Lisa Tatum has won a historic election to become the first African-American president-elect of the State Bar of Texas. Kristy Sims Piazza also won election to become president-elect of the Texas Young Lawyers Association. Both women will assume their posts June 15 at the State Bar’s Annual Meeting.
Tatum (pictured at left), a San Antonio solo, says of her historic win: “It is an absolute honor. It is a profound statement. … [W]hat my responsibilities are beyond being the good steward and good servant, now I also have a face that’s representing a first.”
She earned 9,731 votes compared to 7,840 votes for her opponent, Steve Bolden, according to State Bar election results. Tatum says she plans to begin “getting oriented” soon for her term by learning more about programs State Bar leaders are working on now, and “hot issues” like the controversy over divorce forms for indigent self-represented litigants.
Sims Piazza (pcitured at right), who won 2,026 votes compared to opponent Shivali Sharma’s 1,438 votes, says she wants to prepare to launch project ideas like creating tool-kit guides for young lawyers for different practice areas and pro bono work, and an online job bank for young lawyers and law students.
“I am so honored and excited to be elected,” says Sims Piazza, an associate with Koons Fuller Vanden Eykel & Robertson in Plano.
According to the election results, candidates winning election to the State Bar Board of Directors include: Robert Guest, Louis H. Iselin, Laura Gibson, Denise Scofield, Larry McDougal, Lawrence Boyd, Robert E. Aldrich Jr., Sara E. Dysart, Thomas C. Riney and Roger A. Key.
Candidates winning election as TYLA directors include Baili B. Rhodes, Aaron T. Capps, William “Bill” Gardner, Leif Olson, Patrice B. Childress, Kathryn E. Boatman, Sally Pretorius, John W. Shaw, Shannon Steel, Danny Razo, Laura Hale and Sam Houston.
TYLA Director District 4 candidates Zeke Fortenberry and Kimberly Smith tied with 75 votes each; pursuant to its bylaws, TYLA decided the race by the flip of a coin, and Smith won the toss.
-- Angela Morris
If what Mr. Fischer says about the turnout being the lowest in bar history, that fact alone says something. It goes to more than just most attorneys not caring. It also goes to the fact that we still have a long way to go in the way of race relations when it comes to the state bar of Texas. As a minority attorney who has been involved in both minority and majority bar associations, committees and sections including leadership roles at both the local and statewide level, I can say that the bar has indeed come a long way from where it was 33 years ago when I first started practicing. Thank goodness we are on the way to progress. My congratulations to Lisa Tatum, who I know will do a great job!
Posted by: Thelma Clardy | May 28, 2012 at 01:48 PM
Lawyers can concentrate their practices to certain areas of law, which is typically true of personal injury lawyers. By limiting the range of cases they handle, personal injury lawyers are able to acquire specialized knowledge and experience.
Posted by: vehicle accident lawyers | May 17, 2012 at 09:14 PM
Congrats to Lisa and really to everyone who ran for these non-paying jobs.
Angela you missed some serious issues.
The turnout was near the lowest in bar history; 72,000 attorneys simply trashed their ballots.
I went and campaigned in front of Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, San Antonio and McKinney Courthouses and most attorneys either consider the bar their enemy or just don't care about it.
This will continue until the bar offers an alternative to their method of anointing their own cronies ( recent committee members of their own committee) behind closed doors. These candidates never make fundamental changes in the bar- because they represent the Executive and Nominations Committees not attorneys.
Posted by: Steven FIscher | May 03, 2012 at 11:11 AM