Conceived through a partnership between the advocacy directors of the state’s law schools and TEX-ABOTA, the Best in Texas Voir Dire Competition is a one-of-a-kind mock trial tournament that focuses on the undertaught art of jury selection.

After four preliminary rounds, the quarterfinalists were announced: University of Houston Law Center, UNT Dallas College of Law, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and the University of Texas School of Law. UT Law prevailed over Texas Southern in the semifinals to claim the coveted Dicky Grigg trophy. Texas A&M University School of Law won the tournament’s Civility Award, as voted by the student participants.

The competition focuses on jury selection, which is at the heart of TEX-ABOTA’s commitment to protect and strengthen our Seventh Amendment rights. Approximately 450 Lubbock citizens served as jurors in the 2025 competition.

Individually, Robert May Jr. from Texas Southern University won the Best Opening Statement Award and the Most Professional Advocate Award, as voted on by the ABOTA-member lawyers and judges. Abigail Mathew of the University of Houston Law Center won the Best Voir Dire trophy.  

Best in Texas 2025 was a huge success thanks to the hard work of the Best in Texas Committee; TEX-ABOTA President Mitzi Mayfield; the Chairs of Judges Fred Bowers and Judge Lee Ann Reno; the Texas law school coaches and students; numerous TEX-ABOTA members from all over the state; the American Society of Trial Consultants, represented by Faye Honig; and Caliber Video Productions.

For more information about TEX-ABOTA, go to tex-abota.org.

Les Hatch is judge of the 237th District Court in Lubbock County and served as chair of the 2025 Best in Texas Competition.

Ask a Human is a project of the State Bar’s Law Practice Management Committee and staff from its Law Practice Management Department. Trish McAllister, staff attorney for the department and liaison to the committee, will moderate the webinar. Panelists Alex Shahrestani and Patrick Wright, attorney members of the committee with deep knowledge on AI in the law, will answer questions. Attendees can submit questions in advance at registration as well as live during the webinar via chat. 

Read more in the press release. 

All virtual clinics run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.:

• DVAP and St. Mary’s University School of Law—Thursday, April 2
• DVAP and Hunton Andrews Kurth—Thursday, April 9
• DVAP and Haynes and Boone—Thursday, April 16
• DVAP and St. Mary’s University School of Law—Thursday, April 23
• DVAP, Capital One, DLA Piper, Haynes and Boone, and McGuireWoods—Thursday, April 30

DVAP will host the following in-person clinics:

• Veterans Clinic; VA Medical Center, 4500 S. Lancaster Rd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP, Akin Gump Strauss Huer & Feld, and Haynes and Boone—Friday, April 3, at 1:30 p.m.
• South Dallas Clinic; Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP—Tuesday, April 14, at 5 p.m.
• East Dallas Clinic; Grace United Methodist Church, 4105 Junius at Haskell Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP and Zelle LLP—Thursday, April 16, at 5 p.m.
• West Dallas Clinic; West Dallas Multipurpose Center, 2828 Fish Trap Rd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP, Dallas Bar Association Board of Directors, and J.L. Turner Legal Association—Thursday, April 23, at 5:30 p.m.
• South Dallas Clinic; Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP and Blank Rome—Tuesday, April 28, at 5 p.m.

For virtual clinics, Dallas County residents are asked to apply for free legal assistance through the online form available at https://tinyurl.com/DVAPClinic. After the form is completed, applicants can expect a phone call from an attorney through an unknown number labeled “No Caller ID” or something similar.

For information about the legal clinics, go to dallasvolunteerattorneyprogram.org. For free legal assistance any time, contact the DBA’s Lawyer Referral Service at DallasLRS.org. For media inquiries about the legal clinics, contact DVAP Director Michelle Alden at aldenm@lanwt.org.

Voting will take place electronically. Attorneys should look for an email April 1 from the State Bar’s election service provider, Election Services Corporation, with voting instructions. Alternatively, they can visit the bar’s homepage at texasbar.com and click “Vote” to login and cast their ballot starting April 1. 

In the race for State Bar president-elect, attorneys will choose between Sarah Clower Keathley, of Corsicana, and Ray Thomas, of McAllen. Members of the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA) will also pick a president-elect, choosing between David R. “Dave” Hagan, of Longview, and Claire Harbert, of Waco. The winners will serve as president-elect in 2026-2027, as president in 2027-2028, and as immediate past president in 2028-2029. 

Additionally, attorneys in some districts of both the State Bar and TYLA will elect new members to their boards of directors. More information on the election and the candidates is available at texasbar.com/elections. 

