What Texas Attorneys Need to Know About Vacation Letters, Artificial Intelligence, Mental Health & This Year’s Annual Meeting

Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to the State Bar of Texas podcast, your monthly source for conversations and curated content to improve your law practice with your host, Rocky Dhir.

Rocky Dhir:

Hi, and welcome to the State Bar of Texas podcast. On June 21st, 2024, Cindy Tisdale will be the happiest and the saddest lawyer in Texas. Happy because you’ll no longer bear the burden of being the President of the State Bar of Texas. And sad because she will no longer experience the thrill of being the president of the State Bar of Texas. Yes, that’s right. On that day, Cindy will hand the reins over to Steve Benish and it’s all part of a grand tradition. We all fondly know it as a state bar of Texas annual meeting. This year’s meeting will take place on June 20th and 21st in Dallas, Texas. And I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful the annual meeting is. I speak from experience, been at every single one since 2009. There’s CLE socializing and a celebration of the practice of law, something that we lawyers can sometimes take for granted. Oh, and don’t forget those hotel conference lunches, the ones where you need a granola bar and a frappuccino afterwards. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. Alright, so today we look back at Cindy’s presidency and then we look forward to what this year’s annual meeting has in store for us. So along with Cindy Tisdale, I’m joined by Trey Apffel, the executive director of the State Bar of Texas. Welcome you crazy kids. Great to have you back.

Cindy Tisdale:

Thank you. Rocky. Good to be here. Thank you, Rocky. Thank you for having us on.

Rocky Dhir:

Absolutely. So Cindy, you’ve been busy.

Cindy Tisdale:

That’s an understatement. Yes, a little bit.

Rocky Dhir:

You should do what I would do. I mean, if I was president, I would just sit back, collect the money and run, but you decided to actually do your job. That’s unheard of. Why would you do this?

Cindy Tisdale:

Why would I do this? Yeah, good question. I get that a lot. I’ll be honest with you. I love this profession. It has given me everything. It’s given my family everything, and if I have the opportunity to give back, that’s what I need to do. And that’s this opportunity to see if I can help other lawyers and give back to the profession.

Rocky Dhir:

Speaking of giving back, and that’s given you everything. One of the things you’ve been really working a lot on is lawyer wellbeing. And I wouldn’t say you’re the only president that’s worked on that, but you’ve certainly taken huge strides in that direction. So tell us a little bit about your wellbeing efforts and talk to us about Better health.com. This is intriguing and I want them to hear it from you, not from me.

Cindy Tisdale:

Rocky. I am so excited about this program. Just to give you a little bit of background, if I may please. I’m a family law attorney, so I deal with people’s problems every day, but so does every other lawyer, every other judge. And I had a former client call me last spring before I became president, before I was sworn in, and I finished his modification the fall before. He called me and said, well, I think my current wife is about to file for divorce. And I said, okay, let’s get you on the books for next week. We’ll talk about it. He’s like, he mentioned, I don’t know if I’m going to have the money this time. I said, look, let’s get you on the books. I can’t talk now. Let’s get you on the calendar for next week and we’ll discuss it. The next thing I know is I got a phone call that instead of doing that, he picked up a gun and shot and killed his wife and himself. Oh,

Rocky Dhir:

Good Lord. Oh my gosh.

Cindy Tisdale:

Exactly. I wish I could say it was the first time, but it wasn’t. I wish I could say it was the last time in my practice. It probably won’t be. But that really started me thinking of, we have such a great program in the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program. They do such good work. And I thought, why can’t we do something to kind of supplement T laps program? And so I’m very excited to announce that we are partnering with Better Help, better help.com. It is costing theBar $0. They’re offering every state bar attorney, Texas State Bar Attorney, every member of the paralegal division and every member of the law student division, one month free therapy and counseling. And then after that, it’s 15% off all of their services.

Rocky Dhir:

That’s incredible. So

Cindy Tisdale:

I’m very excited about that. Yeah.

