Special awards are among the highlights of the annual meeting of the State Bar of Texas -- and this year’s gathering in Dallas puts the spotlight on five members of the Law Center community. Professor David Dow earned the SBOT’s Civil Rights Award for his work with the Texas Innocence Network and his defense of more than 100 inmates on Death Row. The late Professor Joe Vail, who founded the Law Center’s Immigration Law Clinic in 1999, received the Texas Young Lawyers Association Outstanding Mentor Award. Vail, who died in 2008, previously earned the SBOT’s Pro Bono Award, the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award, and the National Immigration Project’s Carol King Award. Two members of the Class of 2009 – Micaela Natalie Alfaro and LaTasha Mabry – earned Women & Minority Scholarships from the SBOT Intellectual Property Law Section. Richard ‘Racehorse’ Haynes ‘56 was named the “Outstanding 50 Year Lawyer” by the Texas Bar Foundation.

The Law Center’s Tom Oldham is a recognized expert in family law – and he sees clouds on the horizon for gay couples who marry in other states and then elect to move to states where gay marriage is not sanctioned. In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle, Oldham cites the lack of “definitive answers” to a series of questions: What happens to health insurance coverage if (for example) a gay couple moves from Massachusetts to Texas? If the marriage breaks down, could one partner file for divorce in Texas? And if the couple elects to leave Texas – where state law provides that a gay marriage is “void” – and returns to Massachusetts, would they once again be married? Oldham suggests that states could create an exception to their general rule of non-recognition, and warns about the legal complexities that will continue to attend the questions that surround same-sex marriage. Click here to read his complete editorial.

Gathering at a watering hole is usually associated with “letting your hair down.” Law Center student Tesha Robaszkiewicz recently took things in the opposite direction at a fundraising event she coordinated at the Union Bar & Lounge in Houston. Cheered by friends and family, Tesha and 15 other participants (including seven members of the La Porte Fire and Police Departments) joined the 70,000+ people who have shaved their heads to raise funds for St. Baldrick’s, the world's largest volunteer-driven event for childhood cancer research. Tesha put together the event to honor the 5-yr.-old daughter of a family friend who lost her battle with cancer. When Tesha searched “childhood cancer” on Google, information about St. Baldrick’s popped up – and she quickly began planning what would become the organization’s first-ever event in Houston. Donations are still being collected, and supporters can click here to join Tesha’s heads-up campaign to support childhood cancer research