The agenda can be viewed here. Among other agenda items, the committee will hear updates on the SBOT 2026-2027 proposed budget and the president-elect and district director elections. 

Those who wish to address the Executive Committee in-person during this meeting should fill out a speaker card at the beginning of the meeting and submit it to a staff member onsite. To sign up to speak remotely during the meeting, please email boardofdirectors@texasbar.com or call 512-427-1400 or 800-204-2222 (toll free) before 5 p.m. CDT on Monday, March 30. Please provide the agenda item number you wish to speak on. 

Written comments regarding agenda items must be received by 5 p.m. CDT on Thursday, March 26, for timely distribution to the Executive Committee members before the meeting. Please submit written comments by email to boardofdirectors@texasbar.com and indicate the agenda item you are referring to. 

The team from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts from Dallas won the 47th annual Texas High School Mock Trial Competition on March 7 at the George Allen Courthouse in Dallas.

Booker T. Washington’s team will represent Texas at the 2026 National High School Mock Trial Competition in Des Moines, Iowa, May 7-9, 2026.

The competition included more than 25 high school teams from across the state to argue a hypothetical civil court case written by local attorneys with the Dallas Bar Association. These teams, which emerged as the best among their school districts and regions, were matched against one another, culminating in the final championship round. Judges and attorneys served as “jurors” and selected the teams that were best prepared and demonstrated exceptional presentation skills. Students portrayed prosecution and defense attorneys, as well as “witnesses.” The “case” is tried by students from approximately 170 Texas schools annually, according to a press release.

Uplift North Hills Preparatory in Irving placed second in the competition, and El Paso High School and Talkington School for Young Women Leaders in Lubbock tied for third place. In addition, Reese Elder, of Booker T. Washington High School, received the 2026 Outstanding Advocate Award; Price Jenkins, of Providence Classical School in Spring, received the 2026 Outstanding Witness Award; and Ainslie Ely, of Plano West Senior High School, received first place in the 2026 Courtroom Artists competition, according to a press release. Ely will also compete in the national competition in Des Moines.

For more information about the High School Mock Trial Competition, go to texashighschoolmocktrial.com.  

PHOTO: Members of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ first-place team pose with the High School Mock Trial Competition championship plaque. Photo courtesy of the Dallas Bar Association.

In this episode of the State Bar of Texas Podcast, host Rocky Dhir welcomes two attorneys from the Texas professional sports scene: Eunice Nakamura, executive vice president, general counsel for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team, and James O’Sullivan, general counsel for the Major League Soccer team FC Dallas. They provide an inside look at the dynamic day-to-day experiences of lawyers specializing in the business of sports. Nakamura and O’Sullivan candidly share their professional paths, detailing the opportunities and career choices that led them to their current roles.

Eunice Nakamura is in her second season with the Texas Rangers after being hired as senior vice president and general counsel in February 2025. She joined the Rangers, an MLB professional baseball team based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, after serving as chief legal officer/general counsel and corporate secretary for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc., in Dallas. 

James O’Sullivan was appointed in January 2022 as FC Dallas’ first-ever inhouse general counsel. He previously served as assistant general counsel and director of Land Administration for Dallas-based Unity Hunt, Inc., the family office of the late Lamar Hunt, whose family assumed ownership of FC Dallas—then the Dallas Burn—from Major League Soccer in 2003.

Listen to the episode here:

The State Bar of Texas Podcast is produced in association with the Legal Talk Network.

Individually, each system works, but collectively, they create gaps. When financial data doesn’t live together, your clarity disappears.

Common blind spots in small law firm financial management

Financial management blind spots rarely appear as dramatic failures. They surface quietly:

• Time entered in days after work is completed
• Draft invoices not finalized before month-end
• Payments cleared but not matched to open invoices
• Trust balances requiring manual reconciliation

Consider a 12-person litigation firm reviewing month-end revenue. Work volume has been steady, but billing appears lower than expected. A closer look reveals delayed time entries, open draft invoices, and payments that haven’t been reconciled across systems. Nothing is broken, but nothing is fully aligned either.

The American Bar Association notes that delaying time entries can significantly reduce the amount of billable time captured—for example, entering time a week late has been shown to result in losing up to 20% of potential billable hours.

The result is uncertainty. Revenue appears softer than reality, and leadership hesitates on hiring or investment decisions.

Financial visibility is a governance issue

For small law firm billing, financial clarity is fiduciary.

Trust accounting errors remain a common source of disciplinary action across jurisdictions. Most issues stem from process breakdowns rather than misconduct. When billing, payments, and trust ledgers exist in separate systems, reconciliation becomes manual, which introduces timing gaps and leads to higher risk.

