One Door Closes, Another Opens: The Origin Story of the Austin Bar/AYLA Leadership Academy

BY MICHELLE KING, MCCREARY VESELKA BRAGG & ALLEN PC, AND NORA PICASSO UVALLE, CAPITAL AREA PRIVATE DEFENDER SERVICE

Judge Karin Crump, presiding judge of the 250th Civil District Court of Travis County, and David Courreges, past president of the Austin Bar Association and current member of the State Bar board of directors, first discussed the idea of an Austin Bar and AYLA Leadership Academy in 2010.

The idea took root while Courreges was assisting Judge Crump in her campaign for a justice of the peace position.

“During the campaign, David heard me talk a lot about the leadership class in which I had been involved in Dallas,” said Crump. “It was one of the best experiences of my early career—getting to know other young lawyers, learning from local, city, county, and state government leaders, working on a project with fellow class members, and finding opportunities to lead together.”

That JP election campaign was unsuccessful, but the two soon discussed and began planning their next collaboration.

“We started talking about an Austin-based leadership academy,” said Courreges. Within an hour and a half, “we came up with the framework of what we were going to do.”

Once the two had the go-ahead from the Austin Bar’s then-president, David Chamberlain, whom they described as extremely interested in community-based programming, they moved quickly to get the first class started.

They leaned heavily on Crump’s leadership skills and experience.

“I took it as a learning opportunity for me to get insight … on how she was getting so many people to do good work for the community effortlessly,” Courreges said. “And what I found out is that it took a lot of effort.”

Crump and Courreges looked for example programs and quickly found that, at that time, the Dal- las Association of Young Lawyers Leadership Class, which was approaching its 10th year, was one of the few programs of its kind.

“With permission, we used the Dallas blueprint, so we weren’t starting from scratch,” said Crump.

The two worked to tweak the Dallas program to tailor it for the Austin community.

“We are lucky in Austin to have a few more cool resources than some other cities, so we took full advantage of that,” Courreges said.

The two worked well together, with different skillsets but a similar vision.

“Part of the idea was to create a pathway to leadership within the Austin Bar and AYLA,” said Courreges. “Bar participation was low, and we noticed that we were losing some of our best talent to other non-profit boards. And it wasn’t because they didn’t want to lead, but because they weren’t asked; they didn’t have a path, so they went other places. It was a travesty and so we wanted to correct it.”

“We wanted Austin Bar and AYLA board candidates to say that they have completed the Leadership Academy almost as a prerequisite to Austin Bar leadership,” Crump said.

At various points since the founding of the Leadership Academy, large majorities of each board have been Leadership Academy graduates.

Crump and Courreges put their heads together, creating an outline of the sessions, including people they could invite to speak to this group of prospective leaders.

“David had all these great connections at the Capitol and at state government, and I had fantastic contacts from my experience as TYLA president and on the State Bar board of directors,” said Crump. “We were able to combine those to start getting some really big names early on.”

Once they secured several distinguished speakers, others began to view an invitation to speak to the group as an opportunity and privilege, they said.

It was important to Crump and Courreges to have every detail in place before they began recruitment for the first leadership class. They lined up their speakers and then began calling everyone they knew to encourage applications.

“I think our panic was that we were going to build this thing and nobody was going to apply,” said Crump.

Their worry was unfounded, as they received so many applications that they were not able to accept all applicants into the first class.

The first Austin Bar & AYLA Leadership Academy class was a success, and every class since has continued to produce bar and community leaders and projects that benefit the legal community.

Crump credits this to some of the icebreakers and personality tests each class participates in at the annual orientation. These icebreakers help members get to know each other, understand themselves and their peers better, and provide a foundation for collaboration.

“Orientation provides an opportunity for leaders to share how they got where they are in leadership,” said Crump. “We all have the common experience of law school and legal careers. Some leadership opportunities happen when others open doors or pull you up, but they also happen when things you attempt don’t work out as planned.”

In addition to hearing from icons of the profession and community leaders, each year’s class collaborates on a class project.

“This gives the participants the skills and connections with one another to create a project that benefits the legal community,” explained Courreges, who has been especially pleased with projects that started with the Leadership Academy and ultimately impacted the whole of the Texas legal community.

The first class’s project was Law Prom, which raised funds for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. The most recent (2022) class’s project raised funds to renovate the victim-witness room at the Gardner-Betts Juvenile Justice Center.

Both Crump and Courreges are extremely proud of the Leadership Academy and how it has grown and expanded over time.

“It is very important to me for every lawyer to know that they have an opportunity to lead and make a difference in our community,” said Crump. “Thanks to the skills learned and contacts made through the leadership program, losing that JP race opened a door for me to run for district judge. Of course, that turned out to be the right path for me. Every loss opens a door that leads you to a new opportunity, so make the most of it!” AL

Michelle King

Nora Picasso Uvalle