John W. Alexander
Partner, Alexander and Hammonds, L.L.P.
Winnsboro

Quote: [Pro bono] enriches my life and gives me purpose and direction. This comes from winning a case that began as a steamroller over the client, or writing that power of attorney for a grandmother who could never afford a guardianship, or seeing a family’s dignity restored after resisting a wrongful eviction. In short, I have never done any tracking to poll clients to see if they believe I made a difference, but they made a difference in my life, and that’s enough to convince me that pro bono work pays off. – John W. Alexander

Career: A 1978 graduate of Baylor Law School, John W. Alexander practices with Alexander and Hammonds, L.L.P. in Winnsboro. Since 1982, he has handled pro bono cases for East Texas Legal Services (now Lone Star Legal Aid). During his two-plus decades of volunteering, Alexander has donated approximately 6,000 hours of pro bono service while tackling more than 500 cases in the areas of family, housing, consumer, and individual rights. He has served as president of East Texas Legal Services, Lone Star Legal Aid, Advocacy, Inc., Northeast Texas Bar Association, and Wood County Bar Association. He has been a member of the State Bar of Texas Pro Bono College since its inception in 1992.

What was your first pro bono experience?
In the fourth grade, one of my classmates, a slight girl with a brittle personality, was being ridiculed by an overbearing, first-year teacher for being inadequately prepared on some silly concept that our entire class had learned the year before in a way that our current teacher thought was wrong. I spoke up and told the teacher she really ought to be making fun of our third grade teacher, since that’s where the trouble started. I ended up in trouble for the rest of the school year.

What pro bono work are you involved in now?
I serve on the board of directors of Lone Star Legal Aid, and I act as an unofficial pro bono reference center for Wood and three surrounding counties.

Talk about your goal to establish regional pro bono offices across the state.
Every county has people known to other members of the bar for their pro bono work. They’re the “go-to” people for the hopeless, the hapless, and the hard to help. The bar needs to recognize these resources, organize them, and fund office staff and technology so pro bono services are available just as public health services are available through local health departments. We already have the legal talent and we seem to have more people falling below the poverty level every year. We in the bar have an obligation to the legal system to assure that the words carved across the facade of the Supreme Court of the United States, “Equal Justice Under Law,” mean what they say.

Who or what has had the greatest influence on your pro bono work and why?
My mother and father taught me by example that it is our responsibility to help other people. My mother was a nurse and spent more nights than I can count sitting up with sick neighbors. My father worked for a time as a maintenance man in a low-income housing project. I spent a lot of evenings or days on my father's paydays delivering groceries to the residents who couldn’t pay the rent and buy groceries. Often, we could have used those groceries at home, but no one complained.

My parents, and especially my mother, served others without being asked and without pay. They really believed in the inherent interconnection of people. So do I.

How do you motivate other lawyers to become more involved in pro bono work?
With death threats, shame, promises of future prosperity, and appeals to their vanity. But usually, all it takes is a phone call. Most people become lawyers because they want to help people.

How do you know your pro bono efforts are making a difference?
Because it enriches my life and gives me purpose and direction. This comes from winning a case that began as a steamroller over the client, or writing that power of attorney for a grandmother who could never afford a guardianship, or seeing a family’s dignity restored after resisting a wrongful eviction. In short, I have never done any tracking to poll clients to see if they believe I made a difference, but they made a difference in my life, and that’s enough to convince me that pro bono work pays off.

What are the personal rewards of pro bono service?
Feeling that you have struck the chord of interconnection. In "Mediation 17," the English writer John Donne said, "No man is an island, entire unto itself. Every man is a piece of the continent." Donne spoke of the importance of involvement with mankind. That's the payoff: You are involved and you know that without your help, justice probably would have been subverted. You not only serve others, but you also serve the law.

What do you enjoy most about practicing law?
Two things come to mind, but it's hard to decide which is best. There is no high I know of that compares with the feeling you have after a cross-examination has gone right and you own the collective mind of the jury, at least for that moment.

The other thing I enjoy about practicing law is meeting and working with lawyers. That's also what I most hate about it. There are some vile, smug, mean-spirited, short-sighted, reprehensible lawyers, but, thank God, they are offset (in all but the public perception of lawyers), by honest, fun-loving, witty, interesting people who happen to be lawyers.