TBJ JANUARY 2022
Allocating State Bar Districts
An apportionment review is underway. Here’s what it means and how you can offer input.
Written by TBJ Staff
The governing body of the State Bar of Texas, its board of directors, is
divided into 17 bar districts throughout the state.1 Each
district is represented by a specific number of elected board members
who represent attorneys in each of these areas. The board reviews its
districts from time to time to ensure that attorneys are adequately
represented. This year, a task force approved by the board will review
the apportionment of districts and consider the purposes of the State
Bar as set out by Section 81.012 of the State Bar Act.
This article describes how the bar districts are distributed, how
attorneys are represented by their elected directors, and how you can
have input in the apportionment process.
The board includes 30 elected directors whose districts are distributed
throughout the 17 bar districts. The districts can be categorized in two
groups: those that fall in the state’s metropolitan areas, and those
that do not. As defined by board policy, districts containing a
“Metropolitan County’’ include the counties of Bexar, Dallas,
Harris, Tarrant, and Travis. These metropolitan counties represent
approximately 70% of the attorney population in the state. Districts
containing non-metropolitan counties include all remaining counties
throughout the state. Each of the metropolitan districts has multiple
directors to account for a higher population of attorneys. These
districts have one metropolitan county in them with the exception of
Tarrant County, as noted in the chart below. The non-metropolitan
districts have one board member and represent larger groupings of
counties spread out over a greater distance.
The board created the current map and apportionment of directors in 1988. In 2012, the board adjusted the map by removing one district position from Harris County and transferring it to Travis County. This was done because the population of Travis County at that time had increased so much over the past decade that it needed an additional director to help reduce the ratio of directors to bar members in the district. The result was that it increased Travis County to three directors and reduced Harris County to six directors.
The board will continue to study the number of bar members in each district to ensure the attorneys in each district have sufficient board representation. Although the non-metropolitan districts have fewer attorneys, it is important that they have access to their district representative to the extent possible. Creating larger districts in non-metropolitan areas has drawbacks because it makes the director have to cover more ground, providing less access for bar members.
STATE BAR OF TEXAS DISTRICT MAP
For a more detailed map, or to find your district director, go to texasbar.com/board
and click on the link under Board Members.
The State Bar conducts elections for district directors and
president-elect candidates every April. District directors serve
three-year terms starting in June in the year they were elected. Each
year, the terms for 10 of the elected directors expire, and elections
are conducted to replace those members. In the metropolitan county
districts of Dallas,?Harris, and Travis, each year attorneys in those
districts will vote for a new district director since there are three or
more directors in those districts. In the metropolitan county districts
of Bexar and Tarrant, attorneys will have alternating years to vote for
a new district director because there are two directors. In the
districts containing non-metropolitan county districts (each with only
one director), attorneys will vote every third year to replace the
outgoing director for the district. Attorneys interested in running for
a district director position must submit a petition to the State Bar
containing a specified number of attorney signatures. For more
information on running for district director, go to texasbar.com/board.
If you would like to submit feedback about district director
apportionment or have any other comments or questions, you may send them
to ray.cantu@texasbar.com.TBJ
