Richard Roper , U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, will leave his post and start as a partner in Thompson & Knight in Dallas on Jan. 5. “I’ve been a government lawyer forever, so this will be new for me,” says Roper. Jim Jacks , first assistant U.S. attorney, will become acting U.S. attorney until the Senate confirms Roper’s permanent replacement, Roper says. President George W. Bush nominated Roper to serve as U.S. attorney for the Northern District in 2004. For several months prior to that, Roper had served as interim U.S. attorney, after his predecessor, Jane Boyle , became a federal judge in Dallas. Roper, who has worked in the U.S. attorney’s office since 1987, had served as deputy criminal chief of the Fort Worth division of that office from 2000 until he replaced Boyle. At Thompson & Knight, administrative partner Larry Hicks says Roper will be the first — and for now only — white-collar criminal defense lawyer in the Dallas office, but he will work with the firm’s partners in Austin and San Antonio who handle white-collar criminal defense matters. Hicks and Roper say they expect the practice to grow as Roper’s private practice increases.
Going Private
A first-of-its-kind program in Texas is scheduled to open Jan. 15 in Lubbock, providing specially trained private practitioners to represent indigent criminal defendants who are mentally ill or retarded. Philip Wischkaemper , a Lubbock Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (LCDLA) member who helped develop the program, says, “It’s the first private defender service in the state.” [See "First and Goal: LCDLA Close to Creating Nonprofit to Run Private Defender's Office," Texas Lawyer, Aug. 11, 2008, page 1.] Private attorneys appointed by the director of the Lubbock Special Needs Defenders’ Office , a nonprofit corporation formed by the LCDLA in October, will represent the indigent clients, says Lubbock solo Ted Hogan , a member of the corporation’s board of directors. On Dec. 22, the Lubbock County Commissioners Court approved a contract with the corporation to run the program. Precinct 4 Commissioner Patti Jones says the commissioners see the program as a way to ensure that jailed indigents with mental health issues receive legal assistance within 24 hours after they are arrested, so they can receive the services they need. “That’s been a void in the system,” Jones says. On June 18, the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense awarded a state-funded four-year grant totaling $419,360 to Lubbock County to set up the program. David Slayton, Lubbock County’s director of court administration, says the amount of state funding for the program will decrease in increments over the first four years of operations as the amount the county provides increases. In the fifth year, the county will assume full responsibility for funding the program, Slayton says. Hogan says the county will pay lawyers who represent mentally impaired clients, but the Special Needs Defenders’ Office director will review the bills that the attorneys submit for payment. Wischkaemper, the capital assistance attorney for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association , says a peer review committee will determine which attorney applicants qualify for appointments. Attorneys seeking appointments through the new program must complete a minimum of 12 hours of continuing legal education on mental health issues in addition to CLE hours in criminal law, Wischkaemper says.
