A NEW FOCUS ON LEGAL AID FOR THE POOR
Inequities will be key for Houston Bar Association president
The Houston Bar Association is experiencing some déjà vu.
Exactly 150 years ago, the HBA elected a trial lawyer, Peter Gray, a Baker Botts partner, as its first president. The biggest issue facing Houston lawyers in 1870 was a public health crisis known as the yellow fever, which swept through the community — killing thousands of people, closing businesses and leading to an armed quarantine.
Baker Botts litigation partner Bill Kroger became the 115th HBA president on May 12, following in the steps of Leon Jaworski and former CenterPoint Energy General Counsel Scott Rozell.
“You see in the Harris County court records (in the late 1860s and early 1870s that) they shut down the courts during the summer so that people could leave the city and get away from the yellow fever,” Kroger said. “We call that self-isolating now.”
Just as Gray faced unprecedented legal and societal issues in 1870, Kroger admits that he and the 11,000-member HBA have some monumental challenges to tackle in the months ahead.
Thousands of small businesses in the Houston area need legal assistance on basic issues, including when and how they should reopen even as the coronavirus continues to spread, he said.
Another problem, he said, is “helping lawyers and law students find meaningful work and gain experience that could help them find jobs when this downturn is over.”
But the biggest and most important problem right now, Kroger said, is expanding legal services to the poor.
“There is a growing gap between the legal needs of the poor and the number of lawyers in Houston willing and able to provide them pro bono legal services,” he said. “We are likely to see a massive number of people who need legal help for all kinds of claims — landlord/tenant, employment, family law, probate, tax, personal injury
and bankruptcy.
“And yet, at the same time, law firms and individual lawyers are obviously distracted by their own responses to the crisis,” he added. “That will be the biggest challenge of this bar year — encouraging Houston lawyers to step up in this time of need.”
Retail education
The Kroger family moved to Houston from Chicago in 1973 and purchased Parker Music, a music company started in 1910, which had several stores across Houston.
Starting at age 9, Kroger worked in his parent’s store sorting Top 40 records, setting up drum sets, dusting guitars and riding shotgun on piano delivery trucks.
“My parents didn’t know anything about music stores when they bought the company, but they were probably the most successful in that line of business in Texas,” he said. “They ran the stores with no debt and paid everything in cash. That way, they could withstand all of the downturns in the 1980s, when all of the other music stores went broke.”
Kroger said he learned “how to sell” working at his parents’ store.
“My parents would say, ‘We are all in the marketing business, even if you are a doctor or lawyer.’ That stuck with me,” he said.
Kroger said his experience working with customers, solving problems and running a business led him to go to law school.
In 1985, he graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in business administration and accounting. Four years later, he received his law degree from UT and a master’s degree in business administration, also from UT.
Now a partner and cochair of the energy litigation practice at Baker Botts, Kroger has been involved in several high-profile cases, including representing the Texas Oil & Gas Association in a 2014 case against the City of Denton, which banned fracking; representing Shell Oil with fellow partner Travis Sales on a $300 million case that Pemex brought against Shell and other oil and gas producers for allegedly selling stolen Mexican hydrocarbons; and as lead counsel for Marathon Oil Corp. v. Cerny, a case that set the standard for bringing a nuisance case against an oil and gas producer.
His love for history led him to become the official historian for Baker Botts, a law firm with roots dating back to 1840. His research led him to Peter Gray, one of the firm’s founders.
“What Gray taught me was the wonders you could do with a law degree,” he said. “He was involved in every kind of activity — church leader, advocate for public schools and libraries, trial and business lawyer, judge, legislator, bar leader. He was a co-author of the first rules of civil procedure for the State of Texas.”
Gray co-founded the Houston Bar Association in 1870 and was its first president. One of his first critical issues was the problems created by the yellow fever epidemic, including providing legal services to those who could not afford an attorney and helping lawyers find work.
Another challenge
Now celebrating its 150th anniversary, the HBA is facing many of those same problems.
“Most lawyers today — those who have practiced during the past 30 years — have experienced mostly a bull market in legal services, especially in the big cities and big firms,” Kroger said. “Knowing the history of the profession makes me better appreciate how unusual the past 20 years have been.”