Commission for Lawyer Discipline - State Bar of Texas

maintains a website (www.txgoc.com) and welcomes comments and suggestions from all interested parties. Duringthe 2010–11 Bar year, the Commission and CDC provided the GOC with the following information:• Statistical data for the discipline system, including the number of grievances received, classificationdecisions, classification appeals, just cause determinations, summary disposition decisions, and electionsto evidentiary or district court• Quarterly reports provided to the State Bar Board of Directors regarding the disposition of disciplinaryproceedings by bar district and statistics of sanctions imposed• Written consumer complaints and responses• Responses to disciplinary system questionnaires received by the CDC• Portions of minutes from the Commission’s meetings regarding non-case-specific topicsPROFESSIONAL ETHICS COMMITTEEThe Professional Ethics Committee is a nine-member committee appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas pursuantto Texas Government Code Section 81.091. The committee is charged with the responsibility of expressing opinionson the propriety of questions of professional conduct, which arise either upon a request for opinion by a State Barmember or upon the Committee’s own initiative. These opinions are published in the Texas Bar Journal. During the2010–11 Bar year, the committee issued nine opinions.UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW COMMITTEEThe Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee (UPLC) is appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas and is chargedwith preventing the unauthorized practice of law. The committee is composed of nine volunteer lawyers andlaypersons appointed to three-year terms. The practice of law by persons who are not authorized to do sofrequently hurts the clients they are trying to help, resulting in the loss of money, property, or liberty. Texas limits thepractice of law to persons who have demonstrated their knowledge of the law through education, who have passeda rigorous examination on the laws of Texas including the rules of ethics, and who have passed a character review.The UPLC is prohibited from giving advisory opinions.To ensure the public is protected from those who practice law illegally, the UPLC has divided the state into fiveregions — Northern, Central, Southern, Eastern, and Western — with 37 district subcommittees within the regions.Chairpersons are appointed to head the regional and district subcommittees. The busiest district subcommittees areHouston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. The UPLC website(www.txuplc.org) offers an onlinecomplaint firm as well as more information about the committee.Georgia Dempster, a retired Harris County family court judge, passed away on March 18,2011. Judge Dempster joined the legal profession in 1984 after having been a high schooldrama and theater teacher and raising a family. She graduated from South Texas College ofLaw in 1983 and had a private family law practice before running for judge of the 308thDistrict Court in 1994. She retired from the court in December 2010. Judge Dempster was achampion for children’s rights, having founded the Children’s Friend in Court, a nonprofit thattrained ad litems and amicus to represent children in family law matters. Judge Dempster wasa member of the Texas Supreme Court’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee for manyyears. A week before her passing, UPLC Chair Leland de la Garza, former UPLC Chair JamesBlume, Justice Eva Guzman, and Justice Dale Wainwright presented Judge Dempster with acertificate honoring her service on the UPLC Committee. The certificate was signed by ChiefJustice Wallace Jefferson on behalf of the Supreme Court of Texas.28