TBJ JULY/AUGUST 2022
‘Always Strive For Better Justice’
Michael J. Ritter’s quest to fulfill the Texas Young Lawyers Association’s mission of public service begins with an education on the courts.
Interview by Eric Quitugua
Photo by Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro.
The justice system exists to remedy wrongs, Michael J. Ritter said
while discussing one of his favorite Texas Young Lawyers Association
projects, And Justice For All. That project, created in tandem
with the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Bar Foundation, culminated in
a website that educates attorneys and the public on wrongful
convictions. Now officially at the helm of TYLA, Ritter wants to again
focus on the functions of the justice system—this time with a spotlight
on the judicial system. His signature project, How Texas Courts
Work, does a deep dive on the judiciary to educate virtually anyone
from attorneys to clients to the media to students or potential jurors.
Having worked in the Texas appellate court system for eight years,
Ritter knows a thing or two about judicial literacy and its importance
during politically and emotionally charged times.
Ritter, who was sworn in as president of TYLA on June 10, 2022, spoke
with the Texas Bar Journal about How Texas Courts
Work, representing the LGBTQ+ community, and reinvigorating young
lawyer bar associations across Texas.
What is the main thing you want to do as a lawyer and why is
that important to you?
As a lawyer, the main thing I want to do is to help other lawyers. I’m
fortunate to be able to do this both at work and through TYLA. At
Schmoyer Reinhard, I serve in an appellate role helping trial lawyers
both at the firm, and outside the firm, with researching and writing,
which has been my passion even before law school. In Texas, we’re quite
lucky to have lawyers with different passions and strengths because of
the efforts made to promote diversity in the legal profession. With more
diversity in backgrounds, skill sets, and passions, we can better help
each other in tailoring our practices to match our passions to improve
the overall quality of legal services that Texas lawyers provide to
clients and in serving the public.
You’ve got a few “firsts” now as an openly LGBTQ+ attorney at
the bar and TYLA—do you feel a bigger purpose to be a representative to
the community?
Absolutely. It’s not a matter of me representing the LGBTQ+ legal
community as a whole, but rather about showing attorneys in the LGBTQ+
community that we can be involved in bar service and leadership—and be
successful—without having to hide who we are. During my campaign, I made
the distinction that I’m not the first LGBTQ+ lawyer to run for a
statewide bar position; I was just the first to do it openly,
by including pictures of my husband and me, talking about diversity, and
highlighting my service in LGBTQ+ bar associations. Many attorneys might
have “limiting beliefs” that they can’t accomplish a professional goal
because of who they are or something they haven’t done yet. Oftentimes
that’s not having certain legal experience, but other times it’s one’s
identity; an example of a limiting belief is: “I can’t be TYLA president
because members won’t accept someone who’s gay.” The reason why we say
“representation matters” is because, by disproving these limiting
beliefs, we open the doors to more people to participate in bar service,
which helps the bar find the best representatives and leaders in the
legal community, regardless of their identity and background.
ABOVE: From left, Michael J. Ritter with his husband and two dogs;
Ritter with fellow San Antonio Young Lawyers Association members
receiving an award for a Hurricane Harvey Assistance Program from State
Bar Executive Director Trey Apffel (middle); Ritter with friends. Photos
courtesy of Michael J. Ritter.
?In a Q&A you did on the bar blog a couple years
ago, you said And Justice for All is your favorite TYLA
project. Why is the subject of wrongful convictions something important
to you?
Despite being primarily a civil appellate attorney, the topic of
wrongful convictions is important to me because, as one of the severest
failures of our legal system, wrongful convictions remind us that our
justice system is imperfect and that we, as lawyers, need to constantly
consider how to improve the justice system however we can. Wrongful
convictions exist despite what we consider to be a full panoply of
rights—the rights to notice of charges, a jury trial, a fair and neutral
judge, and the effective assistance of counsel, as well as the right to
confront accusers, among others. But continued wrongful convictions show
that these rights, and others, can be implemented more effectively, as I
argued in my recent law review article, “Resolving the Anders
Dilemmas.” The justice system exists to remedy wrongs, not create them.
While we may never be able to reach perfection, we should always strive
for better justice.
What do you want to accomplish this year?
Everything, everywhere, all at once. More realistically, I hope to
help lead the TYLA board to do what can be done this year to fulfill our
mission of public service, given the pandemic’s residual impacts on
young lawyers, especially bar leaders. Sadly, many local young lawyers’
associations in Texas have gone inactive. In addition to our public
service projects, I want to help inform and remind young lawyers
throughout Texas of the benefits of bar service, bar leadership, and
community engagement. I know that, at the very least, we can work
together to make progress toward reenergizing our members to pursue
excellence in their careers and to seize available opportunities to help
others through service.
Tell me about your signature project. What is it designed to
do?
How Texas Courts Work, a project graciously sponsored by the
Texas Bar Foundation, will help educate Texans about the role,
functions, and independence of the Texas judiciary. This project will
consist of a multimedia website that provides an overview of Texas
courts, a video series about what litigants should expect in some of the
most common types of cases filed in Texas courts, a video to be played
for prospective jurors about jury service prior to voir dire, how to
hire an attorney for in-court representation and factors to consider in
the process, a guide that contains tips for members of the media who
report on trial proceedings and judicial decisions, and a media literacy
program for students that simulates the role of a jury in critically
analyzing sources of information to resolve disputed issues of fact.
Why did you choose this as your main project? Has your
experience in appeals shaped it in any way?
I worked in the Texas appellate court system for eight years. I
interned at the Supreme Court of Texas, served as a briefing attorney
for the San Antonio Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals, and then worked as a staff attorney back at the San Antonio
Court of Appeals. During that time, I realized that the role and
independence of the judiciary in Texas is not well understood, even by
many lawyers. To improve understanding of the Texas appellate courts, I
created my appeals blog, Appeals to Authority, to help shed light on the
functions, as well as the human side, of Texas appellate courts. With
the ubiquity of politically charged news stories designed to elicit
emotional reactions from their audiences, rather than to inform them,
objective and accurate information about the judiciary, even at the
state level, is needed now more than ever.TBJ