Rocky Dhir:

Let’s talk about what one month of mental health therapy means. Is that four sessions or is that as many as you need? Depending on your situation, how do they calculate what that value is?

Cindy Tisdale:

It’s as many as you need because they have different subscriptions is my understanding. And so you have to sign up on the state bar website and there’s a code. You’re given a code, you do have to put in your credit card information, but you put in that code and then you cancel after one month and you get no charges. And so it depends on which subscription you want to sign up for at that point. And like I said, I’m very excited about it because for us to be able to help our clients, we need to take care of ourselves first. And I’m a big believer of that and I want to get rid of that stigma of counseling because there’s nothing wrong with needing counseling. And so I’m very excited about this and hope it helps our members.

Rocky Dhir:

Now let’s talk for a second about what better Help is for those that are unfamiliar. And if you want to walk ’em through it, that’s great. If not, I can give ’em the Dime store tour, but it’s a really phenomenal service

Cindy Tisdale:

And you can go to their website, better help.com. But if you go through the state bar website to better help, it will link you with the code. So just to let you know that. And it gives you a landing page. And so what are you looking for? Are you looking for counseling for yourself? Are you looking for counseling for your child? Something to that effect. And it takes you through that. And once you answer that, it gives you all of these questions and you answer these questions and then it pairs you with a counselor and you see all of the background for that counselor. If you don’t like that one for whatever reason, just say, I want to pick a new one, no problem. They’ll pair you with another one. If you have one counseling session with a counselor, you for some reason don’t get it off of that counselor, no problem. You’re not stuck with that. You could ask for a new one and get a new one. It’s all online, and most importantly, it’s all confidential. The state bar will not know who is using this for their personal lives or in their lives. All we know is how many calls that they get or how many people are using it. We don’t know. It’s confidential.

Rocky Dhir:

Just to reiterate, better help.com, it’s an online service. So for those thinking that this means that they get hooked up with a local therapist, they go into the office and they sit on a couch, that’s not what this is. This is your office or your home or wherever you choose to do the sessions. You’re basically doing this remote, kind of like a Zoom meeting.

Cindy Tisdale:

That’s correct. So you can work better with that scheduling, right? If you have clients all day in your office, you don’t have to leave and go to a counselor’s office. You can sit there at your computer and do it. I’ve heard from some people, especially small town lawyers, because they don’t want to go to a counselor in their own town that knows everybody’s business or that’s right down the street from them. And so there’s a little bit more anonymity with this. And so again, it’s all online. I hope that our members utilize it

Rocky Dhir:

Well. And for members that do want to utilize it, go to Texas bar.com/better help. That’s where you’re going to find it. So you can go straight there. And as Cindy said, that’s going to land you onto the landing page that gets you directly and gets you the code and everything, so it makes it super easy for you. So that’s Texas bar.com/better help. So be sure and take advantage of that. Now, Cindy, how does this work with tla? This is a supplement to tla, and our July episode is going to be talking about TA. And so could you comment for a second about how the two kind of work together?

Cindy Tisdale:

Sure. Well, as we all know, TA does such great work in helping our members that are facing substance abuse issues or alcohol issues or mental health problems. And what I see this working at is working in conjunction with TA to try to help attorneys through their mental health issues before they get to a crisis point. Because again, the vicarious trauma that attorneys see every day in how we live in judges, we’re kind of on the front lines. We see things we never want to see and never want to see again or hear things, right? Sure. And so we suffer that vicarious trauma. So hopefully this better help will aid attorneys in getting the help they need before it ever reaches a crisis point. But again, it’s going to be in conjunction with TLA P. It’s going to be under that umbrella, but it’s just going to again, be a different level of service for our members to be able to get the help that they need.

