As Texas lawyers, we each take a creed to “to preserve and improve our legal system,” and most of us spend each day doing just that — arguing for our clients’ rights under existing law and under new, expanded, or limited interpretations of the law. Anne Chandler, a University of Houston Law School graduate, professor, and Immigration Clinic Interim Director, is just like the rest of us in that respect. But Professor Chandler has spent her law career honoring the creed in an extremely difficult area of the law where the remedies are limited and the recipients have no right to counsel. She is an immigration lawyer, teacher, and volunteer.

Chandler is part of a legacy of upholding and improving immigration law at the University of Houston Law School Immigration Clinic. The Clinic was founded and run for many years by former immigration judge Joe Vail, who passed away in 2008. Professor Vail infused the Clinic and everyone he mentored with his heart-felt ideal that foreigners on U.S. soil should understand their legal rights and have access to the amnesty and refuge that Congress promised through statutory remedies. Chandler has long been a part of that expansive ideal, as a lawyer, teacher, and volunteer who never says no to an opportunity to help uphold and improve the law for immigrants and refugees. “Until the very last, Joe Vail tried with unparalleled energy to meet the enormous needs of the Texas immigrant community and gave his best to our students,” Chandler says. “Being entrusted with his legacy might seem a burden, but it is one that our Clinic embraces.”

In the last few years, immigrants’ needs in South Texas have grown faster than the non-profits’ and pro bono counsels’ capacity to provide services, and, each time, Chandler, her colleagues that teach with her in the Immigration Clinic, and her students have expanded their work to fill the gap. About two years ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security moved nearly 70 percent of the immigrant and refugee children who arrived in the United States unaccompanied by an adult caregiver to shelters in El Paso, Harlingen, and Houston. As a result, eight to ten thousand children now come to Texas shelters to be deported or to have their cases heard by the Texas immigration courts. Chandler has taken her students to know-your-rights presentations and one-on-one intake sessions at the Houston-area shelters. She also expanded the base of support for these children, training Houston pro bono attorneys to teach the know-your-rights and intake sessions.

Chandler’s legal assistance is not limited by geography, either. When the Department of Homeland Security decided to send some of the unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children to a new shelter in Corpus Christi in 2006, no non-profit organization was prepared to meet those children’s legal needs. The closest pro bono attorneys Chandler had trained were four hours away in Houston. So she and her students stepped in again, traveling to Corpus Christi at least twice each month to provide know-your-rights presentations and intake sessions. They met with each of the 70 children who passed through the Corpus Christi shelter each month for a full year, until a non-profit was able to take over the provision of those services.

Chandler’s legal assistance also is not limited by the age of her client. When adult immigrants and refugees housed near Bush Intercontinental Airport were moved to a shelter in Livingston, Chandler and her students again stepped in to fill the service gap. What they discovered astounded them — the most prevalent form of relief from deportation that they identified at the Livingston shelter was citizenship. The most common form they filed on behalf of the detained immigrants was an N600 — the form for proof of citizenship. Without Professor Chandler and her colleagues at the Clinic, these U.S. citizens might have been deported without ever knowing that the conditions of their birth made them citizens of the United States of America.

Chandler’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees knows no bounds. On April 18, 2009, in memory of Professor Vail, Professor Chandler and her students joined a city-wide effort to expand immigrants’ understanding of the law, where they expected to serve 300 to 400 immigrants and refugees. Chandler and her students are a shining example of the lesson all Texas lawyers who have had the honor of working under or alongside Professor Vail have learned — that it is in living our creed “to preserve and improve our legal system” that we bring justice to all. Through Professor Chandler and all those who Professor Vail taught and trained, his legacy lives on.

Hannah Sibiski is an associate at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. and a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

Terry Lea Elizondo is a part-time associate judge for the City of Southside Place Municipal Court. When she is not on the bench, Elizondo practices law in the family and juvenile courts handling Children’s Protective Services cases. She represents parents, grandparents, and children in the foster care system, and many of the cases involve families that have come to Harris County from other countries. Because Elizondo’s work requires her to deal with children and their families, she is not only a lawyer to her clients, but also their counselor and caretaker at times.

