In this edition of P.S., the J.L. Turner Legal Association in Dallas and the San Antonio Bar Foundation recently announced the honorees for their annual award ceremonies. Among those being recognized are prominent criminal defense lawyer Cheryl Wattley and U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, whose sharply worded ruling condemning the Trump administration’s immigration tactics drew national attention earlier this year. 

We also cover the Houston Bar Foundation, which is providing $30,000 in scholarships across Houston’s three law schools to support students pursuing careers in public interest law and public service. In addition, the foundation has opened applications for the second year of its Community Grants Program, which awarded $100,000 to 15 community projects during its inaugural funding cycle. 

Attorneys taking on immigration matters pro bono may find a newly launched mentorship initiative from the Austin-based nonprofit VECINA especially valuable. Supported by a grant from the Texas Bar Foundation, the Texas Immigration Legal Resiliency Program offers virtual office hours where participants can seek guidance on immigration cases. We’ve got the details.  

And finally, Yetter Coleman has joined the ACLU of Texas and the national ACLU in a lawsuit challenging the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents’ restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality. The Houston-based litigation boutique is handling the matter on a pro bono basis.

Steven Schulman has spent the past three decades helping reshape the role of pro bono work in Big Law. After building Latham & Watkins’ pro bono program, he persuaded Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to create a full-time pro bono partnership for him. Since then, he has watched corporate firm pro bono work expand from fewer than 1 million hours nationwide in 1994 to more than 5 million annually today, a transformation that mirrors his own rise as one of the country’s leading pro bono advocates. Colleagues say Schulman, who is based in Dallas, has helped drive that growth, leveraging his role to shape not only Akin’s pro bono program but also the broader legal profession’s approach to public service.

In this edition of P.S., Haynes Boone associate Sean Lewis was recently recognized for more than 400 hours of pro bono service last year, including his trial representation of a minister and gospel singer who won a $973,000 jury verdict in a fraud lawsuit against a longtime acquaintance and former business partner. The Texas Lawbook previously profiled Lewis and his Haynes Boone colleagues on the case. 

In this edition of P.S., civil rights organization LatinoJustice PRLDEF has honored Sidley Austin Management Committee Chair Yvette Ostolaza with a 2026 “Latina Trailblazer” award; representing a former Houston police officer on a pro bono basis, Rusty Hardin and John MacVane secured a unanimous victory before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in a lawsuit stemming from the high-profile 2019 Harding Street raid; and Akin Gump recently announced the winners of its annual firmwide Bruce McLean Pro Bono Awards.

Under the second Trump administration, Asylum grants have fallen to their lowest level since 2009. Against that backdrop, a Holland & Knight team’s pro bono win for a Honduran mother and son places them among a small group of attorneys nationwide securing asylum victories in an incredibly difficult landscape.