Executive Director’s Page
Building your practice through LRIS
I know firsthand the challenges of being a smaller-town lawyer,
working hard to build a successful practice outside of one of Texas’
sprawling metropolitan areas.
One amazing—and perhaps underutilized—tool to assist your practice is
the bar’s Lawyer Referral & Information Service, or LRIS. The LRIS
program serves 246 Texas counties that exist outside of major
metropolitan areas.
The program’s staff members take pride in their responsibility to
provide participating attorneys with new revenue-generating business
leads and thus help them build or enhance successful practices.
LRIS Director Lisa Zvonek said statistics for FY 2017-2018 show
attorneys participating in the certified program made more than $2
million in fees from LRIS referrals.
In 2017-2018, staff fielded 67,236 calls from the public and made
73,635 referrals. A third—33 percent—of those referrals were to
attorneys participating in the program. About 40 percent, due to
location, were sent to other referral programs at major metropolitan bar
associations (please visit texasbar.com/LRISprograms
for the complete list of certified Texas referral programs). The
remaining callers were referred to legal aid and other agencies if they
needed free or reduced-fee services.
Zvonek said one misconception about the program is that attorneys who
participate provide free or reduced-fee services. They do not.
Participating attorneys agree to meet with potential referral clients
for a 30-minute consultation for no more than $20. But beyond that, they
make their own fee arrangement with the new client. Participating
attorneys also agree that if a referred case generates $500 or more in
fees, they will return 10 percent to help offset the cost of operating
the program.
Attorneys who participate in the program pay $125 per year in exchange
for screened referrals that can increase client base and earnings,
additional referrals through an automated online referral system, and 20
percent off TexasBarCLE products and services. To learn more about LRIS,
go to texasbar.com/LRISattorney
or call (512) 427-1720.
Justice O’Connor with Cindy Tisdale, past chair of the State
Bar of Texas Board of Directors, and Trey Apffel. Photo by Mark Mattson
Photography.
Honoring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
It is with much sadness that we learned former U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has made the decision to step away from
public life due to developments with her health.
O’Connor, the first woman associate justice appointed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, spent part of her youth and early educational years in El
Paso. But beyond all of her professional achievements, O’Connor has
forever impacted the education of our citizens by spearheading the
national online civic education and engagement movement.
Her vision and understanding of the importance of technology in
education and her understanding of the role that students will one day
play in our democratic republic led to the creation of one of the best
online resources available to the public—iCivics.org.
O’Connor said, “The practice of democracy is not passed down through
the gene pool. It must be taught and learned anew by each generation of
citizens.”
Justice O’Connor’s vision will carry on through iCivics and many other
programs created in the same vein. The State Bar of Texas and its
Law-Related Education Department express our deep reverence for Justice
O’Connor.
By the Numbers
It is my pleasure to direct you to page
855, where you will find the State Bar’s performance measures for
the 2017-2018 bar year.
Sincerely,
Trey Apffel
Executive Director, State Bar of Texas
Editor-in-Chief, Texas Bar Journal
(512) 427-1500
@ApffelT on Twitter
Have a question for Trey? Email it to trey.apffel@texasbar.com and he may answer it in a future column.
