For the first time, a legal-services attorney has been elected chairman of the State Bar board of directors

On June 10, Pablo Javier Almaguer (pictured) of Hidalgo will become the first legal-services attorney to serve as chairman of the State Bar of Texas board of directors, according to Bar spokeswoman Kim Davey. At the Bar board’s April 16 meeting in Austin, Almaguer, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Edinburg, defeated Talmage Boston, a shareholder in Winstead in Dallas, and Warren Cole, owner of the Law Office of Warren Cole in Houston, for the chairmanship. Almaguer, the former branch manager of TRLA’s Edinburg office who now coordinates the recruitment of private attorneys to assist the legal-aid organization, says he became the first legal-services attorney to serve on the Bar board in 2008, when the board approved his selection as a minority director. According to the State Bar Web site, there are four appointed minority-director positions on the board to increase minority participation and increase professional, geographic and social diversity. “I made it a point not to be known just as a legal-services attorney,” Almaguer says, noting that he took board assignments involving professional development and technology. The education he got while on the board enabled him to run for the chairmanship, Almaguer says. Almaguer also says that he will be the first State Bar board chairman from the Rio Grande Valley since 1954, when Vernon Hill of Mission, who is now deceased, served in that capacity. The April 16 election was a close one. Davey says Almaguer and Boston were in a runoff that Almaguer won on a 20-19 vote, with one member abstaining. Boston says, “I certainly wish Pablo the best and have ever reason to believe that he’ll be a fine chair.” Cole did not immediately return a telephone call for comment.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Comments

[Steve Fischer, Rockport]

The state bar board probably knows its going to take some lumps in an upcoming bar journal, because its generally an elitist organization. They throw an election and 60,000 of the 83,295 attorneys won't vote- just watch.

Attorneys all have graduate degrees and should be able to make their own choices, rather than have this board hand pick our candidates. Im sure Almaguer is a great guy, but the bar elite do not relate well to the rank and file attorneys and this explains our sad state lobbying effort.