The Texas colloquium was well attended (maybe 150 participants) and organized. Eden Harrington from the University of Texas did a fantastic job of coordination. The most distinctive aspect of the program was the co-sponsorship with the Supreme Court of Texas. Two justices attended (including the Chief Justice) and one, Justice Deborah Hankinson, participated in the entire day-long program. Substantively, the program focused on access to justice issues for the delivery of civil legal services because, as I learned, the Texas Supreme Court has no criminal law jurisdiction. The discussions were rich and included panels of providers discussing their needs, academics and clinicians talking about teaching access to justice and professional responsibility issues throughout the curriculum, and both providers and faculty discussing possible models of collaboration. Deans and/or faculty from all nine Texas law schools as well as the Dean from the Oklahoma City University School of Law engaged in a lively panel discussion about fostering equal justice teaching, scholarship, and service. The feedback from the fairly diverse participant group was overwhelmingly positive, particularly regarding the presence of the Supreme Court coupled with significant input from the provider and law school communities. The following critiques/suggestions were raised: the absence of small group discussions; the lack of focus on the rural areas of the State; the bibliography articles should be internet accessible; attention to the indigent criminal defense delivery system should have been included; the absence of focus on the legal problems of the trans-gendered community was noted. Finally, there was concern about the lack of articulated intention to follow-up and/or create a structure to ensure the connection between the law school faculties and the equal justice community.

For further information, contact the local planner listed below:

Eden Harrington
The University of Texas School of Law
727 East Dean Keeton Street, Austin, TX 78705
(512) 232-7068
eharrington@mail.law.utexas.edu