Our Committees
All members of the Child Protection Law Section are welcome to join a Committee to help further the Section's work. Please email the Chair of any Committee of interest.
Appellate Representation
The Appellate Representation Committee coordinates projects to increase the availability and competence of appellate attorneys for child protection cases.
Chair: Justice Margaret Poissant
Awards
The Awards Committee coordinates the process of nomination, implements such process and coordinates the awards with recipients. The members of this Committee are selected each year by the Chair of the Section and serve a one year term. The Awards Committee will process awards recipients for the following 4 awards:
The Lifetime Achievement Award,
Rutland Excellence in Advocacy Award,
Hall of Legends Award and
Chair’s Award:
Co-Chair: Michele L. Surratt
Michele.Surratt@dfps.texas.gov
Co-Chair: Hon. Angela Graves-Harrington
Angela_Graves-Harrington@Justex.net
CLE
The CLE Committee coordinates programs that ensure education is made available on current and important topics that address the needs of the State Bar in child protection law. The Chair of the CLE Committee is selected each year by the Chair of the Section and serves a one-year term. The Chair of the CLE Committee may determine the selection process for its membership.
Chair:
Hon. Angela Graves-Harrington
Angela_Graves-Harrington@Justex.net
Vice-Chair:
Michele L. Surratt
Michele.Surratt@dfps.texas.gov
Communications
The Communications Committee ensures timely and effective communication between the Section and membership on all issues important to the members and the section.
Co-Chair: Hon. Delia Gonzales
Co-Chair: Hon. Cheryll Mabray
Judicial Outreach
Coordinate projects to increase the awareness of the section for trial court judges, rural and metropolitan, gather feedback and identify potential CLE opportunities for appointment wheels throughout the state.
Co-Chair: Hon. Bill Harris
Co-Chair: Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones
Legislative
The Legislative Committee monitors and reports on suggested and proposed legislation of interest to the Child Protection Law Section (CPLS) membership. They inform CPLS membership when important legislative actions occur and analyze pending legislation for issues and ramifications. The Committee provides a forum for dialogue on proper development of child protection law with proposed or passed legislation. At the conclusion of each State Legislative session enacting new laws, the Committee provides prompt analysis of each law and reports summaries of such laws to the CPLS membership. Notwithstanding, the CPLS shall neither support nor oppose any proposed legislation or pending enactment by the Texas Legislature or the United States Congress or any department or agency in violation of the policy and requirements of the State Bar of Texas as specified in its Policy Manual.
Chair: Hon. Derbha Jones
Co-Chair: Hon. Patricia Bennett
Membership
The Membership Committee monitors the membership of the Section and coordinates efforts on behalf of the Section to maintain healthy membership, including, coordinating network and outreach efforts to engage new and current members, and ensure fee reminders sent for membership renewals.
Chair: Mark Briggs
Multicultural
The Multicultural Committee’s purpose is to identify, discuss, and provide recommendations on issues that impact the children and families involved in the Texas child welfare system, with a focus and acknowledgement of the cultural diversity of these families. The Committee engages in projects and collaborations, statewide, to improve outcomes for all Texas children and families, particularly focused on systemic barriers to equitable policies and practices in the child welfare legal field. Educational efforts by this Committee include increasing awareness and knowledge of relevant data, issues impacting bias (both implicit and explicit), as well as regional differences across the state. The Committee also provides a forum for investigation, analysis, discussion, and education of the many multicultural barriers to families involved in the child protection system. Such education should include increasing awareness regarding bias issues that improperly impede on the proper implementation of processes in the child protection system, as well as appropriate practices to address those biases.
Chair: Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones
Newsletter
The Newsletter Committee produces at least two newsletters a year that are sent to all current members of the Child Protection Law Section. The Newsletters contain information about the section, updates, at least one article of interest concerning the section, and three legal articles concerning child protection law that are properly checked for accuracy. The committee has five officer positions: one Editor-in Chief, and two or more persons serving as Articles Editors, Section-Update Editors, Technical Editors and Staff Editors. The officers each serve one year terms beginning on October 1 of each year.
Chair and Editor-in-Chief: Michael Hull
Nominations
The Chair of the Section appoints members to serve on the Nominations Committee to implement the appropriate processes to investigate, determine and recommend members to be elected or appointed to fill the officer/council positions of the Section. Such committee shall also coordinate to ensure the suggested candidates are published in advance of elections as required by State Bar rules. . A nomination committee member only serves for a single year term from the date of nomination, typically occurring at the Fall meeting of the Section.
Chair: Hon. Bill Harris
Publications
The Publications Committee identifies, drafts, prints and disseminates publications for the membership of the Section.
Chair: Tiffany Crouch-Bartlett
Scope
The Scope Committee provides evaluation and planning for the Child Protection Law Section to meet its goals. The chair is held by the Vice-Chair of the Section and changes annually.
Chair: Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones
Special Events
The Special Events Committee provides evaluation of the Section’s ability to plan CLE events without the assistance of TexasBarCLE, including the Advanced Program, and evaluation of the necessary revenue stream.
Co-Chair: Richard Deck rdecklaw@gmail.com
Co-Chair: Hon. Rhonda Hunter
Sponsorship/ Hospitality
coordinate sponsorships to fund events and services of the Section. Also, coordinate events for hospitality at CPLS events.
Chair: Charity Borserine charity@borserinelaw.com
Website
The Website Committee coordinates the implementation and format of a website on the internet that is available to the public concerning the Child Protection Law Section. The Committee takes appropriate steps to ensure sufficient information about the Child Protection Law Section is placed on the Website to keep the public and section members informed about its purpose, membership information, current officers and council members, elections, election process, awards, award processes, committees, committee descriptions & its officer positions and activities, events and matters of interest to child protection lawyers.
Chair: Hon. Aurora Martinez Jones