Rocky Dhir:

And just as a reminder for folks, if you do need to reach out to TLA for yourself or for a colleague, please be sure to check out that website. It is www.tlahelps.org. T-L-A-P-H-E-L-P s.org could save you or someone and care about. So please do take this seriously. This is maybe a great opportunity for us to switch gears. And before we do, we’re going to come back. We’re going to talk a little bit about artificial intelligence, which I could use some implants in my brain. It doesn’t work all the time. So we’re going to talk about artificial intelligence and how Texas lawyers can benefit from it. But we’re going to do that after a quick word from one of our sponsors. We’ll be right back. And we are back with Cindy Tisdale and Trey Apfel as we talk about Cindy’s absolutely stellar year as president of the State Bar of Texas.

And then Trey’s going to walk us through this year’s annual meeting, which is going to be a doozy. But we’ve been talking a bit about Cindy’s work as president and what her initiatives have been. One of them is an artificial intelligence task force. Cindy talked to us about that. I mean, I know a lot of lawyers have been grappling with it. We make jokes about it, but this is serious business and it could affect our business positively and or negatively. So walk us through what that is and what have you been doing as president to help us clear this minefield?

Cindy Tisdale:

Sure. I don’t think it’s a matter of it could affect our business. I think it is affecting our business. It’s one of those, it’s not coming. It’s already here type of things. And I always say the joke, I know how to spell AI and that’s where it ends. But I’ve learned a lot this year, to be honest with you. I was actually with Trey. We were at the Fifth Circuit conference and I heard a program on ai. And at that point, Trey and I kind of looked at each other and we both, we need to get ahead of this. And that’s where this task force came into being.

Rocky Dhir:

And how long ago was this? When did this happen?

Cindy Tisdale:

This was last spring, about a year ago.

Rocky Dhir:

Wow. Okay. So it’s been a whirlwind.

Cindy Tisdale:

It’s been a whirlwind, yes. So that was kind of one of my first things that I did as president is to put together this task force of amazing people, both judges, lawyers, people in the cybersecurity world and the private AI world.

Rocky Dhir:

Did you ask chat GPT to help you put the team together? That would’ve been ironic. That would’ve been super cool.

Cindy Tisdale:

It would’ve been, no, I didn’t. Maybe I

Rocky Dhir:

Should have. I mean, hindsight. Hindsight is 2020.

Cindy Tisdale:

Maybe they could have written my mission statement for me, but

Rocky Dhir:

They’d have stolen from somebody else and it had no citations. But that’s okay.

Cindy Tisdale:

That’s okay. Or they’d made ’em up.

Rocky Dhir:

That’s right. That’s right.

Cindy Tisdale:

Yeah. But now they’ve been meeting for all of this time, very excited about it. They have put together an interim report that if anybody’s interested in it, it’s on the state bar website. You can go look at their interim report there. What that interim report did is basically they’re making some recommendations of what we need to be looking at. Those include things like recommending that theBar undertake initiatives to provide lawyers with training on ai, its risks, the best practices for its use, and that includes CLE courses, articles, web resources. Also, they recommended that the state bar provide information about responsible use of AI to the public recommending that MCLE committee consider including training on generative AI as a mandatory requirement, recommending theBar investigate the development of AI tools specific to the practice of law and how they could approve the practice of law. And of course, monitor on an ongoing basis, ai, because as we know, it’s changing not only month to month, but day to day.

Rocky Dhir:

Oh, sometimes minute to minute In terms of what they’re coming up with. Is there some sense from the committee about how, I think for most lawyers, what’s intimidating about AI is that it’s science and it sounds like math. And that’s what most of us went to law school to avoid. And now here we are having to learn these technology concepts that most of us never thought we’d have to do. So is there a sense that we as lawyers can actually become proficient? Are we trying to talk about how to use the programs that come out that are using AI? Or are we talking about actually learning how AI works so that if we have to, we can design our own AI systems for our practices? I mean, what’s the goal of this entire AI initiative?

