Growth, Legal Services, and History-Making Women

The Dallas Bar Association began the 1930s with a period of growth, not only in membership, but also in outreach to the Dallas community. The DBA began Saturday morning legal clinics for Dallasites, as well as radio broadcasts on the Dallas radio station WRR. The broadcast topics ranged from legal information for the general public to financial relief topics for lawyers. As WRR was the only radio station in Dallas at the time, the programs had broad reach.

The 1930s also saw the DBA publishing two books—History of Dallas Lawyers was published in 1934, and the DBA created Dallas Bar Speaks in 1936, which consisted of a bound compilation of the speeches made at regular meetings. The book would be published for 20 years, ending in 1956.

In 1937, the DBA established its first office—a 15-foot cubicle under the stairs of the Old Red Courthouse. The Bar offices would stay in this location for 23 years.

During the 1930s, organized crime began to enter the cash advance business, after high-rate lending was criminalized by the Uniform Small Loan Law. In Dallas alone, there were 53 loan shark offices. In 1938, the DBA established an Anti-Usury Committee to attack the issue of loan sharks in Dallas.

In 1939, the DBA hit an impressive members. And on November 20, 1947 the Dallas Bar Association was incorporated—the state’s first Bar Association to incorporate! The Charter read: “The purpose for which this Corporation is formed is for the protection and advancement of the professional interests of persons licensed to practice law, the advancement of cordial intercourse among lawyers, and the improvement of the relations between the Bench and Bar and the Public…”.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed her to the federal bench in the Northern District of Texas. Two years later, on November 22, 1963, she was called upon to administer the oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Dallas Bar Foundation currently has a scholarship in her name that was established in 1981 to increase the diversity of the legal community in Dallas.

Another history-making female attorney in the 1950s was Louise Raggio, who, in 1955, became the first female prosecutor in the Dallas District Attorney’s office. She would go on to spearhead the drafting and passage of the Texas Marital Property Act of 1967. In addition, she was the first woman ever elected to be a director of the State Bar of Texas and a trustee of the Texas Bar Foundation.

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