Professor Michael A. Olivas accepts lifetime achievement award.
Oct. 22, 2019 — University of Houston Law Center Professor Michael A. Olivas was honored Friday with a lifetime achievement award by the Mexican-American Bar Association of Houston for his decades of service to the law and Hispanic community.
"MABAH was honored to present Professor Michael Olivas with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 Fall Masquerade Gala,” said Lauren N. Herrera, association president and chair of the gala held at the Royal Sonesta Houston hotel. “His exceptional career and life exemplify the ideals and mission of MABAH. We could not have chosen to honor a more worthy individual."
“I am at the stage in life where I am winning all these lifetime awards, but I hope to put many more miles on the chassis,” Olivas laughingly responded. “Teaching immigration law today is daunting, given all the anti-immigrant sentiment so evident in the country. I am counting on my thousands of students from all these years to contribute to the rule of law, and to leave the trails clearer for those who will follow them.”
Olivas, the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law and director of the Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance at the Law Center, joined the faculty in 1982. He is renowned as a scholar in the fields of higher education and immigration law, and has worked on legislation in the interest of social justice when the two intersect. A prolific writer, he has written, edited or contributed chapters to 37 books. He also has served as a legal consultant and expert witness more than 20 times, has provided legislative testimony on the state and federal level more than 10 times, and has submitted amicus briefs on 23 cases in state and federal courts.
He teaches courses in Business Law & Immigration, Higher Education Law, and Immigration Law and Policy. From February 2016 to May 2017, he also served as president of the University of Houston-Downtown on an interim basis.
