State bar president under fire for 2015 Facebook post on Black Lives Matter

Turmoil ia brewing within the State Bar of Texas, the organization that licenses and regulates the 105,000 attorneys practicing law in Texas.

The Texas Bar’s board of directors has scheduled an emergency meeting this week to discuss what to do about Facebook comments made by the organization’s new president that critics say are racially insensitive, demean women and minimize police brutality.

A handful of board members are demanding the resignation of Larry McDougal, a Fort Bend County criminal defense attorney who has been the bar’s president for less than a month, over a 2015 Facebook post that called the calling Black Lives Matter movement “a terrorist group.”

The state bar’s African American Law Section, which met privately with McDougal recently, has called on McDougal to publicly denounce his comments and take other steps to show his views have changed or resign.

Eight other sections of the state bar — the Asian Pacific Interest Section, Diversity in the Profession Committee, Hispanic Issues Section, LGBT Law Section, Native American Law Section, Texas Minority Counsel Programming Steering Committee, Women & the

Law Section and Women in the Profession Committee — voted to endorse the African American Law Section’s demands.

McDougal has apologized for his comments, but he said he will not resign.

“This is a hot-button issue that the bar and the board need to address,” said Houston trial lawyer Randy Sorrels, who is the past president of the State Bar of Texas. “We need to hear Larry out. We need to hear what he has to say before we make any decisions.” The controversy began on July 10 when 5-year-old comments by McDougal on Facebook surfaced.

“The news media has waged war on law enforcement officers in the aftermath of several highly publicized killings,” McDougal wrote in September 2015. “Groups like Black Lives Matter has publicly called for the death of not just police officers but also White Americans. This is a terrorist group.”

In another Facebook post about a woman lawyer who had been suspended from practicing law, McDougal wrote, “She is hot in her Texas Bar picture but she has meth head written all over her today.”

McDougal did not respond to interview requests.

In a three-minute video on YouTube posted on July 11, McDougal apologized and promised to do better.

“I understand that my comments, although not how I intended them, have been hurtful to many members of our bar,” McDougal said. “For that, I am truly sorry. I sincerely regret that my words reflected negatively in anyway on our state bar leadership, its volunteers and staff and to any of you.

“Let me be clear: As a Texas attorney who is sworn to uphold the constitution of this state and the United States, I denounce racism in any and all forms,” he said on the video. “I want to assure you that those comments do not reflect my beliefs today. They changed quite a while back.”

McDougal promised to establish a task force to “eradicate social injustice.”

During a two-hour meeting via Zoom with the leaders of the African American Law Section, McDougal apologized and promised that he could be a “change agent” for more diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, according to the section chair, Rudy

Metayer, an Austin lawyer and member of the Pflugerville City Council.

Following the meeting, section leaders issued a series of demands for McDougal, including a formal written apology, a public acknowledgment of the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and an explanation of his change “in viewpoint about why the Black Lives Matter is an important movement.”

If McDougal declined to take these steps, AALS leaders said they would “call on his immediate resignation.”

More than 3,000 Texas lawyers have posted comments on the controversy on the Facebook pages of the state bar and its leaders. Nearly all of them denounce McDougal’s comments. Most of the lawyers say McDougal should step down. But hundreds of Texas attorneys are defending McDougal.

“If I thought Larry was a racist, I wouldn’t be his friend,” said Steve Fischer, an El Paso lawyer and member of the state bar’s board of directors. “I think Larry was completely wrong about Black Lives Matter, but he should not resign and I don’t think the board can make him resign.”

For a longer version of this article, please visit TexasLawbook.net.

Courtesy photo State Bar of Texas President Larry McDougal has apologized for his remarks but said he will not resign.