Last week, 100 years after the first dedication, people gathered to rededicate the newly restored Harris County 1910 Courthouse. With the completion of the restoration project that began in 2009, the courthouse will house the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals as of Sept. 6. It’s a “dream of a courthouse,” master of ceremonies and retired 11th District Court Judge Mark Davidson told the standing-room crowd at the Aug. 23 ceremony held in one of the courthouse’s two courtrooms. “Walk around. Use your imagination. Walk forward or backward in time,” he told visitors. Current and former members of the 1st Court and 14th Court, Harris County elected officials, and a slew of judges and lawyers attended the dedication. The original courthouse cost $500,000, but the restoration to bring most of the building back to its 1910 look cost about $65 million. The Texas Historical Commission provided $5.5 million in grant money for the project. The work undid previous changes to the building, most made during a 1954 renovation project, when, for instance, the main entrances to the Classical Revival building moved from the second to the first floor and workers enclosed the central rotunda to provide more working space. Today, however, the building features balconies in both courtrooms, new wood-framed windows throughout the building, marble in the hallways and courtrooms, and a view of a new stained glass skylight at the top of the rotunda. When the appeals courts move into the 1910 courthouse next month, they actually will be making a return trip, 14th Court Chief Justice Adele Hedges told the rededication crowd. The 1st Court moved into the building in 1954 and the 14th Court in 1967, but both departed for space at South Texas College of Law in 1984. She said the courts had what they needed at the law school to dispense justice but didn’t have “beauty,” and they will experience beauty in the restored courthouse.
Texas OCI
Firms recently began conducting on-campus interviews at Texas law schools, and 14 of the state’s largest 25 firms say they plan to hire as many or more summer associates for 2012 than they did for 2011. The firms are on campuses primarily to recruit students beginning their second year of law school to work at the firms during the summer preceding their third year of school. Large firms tend to hire most of their full-time associates from among the students who work for them during the summer. “We are anticipating six total summer associates, which would be for permanent jobs beginning in the fall of 2013,” says Kitty Henry , co-chair of law school recruiting for Dallas-based Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr. Munsch Hardt is one of six large firms planning to bring in more summer associates in 2012 than it did this year. The firm did not have a 2011 summer associate class because it had hired four first-year associates to begin this fall, from the summer class of 2010, and wanted to allow time for “them to become part of the firm and take a breather to absorb that capacity,” Henry says. Like most firms, Munsch Hardt recruits law students in several ways: by participating in on-campus interviews; by collecting résumés from students at law schools the firm does not visit; and by participating in job fairs that bring students from various schools to one location, such as the Sunbelt Minority Recruiting Program held on Aug. 26 in Dallas. From those venues, Henry says the firm will invite its top candidates for call-back interviews at its offices and will make summer job offers by mid-September. “We want to get our offers out there, kind of get first in line,” Henry says. Dallas-based Gardere Wynne Sewell is looking to hire eight to 10 summer associates for 2012, up from five this summer, says Carrie Hoffman , the firm’s summer hiring partner. Hoffman says the economy is improving and the summer hires are for full-time positions two years down the road in the fall of 2013. “We anticipate the market will have righted itself,” she says. Hunton & Williams is looking for three to seven summer associates for its Texas offices for 2012, compared with two summer associates in 2011, says Alan Marcuis , the recruiting committee chairman for the firm’s Dallas office. “It just depends on who we find and who likes us and who we like,” he says. In addition to Dallas, the Richmond, Va.-based firm has offices in Austin and Houston. Dallas-based Winstead is targeting a 2012 summer associate class size of 14 students, hiring shareholder Mike Alessio writes in an email. The firm had seven summer associates in 2011. Thompson & Knight, based in Dallas, is also planning a larger 2012 summer class, says hiring partner Dave Schulte . “We’re looking to have a slightly larger summer, in the neighborhood of 12 [summer associates] in Dallas and about eight to 10 in Houston,” he says. The firm had 18 Texas summer associates in 2011. Dallas-based Strasburger & Price, which did not have a 2011 summer associate class, is recruiting for a 2012 summer associate class similar in size to recent classes, says hiring partner Scott Shanes . The firm had nine summer associates in 2010. Lawyers with another eight large firms say they plan to hire 2012 summer associate classes similar in size to this year. The firms and the number of their 2011 second-year summer associates in Texas are: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (14); Baker Botts (48); Bracewell & Giuliani (28); Jackson Walker (20); Kelly Hart & Hallman (seven); Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell (17); Looper Reed & McGraw (seven); and Vinson & Elkins (75).