Cindy Tisdale:

I don’t think it’s to point attorneys to a specific platform. It’s more of the ethical uses or non-use of it. Just to give you an example, Rocky, if I have 10,000 documents that I’ve received in discovery and I need to go through and find each instance where there’s one particular charge on a credit card, do I have an attorney go through and spend hours looking at that? Or do I have a platform that I could put those documents into and it does it within about 10 seconds? Okay, well, if I do that, that saves the client money. Maybe do I trust that? Do I need an attorney to review that? And then also, who has that information? Did I just put client confidential information out into the world? And so there’s lots of platforms. We’re not saying you should use one platform or another, but if it’s going to be used, if you’re using it in your practice, how to use it ethically and responsibly for your client.

Rocky Dhir:

So what are the next steps for this AI task force? I mean, it sounds like the work is ongoing. So what do we need to be on the lookout for?

Cindy Tisdale:

They will be putting together their final report to present to the board at our Jude board meeting. And so be looking for that. Talking about annual meeting Rocky, the task force chair, John Browning and one of its members, district Judge Roy Ferguson are going to be presenting on the work of the task force and AI at the annual meeting.

Rocky Dhir:

Oh, very good. And they’re both phenomenal speakers. So if you haven’t already, guys, make an effort to go out there and check them out. Now I have to say, Cindy, I think you might be the most fun president we’ve ever had because you have focused a lot of your time on vacations, which is great. Talk to us about vacation letters and why did that become an important part of your platform? I think it’s awesome, and I’m hoping this year’s annual meeting has margaritas involved. But tell us about the vacations and why they’re important.

Cindy Tisdale:

I don’t have control over that Rocky, sorry, but yeah, vacation letters and I think I might need one after June.

Rocky Dhir:

I think you’ve deserved one. I

Cindy Tisdale:

Was a solo practitioner for years, and vacation letters were kind of the bane of my existence. Every county is different. Their local rules are different. We have some counties that have a limit on how much time you could take. There’s some counties that have a time limit. You have to have them in by a certain date for the entire year. I have one county, actually, I still have to fax my vacation letter to believe it or not. So

Rocky Dhir:

You have to go to your doctor’s office and use their fax machine.

Cindy Tisdale:

Exactly. I’m trying to tell everybody I have no authority to change a judge’s local rules. That’s not my goal in all of this. My goal is to try to come up with a system that’s easier for attorneys that makes life easier for attorneys. And the law practice management committee studied, like I said, all the variations across the different counties, and they’re still looking at that, but I’m very happy to say that the Office of Court administration is working to add that vacation letters to their system. So it’s going to be more of a kind of a one-stop shop for attorneys to upload their vacation letters instead of sending it out to 50 different courts, opposing counsels and everything else, and having to update that list all the time. Because I can tell you as president, my vacation letter changes almost daily when I have a judge calling me saying, Cindy, can you just let me know when you can be in my court rather when you can’t?

That might make it easier, which is true, but it’s actually another attorney that brought this idea to me. I can’t take credit for it, but I really started thinking that would actually make life a little bit easier for attorneys that, especially solo attorneys. And why not? This is something we should look at. And just like the AI task force, just like the Wellbeing initiative and the partnership with Better Health, the vacation letters, I wish I could take credit, but it was a state bar staff that did all of this. I had ideas, I voiced my ideas, and they not only ran with it, they have succeeded and fulfilled every expectation I have and exceeded it. So I have to give them all the credit because they’ve done a tremendous job on this.

Rocky Dhir:

I’ve been very familiar with the state bar staff for many years now, having worked on annual meeting initiatives. And I can tell you these guys are phenomenal. And that makes a great segue to talking to Trey about the amazing staff that he oversees and what they’ve got in store for us for this year’s annual meeting. But before we do that, we’ve got another word from one of our sponsors. So we’re going to come back and when we do, we’re going to talk about this year’s annual meeting. You don’t want to miss it. And in case you want to look it up during the break, go to Texas bar.com/annual meeting and then you can be ready and prepared for what Trey has in store for us. We’ll be right back, and we are back. I always love talking about this. Every year we get to brag about the state bar annual meeting, and every year the event just gets better and better. So we’ve just heard from President Cindy Tisdale and all the amazing things she’s been doing during her year as president. Now we’re going to shift gears and talk to Trey Apffel, the executive director of the State Bar of Texas. Trey, welcome back. We love having you. You’re overseeing probably some of the best professionals I can imagine of any state bar anywhere. That’s a lot of power for one man.

