Richard Pena - [08/23/02]

By Anita Davis

"There are many important legal issues nationally that need attention," said Richard Pena, a former State Bar of Texas president who serves as the Texas delegate to the American Bar Association.

Pena, who dedicated his presidency to restoring public trust and confidence in the legal profession, recently attended the 2002 ABA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. He was the first Hispanic to serve as president of the State Bar of Texas (1998-99). He has been involved in local and state bar activities for more than two decades, serving as president of the Capital Area Mexican American Lawyers from 1984 to 1989, president of the Travis County Bar Association during 1990-91, on the State Bar board from 1991 to 1994, and as chair of the Texas Bar Foundation during 1996-97.

As the Texas delegate to the ABA (there is only one from each state), Pena believes lawyers from throughout the country and world should work together to solve problems facing the legal profession and society.

"We have to stop solely looking inside of Texas," he says. "We have to look nationally and globally; we spend too much time concerned about just Texas. In the future, there will be no state or national boundaries."

For the past two years, Pena has participated in the People to People Ambassador Program, leading delegations of lawyers to China, South Africa, and Cuba.

"I've gotten a better understanding of the world and of the different systems of justice," said Pena. "I have also developed a greater appreciation for the U.S. justice system."
Pena's legal expertise is in workers' compensation, personal injury, and employment law. He credits (or blames) the Vietnam War for his entry into the legal profession.

In 1970, Pena was a college senior, majoring in government at the University of Texas at Austin, when he received a draft notice. He applied for and got a one-year deferment to attend U.T. law school. At the end of the year, the U.S. Army "in its infinite wisdom," according to Pena, assigned him not to the Judge Advocate General's office, but to the Third Field Hospital in Saigon, where he served as an operating room technician.

When U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, Pena left on the second to last plane out and returned to Austin and U.T. law school. He graduated in 1976, and despite offers in other cities, hung out his shingle in Austin. His first office was so tiny and shabby, that he decided to make house calls, parking his beat-up Chevrolet Vega without air-conditioning a few blocks away so his clients wouldn't see it.

Today, Pena has four other attorneys in his firm, with offices in Harlingen, McAllen, and Brownsville. He still has the motivation to help the wronged.

"I was a product of the late 1960s and of the Vietnam War," says Pena. "People needed help and the legal profession was a way to help them. I was greatly influenced by what happened at Kent State. The rule of law should govern, and there should be accountability."

While at the ABA annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Pena visited the Holocaust Museum, which he describes as "a very moving experience."

"We should all dedicate ourselves to the proposition that we will never let it happen again," he said. "Sometimes people are uncomfortable in speaking out for justice. I greatly admire the people who do speak out."

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