Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Ted Cruz beat Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the July 31 runoff election to become the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. In the November general election, Cruz will face Paul Sadler, who won the Democratic runoff against Grady Yarbrough. The U.S. Senate seat is becoming vacant due to the retirement of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. According to unofficial election results from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, in the Republican Party primary runoff, Cruz won 56.8 percent of the vote compared to Dewhurst’s 43.2 percent. In the Democratic Party primary runoff, Sadler, a Henderson solo, won 63.1 percent of the vote compared to Yarbrough’s 36.9 percent. According to Morgan, Lewis’ website, Cruz is a partner in the firm’s litigation practice and leads the U.S. Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice. He works in the firm’s Houston and Washington, D.C., offices. According to his campaign website, from 2003 to 2008, he was solicitor general of Texas, representing Texas before state and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, he worked within the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. Cruz earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1995. Sadler says he’s “delighted” he won the Democratic runoff. He says Cruz has an “extreme view” of the U.S. Constitution, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, women’s health care and education funding. “The stakes are incredibly high for this state. It’s who we are and who we are going to be. He offers a state of division, dividing us, and I offer a state where we are proud of our diversity,” says Sadler. Sadler is board certified in civil appellate and personal-injury law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. From 2008 to 2012, he served as executive director of the Wind Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes wind energy. Sadler served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003, and he was chairman of the House Public Education Committee from 1995 to 2003. Among other things, Sadler co-authored the Ratliff-Sadler Act, a re-write of the Texas Education Code. He earned his law degree from Baylor Law School in 1979. Cruz campaign spokesman John Drogin did not return a telephone call and email seeking comment.
National Spotlight
San Antonio Bar Association president Gary W. Hutton says he hopes winning a national pro bono award will help the SABA attract grant funding for its legal-aid program. The American Bar Association gave the 2012 Harrison Tweed Award to the SABA for its Community Justice Program (CJP), which offers civil legal clinics for indigent Texans. Hutton and CJP leaders accepted the award on Aug. 3 at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. “We’re excited. Any time you get that kind of national recognition, it’s obviously really good for the program,” Hutton says. He thinks CJP winning the award is “indicative of the work the San Antonio lawyers put into pro bono efforts.” The CJP is a partnership between the SABA and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Hutton explains the 10-year-old program involves multiple monthly legal clinics that bring together volunteer lawyers, judges, district clerk personnel, bailiffs and notaries. “Everything you need to transact business is handled. . . . It’s a great coordination effort,” Hutton says. Robert Stein, chairman of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid & Indigent Defendants, says the committee chose the SABA to receive the award because the CJP is a collaborative effort between a bar association and a local legal-aid provider; it serves people well by offering evening-hours clinics; and it successfully encourages lawyers to volunteer year after year. “Things like that seemed to us to make a program that would both serve people well and could be a model for programs in other places: in Texas and outside. Those were things we found very attractive,” says Stein. The committee and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association give the award to state and local bar associations that develop or expand programs to increase indigent legal aid and criminal-defense services, according to the ABA website.