Trey Apffel:

Well, lemme tell you, thank you for having us Rocky. And I just want to kind of dovetail off of what President Tisdale had to say. Cindy has you said she has had a stellar year. She has represented our profession with honor and dignity and distinction. She’s been a tireless worker. She has never said no. She’s been to everything gone everywhere. And she’s been an inspiration to me personally, but also to the lawyers in our profession. And we are now on the cusp of celebrating her year at our annual meeting coming up in Dallas, as you mentioned, June, 2021 at the Hilton Anatol, and we’re looking forward to that.

Rocky Dhir:

I guess this year’s theme ought to be hashtag girlboss because Cindy’s done a heck of a job. So Cindy, thank you again. Now, Trey, you mentioned it’s at the Hilton anal. That’s where we usually do it when we have it in Dallas, but that is a particularly gorgeous property for anybody who’s ever been there. So if you’re not planning on attending, you should probably revisit those and come on out. It’s an amazing place. So Trey, for those that are unfamiliar, walk us through what happens. It’s huge, and I don’t know that a lot of folks understand exactly what happens and why it’s so important that they attend.

Trey Apffel:

It’s a big production. We have several events over those two days. We have a bar leaders recognition luncheon where we will congratulate and honor winners of awards, include local bars, law related education, pro bono service awards. We will have nearly every area of the practice that will be included in our diverse programming schedule. We will have an annual meeting app to help our attendees navigate not only the programming, but also as you said, Rocky. This is a big property. You’ve got to almost have a roadmap to get around at it, but we’ll make sure that we make it easy on all of our attendees. And then obviously, you’ll be able to follow along on social media using the hashtag SBOT 24.

Rocky Dhir:

Where do you get this app and when is it available?

Trey Apffel:

So the app will be available starting June one, and that will allow you to track the events and make your schedule accordingly.

Rocky Dhir:

It’s an app like on the app store, whether it’s Apple or Google or wherever. Okay,

Trey Apffel:

That’s right. The highlight of our annual meeting. Couple of them really, but our CLE opportunities are just boundless. You can complete up to a year’s worth of CLE credits in two days for one low price. And if I may, you can get a two day full package registration for $465 or a one day either Thursday or Friday registration for $350. So I would encourage our attendees to do the full two day registration and get everything that they need during that opportunity.

Rocky Dhir:

And we’ve got some pretty amazing keynote speakers as well. The one that jumps out to me is her honor Judge Irma Ramirez, who’s just ascended to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is super cool story because that was one of those rare examples of absolute bipartisanship coming together to elevate somebody who absolutely belongs in that role. So she’s going to be our speaker on Friday, is that right?

Trey Apffel:

That’s right. At our general session luncheon, judge Irma, Carillo Remez is our newest member of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. She was, for a brief period of time, a liaison to our state bar board of directors. I think she was able to attend one of our meetings and she gracefully recused herself from the next meeting because she was in that confirmation process that led to her confirmation.

Rocky Dhir:

She has a special place in my heart. I was there when she became a federal magistrate judge in Dallas. And now to watch her Ascend is just, it is absolute poetry in motion. So looking forward to that. But before Judge Ramirez takes the stage, we’ve got some other heavy hitters too, including Camille Vasquez. Can you tell us about her and what she’s going to be doing?

Trey Apffel:

We do so at our Bar Leaders recognition luncheon. That’ll be noon on Thursday, June 20th. Camille Vasquez is going to be our keynote speaker. She’s an NBC News legal analyst, and she’s famous for her role in the Johnny Depp trial.

Rocky Dhir:

I can hear the jokes now. I’m trying to resist making jokes, but I’m going to behave today, Trey, I’m going to behave for you guys.

