The Board of Directors held their quarterly meeting in Fort Worth on Saturday, December 5, 2014. Following are the motions made and their respective votes. There were 70 board members present, as well as 14 guests. The following motions were made:
MOTION: Minutes—September 13, 2014
Motion to adopt the minutes from the TCDLA Board Meeting on September 13, 2014, in Dallas, made by Mark Snodgrass, seconded by Susan Anderson—motion carries.
MOTION: Seize Discussion
Motion to seize discussion on the floor, made by Jim Darnell, seconded by Coby Waddill—4 oppose—motion carries
MOTION: Proposed Resolution for TCDLA to Support an Independent State Counsel for Offenders, Established Pursuant to ABA
Motion made by John Convery, seconded by Nicole DeBorde—motion carries.
This current fiscal year, FY 2015, TCDLA and CDLP (through the CCA Grant) will put on a total of 54 live CLE seminars in Texas and Louisiana. In addition, there will be 38 1-hour online CLEs on our website. Hopefully you will be able to attend or watch. We thank our course directors, speakers, our leadership, board members, and staff for working together as a team to accomplish this extraordinary achievement.
TCDLA has the following outstanding DWI CLE in the months to come. We hope our members who defend those accused of a DWI offence will attend these CLE and support TCDLA.
| March 26–28, 2015 | New Orleans | Mastering Scientific Evidence in DUI/DWI Cases* |
| May 1, 2015 | Arlington | 8th Annual DWI Defense Project |
| July 17, 2015 | Austin | 2nd Annual Lone Star DWI Blood 101 |
| August 21, 2015 | Houston | 13th Annual Top Gun DWI |
| November 12–13, 2015 | San Antonio | 11th Annual Advanced DWI |
*Co-sponsored with the National College for DUI Defense
The 28th Annual Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Course is being held June 18–20, 2015, in San Antonio. The special Early Bird rate is available through February 28th. Please start making plans to attend. There are scholarships available through TCDLEI. We have submitted to the CCA for judicial travel stipends for this one event. We will follow up with the judges if approved. This year’s theme is “United We Stand.”
Join us for the annual Pachanga (Party) at the Goldsteins’ (Christine and Gerry). The Goldstein Pachanga is a cultural icon: 600+ people gather in the Goldsteins’ backyard around their pool and feast on food, beverages, and great company.
The TCDLA Membership Party will be a Casino Night with a masquerade theme. It will be a fundraiser to provide scholarships to lawyers. We will have prizes for the biggest winners at Casino Night. So you can enjoy the evening and know you are making a contribution to a worthy cause.
We will have a bike ride with our guide, Gerry Goldstein. We are also working on a morning fun run down the unique and picturesque San Antonio River. See you in San Antonio.
Special thanks to Jani Maselli Wood (Houston) and our course directors for the Writs and Ineffective Counsel seminars held in Austin in January. Thanks to their efforts we had 66 attendees. Special thanks to Jeremy Rosenthal (McKinney), our course director for the Nuts ’n’ Bolts seminar held in Austin in January. Thanks to his efforts we had 52 attendees.
Special thanks to Jani Maselli Wood (Houston) and Bradley Hargis (Austin), course directors for the Training Your Defense Team to Win seminar held in Austin in January. Thanks to their efforts and the support of our members, we had 60 attendees.
Training Your Defense Team to Win, a CDLP grant seminar, is a unique training open to criminal defense attorneys who regularly represent the indigent, legal assistants, Texas judges, paralegals, social workers, investigators, mitigation specialists, and students. We have had very good participation through the first five of these CLEs. Future team seminars will be held in the following locations. Please bring your entire staff and members of your defense.
| April 17 | Waco |
| April 24 | Longview |
| July 9–10 | South Padre Island |
Don’t have a local criminal defense bar in your area? Would you like to re-energize and jump-start your organization? Are you interested in forming a local criminal defense bar? Need help getting organized? Please contact Susan Anderson (Dallas), , Laurie Key (Lubbock), , or Carmen Roe (Houston), , co-chairs of the TCDLA Affiliate Committee.
Good verdicts to all.
