2012 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 2012 Whitehurst Public Interest Fellowship Honorees
The Tom Ausley Public Interest Law Fellowship
Tom Ausley is the founding partner in the law firm Ausley, Algert, Robertson & Flores in Austin, Texas. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers; a Fellow in the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers; Board Certified in Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization; listed in the Best Lawyers in America, Family Law Section, for over 20 years; and selected by Best Lawyers in 2009 as Austin’s Lawyer of the Year in Family Law. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Lawyer Award from the Austin Bar Association. Tom currently serves as Chair of the Family Law Council of the State Bar of Texas.
Tom is a master litigator. In 2000, he chose to train in the collaborative law process as well, that he might provide an additional option to his clients to resolve their disputes. Tom’s decades in the practice of family law as well as his practical life experience enable him to help his clients navigate their legal disputes without destroying relationships with children and others.
More importantly, Tom has combined a busy and successful law practice with public service and public interest law. In 2000, he and his wife, Robbie, co-chaired the Planned Parenthood Choice Project capital campaign, which raised $6.5 million to build a new clinic and education facility in South Austin. For this effort, they received the Good Guys & Gals Award from the Texas Chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award. Through his church, Tom has participated in an Appalachia Service Project, Habitat for Humanity, and the Russian Initiative which hosted a summer camp for orphans in Vologda, Russia. Currently he is involved in “Mobile Loaves and Fishes,” which is an Austin ministry to feed the homeless, and he works on a team that mobilizes United Methodists to create full inclusion regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Tom’s newest public service endeavor is helping with a mission project in Siem Reap, Cambodia, called “Caring for Cambodia,” which provides educational opportunities for Cambodian children so they may reach their highest potential and make valuable contributions to their communities. He also participates as a volunteer attorney for Austin’s Volunteer Legal Services representing numerous pro bono litigants in family law matters.
The Tom Ausley Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Tom do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, and will make the same commitment.
The James Harrington Public Interest Law Fellowship
Jim Harrington was born in Lansing, Michigan, and received his law degree in 1973 from the University of Detroit, from where he also had earned a Master’s degree in philosophy (1969). After graduation from law school, Jim worked ten years as Director of the South Texas Project in the Rio Grande Valley. Much of his legal work there involved asserting the rights of farm laborers and poor people, especially Valley colonias. He handled major lawsuits involving police brutality, grand jury discrimination, and farm worker organizing. Jim moved to Austin in 1983 to become Legal Director of the Texas Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Inc., where he litigated ground-breaking cases involving free speech, privacy, and equal rights for farm laborers to worker’s compensation and unemployment benefits. He also helped organize the East Austin pro bono clinic.
In 1990, Jim founded the Texas Civil Rights Project, a statewide community-based, non-profit foundation that promotes social, racial, and economic justice and civil liberty, through litigation and public education, for low income and poor persons. Harrington has handled landmark cases involving privacy, voting rights, free speech and assembly, and the rights of persons with disabilities and overseen the publication of twelve reports on human rights in Texas. Additionally, Jim helped direct the Americans with Disabilities Act National Backup Center for two years, and traveled to more than twenty states and U.S. territories organizing ADA litigation and enforcement campaigns like those he organized in Texas. He is a prolific author, including Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gülen; The Texas Bill of Rights: A Commentary and Litigation Manual; “¡Alto a la Impunidad! Is There Legal Relief for the Murders of Women in Ciudad Juárez?”; myriad law review articles; and a wide assortment of op-ed pieces and book reviews.
