Each year we present three awards for outstanding community and professional service, and mentoring. Know a deserving person in the community who should be recognized? Nominate someone today for one of our three awards: Liberty Bell (awarded to a non-lawyer), Outstanding Young Lawyer, and AYLA Mentor. Nomination forms are due Friday, March 7.

Nomination forms are below:

Outstanding Mentor Award 2025

Service Awards 2025

Please double-check your account to ensure you have renewed your membership for 2025!

On Friday, Jan. 31, everyone who has not renewed will be removed from the mailing list for Austin Bar communications, and you will no longer be eligible for Austin Bar member benefits. For a full list of these benefits, please click here.

Click here to access your account. If you have any questions or issues, please contact Membership Development Director Billy Huntsman.

The Austin Bar Foundation Gala Silent Auction is now live! Click here to sign up and place bids on great items and experiences, such as:

- Two Night Stay at Camp Lucy & Dinner for Two at Tillie's

- Wine tasting packages

- 4 UT Men's Basketball tickets

- 4 Austin FC tickets

- Spa packages

and much more!

The Austin Bar's Mentorship Committee is excited to bring you this lunch with newly minted Judge Sherine Thomas of the 353rd District Court! This lunch will be especially useful to practitioners who specialize in child custody matters.

This lunch is reserved for attorneys licensed 10 years or less. Please RSVP to DeLaine Ward. 

Date: March 25, 2025

Time: 12 - 1 p.m.

Location: CFCF, 1700 Guadalupe

Cost: Free (lunch provided)

The Austin Bar's Mentorship Committee is excited to bring you this breakfast with newly minted Judge Sandra Avila Ramirez of the 98th District Court! This breakfast will be especially enlightening for juvenile law/family law practitioners, as the 98th Court handles these cases.

This breakfast is reserved for attorneys licensed 10 years or less. Please RSVP to DeLaine Ward. 

Date: Feb. 26, 2025

Time: 9 a.m.

Location: Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center, 2515 S. Congress

Complimentary breakfast tacos, coffee, juice, and pastries.

You're invited to have lunch with new Third Court of Appeals Justice Maggie Ellis! Get to know Justice Ellis and her inspiring story. 

This lunch is limited to 10 attorneys in their first 10 years of practice. Please RSVP to DeLaine Ward.

Date: Jan. 24, 2025

Time: 11:30 a.m.

Location: Curra's Hyde Park, 4215 Duval St.

Join us for an enriching and inspiring mentoring lunch hosted by the Estate Planning & Probate Section of the Austin Bar. We are honored to have Judge Chu of Austin, TX, as our distinguished guest.

Date: Jan. 30th, 2025

Time: Noon - 1 p.m.

Location: 200 W. 8th St. Fourth Floor Austin, TX 78701

Register here

Attorneys who wish to serve on the 2025/2026 Austin Young Lawyers Association (AYLA) Board of Directors have until March 7, 2025 to formally sign up to run. Serving as a Director on the AYLA Board represents a great way to gain leadership experience, shape the local legal community, and meet other young attorneys who roam outside of the confines of your own office and legal field. To be eligible for a Board position, a candidate must be a current AYLA member and be 40 years of age or younger as of July 1, 2025. To be placed on the ballot, submit a nomination form signed by 10 current AYLA members to Debbie Kelly at debbie@austinbar.org by March 7, 2025. Nomination forms and additional information can be found online at ayla.org. Don’t miss this chance to get plugged into—and lead—your generation of Austin attorneys. 

AYLA Election Rules

Election Form

The Austin Bar's Mentorship Committee invites you to attend Thriving Through the Stress: Managing Trauma and Burnout in Law.

Trauma and burnout are pervasive in the legal profession, but they don’t have to define your career or your well-being. This dynamic CLE program dives into the hidden emotional costs of lawyering, exploring both the direct and secondary traumas lawyers face. Learn how these challenges impact wellness, fuel burnout, and lead to compassion fatigue. Through practical tools and actionable strategies, this session will empower you to process trauma, safeguard your mental health, and thrive in the high-stakes world of law. Don’t just survive your career—reclaim it.

Date: Jan. 15, 2024

Time: 12 - 1 p.m.

Location: Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody, 401 Congress, Suite 2700

Speaker: Paul Jacobs, Texas Lawyers' Assistance Program

Credit: 1.00 general CLE

Register here. Registration closes at noon, Jan. 14.

Lunch sponsored by Cornell Smith Mierl Brutaocao Burton