2011 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowship Honorees
The Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowships are supported by a generous multi-year gift from Stephanie Whitehurst and Bill Whitehurst, ‘70. Each summer, the Whitehursts name the fellowships for lawyers and others they admire in hopes that the recipients will be inspired by the honorees’ work in the public interest.
Summer 2011 Whitehurst Public Interest Fellowship Honorees
The Julie Clark Public Interest Law Fellowship
Julie Clark is not a lawyer. She is simply one of the most remarkable women you will ever meet who, for 30 years, has made it possible for our nation’s indigent to have legal representation and for lawyers to have public interest law careers. As Vice President of Strategic Alliances for the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, she oversees a national grassroots network, the main purpose of which is to increase annual appropriations for the Legal Services Corporation and to remove onerous restrictions on representation by its grantees. She also serves as a member of NLADA’s lobbying team and national coalition to preserve and augment funding for the civil legal aid community.
Julie was instrumental in the success of Bar Leaders for the Preservation of Legal Services for the Poor, co-founded by three state bar presidents, Jon Ross, New Hampshire, Mike Greco, Massachusetts, and Bill Whitehurst, Texas. The result was a nation-wide grassroots organization of bar leaders and lawyers that helped preserve the Legal Services Corporation and legal services for the poor in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when both were at risk during the Reagan Administration. Through Julie they were provided critical access to Congressional leaders, political testimony before House and Senate committees, and strategic political guidance every step of the way for the Bar Leaders’ efforts.
Intelligent, highly educated and from a background working with Presidents and numerous United States Senators, Julie could have had her selection of prestigious positions in Washington D.C. Instead, she chose to devote her career and innumerable talents to insuring access to justice for our country’s most vulnerable. Bar presidents have referred to her as a national treasure, and we are all indebted to the path she chose.
The Julie Clark Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient, inspired by what successful women like Julie do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career, will make a similar commitment.
The Michael S. Greco Public Interest Law Fellowship
Michael S. Greco, former president of the American Bar Association and a business litigation partner with K & L Gates, LLP, in Boston, Massachusetts, who is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, has combined a busy and successful law practice with public service and public interest law. From the time he was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1972, Mr. Greco has worked to improve access to justice for all in America, particularly for those who are without means or hope. He has led national and international access to justices entities and, as a leader of the Bar at the state and national levels, has founded organizations and appointed task forces to implement initiatives to improve access to justice.
As President of the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1986, he joined State Bar Presidents Jon Ross of New Hampshire and Bill Whitehurst of Texas as co-founders and, for seven years thereafter, co-chairs of the nation-wide grassroots organization Bar Leaders for the Preservation of Legal Services for the Poor, which helped preserve the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and funding for legal services for the poor in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.
During 1987-88, he chaired the first-in-the-nation study of legal needs of the poor – the Massachusetts Legal Needs for the Poor Assessment and Plan for Action – which for the first time reliably documented that eighty percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet each year. The resulting Report and Action Plan helped persuade Congress to increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation and led other state bars and the ABA to conduct similar legal needs assessment studies.
As American Bar Association President during 2005-06, he appointed the ABA Task Force on Access to Civil Justice whose Report and Recommendations led the ABA unanimously to adopt policy in support of a publicly-funded civil right to counsel (or “Civil Gideon”) for poor persons in civil proceedings that involve basic human needs such as shelter, health, child custody, safety and sustenance.
Mr. Greco currently is Co-Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights, which leads the ABA’s efforts nationally and internationally to protect human rights, civil liberties and civil rights, and Chair of the ABA Working Group on a Civil Right to Counsel, which is assisting jurisdictions to implement the civil right to counsel.
The Michael S. Greco Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that its recipient, inspired by what successful lawyers do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, will make a similar career commitment.
The Dicky Grigg Public Interest Law Fellowship
If Dicky Grigg were writing this profile he would say:
“Dicky Grigg received his undergraduate degree from Texas Tech in 1970, but could not get into Tech Law School. He swallowed his pride, took second best, and attended law school at the University of Texas, graduating in 1973. Mr. Grigg is board certified in Car Wrecks and Sore Backs and has dedicated his legal career to determining which car entered the intersection first.”
Of course, little is accurate in that description and belies a career as one of Texas’ most colorful and successful trial lawyers. Starting as an assistant District Attorney in Lubbock County, he practices personal injury trial law in Austin with his firm, Spivey and Grigg, LLP.
A fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (President), the American Board of Trial Advocates (Texas Chapter) Trial Lawyer of the Year, listed in the Best Lawyers in America, and recipient of the Austin Bar Association’s Distinguished Lawyer Award, the State Bar of Texas’ Leon Jaworski Award for Law Teaching Excellence and the Luther Soules III Award for Outstanding Service to the Practice of Law, Dicky has truly distinguished himself. However, he would tell you, this time accurately, that his public service and pro bono work is what has defined his career.
