Laura Gibson has big goals for her year as 2015-2016 president of the Houston Bar Association. Those include free continuing legal education classes, a beefed-up mentoring program for new lawyers, an opera fundraiser for the Houston Volunteer Lawyers and a project bringing Texas judicial history to Houston-area classrooms, Gibson said.

Gibson, a partner in Ogden, Gibson, Broocks, Longoria & Hall in Houston, said she hopes the programs on tap for this year will encourage more lawyers in Houston to join the HBA. She said 11,300 of about 23,000 lawyers in Houston are members of the local bar association.

Gibson, who was sworn in on May 21 at the bar's annual meeting, said the HBA will provide members with the opportunity for 35 hours of online free CLE, continuing a program started by her predecessor, M. Carter Crow, the partner-in-charge in Houston for Norton Rose Fulbright.