Texas Supreme Court advisory

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Friday, June 11, 2010
COURT’S RULES ATTORNEY EARNS STATE BAR CITATION
FOR ROLE IN DEVELOPING PROPOSED DISCIPLINARY RULES AMENDMENTS
Former Chief Justice Phillips honored as ‘outstanding mentor’

Texas Supreme Court rules attorney Kennon L. Peterson has been honored with a State Bar of Texas presidential citation for her work assisting the bar and the Court in developing amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.

In its announcement, the State Bar said Peterson’s citation was for “listening, considering, and responding to the myriad of issues that have and will arise leading up to a vote on” the disciplinary rules. The award was presented Thursday at the State Bar’s annual meeting in Fort Worth.

Peterson has worked for more than a year with Justice Phil Johnson, the Court’s liaison to the Bar, the Task Force on the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and State Bar’s Committee on the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct on amendments intended to enhance the public’s protection, provide better guidance to lawyers, reflect current practices, and clarify disciplinary standards to reduce uncertainty and improve lawyers’ compliance with these standards. The principal objective in that was protecting the legal profession’s integrity.

Announcing the honor to the Court, Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson called Peterson’s work “extraordinary.”

“Kennon Peterson took on this project as she does all her work, with vigor and intelligence and outstanding organization,” Jefferson said. “She took a thousand pieces and made it a whole.”

State Bar directors will make additional recommendations to the Court by October 6. A vote by Texas lawyers probably will be scheduled from mid-November through mid-December.

The Texas Young Lawyers Association also presented former Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips with its Outstanding Mentor Award and the bar honored Travis County District Judge Lora Livingston with the Nancy L. Garms Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to law-focused education.

See State Bar release.