The Charles Butts Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award

The Charles Butts Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award honors an individual attorney who has provided outstanding pro bono work. The recipient of the award must be a member in good standing of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (TCDLA) and the State Bar of Texas.

The award is named after Charles D. ("Charlie") Butts, President of TCDLA (1987-88) and a member of TCDLA’s Hall of Fame, in recognition of his over 63 years of service as an attorney. The award is presented each year at TCDLA’s Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Course by the TCDLA president. The Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Course is held in San Antonio in early June.

The criteria for the award are as follows:

• Recipient must be a member in good standing of TCDLA and the State Bar of Texas
• Paid court appointments do not qualify except in extremely exceptional cases where the work done far exceeds the pay
• Nominations for the award must be on Nominations Application Form and submitted to TCDLA office.
  

 
Recipients

Mark W. Bennett, Houston, 2015 | click here for interview
Tim Evans, Fort Worth, 2011
Jessica "Jessi" Shaye Freud, Waco, 2019 | click here for interview
Casie Gotro, Houston, 2014
Paul C. Looney, Houston, 2019 | click here for interview
Angela Moore, Dallas, 2014
Roger M. Nichols, 2018 | click here for interview
Cynthia H. Orr, San Antonio, 2015 | click here for acceptance speech
David Pearson, Fort Worth, 2011
Windi Akins Pastorini, Houston, 2012
Walter "Skip" Reaves, Waco, 2019 | click here for interview
Mark Stevens, San Antonio, 2014
Jani Maselli Wood, Houston 2013, 2016 | click here for interview