Trey Apffel:

She has been previously named as quote unquote one to watch by Best Lawyers in America for 20 21, 20 22. And she has extensive experience handling reputation management and crisis communications. And she had more than 10 years of experience as a trial lawyer in high stakes type cases and disputes, including other defamation cases. And then of course, we were all glued to the television during the Johnny Depp case where Camille Vasquez was representing him. And she did a marvelous job. And she is a tremendous speaker, tremendous presenter, and we couldn’t be happier to be able to have her as part of our lineup,

Rocky Dhir:

The whole one to watch thing. It’s really not that big a deal. I had a similar recognition. They called me, keep Your Eye on Him is what they called it. And then we’ve got Professor David Grano.

Trey Apffel:

That’s right. So we have our bench bar breakfast on Friday morning at 7:30 AM and Dr. Grano is professor of law and associate director of the Holleran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions. And he hails right now from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, but he’s a Texan. Bernardo was previously a professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law where he taught professional responsibility contracts, sports law, business associations, civil procedure, and even international sports law. And in this day and time where we really need to focus and highlight matters that are pertinent and germane to the legal profession, we have one of the foremost experts in the field of professional ethics and professional responsibility coming and talking to our attendees at the Bench bar breakfast.

Rocky Dhir:

Certainly don’t want to miss that. And I know we’ve also, for those, again, that have never been to the annual meeting, and it’s amazing. I meet lawyers all the time. We’ve never been, I don’t think they realize what they’re missing out on. It really is a treat. We’ve got a lot of different tracks. Can you tell us about how the tracks work? And there’s one called the Adaptable Lawyer Tracks Close to my heart. I was there when it started, but talk to us about the tracks and how they work. And then we’re going to talk about 60 apps in 60 Minutes, which that’s always a treat and is always a highlight. The room is packed out.

Trey Apffel:

Yes. So we do have the Adaptable Lawyer track along with other tracks. It’s rather fast paced type presentations where lawyers can get in, get out, they get nothing but substantive information and in different areas that they would be interested in. And we are excited about bringing the Adaptable Lawyer back this year. I too was a presenter at that several years back and really enjoyed, I

Rocky Dhir:

Remember. I remember I was there.

Trey Apffel:

Yes, absolutely. And we also, based on President Tisdale’s efforts, we are going to have a track on using artificial intelligence in your practice and then also dealing with AI policy governance and the task force report, which she alluded to previously.

Rocky Dhir:

There’s also going to be an ethics CLE, an early morning one called the Applied Ethics of ai. So for any lawyers that are trying to get ahead of the ai, well, some would argue that lawyers are already behind ai, but for those that are trying to keep up and maybe catch up, this would be a fantastic opportunity to do so. Now, I know Cindy, you’re going to be doing your leadership transition during this meeting. It’s going to culminate on Friday the 21st. What’s it going to be like for you to come back to this annual meeting and now hand the reins? I mean, what’s going through your head as you prepare for this?

Cindy Tisdale:

Honestly, Rocky, I’m very sad. I’m very sad to give it up. It’s been an amazing year. I think the best part was just the partnership I had with all of the employees and staff at the state bar, but also meeting all of the attorneys from all over the state, listening to their stories, hearing them, seeing what we could do to help them. I’m really going to miss that. But on the other hand, I’m very excited about Steve Ish’s year. I’m very excited about his leadership for theBar. So I will gladly hand over the reins to him somewhat reluctantly, but happily hand it over to him, and I’m looking forward to his year.

Rocky Dhir:

Let’s talk for a second about getting involved in the state bar. There are a lot of lawyers who may not even know what they need to do to start getting involved. So from both of you, maybe Trey will start with you on this. Why should lawyers get involved in the state bar and how can they start getting involved if they’re interested?

