TEXAS SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Preserving the Oral History of State Bar LeadershipBy JoAnn StoreyFOR THE LAST DECADE, the State Bar Appellate Section has been on a mission to preservethe oral histories of retired Court of Appeals justices and former chairs of the section. Theproject began in 2004 under the leadership of Pam Baron, then the chair of the section. I initiallyled the effort and, through the years, the project continued in the hands of a number of dedicatedsection members. In 2013, then Chair Jeff Levinger reappointed me to co-chair the Judiciary andSection History Committee with Perry Cockerell. To date, the oral histories of nearly fifty retiredjustices and twelve former section chairs have been preserved.The videotaping of most of the oral histories has been provided to the section by Paul Burks, the StateBar’s Director of Video Production; South Texas College of Law; Texas A&M University School of Law (formerlyTexas Wesleyan School of Law); Thompson & Knight; and Winstead P.C.Many of the oral histories have been edited and published in The Appellate Advocate and are available atthis link: http://www.tex-app.org/DrawOnePage.aspx?PageID=97. Ultimately, all videos will be published on thesection website, together with excerpted nuggets of each interview.These oral histories are rich in content, humor, opinions, and anecdotes about a justice’s service on thebench, the history of appellate law in Texas, and the contributions of leaders of the appellate bar to appellatepractice in Texas. Future jurists and practitioners will no doubt delight in learning about this history.JOANN STOREY has practiced law in Texas for thirty-five years. She is board certified in CivilAppellate Law. She is a former chair of the State Bar Appellate Section and of the AppellatePractice Section of the Houston Bar Association.Return to Journal Index96