Congratulations to Austin Bar Member Beryl P. Crowley

Texas Bar Foundation Honors Crowley with Outstanding 50 Year Lawyer Award

Congratulations to Beryl P. Crowley! The Austin Bar Association proudly salutes longtime member Crowley for being selected as a recipient of the Texas Bar Foundation’s 2022 Outstanding 50 Year Lawyer Award. The award exemplifies Crowley’s dedication to her craft and commitment to serving the legal community.

Crowley has a storied career that began as a real estate law associate in Brenham, Texas and ultimately led to running her own law firm and legal recruiting company, accumulating an impressive list of accomplishments along the way.

In Brenham, Crowley served as president of the Washington County Bar Association and as a State Bar director. She moved from Brenham to Austin in 1974 and went to work for Small Craig & Werkenthin, predecessor firm to the Austin office of Jackson Walker. She was the first female hired as an associate and later became the firm’s first female partner. Firm partners Clint Small and Fred Werkenthin had both served as president of the Austin Bar’s predecessor, the Travis County Bar. Small also served as president of the State Bar and founded the Texas Bar Foundation in 1965, while Werkenthin was president of the Austin Bar and ran for president of the State Bar in a close race in the early 80s.

Crowley says her membership in the Austin Bar and AYLA dates back to 1975. Her involvement began with AYLA, where she chaired several committees, and served under the leadership of Bill Whitehurst and Terry Scarborough, both of whom later became presidents of the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA). She, along with John Joseph, chaired the first-of-its-kind CLE sponsored by AYLA—an allday CLE on consumer law, held at the Thompson Conference Center.

Crowley was elected as a director of TYLA in 1979, and eventually elected to the position of president-elect in 1983. This was quite the honor, as a female had never before been elected to any position in a statewide bar race. In 1988, Crowley joined the Texas Bar Foundation Board of Trustees. She became chairman of the board in 1990 and chairman of the Fellows in 1994. She has also served as a trustee of the Austin Bar Foundation.

Crowley served as the executive director of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics for 12 years before retiring from that position. She opened her own firm in 2006, followed by a legal recruiting company in 2011.

Through it all, she has served and supported the Austin Bar and Austin Bar Foundation. She is a 47- year member of the Austin Bar. AL