Sherman named top paralegal volunteer
Julie K. Sherman, a paralegal in the litigation section of Cantey Hanger LLP, has been recognized as Volunteer Paralegal of the Year by the Tarrant County Bar Foundation for her work with the Tarrant County Volunteer Attorney Services Pro Bono Program. Sherman is a paralegal for Cantey Hanger attorneys Carol Traylor, Andy Keetch, Brad Poulos and Lu Pham. She has worked at Cantey Hanger for 17 years. “My life is very blessed and pro bono work allows me to use my time and specialty skills to give back to my community,” Sherman said. “I am fortunate in that Cantey Hanger supports its attorneys and paralegals in pro bono endeavors such as Tarrant Volunteer Attorney Services and Legal Aid of Northwest Texas.” Sherman is a board-certified paralegal, Texas Board of Legal Specialization-Personal Injury Trial Law. She attended the paralegal studies program at Tarrant County College. She is a member of the Fort Worth Paralegal Association, the Paralegal Division of the State Bar of Texas, Tarrant County Bar Association and the State Bar College. In 2006, Sherman was selected as the Fort Worth Paralegal Association’s Paralegal of the Year, and in 2013 she received the State Bar of Texas-Paralegal Division’s Exceptional Pro Bono Service Award.
WAKE FOREST VICE PROVOST TO HEAD SMU LAW SCHOOL Jennifer Collins, vice provost at Wake Forest University, will join Southern Methodist University as the Judge James Noel Dean of Dedman School of Law on July 1. Collins was selected after a nationwide search. She succeeds John Attanasio, who served as dean for three terms, from 1998 to 2013. Collins has been on the law school faculty at Wake Forest, located in Winston-Salem, N.C., since 2003 and was named associate provost in 2010 and vice provost in September 2013. She has continued to teach courses on gender and the law and on legal professionalism. She received the 2009 Jurist Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2010 Joseph Branch Excellence in Teaching Award, both at Wake Forest. Collins graduated with honors from Yale University in 1987 and received her law degree with honors from Harvard University in 1991. She clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and worked briefly in private practice in Washington, D.C., before joining the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel as an attorney-adviser in 1993. Collins worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia from 1994 to 2002, working in the homicide section for the last six of those years and prosecuting more than 30 jury trials. She has researched and written law review articles about issues related to families and the criminal justice system, including the prosecution of parents who are responsible for their children’s deaths. She is the author, with Dan Markel and Ethan Lieb, of Privilege Or Punish? Criminal Justice And The Challenge of Family Ties.
LUMLEY ELECTED TO STATE BAR SECTION Lisa Vaughn Lumley, a partner at Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller LLP, has been elected to the council governing the Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law section of the State Bar of Texas. The State Bar also recently appointed her to its Pattern Jury Charge Committee for oil and gas issues. During her 20-plus years as a trial lawyer, Lumley has handled cases representing clients in industries such as oil and gas, aeronautics, manufacturing, construction and real estate. These disputes have involved claims of unfair competition and trade secrets, breaches of or interference with contracts, and mechanical and engineering negligence. Licensed in Texas, Lumley is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, and the Southern Central Districts of California. She is also a Fellow of the Tarrant County Bar Association, a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas and a master with the honorary legal society of the Eldon B. Mahon Inn of Court.
BAR LUNCHEON TO HONOR 50-YEAR ATTORNEYS The Tarrant County Bar Association’s February CLE Membership Luncheon will honor attorneys who have been licensed and have practiced law for 50 years. Keynote speaker for the event, set for Feb. 11 at the Fort Worth Club, is Terry Gardner of Gardner Aldrich LLP. Gardner graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, is board-certified in civil trial law and personal injury trial law and has been in private practice in Fort Worth since 1967. Honorees for this year’s group of 50-year attorneys include Joseph W. Colvin, Walter S. Forney III, Ed Winton McKinney, Henry Meyer, Judge Billy D. Mills, James F. Thompson, Melinda Terry Vance, James Wagner and Bill J. Zimmerman.