Jim has been an adjunct professor at University of Texas Law School since 1985 (and also formerly at Saint Mary’s University Law School) and teaches undergraduate writing courses in civil liberties and history-making trials. He has served on human rights delegations to Honduras and Nicaragua (during the contra war), Chile (during Pinochet regime), Israel and Palestinian territories, Guatemala, and México (Chiapas), and visited Turkey as part of an interfaith group. In Austin, he coordinates the Saturday morning ecumenical Micah 6 food pantry. He has received numerous awards for his public service and assistance to the poor, including Trial Lawyer of the Year by Trial Lawyers for Public Interest in Washington D.C., the ABA’s Litigation Section Judge John Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award, the Texas Law Fellowships Award for Excellence in Public Interest, the Austin NAACP Public Interest Service Award, and the Individual Achievement Award from the International Association of Human Rights Agencies.
The Jim Harrington Public Interest Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by Jim and those like him who have dedicated their careers to full time public interest law. It is also to inspire law students to make pro bono and public interest law a part of all legal careers.
The Barbara Hines Public Interest Law Fellowship
Professor Barbara Hines has focused her legal career on advancing the rights of immigrants. She began the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School in January 1999 and currently serves as its co-director.
Professor Hines has practiced in the field of immigration law since 1975 and is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She began her career at the Central Texas Legal Aid Society in Austin (now Texas RioGrande Legal Aid), and she opened her private immigration firm in 1981. From 1991-1994, Professor Hines served as the first Co-Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of Texas, Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, and directed statewide civil rights litigation on behalf of immigrants.
Professor Hines has litigated many cases on behalf of immigrants including Murillo v. Mussegades, 809 F. Supp. 487 (W.D. Tx. 1992), a class action law suit filed by students challenging the enforcement actions of the Border Patrol at Bowie High School, and In Re Hutto Family Detention Center, No. A07-CA-164-55 (W.D. Tx. 2007), that led to the closure of an immigration detention center housing children and their parents near Austin. She currently represents and advocates for undocumented college “Dream Act” students facing removal. In 2002, she was named one of the 100 best lawyers in the Texas Lawyer publication.
More importantly, Professor Hines has combined a busy and successful law and academic practice with public service and public interest law. She was a Fulbright scholar in Argentina in 1996 and focused her research on Argentine immigration law. She has continued her relationship with the immigrant advocacy community in Argentina and in 2002 helped establish the first immigration clinic in Buenos Aires, sponsored by the University of Buenos Aires, the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, and the Comision Argentina de Refugiados. She received a second Fulbright award in 2004 and taught a course on U.S. immigration law and policy at the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Professor Hines has received numerous awards for her work including the 1992 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Jack Wasserman Award for Excellence in Litigation; the 1993 AILA Texas Chapter Litigation Award; the 2002 Texas Law Fellowships Excellence Public Interest Award; the 2007 AILA Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award; the 2008 Ed Wendler/Casa Marianella award; the 2009 MALDEF Excellence in Legal Services Award; and the 2010 National Lawyers Guild Carol King Award.
She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The most rewarding aspect of her Immigration Clinic position has been mentoring and inspiring the new generation of public interest lawyers committed to furthering social justice.
The Professor Barbara Hines Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Professor Hines do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, and will make the same commitment.
The Mike McKetta Public Interest Law Fellowship
Mike McKetta received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1969 and his J.D. from the University of Texas with high honors in 1977, where he was Order of the Coif and a Chancellor. With the law firm of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody in Austin, Mike has been trying cases before Central Texas judges and juries since 1982. Before that he practiced in Washington, D.C. at the firm of Covington and Burling. In his career, Mike has tried over 70 cases to conclusion.
In 2005, Mike was selected as the Commercial Litigation winner in the Austin Business Journal’s Best of Business Attorneys and Corporate Counsel Awards, and received the Professionalism Award by the Austin Bar Association and The Texas Center for Professionalism and Ethics. In 2010, the Texas Bar Foundation selected him for the Ronald D. Secrest Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award. In 2012, the Austin Bar Association selected Mike as one of its Distinguished Lawyers, which recognizes selected attorneys who have practiced for 30 years or more and have significantly contributed to the profession and the community.
