Notices and Announcements

Volume 17, Issue 3

Call For Award Nominations: Galen Sparks and Susan Rocha Awards for Outstanding Public Service

Galen Sparks served as an assistant city attorney and dedicated public servant for the City of Dallas for over 27 years. He distinguished himself in a variety of areas of municipal law and generously shared his time and expertise in a way that substantially enhanced the professionalism of his fellow municipal lawyers. The TCAA “Galen Sparks Award for Outstanding Public Service” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former city attorney or assistant city attorney for significant and distinguished career achievements in the field of municipal law.

The TCAA board grants one award each year for an in-house city attorney or assistant city attorney.

Susan Rocha served as an assistant city attorney for the City of San Antonio early in her career, and went on to be a trailblazer in municipal law. She served as president of both the Texas City Attorneys Association and the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and was a mentor and role model for many attorneys in the field due to her hard work, many achievements, and – of course – irrepressible personality. The TCAA “Susan Rocha Award for Outstanding Public Service” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former city attorney or assistant city attorney for significant and distinguished career achievements in the field of municipal law.

The TCAA board grants one award each year for outside counsel serving as a city attorney or assistant city attorney.

The recipients of these awards will be honored at the TCAA Summer Conference. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration for the conference. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 15, 2022. The criteria and the nomination form are available here.

Call For Award Nominations: TCAA Outstanding Mentor Award

Just about every lawyer has a mentor who guided his or her career. In an effort to recognize the efforts of a special municipal law mentor, the TCAA Board of Directors created the TCAA “Outstanding Mentor Award.” The award is intended to recognize and honor a municipal attorney for his or her significant and distinguished mentoring achievements related to young attorneys and their practice in the field of municipal law.

The nominee must have demonstrated the qualities of a mentor to one or more young municipal attorneys by: (1) serving as a role model to young municipal lawyers in his or her community; (2) fostering the development of young municipal lawyers; and (3) significantly contributing to the profession and/or the community.

The recipient of this award will be honored at the TCAA Summer Conference. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration for the conference. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 15, 2022. The criteria and the nomination form are available here.

SAVE THE DATE – 2022 TCAA Summer Conference!

The 2022 Summer Conference will take place on June 15-17, 2022, at the San Luis Resort Spa & Conference Center, in Galveston. Conference registration and hotel block reservations will open this month. Please watch your inbox for more details next week!

TCAA Online Membership Directory

Looking to find the contact information for a fellow TCAA member? You can find it using the TCAA membership directory, available here.

IMLA Membership

Membership with IMLA doesn’t just mean discounts to their events. It’s much more than that. Click here to view a quick video about IMLA membership.

Continuing Legal Education

2021 TCAA Summer Conference, 2021 Fall Conference, and 2022 Riley Fletcher Seminar

These TCAA online seminars are FREE, allowing TCAA members who are city attorneys, assistant city attorneys, or attorneys who regularly practice municipal law to view the videos from the conferences in a singlesession format.  Viewing a session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. To view these seminars, please visit tcaaonlineseminars.org. (Use the case-sensitive password “FreeCLE” to gain access to the sessions.)

If you would like to have an article considered for publication in the TCAA newsletter, please send your request to Amber McKeon-Mueller at amber@tml.org.