Fragmented systems also mean longer hours for staff and more time away from clients as they work to match payments, adjust ledgers, and reconcile discrepancies.

Embedding financial management into daily work

The most effective way to improve visibility is to embed financial processes directly into case activity.

When time tracking occurs within the matter file, capture rates improve. When invoices are generated directly from tracked time, billing cycles shorten. When clients can pay electronically, and payments reconcile automatically, collection timelines decrease. When trust and operating balances update within the same environment, oversight is simpler.

Integration reduces the lag between work performed and revenue recognized.

Platforms that unify daily legal tasks like case management, billing, payments, and trust accounting reduce the need for manual reconciliation and provide financial data that updates alongside operational work.

For firm leaders, that alignment means fewer surprises at month-end.

Better small law firm billing enables confident leadership

Managing partners and administrators are asked to make forward-looking decisions like when to hire, whether to expand a practice area, how to adjust compensation structures, or when to invest in growth.

Those decisions require current information, not reports assembled weeks later.

When leaders can see real-time revenue by matter, track work-in-progress totals, monitor aging receivables, and review trust balances all in one place, decision-making becomes proactive.

With 8am MyCase managing your cases, billing, and firm finances in one place, you don’t have to cross-check spreadsheets, accounting software, and separate reports to understand your firm’s financial health. You get immediate visibility into performance across cases, clients, and cash flow, so you can make confident decisions about staffing, pricing, and growth.

If you found yourself hesitating on any of these, your current technology may not be pulling its weight. 8am MyCase combines casework and law firm financial management, so you can organize matters, automate billing, and gain real-time financial visibility in one place.

Emily DiLaura is Director of Content Strategy at 8am, specializing in narrative strategy for legal, accounting, and professional service organizations. She works closely with firm leaders to shape positioning that reflects the complexity and credibility of their work.

All virtual clinics run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.:

• DVAP and SMU Dedman School of Law—Thursday, March 5
• DVAP and St. Mary’s University School of Law—Friday, March 12
• DVAP and Haynes and Boone—Thursday, March 19
• DVAP, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and UNT Dallas College of Law—Thursday, March 26

DVAP will host the following in-person clinics:

• Veterans Clinic; VA Medical Center, 4500 S. Lancaster Rd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP, Bank of America,and Haynes and Boone—Friday, March 6, at 1:30 p.m.
• South Dallas Clinic; Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP, King & Spalding, and SMU Dedman School of Law—Tuesday, March 10, at 5 p.m.
• Friendship-West Baptist Church Legal Clinic; Friendship-West Baptist Church, 2020 W. Wheatland Rd., Dallas.  Sponsored by DVAP and Paul Hastings—Wednesday, March 18, at 5 p.m.
• East Dallas Clinic; Grace United Methodist Church, 4105 Junius at Haskell Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP—Thursday, March 19, at 5 p.m.
• South Dallas Clinic; Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP and J.L. Turner Legal Association—Tuesday, March 24, at 5 p.m.
• West Dallas Clinic; West Dallas Multipurpose Center, 2828 Fish Trap Rd., Dallas. Sponsored by DVAP andSouthwest Airlines—Thursday, March 26, at 5:30 p.m.

For virtual clinics, Dallas County residents are asked to apply for free legal assistance through the online form available at https://tinyurl.com/DVAPClinic. After the form is completed, applicants can expect a phone call from an attorney through an unknown number labeled “No Caller ID” or something similar.

For information about the legal clinics, go to dallasvolunteerattorneyprogram.org. For free legal assistance any time, contact the DBA’s Lawyer Referral Service at DallasLRS.org. For media inquiries about the legal clinics, contact DVAP Director Michelle Alden at aldenm@lanwt.org.

In this episode of the State Bar of Texas Podcast, host Rocky Dhir welcomes legal historian and appellate lawyer William J. Basileios Chriss and Supreme Court of Texas Justice Evan A. Young to mark the sesquicentennial of the Texas Constitution. They offer a deep dive into the foundational document’s history and evolution, tracing its iterations from 1876 to the present day and exploring how its framework for self-governance continues to serve the people of Texas well.

William J. Basileios Chriss is a South Texas appellate lawyer with a Ph.D. in history. He is the author of Six Constitutions over Texas: Texas’ Political Identity, 1830-1900, published in 2024 by Texas A&M University Press.

Justice Evan A. Young was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2021 by Gov. Greg Abbott and subsequently was elected to a full term in November 2022.

Listen to the episode here:

The State Bar of Texas Podcast is produced in association with the Legal Talk Network.