150 Years: Celebrating the Backbone of the HBA

150 Years: Celebrating the

Backbone of the HBA

While Peter Gray and the lawyers who came after him who have been committed to serving the Houston community can be considered the heart of the HBA, the staff who have helped make these lawyers’ visions a reality are the backbone. Any celebration of the HBA’s history necessarily requires a nod to the members of the HBA staff who have made this all possible. We therefore include the following article about the HBA’s Executive Directors, and we additionally acknowledge all the people who have worked tirelessly to support the directors and members of the HBA in carrying out the HBA’s mission. The Board of The Houston Lawyer would also like to specifically acknowledge the contributions of Tara Shockley, the Associate Executive Director of the HBA and Managing Editor of The Houston Lawyer. Tara’s contributions to this publication over the last 40 years of the HBA’s history are immeasurable. The Houston legal community has been enriched by the Executive Directors, Tara, and all members of the HBA staff who have been dedicated to serving members and the community, and we celebrate their contributions. Anna Archer, Editor in Chief

Executive Directors Provide Crucial Leadership throughout HBA’s History

By tArA ShocKley

While the lawyer leaders of the Houston Bar Association have After 23 years and during an illness, Mrs. Laws announced she would had an extraordinary impact on the legal community and retire on October 15, 1962, but passed away a few days earlier. community at large, the leaders of the Houston Bar Asso- The HBA then hired Ann Krohn as executive secretary. During her ciation office have also played an indelible role in the association’s tenure, the HBA decided it was time to move out of the courthouse. history. The association moved into an office in The Houston Club, where it

The HBA hired its first executive director in 1939. The board of rented 460 square feet for $185 per month. In 1967, the HBA moved directors employed Mrs. Ruth Laws, as she was known in all written records, for a trial period of three months at a salary “not to exceed $100 a month.”1 The HBA had decided it needed a permanent home and an executive secretary, her official title, as the organization grew in numbers and stature. The HBA’s first office was in a room off the 8th District Courtroom on the 4th floor of the Civil Courthouse. The remodel cost the bar $150.

Mrs. Laws successfully passed the trial period, and went on to become an institution of the HBA, serving as executive secretary until 1962. She handled all aspects of bar management, including membership, billing, and communicating events to the public and the press. again, this time to the Rusk Building, which was renamed the Houston Bar Center Building.

The third executive director of the HBA was Gaye Powe Platt, who took over in 1970. During her tenure, the HBA addressed the issue of indigent criminal defense and long-range plans for the Harris County Courthouse complex, including breaking ground on the Family Law Center.

The fourth executive director was Burton Berger, who joined the HBA in 1976, after previously working for the Nebraska State Bar Association. He expanded the HBA staff, including naming Kay Sim as associate executive director to handle coordinating social and educa-

tional events for the HBA. He also hired a new publications director to work with an expanded magazine and newsletters.2 The mid-1970s saw extraordinary growth in the association’s continuing legal education program, as part of an effort to raise professional standards and restore public confidence in the legal profession after Watergate.

In 1981, Kay Sim became the HBA’s fifth executive director. During nearly Kay fostered with the Harris County judiciary. Although on hold because of COVID-19, the Mock Trial Program is still an educational outreach program of the HBA and has reached over 46,000 students.

Kay was instrumental in developing many of the HBA’s current educational and service programs, including the HBA’s work with Houston Habitat for Humanity, the HAY Center, the Interprofessional Drug Education Alliance (IDEA), and the John J. Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run, benefiting The Center for Pursuit.

In 2008, Kay and then-HBA President Travis Sales established the Veterans Legal Initiative, which in 2010 inspired the State Bar of Texas to create Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans. Over the past 12 years, the program has reached more than 20,000 veterans, providing legal advice and pro bono representation for low income veterans who served our nation.

During Kay’s tenure, the HBA office moved three times, from the Houston Bar Center Building to Texas Commerce Bank Building in 1979, to First City Tower in 1990, to its

present location in Heritage Plaza in 2014. James B. Sales, who served as HBA president when Kay became executive director, called her “the pivotal factor in the growth and prosperity of the Association.”3 Kay retired in March 2019. Mindy Davidson became the first attorney to serve as executive director of the HBA. Shortly after she marked her one-year anniversary with the 40 years in that role, Kay would create oted to working remotely during the and nurture some of the HBA’s most Mrs. ruth Laws with harry Jones, Joyce Cox, nelson Jones and COVID-19 pandemic. Under her leadenduring programs, leaving an unparrichard Powell in 1952. ership, the HBA has remained at the alleled legacy of professionalism and forefront in addressing issues that imservice. pact both the bar and the community,

Kay, as she always preferred to including the crucial need for pro be called, was first hired in 1975 to bono legal services for low-income start the Juvenile Justice Mock Trial Houstonians, reopening the courts, Program, which gives eighth grade equity and racial justice, and helping students from school districts across members successfully adapt to the fuHarris County the opportunity to see ture of the legal profession. how a trial works, from writing a fic- Kay sim Mindy Davidson tional fact set, to preparing questions for witnesses, to assuming the endnotes roles of judge, attorneys, witnesses, and defendant, with a different 1. Harry ERIC L. FREDRICKSON, A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE: THE HIS TORY OF THE HOUSTON BAR ASSOCIATION 77 (1992). class often serving as the jurors. Prior to flooding from Hurricane 2. Author’s note: I was hired as the HBA publications director in November 1980. I now Harvey, students had the opportunity to travel to the courthouse to 3. serve as associate executive director/communications director. ERIC L. FREDRICKSON, A COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC SERVICE: THE HISTORY enact their mock trial in a real courtroom, thanks to the cooperation OF THE HOUSTON BAR ASSOCIATION 148 (1992).

HBA, Davidson and the HBA staff piv-