Houston attorney David Adler/courtesy photo

Winning accolades from federal judges for selflessly serving others is nice, but what makes it even better, according to Houston attorney David Adler, is when the award is named after your legal hero.

Adler, a former CIA officer turned criminal defense attorney, is set to receive the first-ever Judge Thomas M. Reavley Award for Outstanding Public Service from the U.S. District Courts of the Southern District of Texas for his work helping indigent defendants.

Reavley is a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit senior judge who is one of the oldest serving federal judges in the nation at the age of 97.

Reavley has devoted almost all of his 97 years to public service, beginning by serving in the U.S. Navy for three years during World War II, working as an assistant DA in Dallas, serving as the county attorney in his hometown of Nacogdoches, and later as secretary of state of Texas. Reavley's judicial career includes a stint as a state district judge in Austin, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court and since 1979, a judge on the Fifth Circuit.

Adler has headed up the Criminal Justice Act Panel in the Southern District since 2009. That group helps recruit and train qualified private attorneys in representing indigent federal criminal defendants along with the Southern District of Texas Public Defenders Office.

And Adler spends a great deal of time answering legal questions from the 300 CJA panel attorneys, locating expert witnesses and helping them get paid by the clerk of court, serving as substitute counsel when CJA panel attorneys aren't available, and working with Southern District judges to ensure that the CJA panel attorneys respond to the needs of the entire district. And he does all of this for free.

“David Adler's service as the CJA Panel representative is uncompensated and receives no public recognition,” the award from the judges notes. “His service has been outstanding in quality and quantity. It has benefited the quality of the representation that defendants throughout our district receive. It is that contribution to improving the administration of justice throughout our district that earns David Adler the thanks of the court and the inaugural Judge Thomas M. Reavley Award.”

Winning the first-ever award with Reavley's name on it is a really big deal to Adler.

“To receive an award named after Thomas Reavley is probably the highest point in my career,” Adler said. “Not only is he a great judge, but his service to the country goes back decades.”

“I'm assuming my career is all downhill from here,'' Adler added.

Adler was also recognized by Texas Lawyer last year as “Appellate Lawyer of the Week” after convincing U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas of Houston to overturn the life sentence of a client based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. That decision was overturned by the Fifth Circuit earlier this year.