State Bar Award: The State Bar of Texas CLE Division awarded Chad Baruch the 2008 Standing Ovation Award. The recognition goes annually to four Texas attorneys for their outstanding contributions to continuing legal education in Texas.
U.S. Supreme Court Activity : The firm was involved in three cases that involved petitions for review in the U.S. Supreme Court. The first, Clark v. Jenkins, was on the Court's 2008 docket, but was one of two cases held over to the 2009 docket. Unfortunately, the Court denied review of that case. The second, Rhine v. Deatons, is pending on cert. petition. The Court took the unusual step in that case of neither granting nor denying review, but instead inviting the Solicitor General of Texas to comment. Finally, in Palmer v. Waxahachie ISD, Chad Baruch prepared an amicus brief in support of the cert. petition filed by a high school student seeking review of the Fifth Circuit's decision on student First Amendment Rights. That petition is pending.
State Bar Leadership Positions: In 2008, State Bar President Harper Estes appointed Chad Baruch to a three-year term as a Director of the State Bar College. Baruch is presently serving a three-year term as a Section Representative to the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors. He served as Chair of the State Bar of Texas Consumer & Commerical Law Section for 2006-2007, and as Chair of the Individual Rights & Responsibilities Section for 2007-2009. He also recently completed his service as a member of the Texas Supreme Court Taskforce to Expand Legal Services Delivery, and is a member of the State Bar of Texas Council of Chairs.
Firm Wins Case in Mississippi Supreme Court: Chad Baruch was lead drafter for the appellate team that recently won the Germany v. Denbury Onshore, LLC appeal in the Mississippi Supreme Court. The case concerned oil and gas rights in a dispute reaching back a decade. Entering the case on appeal, Chad Baruch served as principal drafter for the team that won a decision from the Mississippi Supreme Court affirming judgment in their clients' favor.
Firm Wins Case in Fifth Circuit: Chad Baruch won a reversal by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in an important constitutional case involving the duties of criminal defense attorneys under the Sixth Amendment during jury selection. In Virgil v. Dretke , the Fifth Circuit ruled for the first time that failure of an attorney during jury selection to rehabilitate a potential juror who declares an inability to be fair and impartial constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of a criminal defendant's constitutional rights. Baruch was appointed by the Fifth Circuit to handle the case after other attorneys had handled Virgil's prior unsuccessful appeals. Virgil's legal odessy began with his conviction in Houston for causing bodily injury to an elderly person, for which he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. Virgil was convicted after his attorney permitted two men to be empaneled as jury members despite their statements that they did not believe they could be fair and impartial in the case. Virgil's state court appeal of the conviction was denied, as was his state court petition for habeas corpus relief. In his last remaining avenue to relief, Virgil filed a federal habeas corpus petition, but that petition was denied by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. It was then that Baruch entered the case to handle the Fifth Circuit appeal. Writing for the unanimous Fifth Circuit panel, Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham stated that the case presented a situation in which, due to counsel's failure, two persons - each expressly stating that they were unable to serve as fair and impartial jurors - found themselves seated on the petit jury that convicted Virgil and sentenced him to thirty years in prison. The court ordered the State of Texas, which was represented by the Office of the Texas Attorney General in the case, to either retry or release Virgil - who had served nearly a decade in prison - within ninety days.
Pro Bono Support: In connection with his past service on the Texas Supreme Court Task Force on Legal Services Delivery to the Poor in Civil Matters, Chad Baruch has undertaken several activities in support of pro bono work in Texas. A member of the Texas Pro Bono College, Baruch was a table sponsor of the recent Texas Lawyers Care 25th Anniversary Celebration, which raised more than $200,000 for pro bono support in Texas, and of the Texas Access to Justice 25th Anniversary Gala. He also coordinated two pro bono seminars, one in El Paso and the other in Edinburg, to provide free continuing legal education to attorneys willing to accept pro bono consumer cases through Legal Aid. He also donated a substantial portion of his professional time to three substantial constitutional appellate cases during 2008 and 2009.
Election as Life Fellow of Texas Bar Foundation: Chad Baruch was elected as a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. TBF members must be nominated and elected, and fewer than one percent of Texas lawyers are invited to join the organization, which focuses on justice for the needy and law-related education. Since being elected, he has become a Sustaining Life Fellow of TBF.
Firm Handles Multi-Jurisdictional Litigation: The firm represented a Texas woman whose college-age daughter died in a car collision. The ensuing dispute over insurance proceeds resulted in actions being filed in two Missouri federal courts, as well as both federal and territorial courts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a Texas state court. The firm assisted its client in obtaining dismissal of both Virgin Islands actions, then consolidating the Missouri cases and obtaining a global settlement of those cases and the Texas case.
IMPORTANT STATEMENT : Past results are not a guarantee of future success. No attorney can or should guarantee a favorable outcome to any client or prospective client.
Lawyers must be advocates for their clients. Some lawyers seem to interpret
this fundamental truth as an invitation to boorish manners and perpetual
combat. There seem to be some lawyers who simply cannot agree that the Earth
is round. For them, there is no deadline that can be extended, no fact that
can be stipulated, no dispute that can be resolved by agreement. While this
behavior may be great for television lawyers, it does not serve clients well
in reality. We believe in advocating our clients' positions vigorously. At
the same time, we believe that building a reasonable relationship with
opposing counsel can often assist our clients in reaching a favorable, or at
least acceptable, result that may be superior to protracted litigation. Our
goal is to be in factual command of our clients' problems, advocate their
positions, and help them find favorable solutions.