Trey Apffel:

The first answer that comes to mind, Rocky is the right of self-regulation. We have a profession that is regulated by lawyers in their practice. The lawyers get to vote on the people who represent them. They get to vote on the rules that regulate them. They even get to vote on the amount that they pay as a dues, so to speak, or licensing fee for the privilege of practicing. Law. Lawyers need to get involved so that right of self-regulation is protected and they exercise that right of self-regulation by voting in the various elections that we have. It’s simply a matter of saying, yes, I will step up and I will get involved. And then from there, every lawyer’s going to find their level water level, so to speak, because every lawyer’s going to have a different tolerance for whatever level of involvement they are capable of doing.

Rocky Dhir:

Cindy, how about you? You’ve gotten involved at the deepest water level you can imagine. So why should lawyers get involved and how did they start?

Cindy Tisdale:

Because we’re a profession. This is not just a job, it’s a profession, and we’re all in this together. When I first started out, I got involved through the grievance system, being on a grievance committee. From there, I kind of moved on and went to section work. I was involved with the family law section. I was put on counsel. I got on executive work my way up to chair, and that’s kind of how I started out in serving theBar in. So I tell everybody that is even remotely interested in serving on theBar. Find your niche, find something that piques your interest. Go to the St Bar website. Look at all of the standing committees. Is there something there interests you? Are you a family law attorney or another kind of attorney? Look for that section work. Get involved with a section. Are you interested in the grievance system? See if you can put your name in to be on a local grievance committee. But again, this is our bar. Like Trey said, we’re a self-regulating bar. That is the most important thing is, which means we need to self-regulate, sit back and let others do it. We need to do it ourselves. So getting involved is the best way to do that.

Rocky Dhir:

Final question for you, Cindy. If you look back, what is your favorite moment from your presidential year? Is there one thing that just stood out where you’re like, oh, I will always take that with me.

Cindy Tisdale:

Wow, just one Rocky. That’s tough.

Rocky Dhir:

This is hard hitting journalism, man. I mean, you’re not going to get off on softball questions. Is that what you thought you were coming here for? Come on now.

Cindy Tisdale:

One thing that comes to mind is I spoke at the new Lawyer’s Induction ceremony when my son just passed theBar. So my son was there at the new Lawyer’s induction ceremony to get inducted as a new lawyer when I was president. So I have to say that was pretty special.

Rocky Dhir:

Your son is a lawyer too.

Cindy Tisdale:

He is.

Rocky Dhir:

That’s just bad parenting. Cindy, what are you doing?

Cindy Tisdale:

And he’s a family law attorney and works right down the hall from me.

Rocky Dhir:

Oh, boy. Okay. We’re going to have to talk about this,

Cindy Tisdale:

But that was pretty special. That was just on a personal level, but that was pretty special.

Rocky Dhir:

That is pretty phenomenal. Well, congratulations again, Cindy, on just an absolutely. You knocked it out of the ballpark. This was an absolute home run of a year. So congratulations to you and Trey. Thank you for all the work you do as our executive director and for steering the ship every single year to make sure we don’t land on the shoals. So you guys are both rock stars. We love having you. And for those of you that are either planning to or maybe now have changed your mind, and we’ll decide to come to the annual meeting online, registration is open through June 16th. Would love to see you there. Go to Texas bar.com/annual meeting. I cannot emphasize enough how absolutely amazing this is. So Cindy and Trey, thank you both for joining us today and for all of your leadership of the state bar.

Cindy Tisdale:

Thank you, Rocky. Thank you, Rocky.

Rocky Dhir:

And of course, I want to thank you for tuning in. I want to encourage you to stay safe, be well, and come to the annual meeting. If you like what you heard today, please rate and review us. An Apple Podcast, Google podcast, or your favorite podcast app. Until next time, remember, life’s a journey, folks. I’m Rocky Dhir signing off.

Announcer:

If you’d like more information about today’s show, please visit legal talk network.com. Go to Texas bar.com/podcast. Subscribe via Apple Podcast and RSS. Find both the State Bar of Texas and Legal Talk Network on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or download the free app from Legal Talk Network in Google Play and iTunes. The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by the State Bar of Texas Legal Talk Network or their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, shareholders, or subsidiaries. None of the content should be considered legal advice. As always, consult a lawyer.

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