Can Chip Babcock represent CCA Judges Sharon Keller pro bono?

Charles “Chip” Babcock, attorney for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, is seeking a way to limit the legal fees Keller will have to pay to defend herself against State Commission on Judicial Conduct charges that could result in her removal from the bench. Babcock, a partner in Jackson Walker in Dallas, writes in a March 3 letter to David Reisman, the Texas Ethics Commission’s executive director, that he would be willing to defend Keller pro bono if the TEC says such an arrangement would not violate any rule, regulation or statute.  If that is not acceptable, Babcock asks in the letter whether he must charge full rates times the full number of hours worked, without a discount, or whether an alternative fee arrangement -- such as a fixed fee -- would be acceptable. Tim Sorrels, the TEC’s deputy general counsel, declines comment. Babcock says Keller faces paying several hundred thousand dollars in legal fees for her defense against the judicial conduct commission’s allegations that she failed to follow CCA execution-day procedures on Sept. 25, 2007, the day on which the state executed Michael Richard after his lawyers were unable to file pleadings on his behalf before the CCA clerk’s office closed. Among other things, the judicial conduct commission alleges in its Feb. 19 Notice of Formal Proceedings against Keller that Keller had left her chambers on the afternoon of Richard’s scheduled execution and failed to instruct the CCA staff to direct calls from Richard’s lawyers to Judge Cheryl Johnson, the CCA judge designated to handle issues related to his execution.  Seana Willing, the judicial conduct commission’s executive director, says the commission has retained John J. “Mike” McKetta, a shareholder in Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody in Austin, as its special counsel for Keller’s case.  McKetta, whose normal rate is $550 an hour, says he is representing the commission for $1.  Willing says that is the normal fee when the commission retains an attorney to handle a case against a judge.  But judges have to pay the lawyers who defend them. In December 2008, the TEC fined Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht $29,000 after finding he violated state election laws by accepting more than $100,000 in free legal services provided by Jackson Walker. On Jan. 27, Hecht appealed that finding to the 250th District Court in Austin.  Keller faces paying her legal fees out of her own pocket. Under Texas Election Code §253.153, Keller cannot accept contributions until June 2011, and then only if she runs for re-election in 2012. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins