2012 Archive

National Pro Bono Week at UT Law: Spotlight on the 2012–2013 Pro Bono Scholar

In celebration of National Pro Bono Week (October 21–27, 2012), the UT Law Pro Bono Program is pleased to announce that third-year student Megan Sheffield has been selected to serve as a Pro Bono Scholar for the 2012–2013 academic year. The Pro Bono Scholars Program provides scholarships to second- and third-year students who commit to working with the UT Law Pro Bono Program a minimum of three hundred hours during the academic year. The scholars plan and implement pro bono projects and conduct research and outreach that furthers the mission of the program.

Read More
Austin American-Statesman reports on work by Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center and LBJ School on “contracts for deed” in Texas

The work of Community Development Clinic Director Heather Way and Lucille Wood, a Research Fellow in the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, was featured in a recent article in the Austin American-Statesman. The article examines the recent release of a report, coauthored by Way and Wood with Professor Peter Ward, C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico Relations and Professor of Public Affairs and Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, examining the use and prevalence of “contracts for deed”—informal transactions for property that often have interest rates of as high as twenty percent—in Texas from 1989 to 2010.

Read More
Pro Bono Program to organize DACA clinics for 2013 Pro Bono in January trip

On January 6–11, 2013, the Pro Bono Program will take thirty students as well as several faculty members to the Texas Rio Grande Valley during the second week of January. This will be Pro Bono in January’s fourth year in the Valley. This year the Pro Bono Program is partnering with the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin to organize clinics in the San Juan area to assist pro se youth to petition for relief under the recently launched Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. At the clinics, students and volunteer attorneys will help high-school DACA petitioners (aka “DREAMers”) complete forms and compile documents to file with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Read More
National Pro Bono Week at UT Law: Spotlight on the Rural Outreach Initiative

In recognition of National Pro Bono Week (October 21–27, 2012), the UT Law Pro Bono Program celebrates law students’ volunteer efforts in underserved areas of Texas through Texas RioGrande Legal Aid’s Rural Outreach Initiative. Over the 2011–2012 school year, fourteen students assisted TRLA with the project. This fall nine students have volunteered, and students will also have the opportunity to work on the project in the spring.

Read More
UT Law joins 2012 National Celebration of Pro Bono, October 21–27, 2012

During the week of October 21–27, 2012, the UT Law Pro Bono Program will participate in the fourth annual nationwide celebration of pro bono service. Launched by the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, the National Pro Bono Celebration focuses the nation’s attention on the increased need for pro bono services and celebrates the work of lawyers who volunteer their services throughout the year.

Read More
New report on status of low-income homeowners in Texas colonias and informal housing settlements issued by the University of Texas

The University of Texas School of Law and Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs released a major report on low-income homeowners in Texas colonias and other informal housing settlements developed with limited infrastructure and poor housing conditions. Commissioned in August 2011 by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs at the request of the Texas Sunset Commission, the report will be discussed at a presentation on October 19, 2012, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the University of Texas School of Law, room TNH 3.127.

Read More
2013 Chancellors Inducted

The Law School congratulates the members of the Class of 2013 who have been admitted to Chancellors, the Law School’s most prestigious honor society. Since 1912, Chancellors has recognized the law students who have achieved the highest grade point averages in their class through their second year of school.

Read More