Annual Pro Bono Awards Announced for Case Handling
October 9, 2017 - In commemoration of National Pro Bono Week (October 22-28), Lone Star Legal Aid Nacogdoches Branch Office honors Lynda K. Russell with three prestigious Pro Bono Awards: Most Cases Handled Award, Most Litigated Cases Handled Award, and Most Contested Cases Handled Award. The Lone Star Legal Aid Pro Bono awards recognize attorneys, law firms and community partners who donate their time and legal expertise to ensuring that all Shelby County and East Texas residents have equal access to the courts.
Ms. Russell will be formally recognized on October 27, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. at the Shelby County District Courtroom for the 123rd Judicial District with award certificates from Lone Star Legal Aid and Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, Court Liaison to the Texas Access to Justice Commission. The Honorable Leann Rafferty, District Court Judge of the 123rd Judicial District, and other Shelby County dignitaries are expected to be in attendance for the ceremony which will be immediately preceded and followed by a come and go reception.
2017 Most Cases Handled, Most Litigated Cases Handled, and Most Contested Cases Handled Award in the Nacogdoches Branch Office service area.
Lynda K. Russell
Lynda K. Russell has been a solo practitioner in Shelby County since 2012 and has volunteered through Lone Star Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Project since opening her practice. Ms. Russell has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty as a volunteer. A former Shelby County District Attorney with over twenty years of legal experience, Ms. Russell has selflessly donated her time and expertise with Lone Star Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Program by providing legal help to several low income individuals who could not afford to hire an attorney.
Ms. Russell’s unrelenting willingness to give back has continued unabated through the years, notwithstanding that so much dear to her has been taken: in 2016, she lost her beloved husband of twenty-nine years, Phil Hennigan, to cancer and also lost the assistance of her invaluable and much loved paralegal, Sharla Foster, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Ms. Russell never has just one pro bono case going but usually a half dozen or more and she is currently representing eight Lone Star Legal Aid applicants, many of whom are victims of domestic violence and were in abusive situations prior to Ms. Russell’s assistance. When Ms. Russell hears about a low income individual in need of legal services, she does not hesitate to refer them to Lone Star Legal Aid to be qualified for free legal services and referred back to her for representation. In addition, Ms. Russell accepts pro bono matters in several counties, aside from Shelby County, and she always answers a call for help.
A tenacious and effective advocate, as well as an accomplished musician, Lone Star Legal Aid salutes Lynda K. Russell for her deep personal commitment to pro bono service and her legacy of helping to protect the most vulnerable residents of Shelby County and contiguous counties. Ms. Russell has previously been the recipient of Lone Star Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Awards.
About Lone Star Legal Aid
Lone Star Legal Aid (www.LoneStarLegal.org ) is the fourth largest provider of free legal aid in the United States. Lone Star Legal Aid has offices in thirteen cities across Southeast and East Texas, LSLA serves a 60,000 square-mile swath of Texas from Lampassas to the Louisiana state line, from Matagorda Bay to Texarkana. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Lone Star Legal Aid has a staff of attorneys dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil legal rights of low-income Texans by providing advocacy, legal representation and community education to ensure equal access to justice. Through a host of mechanisms, Lone Star Legal Aid partners with private practitioners willing to represent clients for free who LSLA has pre-screened for income eligibility and legal appropriateness. Lone Star Legal Aid’s Nacogdoches Office serves Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby and Tyler counties.
About the National Pro Bono Celebration
The week of October 22-28 has been designated as the “National Pro Bono Celebration” by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Pubic Service. The goal is to showcase the remarkable difference that pro bono lawyers make to our nation, to our system of justice, to our communities and, most of all, to the clients they serve. For more information, see www.celebrateprobono.org.
