Spring 2002 - The University of Texas at Austin

port payments of more than $1.2 billion.
“If you want to improve the lives of citizens,
be a lawyer for the government,” says
Bryant. “You have the chance to make
changes in the law and procedure and policy
from the inside.” Bryant says she has
worked on various initiatives to address
important social issues such as providing
job-training opportunities to poor families,
particularly fathers.
Professor Gerald Torres is also on a mission
to improve the lives of children. Torres
developed and directs an education reform
project that works with families to encourage
students to pursue higher education.
Texas LEADS (Local Empowerment for
Accessible and Diverse Schools) began in
1998 with funding from the Soros and
Rockefeller foundations. Torres launched
Texas LEADS at Fulmore Middle School, an
Austin school that reflects the demographics
of Texas. “Kids are in a position by middle
school to make decisions that have a lifelong
impact,” Torres says. At Fulmore, a Dad’s
Club gets fathers involved in the school, and
LEADS is developing a program to encourage
local businesses to offer internships to
teach students about various careers. Torres
also sits on the board of Fulmore’s magnet
program in government, law, and humanities.
“We are providing a link among parents,
teachers, and students for academic
reasons. But we also want to create a sense
that the school is an asset to the whole community,
including those who do not themselves
have children in the school.”
Texas LEADS is just part of the work
Torres does on behalf of children. He also
serves as board president of the Austin
Children’s Museum, where he is working
to create a partnership to train middle
schoolers to teach younger children about
technology.
Keeping the Peace
PROFESSOR DOUGLAS LAYCOCK’S PUBLIC INTERest
goals over the past decade have led him
to save a private educational institution in
Austin and to protect religious liberties in
courts and in Congress.
Laycock, also Associate Dean for Research,
has served for nine years as president
of St. Francis School in Austin, an
interfaith and multi-ethnic school serving
pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. In
1995 the school had lost its lease and had
no credit history, but within six months he
persuaded a bank to lend $1 million to turn
36 UTLAW Spring 2002
a burned-out office building into a school.
Enrollment has grown to 310 students, and
the school is thriving, Laycock says.
A national authority on the law of remedies
and the law of religious liberty, Laycock
has also done pro bono work on cases
involving religious freedoms, including two
he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Most cases involve religious speech and regulation
of religious practices. Laycock’s
clients have included the ACLU, the American
Jewish Congress, the National Association
of Evangelicals, and the National
Congress of Catholic Bishops. Sometimes
he represents disparate groups together as
amici in the same case. “It’s like running
the United Nations trying to keep them all
on board,” he says.
“The real importance of religious liberty
cases is to protect people with the most
intensely religious beliefs and the most
intensely secular beliefs,” says Laycock.
“When we interfere with their religious
practices, they experience enormous pain.
When we protect them, we keep the peace.
Many societies have not solved the problem
of getting people of fundamentally different
religious beliefs to co-exist.”
International law professor Steven
Ratner takes a strong interest in encouraging
UT Law students to participate in
international public service work, either
through careers or internships. He set up
the Law School’s internships with the
United Nation’s war crimes tribunals for
the former Yugoslavia in The Hague,
Netherlands, and for Rwanda in Arusha,
Tanzania. By helping students gain these
experiences, Ratner says, he hopes to
“change them as people and expose them
to international law.”
Ratner says his own experiences demonstrated
the importance of human rights
and justice. He visited Cambodia three
times and toured an old school in Phnom
Penh used by the Khmer Rouge to torture
and kill nearly 20,000 people. Outside the
capital city, he walked in the “killing fields,”
where shreds of clothing from murdered
Cambodians are still visible in the soil.
His own commitment to human rights
and public service was strengthened when
he worked for the U.S. State Department
between 1986 and 1993 on the Cambodia
peace negotiations and other issues. During
that time, Ratner says, he developed an
interest in the United Nations and helping
shattered states, which later led to advising
governments and international organiza- CYNTHIA
“If you want
to improve
the lives of
citizens, be a
lawyer for the
government.”
Bryant
oversees a
staff of 2,000
employees
working for
children’s
rights and
support.
BRYANT