Pro Bono Partners

First “Pro Bono Partners” Award Given to Dallas Team

By Michele Boerder
Legal Assistant
Hughes & Luce, L.L.P.

The Joint Pro Bono Partners Project (by the Legal Assistants Division and the Legal Assistant Committee of the State Bar) began last year at the 1998 Annual Meeting. Promotion and endorsement was given by then State Bar President,Dean Frank Newton during his remarks at the LAD .

Luncheon At the Annual Meeting in Fort Worth this year, the first Pro Bono Partners Award was given to the Dallas team of Gerald Lotzer and Jodye Kasher.

The joint project is intended to generate increased participation in pro bono legal services in Texas by a team (or “partner”) approach of lawyer and legal assistant. Texas Lawyers Care, part of the Public Services Division of the State Bar of Texas, maintains an Attorney’s Guide to Pro Bono Opportunties, which assists groups/organizations that provide free legal services to low-income persons by providing information about those groups/organizations and how to contact them to volunteer for pro bono services. In addition, Texas Lawyers Care also tracks the pro bono service hours for the Pro Bono Partner team members, both lawyers and legal assistants.

The 1999 Pro Bono Partners team winners have worked together as a litigation team for the past nine (9) years at the Dallas firm of Fanning, Harper & Martinson performing insurance defense litigation. Upon hearing of Pro Bono Partners, they agreed to use that same “team concept” to work together on pro bono cases and still continue to do so.

Gerald Lotzer received his J.D. in 1988 from Baylor University, where he was the Managing Editor, Baylor Law Review; President, Mid Year Class, Baylor Law School Board of Governors, and “Who’s Who in Practicing Attorneys.” He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1988, and has been admited to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Gerald is a partner at Fanning, Harper & Martinson in Dallas practicing mainly in the area of insurance defense litigation.

Jodye Kasher is a Certified Legal Assistant, and is also certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Personal Injury Trial Law. Currently, she is a senior paralegal with the Dallas law firm of Fanning, Harper & Martinson, where she has worked in the area of insurance defense litigation for the last 9 years. Ms. Kasher is a board member of the Dallas Area Paralegal Association, and currently Professional Development Committee Chair for the Legal Assistant’s Division of the State Bar of Texas.

Jodye commends the Legal Assistants Division in working with the State Bar Standing Committee on Legal Assistants to launch this program and in recognizing pro bono teamwork efforts. “Pro Bono Partners is a very good concept; it works, and it helps each of us make a difference in working together to provide quality legal services to the poor. Gerald and I both join in saying, it is our hope, that with this award, many more legal assistants and lawyers will join together to make pro bono services available to those in need.”

For more information (or questions) about Pro Bono Partners, please contact Michele Boerder at (214) 939-5746 (email: boerdem@hughesluce.com), Kristine Farmer at (214) 369-1321, or Jodye Kasher at (214) 369-1300.

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