A few years ago, while handling a case in juvenile court, Elizondo talked to a young boy who told her that he had not heard from his mother since she left home. When Elizondo talked to the boy’s mother, she asked why the woman did not contact her son. The mother said she wanted to very much, but could not because she was at a drug treatment center and was not able to call her son. She also said she could not write to him because she had no access to paper, stamps, or envelopes.

After hearing that story, Elizondo and her daughter Mary Elizondo Frazier, a lawyer at Strasburger & Price, LLP, founded a program called “Keeping In Touch,” also known as “KIT.” Through KIT, volunteers assist residents undergoing drug and alcohol treatment to communicate with their loved ones as they transition back into the community. KIT currently operates at Santa Maria Hostel, a United Way agency that houses up to 150 female residents undergoing treatment and rehabilitation for substance abuse as a condition for leniency in their criminal cases. The volunteers meet for an hour and a half every few weeks, especially before major holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. They spend quality time with the residents and help them make unique cards to send to their children, family members, and other important people in their lives.

Elizondo and her daughter usually attend the meetings with a few volunteers. Elizondo also provides scrapbooking supplies, drawing materials, and blank cards and envelopes in different sizes for the residents to use in making their cards. After the cards are made and placed inside envelopes addressed to loved ones, Elizondo puts on the stamps and takes them to the post office for mailing the next day. When necessary, she also helps the residents to verify the recipients’ correct addresses.

In preparing to write this vignette, I had the opportunity to attend a KIT meeting with Elizondo and the residents a week before Valentine’s Day. I observed that the KIT program, rather than simply handing out preprinted cards, gives the residents a chance to make something on their own while having fun expressing their creativity. At the same time, the volunteers have a chance to walk around and interact one-on-one with the residents. Through the small talks on various subjects, ranging from the artwork being created on the cards to dressing for job interviews, the volunteers are able to really listen to the residents, provide words of encouragement, and answer any questions that they may have.

KIT is a simple yet meaningful program that serves a much-needed purpose while offering busy professionals an opportunity to give back to the community. Elizondo says the responses she received from the residents and volunteers participating in KIT have just been wonderful. For more information about participating in KIT or to start a similar program in your community, please contact Elizondo at tlelizondo@aol.com.

Some people learn at an early age that it is better to give than to receive, and Diana Pérez is a shining example of an attorney that gives of herself unselfishly in all aspects of her life. Pérez was born in Brownsville, Texas and learned how important it was to encourage education and help others that were unable to help themselves. She believes that as attorneys, we are in an extraordinary position to make a difference. She still remembers those people in her life that encouraged her to succeed, and she aspires to give that same encouragement to others with the hope that they too will succeed.

Pérez is an associate attorney at Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P. in the Employment Law Section. She and her fiancé, Judge Michael Gomez of the 129th District Court in Harris County, both share a similar vision for service in their community. Pérez believes that if you start educating in the community where you live, eventually that education will reach the whole nation. To that end, in April of 2008, Pérez moved to Washington D.C. to work with the Department of Education. She was tasked with assisting the Bush administration with regulations that would benefit students across the country.

In Washington, Pérez initially worked as the Deputy Director for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. She met with parents, students and teachers from all over the United States to discuss what issues they viewed as obstacles to education and what could be done to improve education.

Pérez was promoted to Chief of Staff for the Department of Education’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. In her role as Chief of Staff, she worked with Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Defense, and international education agencies such as the Ministry of Education for the People’s Republic of China. She worked with other government officials and witnessed, first hand, the effort that is put into establishing education policy. She also assisted in the transition of the two administrations and assisted the Obama administration in understanding the current and future challenges to establishing and maintaining education policy.

Now back in Houston, Pérez is very involved with LegalLine and the Will-A Thon. She is the president-elect of the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston, and she has volunteered her time in countless other ways in Houston. She enjoys speaking to middle and high school children about the importance of education with the hope that her example will inspire others.

When Pérez was asked to go to Washington D.C., her firm encouraged her in this endeavor and let her know that her job was there for her when she returned. She feels like her firm is more like a family and when she returned from Washington D.C., she was pleased to see that Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P. had committed to the Equal Access Championship Program for 2009. Pérez is an exceptional person and true volunteer in every sense of the word. In a time when many people only look out for themselves, Pérez unselfishly gives to others.

