Honorable ______Attended the 2017 Annual Judicial Education Conference in Houston
(September 2017) More than 500 Texas judges attended the Annual Judicial Education Conference in Houston from September 5-8, 2017. The four-day conference, the largest statewide gathering of Texas appellate, district, and county court at law judges, included a diverse faculty of Texas and other state court judges, attorneys, and well-informed professionals. The conference was funded, in part, by a grant from the Texas Bar Foundation.
Professor Erwin Chemerinsky opened the conference by reviewing recent landmark cases from the Supreme Court of the United States and examining trends in the area of constitutional law. Professor Chemerinsky is one of the foremost authorities on the Supreme Court and is held in high esteem by both the state and national legal community. Chancellor William H. McRaven, a retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral who serves as the chief executive officer of the University of Texas, spoke to the judges about decision-making and what prepared him to be a leader. Other conference highlights included Troy Vincent, Vice-President of NFL Operations, addressing domestic violence among athletes, and Gilbert Tuhabonye, who delivered an emotional and inspirational speech about his experience as a survivor of genocide. Judges also had a wide selection of hot topics and legal updates to attend, such as setting DWI bond conditions, trends in capital cases, property enforcements in family cases, and mental health challenges in the criminal justice system, to name a few.
“Texas is unique in its methods, resources, and overall approach to developing and delivering providing first-class judicial education for Texas judges," says Judge David Sanchez, Chair of the Texas Center for the Judiciary. "While one of the major contributing factors to the successful education of our state judges is that our judgessuggest and oversee the programming provided by the Texas Center, it would not be possible without partners like the Texas Bar Foundation, which has continually supported our efforts and work.”
Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $17 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation’s largest charitably-funded bar foundation.