Mike is a member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He also serves as a member of the Disciplinary Committee and the United States Magistrate Judge Selection Committee of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
More importantly, Mike has combined a busy and successful law practice with public service and public interest law. In 2006, Mike was Course Director of the Texas Trial Academy, which serves as an educational resource to public interest lawyers and which is co-sponsored by the Texas Access to Justice Commission and the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has served on the boards of the Central Texas Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, the Austin Child Guidance Center, Trinity University, Trinity Episcopal School, St. Stephens Episcopal School, and Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas, for which he also provides pro bono legal service to the indigent. Most recently, he courageously served as a special prosecutor of an appellate judge on behalf of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The Mike McKetta Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Mike do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, and will make the same commitment.
The David Sheppard Public Interest Law Fellowship
David Sheppard received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas. Admitted to the Texas Bar in 1974, he is Board Certified in Criminal Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization. David is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Texas Monthly Super Lawyers, and is a recipient of the Texas Center for the Judiciary Distinguished Service Award. As one of the most respected and sought after criminal defense lawyers in Texas, David maintains an active practice in all Texas State Courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Western, Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. For his professional accomplishments and commitment to ethics, he has been inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. David received the Austin Young Lawyers’ Association first annual Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award, is a founding member of both the Robert W. Calvert and the Lloyd Lochridge American Inns of Court, and is a founding member of the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and a recipient of its Ambassador Award for Outstanding Service.
More importantly, David has combined a busy and successful law practice with public service and public interest law. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law for the University of Texas Law School Criminal Defense Clinic from 1985-2002, and, since 2005, for the Actual Innocence Clinic. Indeed, David is a founding director of the Texas Center for Actual Innocence, which investigates post-conviction claims of actual innocence, with the assistance of U.T. law students. In 2010, TCAI obtained the release and exoneration of two men who had wrongly spent 12 years in prison for capital murder. He has served as president of the Austin Bar Association Criminal Law and Procedure Section and Co-Chair of “Legal Build” – a cooperative effort between the Austin Bar Association and Habitat for Humanity. Most recently he chaired the Merit Selection Panel for a new United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Texas.
The David Sheppard Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like David do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, and will make the same commitment.
The Terry Tottenham Public Interest Law Fellowship
Terry Tottenham has been a partner in the Fulbright & Jaworski Law Firm since 1978 where his practice encompasses product liability, health litigation, toxic tort, pharmaceutical and medical devices, class action and biosciences litigation. He is a registered pharmacist, received his JD with honors from the University of Texas School of Law and an LLM from George Washington University. Terry is certified in Personal Injury and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.
Terry is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers. His professional honors include being listed in The Best Lawyers in America; as a “Top 10 Texas Super Lawyer”; in Law Dragon’s Top 500 Lawyers in the U.S.; the Faculty Service Award, University of Texas School of Law; and the State Bar of Texas Gene W. Cavin CLE Excellence Award. An author of numerous articles, he has given over 300 presentations to lawyers, physicians and other health care providers throughout the United States.
More importantly, Terry has combined a busy and successful law practice with public service and public interest law. As State Bar President, Tottenham initiated Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans, a state-wide coalition of Texas lawyers who provide pro bono legal services to needy veterans and their families. This popular program has been replicated in 13 states and is under consideration in many others. As Chair of the American College of Trial Lawyers Teaching Trial and Appellate Advocacy Committee, he created a CLE program for pro bono and public interest lawyers that is being used throughout the United States and Canada.
Terry serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law for the University of Texas School of Law and Trial Advocacy Instructor for South Texas College of Law, the University of Houston School of Law, and the Texas College of Trial Advocacy. The Texas Board of Legal Specialization presented Terry the first David Garner Pro Bono Award and he also received the Texas Law Fellowships Excellence in Public Interest Award.
The Terry Tottenham Public Interest Law Fellowship is awarded in hopes that the recipient will be inspired by what successful lawyers like Terry do in the public interest as an essential part of their career, and will make the same commitment.