May 16, 2008—The Houston Bar Association's Law & the Media Committee recorded a number of "firsts" this year. Sheila Hansel, public relations manager (and law student) at South Texas College of Law, was the first non-attorney media co-chair appointed to lead the committee. Justice Eva Guzman ‘89 of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals was the first judge to lead the committee. Moreover, Jane Johnston Mumey, of counsel to The Mumey Law Firm and PowersMediaworks, was the first attorney to serve as co-chair of the com­mittee for three consecutive years. Under their leadership, this committee comprised of attorneys, journalists and communication professionals orga­nized a media training program for HBA board members in November and a seminar for attorneys and media professionals in January. The co-chairs recruited three professional journalists, as well as a media consultant, to educate board members on how to work with the media if called upon to comment on a controversial situation. The January 26 seminar was titled "Boundaries, Borders and Lessons Learned: Managing Evolving Cultural Complexities and Legal Issues at the Courthouse and in the Newsroom." The well-attended program featured two panels of respected attorneys and journalists discussing communication across cultural lines and the immi­gration debate. The seminar also presented another "first" for the Law & the Media Seminar, when a keynote speaker who had been involved in a con­troversial trial drew the first protest ever staged outside the seminar. The co chairs used their communication and negotiation skills to handle the situa­tion with the perfect aplomb, and the program proceeded without incident.

Also garnering honors were Rebecca Koch '02 for her work leading the effort to build the HBA's eleventh Habitat for Humanity House, and David V. Wilson '93 was honored as the editor-in-chief of The Houston Lawyer.