Catherine Greene Burnett
Vice President, Associate Dean, and
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law
Houston

Quote: Doing pro bono just makes you feel good — the payoff for me personally is so high. As a teacher, I benefit by continually learning something new about the law. I also want to be a model for my students. If I get involved, it is easier to ask them to participate as well. — Catherine Greene Burnett

Career: After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in 1976, Catherine Greene Burnett clerked for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Working as an assistant attorney general, she defended state felony convictions against constitutional challenges. Before joining the faculty of South Texas College of Law in 1988, Burnett practiced criminal defense for 11 years. She serves as associate dean of clinical studies and director of the Pro Bono Honors Program and teaches criminal procedure, international criminal law, and death penalty law.

When and why did you decide to become a lawyer?
I have known that I wanted to be involved with criminal defense work since elementary school. Seeing To Kill a Mockingbird and Inherit the Wind had a profound impact on me.

When did you first get involved in pro bono activities?
Around 1989 or 1990, the law school decided it wanted to do more to help students develop the skills they needed to become good lawyers. A clinical program that offered live client interactions seemed to be the answer. I met with legal services providers in Houston to learn more about their unmet needs. I saw that the working poor, like indigent criminal defendants, faced barriers to accessing the justice system. The school worked collaboratively with the Gulf Coast Legal Foundation and Houston lawyer Robert Byrd. When you’re around people like Mr. Byrd who give and give and give, it’s contagious.

What pro bono activities are you involved in now?
My biggest contribution is serving as the associate dean who oversees the school’s clinical programs.

How do you promote public service/pro bono work to students at South Texas College of Law?
A lot of it is word of mouth. But about two years ago, I was involved in setting up the school’s Pro Bono Honors Program. We borrowed liberally from SMU’s public service program. Everything I know about pro bono is because somebody, somewhere took the time and effort to explain it to me. This is the most collaborative environment I’ve ever worked in.

Why did South Texas College of Law establish the Pro Bono Honors Program?
After reading the files of potential students, I noticed that so many of them come to law school with a desire to serve. I wanted to capture that interest while they still have the passion and joy for service.

Historically, South Texas College of Law has served as an access school for women and people in the workforce. A lot of our students attend school part-time and cannot commit to spending 150-180 hours a semester at a clinic, but they still want to give back. The Pro Bono Honors Program offers them an opportunity to provide direct representation and fulfills their desire to be of service. Students are eligible to participate after completing the first 30 hours required for graduation and are required to commit a minimum of 50 hours of service to a project.

It is critical that the law school inculcates a culture of pro bono among our students. If we want them to be involved, we have to walk the walk by providing opportunities for service.

Talk about the establishment of the Fred Parks Loan Repayment Assistance Program.
I’m excited about this program. We saw so many people who said they could not afford to practice public interest law because their law school debt was so crushing. This program provides loan repayment assistance to graduates who are working for nonprofit legal aid organizations that provide services directly to the poor. While this program does not increase the number of people practicing public interest law, it gives them a choice.

What do you tell your students are the benefits of pro bono?
For some students, their pro bono experience is the first time they are in a courthouse. It’s an opportunity to see the law in practice. For students who identify service as the reason they chose law as a profession, this is their chance to do something that they always wanted to do. For other students, I tell them that pro bono work is an opportunity to network and meet other lawyers. Once there, they become hooked. Pro bono work offers a sense of personal satisfaction and creates better advocates and better negotiators.

Talk about your work with the Texas Access to Justice Commission.
I am a member of a working group of the Commission’s Law School Advisory Committee. Our subcommittee develops projects to involve law students in legal services organizations. In coordination with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Texas Civil Rights Project, all Texas law schools will participate in a pilot project in the Weslaco/Brownsville area this summer. A student intern from each school will spend six weeks working in the field. Eden Harrington from the University of Texas School of Law and I will teach the weekly classroom component. If this model works, we want to take it to other states.

What motivates you to continue your public service/pro bono work?
Doing pro bono just makes you feel good — the payoff for me personally is so high. As a teacher, I benefit by continually learning something new about the law. I also want to be a model for my students. If I get involved, it is easier to ask them to participate as well.

Do you believe that pro bono work makes for a better lawyer?
I do.