Houston Bar Association Contact: Kay Sim, Executive Director Houston Bar Association 1001 Fannin, Suite 1300, Houston, TX 77002 This program was a winner of the 1997 Law Day Activity Awards. Activity Summary: HBA programs focused on providing legal information to non-English speaking residents of Houston. The HBA published a free, Spanish-language handbook on family law that covers important issues in the layperson's terms. The HBA also sponsored a series of programs on the new immigration laws in branch libraries. Other programs were geared toward the community at large. Activity Narrative: The HBA Law Day Committee works year-round on activities centered around Law Day and its annual theme. The committee works with many other HBA organizations and community organizations to plan and implement activities and programs that touch a cross-section of the community. A particular focus this year was education and legal information for non-English speaking residents of Houston. With the recent changes in immigration law, the HBA board felt it was particularly important to provide information on legal issues to those who do not speak English, as well as the general population. Manual Legal de Familia - On April 29, the HBA hosted representatives from local agencies that serve Spanish-speaking families at the breakfast to release the new Spanish-language version of its Family Law Handbook. The free handbook provides basic information on many areas of law that affect families as they go through legal processes such divorce, custody, and adoption. Representatives from more than 35 agencies received copies of the handbook for distribution to the people they serve. Spanish-language media covered the event, providing information on how to get copies of the book to their viewers. The handbooks are apart of a series of free legal handbooks that also includes English and Spanish versions of an Elder Law Handbook. Handbooks are funded from general HBA revenues. Libraries Programs - Beginning on Law Day and continuing throughout the following week, the HBA and the Houston Public Library presented a series of programs in branch libraries that provided legal information in several languages. Most of the programs focused on immigration and the recent changes in the law. Attorneys spoke in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hindi, tailoring their programs to each neighborhood. In addition to the program on "How to Handle Your Own Case," and attorneys presented programs on tenant's rights. Naturalization Ceremony - Over 1,400 new citizens took the oath of allegiance in a special Naturalization Ceremony on May 1 at the Wortham Center, located in Houston's downtown theater district. The HBA co-sponsored this event with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, which sat en banc for the ceremony. Houston City Council member Martha Wong welcomed new citizens and told them of her experiences as a second-generation Chinese American. Dr. Wong was the first Asian American elected to the Houston City Council and she was the first Asian American school principal in the State of Texas. HBA Board Members and the Law Day Committee Members welcomed the new citizens and distributed bookmarks that feature the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Law Day Luncheon - The HBA and the Houston Young Lawyers Association sponsored a Law Day Lucheon on May 1 that was attended by more than 400 attorneys. Former FBI Director William Sessions was the keynote speaker, providing his insights on the Law Day theme. Special guests of the HBA were the winners of poster and essay contests sponsored in local schools (see below). The HYLA presented its Liberty Bell Award to Dr. Krenie Stowe, a pediatric physician who founded the Frontis Project, a nonprofit charitable organization that provides comprehensive health care to families with limited economic resources in rural areas surrounding Houston. The HYLA also presented its annual Woodrow Seals Outstanding Young Lawyer Award to James A. Reeder, an associate in the Houston office of Vinson & Elkins. Reeder's service on numerous professional and community boards includes organizing his firm's participation in Houston's public television fund drive and in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's annual fund-raiser. Poster and Essay Contests - Students in grades K-12 in all 24 Houston-area school districts were invited to participate in poster and essay contests on the Law Day theme. Students in grades 9-12 competed in the essay contest, and first place winner Kathy Sam wrote a moving account of her parents' trip to America by boat from Vietnam and their subsequent struggle to raise and educate their family in a new contry. Kathy's essay also took second place in the State Bar of Texas essay contest, and it was published in HBA's magazine, The Houston Lawyer, and on flyers at the Law Day Luncheon. Students in elementary and middle schools were invited to participate in a poster contest of "Celebrate Your Freedom." More than 200 students submitted posters. Winning posters were displayed at the Law Day Luncheon and are currently on display in art cases located in the Harris County Civil Courthouse and the Family Law Center. Both Poster and Essay Contest winners and their teachers received cash prizes donated by Smith Barney. Other Law Day Activities Included: A nine-hour Legal Line program where volunteer attorneys staffed phone lines and answered calls from the public on legal questions. A Law Day Information Booth at the Houston International Festival where HBA volunteers distributed brochures about HBA public service programs, Law Day balloons, and other information about Law Day. A Houston Law Week Fun Run that raised more than $33,500 for the Center for the Retarded, Inc. A seminar for managing partners and corporate counsel on minimizing bias in the workplace. Law Day exhibit in the legal section of a local bookstore and a discussion group led by an HBA member on the nonfiction bestseller, A Civil Action. Law Day Proclamation from the Houston City Council. A high school orchestra contest was conducted, with the winning group providing music for the Law Day Naturalization Ceremony. Impact on Community - Persons Served Directly by Law Day Programs 3,000 Attended Law Day Naturalization Ceremony 1,300 Law Week Fun Run participants 1,000 Manual Legal de Familia handbooks distributed 1,000 Citizens received information at Houston International Festival Law Day Booth 600 Citizens received information during Legal Line program 400 Attorneys attended Law Day Luncheon 200 Students entered Poster Contest 200 Citizens served through Library Program 100 Attorneys volunteered time for various progams 90 Students entered Essay Contest 65 Attended seminar on Minimizing Bias __________________________________________ 7,955 Persons* * Does not include unknown number of Harris County residents exposed to media coverage of Law Day activities. Sample Programs Home | By Audience | By Location | By Sponsoring Organization