Party Objections; and Don’t Let Reporters Snap at Your Witness.

Keep in mind, there are more than 300 headings like this!

Most of these headings relate to a paragraph or a single page in the book, but some, like Apex Depositions, receive more detailed attention. Mr. Garrity provides the background of this judicially created doctrine designed to prevent “harassment” of top corporate and governmental officials (i.e., “Chiefs”) unless the deposing party shows first-hand knowledge and no reasonable alternative witnesses. Mr. Garrity cites a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case and a host of other legal authorities determining “Who is High Ranking, and Who Isn’t?” His presentation of legal authorities in the Apex Depositions section is not a prevalent feature given the book’s anecdotal style. Apex depositions are something Mr. Garrity highly prizes.

At times, you can understand what it must be like to see Mr. Garrity hound a witness. Under Remote Live-Depositions, Mr. Garrity focuses on the problem of a witness using the computer screen as a testimonial aid during a Zoom deposi-

tion. It was news to me, but he is right.

Witnesses can minimize the Zoom window and have anything they want on the computer screen, ready to use “cheat sheets” to assist their testimony.

Mr. Garrity provides detailed questions to stamp out this kind of “cheating” on Zoom. You can almost hear him intensely asking, “Are there notes, memos, or documents of any kind relating to this case (or the parties) on the monitor, table, walls, floor, clothing, body, furniture, or any other surface that you can see or that is within 25 feet of you?”

Different in style from the headings just discussed, Mr. Garrity devotes great care to Part 1 and Part 2 of Creating Invincible Deponents. He takes you through witness preparation one step at a time, so you could theoretically walk a witness through Mr. Garrity’s table of contents and the witness would be prepared.

For example, here are five witness preparation tips: Your Deposition is not a Practice Run; A Deposition is not a Social Conversation; If You Don’t Remember Something, Say So; Never Change Answers Under Pressure; and The Lawyer Will Try to Put Words in Your Mouth.

If I had to highlight one area that could be expanded in the 5th Edition, it would be the section on experts.

Expert depositions are essential to achieving great results, but Mr. Garrity uncharacteristically does not dig deep into expert deposition tactics.

Setting that aside as something easily improved, if you are a frontline trial lawyer, you should have this book on your shelf. It sells for a reasonable legal publication price (approximately $70), and you will get your money’s worth if you take just one of Jim Garrity’s lessons to heart.

Johnny Day is trial lawyer at Sorrels Law. He represents catastrophically injured and financially defrauded clients.

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Join the HBA 100 Club!

The Houston Bar Association 100 Club is a special category of membership that indicates a commitment to the advancement of the legal profession and the betterment of the community. The following law firms, government agencies, law schools and corporate legal departments with five or more attorneys have become members of the 100 Club by enrolling 100 percent of their attorneys as members of the HBA. Firms of 5-24 Attorneys Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner Ajamie LLP Alvarez Stauffer Bremer PLLC Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC Buck Keenan LLP Christian Levine Law Group, LLC Coats | Rose Crady, Jewett, McCulley & Houren, LLP De Lange Hudspeth McConnell & Tibbets LLP Dentons US LLP Dobrowski Stafford LLP Doyle Restrepo Harvin & Robbins LLP Ewing & Jones, PLLC Fisher & Phillips LLP Fizer Beck Webster Bentley & Scroggins Fogler, Brar, O’Neil & Gray LLP Frank, Elmore, Lievens, Slaughter & Turet, L.L.P. Funderburk Funderburk Courtois, LLP Germer PLLC Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP Hagans Henke, Williams & Boll, LLP Hirsch & Westheimer, P.C. Holm | Bambace LLP Horne Rota Moos LLP Hughes, Watters & Askanase, L.L.P. Husch Blackwell LLP Jackson Lewis P.C. Jenkins & Kamin, LLP Johnson DeLuca Kurisky & Gould, P.C. Jordan, Lynch & Cancienne Kean Miller Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Law Feehan Adams LLP Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP

Liskow McGinnis Lochridge McGuireWoods LLP McKool Smith MehaffyWeber PC Morris Lendais Hollrah & Snowden Murrah & Killough, PLLC Nathan Sommers Jacobs Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, P.C. Paranjpe Mahadass Ruemke LLP Peckar & Abramson, P.C. Phelps Dunbar LLP Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Ramey, Chandler, Quinn & Zito, P.C. Rapp & Krock PC Reynolds Frizzell LLP Roach & Newton, L.L.P. Ross Banks May Cron & Cavin PC Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, L.L.P. Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP Schirrmeister Diaz-Arrastia Brem LLP Schwartz, Page & Harding, L.L.P. Scott, Clawater & Houston, L.L.P. Shannon Martin Finkelstein Alvarado & Dunne, P.C. Shearman & Sterling Shellist | Lazarz | Slobin LLP Shipley Snell Montgomery LLP Smith Murdaugh Little & Bonham LLP Sorrels Law Spencer Fane Sponsel Miller Greenberg PLLC Stuart PC Taunton Snyder & Parish Thompson & Horton LLP Tindall England PC Tracey & Fox Law Firm Ware, Jackson, Lee, O’Neill, Smith & Barrow, LLP

West Mermis Weycer, Kaplan, Pulaski & Zuber, PC Williams Hart & Boundas, LLP Wright Abshire, Attorneys, PC Wright Close & Barger, LLP Ytterberg Deery Knull LLP Zukowski, Bresenhan & Piazza L.L.P. Firms of 25-49 Attorneys Adams and Reese LLP Andrews Myers, P.C. Beck Redden LLP BoyarMiller Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP Bush & Ramirez, PLLC Cokinos | Young Gibbs & Bruns LLP Hogan Lovells US LLP Kane Russell Coleman & Logan PC Littler Mendelson P.C. Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom LLP McDowell & Hetherington LLP Wilson Cribbs & Goren PC Yetter Coleman LLP Firms of 50-99 Attorneys AZA Law BakerHostetler LLP Brown Sims, P.C. Chamberlain Hrdlicka Greenberg Traurig, LLP Haynes and Boone, LLP Jackson Walker Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Susman Godfrey L.L.P. Winstead PC

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP Locke Lord LLP Norton Rose Fulbright Porter Hedges LLP Vinson & Elkins LLP Corporate Legal Departments CenterPoint Energy, Inc. EOG Resources, Inc. MAXXAM, Inc. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. Quantlab Financial, LLC Rice University S & B Engineers and Constructors, Ltd. Law School Faculty South Texas College of Law Houston Thurgood Marshall School of Law University of Houston Law Center Government Agencies Harris County Attorney’s Office Harris County District Attorney’s Office Harris County Domestic Relations Office Lone Star Legal Aid Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Texas 1st Court of Appeals 14th Court of Appeals

Firms of 100+ Attorneys Baker Botts L.L.P. Bracewell LLP

thehoustonlawyer.com

November/December 2024

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