Interview:
Change was in the air when David Moore assumed the presidency in 2017: Sixteen new members were added to the TCDLA Board of Directors. As he noted, "This is the largest influx of 'new blood' that I can ever recall." That was only a portent of things to come.
David's year started with the usual statement of a new president's goals for the year: the need to recruit new members, especially those new to the profession, the challenge of mentoring young lawyers, and the imperative that all members should contribute their time by volunteering to serve on committees or by contributing motions or articles to the Voice. But circumstances would soon take control.
During what we prove to be an eventful year, no occurrence showed David’s mettle more than the calamitous Hurricane Harvey in August—causing $125 billion of damage, primarily in Houston but all along the Texas coast. Under David’s direction, a website page was immediately set up, along with a Hurricane Harvey Lawyers Relief Fund Committee, chaired by Danny Easterling, to deal with the destruction wrought on our members. An edition of the Voice dedicated to the storm's aftermath carried accounts from members of the harrowing days that followed.
During his year as well, longtime Executive Director Joseph Martinez, who held the position for sixteen years, retired, replaced by Assistant Executive Director Melissa Schank, who'd been in her position since 2005.
Statewide, the farcical arrest of nearly 180 individuals following the confrontation in 2015 at the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco ground inexorably on in the courts—with zero convictions and 150 cases dismissed outright—and two of the TCDLA principals in the McClennan County courts, Clint Broden and Casie Gotro, were named the Percy Foreman Lawyers of the Year for their efforts.
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