During the 39 years I practiced law, I continued to nurse along my own historical projects, mainly in the area of legal history, as time occasionally permitted; and I thought to myself, "There must be other lawyers in Dallas like me, practitioners who have maintained a keen interest in history and who have their own projects." Then, twelve years ago, the redoubtable Peter Vogel (the "first computer lawyer in Texas" and a former President of the Dallas Bar Ass'n) suggested that I just create and announce my own group, informally but under the capacious umbrella of the Dallas Bar Ass'n, and see who shows up. So I did, naming the ad hoc group the "DBA Legal History Discussion Group." I made the first presentation on October 17, 2007, with a small handful of historically minded lawyers in attendance.
And then it took off. Over the past eleven years, I've organized 61 legal history presentations, almost even divided between academics, both historians and law professors, and Dallas lawyers who have a book or an article or a research project. I always obtain "continuing legal education" credit for the lawyer-attendees of the one hour presentations, and the sessions are always free of charge. It has been for me the hosting of a sort of a wide ranging seminar, as disclosed by the topics and speakers reported on this list:
---> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KS6VeSGYr6JpTKU6QMGbK1dyMVDOP9gx
For more information, contact me . . . . and in future posts, I will be talking about what exactly is "legal history" these days . . . .