Dicky volunteered to represent three Guantanamo detainees. In each case he has filed habeas corpus petitions in their behalf in federal court in Washington D.C., made several trips to GITMO in Cuba, appeared at hearings and status conferences in D.C., and expended almost $50,000 of his own money primarily on travel and interpreters. His first two clients were eventually released, and the third is now being represented by military attorneys before the Military Commission. Speaking on his experiences, Dicky points out that “it is not about the detainees, it is about the rule of law.” This work has been balanced by assisting U.S. military veterans pro bono on disability appeals as part of a State Bar of Texas initiative. Additionally, for ten years he taught peer mediation training to students at a Austin middle school for which he received the State Bar President’s Award for Mediators Achieving Peace.
The Dicky Grigg Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient, inspired by what successful lawyers like Dicky do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their careers, will make the same commitment.
The Jonathan Ross Public Interest Law Fellowship
Jonathan Ross is a highly regarded practicing lawyer with Wiggin & Nourie, P.A., specializing in family law, domestic relations, litigation. As a student at Georgetown University Law Center, he worked for the Neighborhood Legal Services program in Washington, D. C., the precursor to the Legal Services Corporation. He also volunteered with the Georgetown Legal Aid Program working on criminal defense matters for indigents. While getting his L.L.M. at Harvard Law School he volunteered as a prosecutor in the municipal courts where he observed the overwhelming workload of public defenders representing the indigent. These experiences inspired him to a career-long commitment to pro bono representation and public interest law.
In 1985-86, Jon served as President of the New Hampshire Bar Association. He joined with State Bar Presidents, Mike Greco of Massachusetts and Bill Whitehurst of Texas, as co-founders and for seven years after co-chairs of Bar Leaders for the Preservation of Legal Services for the Poor. The result was a nation-wide grassroots organization of bar leaders and lawyers that helped preserve the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and legal services for the poor in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, when both were at risk during the Reagan Administration.
Jon went on to chair the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants as well as the ABA’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. He also served on the ABA’s Task Force on Hurricane Katrina. In his honor, the New Hampshire Bar Association has established the “L. Jonathan Ross Award for Outstanding Commitment to Legal Services for the Poor,” which is given annually at their mid-year meeting.
The Jonathan Ross Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient, inspired by what successful lawyers like Jon do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career, will make the same commitment.
The Broadus Spivey Public Interest Law Fellowship
Most would agree that lawyers who were born, raised, educated and practiced in West Texas are unique. All would agree that one of the most unique from that group is Broadus Spivey. Recognized as being among the leading lawyers in America, starting out in a county attorney office and transferring to a plaintiffs personal injury practice early in his career, Broadus at the age of 74, is still in his office around 5:00 a.m. every day representing clients and trying lawsuits.
Along the way Broadus has balanced his busy trial practice with public service as president of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. From 1965 to the present, he has hired over 200 law students as law clerks in his office providing them an apprenticeship similar to that for law students in England, for which he was recognized as the Austin Young Lawyers Association Mentor of the Year for 2009. His pro bono representation started early on with a will for a senior citizen who wanted to leave her meager estate to her church, continued with the ACLU representing a woman who was jailed for writing a letter critical of Roberts County officials, the State Bar prosecuting “ambulance chasing,” the Judges of the State of Texas against the Texas Legislature to obtain funding for state courts, a soldier against a bank who foreclosed on his farm while he was fighting “Desert Storm,” and untold others along the way.
Broadus’ practice, both pro bono and fee cases, has always been fueled by the challenge of the legal issues involved and the desire to seek justice for his clients. After trying over 375 jury trials and over 300 speeches given and articles written, and a 49 year career full of public service, Broadus remains the quintessential Atticus Finch lawyer of our time.
The Broadus Spivey Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient, inspired by what successful lawyers like Broadus do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career, will make the same commitment.
The Victoria Touchet Public Interest Law Fellowship
Vicki Touchet has had three careers: one as a school teacher, one as a paralegal, and one as a lawyer. With a Masters in English she taught 7th, 8th, and 9th, grade English and History in the Beaumont and Austin Independent School Districts from 1986-1978. Wanting to explore a career in law, she became a paralegal from 1978 to 1983. At the age of 40, having “raised a husband and three children,” with one still in high school, she entered the University of Houston Law Center. Commuting to Houston for two years while maintaining her family and home in Austin, Vicki finished her final year at the University of Texas School of Law, becoming a licensed lawyer in 1986. She brought to the practice the maturity and judgment often missing from those who attend law school immediately after their undergraduate degree. She also brought a desire for public interest law inherited, no doubt, from her history professor father, a true Texas populist.
Vicki first worked with a sole practitioner in general civil law with an emphasis on family law. For four years she worked as an assistant director for the University of Texas Legal Services for Students office. Always maintaining a pro bono docket, she began devoting full time to Volunteer Legal Services representing petitioners in contested divorce cases and supervising a clinic for pro se petitioners pursuing uncontested divorces. In 2002 she pioneered the first office in the Travis County Courthouse to assist pro se litigants in uncontested family law matters, working for seven years with judges and the family law bar to assure its success.
Governor Ann Richards often noted that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. Vicki Touchet, the recipient of numerous pro bono awards including a commendation for service on behalf of elderly and disabled citizens of Travis County and a member of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, is the lawyer equivalent of Ginger Rogers.
The Victoria Touchet Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient, inspired by what successful lawyers like Vicki do in the public’s interest as an essential part of their career, will make the same commitment.