Like most busy litigators, both Elaine Lawson and David Thrasher have a full schedule of work, family, and social commitments, among other obligations. Recognizing that they had a limited amount of time to give back to the community, both wanted to find a volunteer opportunity that would allow them to make the most of their time commitment. This impetus led both Lawson and Thrasher to volunteer with the Special Olympics.

Although each became initially involved in the Special Olympics for different reasons, both Lawson and Thrasher were drawn to the organization because they recognized it as a volunteer opportunity that would allow them to utilize their time in the best way possible and with the most reward. Lawson, an attorney at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., first began volunteering at Special Olympics to introduce her then-teenage daughters to new volunteer opportunities. Thrasher, an attorney at Kane, Russell, Coleman & Logan P.C., had volunteered with a variety of community-driven groups, including Habitat for Humanity, before finding his niche with the Special Olympics. Having spent a number of years volunteering at Special Olympics events, Lawson and Thrasher served as the 2008-2009 HBA Special Olympics Committee co-chairs.

As co-chairs, Lawson and Thrasher were primarily in charge of recruiting volunteers to assist at events throughout the year. The local chapter of the Special Olympics usually schedules about 12 sports events per year, approximately six events in the spring and six events in the fall, involving any sports activity from table tennis and biking to basketball and aquatics competitions. Special Olympics volunteers are asked to attend and assist at events, often working one-on-one with athletes. A volunteer’s responsibilities might include watching the time clock, recording scores, serving lunch, keeping athletes occupied in between official activities, cheering for teams and individuals, handing out awards, announcing athletes’ names, and refereeing. Events are usually scheduled on Saturdays and last no more than four hours per event.

Volunteers range from high school students to members of charity leagues, as well as attorneys, legal staff, and other representatives of the legal community. Currently, about half of the volunteers solicited by the HBA Special Olympics Committee are attorneys. However, the goal of the HBA Special Olympics committee this year is to increase participation from within the bar. Both Lawson and Thrasher have observed that once volunteers assist at an event, they usually realize how much fun it is to work with the athletes, and, having experienced the joy of such work, often come back and volunteer again.

For Lawson, it is “inspirational” to see what the Special Olympics athletes can do and to watch them overcome their challenges. Similarly, for Thrasher, his volunteer work is “addictive” because of the “hundreds of smiles” he witnesses at the events—not only from athletes themselves but also from athletes’ families and friends—and the opportunity to make a huge difference for each athlete. Both Lawson and Thrasher sum up their volunteer work as follows: “You get more out of it than you give.”

Heidi Gumienny practices with Gordon & Rees LLP and is a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.

South Texas College of Law Professor Mark E. Steiner juggles two teaching jobs that are worlds apart. In one, the students are college educated, mainly from Texas, and preparing for the bar exam. In the other, the students have learned English as a second language, were born in another country, and are preparing for a naturalization exam.

Steiner teaches torts, consumer transactions, and legal history by day at South Texas, and spends his free time working with immigrants by teaching civics and history at the Adult Reading Center in Pearland. “So far, everyone who’s been through my class has passed the naturalization test,” says Steiner. “The test is given in English, and they’ve learned English already at the reading center, so I am able to teach in English.” The classes teach American history and government.

In 2008, Steiner was one of three Houston-area residents presented The President’s Volunteer Service Award from the USA Freedom Corps. The Freedom Corps works to promote and expand volunteer service in America, working to strengthen the non-profit sector, connect people to volunteer opportunities, and recognize volunteers. His classes meet two times a week and run for ten weeks. “I got involved volunteering with my wife who was tutoring at the Adult Reading Center because I thought it might be both rewarding and fun, and it has been both,” says Steiner.

Steiner enjoyed the work in Pearland enough that when he heard about efforts to assist permanent residents complete their paperwork for naturalization, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer. “I help every chance I get,” he says. The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Neighborhood Centers, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials hold monthly sessions throughout the Houston area providing assistance on citizenship applications. “I help folks fill out their N-400 form for naturalization, answer questions, and review applications.”

The City of Houston presented Steiner with a mayoral appreciation award in January for his dedication to the program. “A lot of members of the South Texas community are involved in this program, and I’m particularly proud of the contributions by South Texas students,” says Steiner, “and it’s great to see our graduates taking time to provide free legal counsel to immigrants with status issues.”