Texas Lawyer Richard Pena is New Member of ABA Board of Governors
CHICAGO, Aug. 14, 2007 – Richard Pena of Austin, founder and CEO of the Law Offices of Richard Pena, P.C., took office today for a three-year term as a member of the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. His term began at the conclusion of the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
As governor of the ABA’s 8th District, Pena will represent Texas and Florida. The board meets at least four times yearly to oversee administration and management of the association.
At the Law Offices of Richard Pena, P.C., which concentrates on representing individuals in on-the-job and other injuries, Pena’s professional practice has involved bringing opposing sides together and working for successful resolutions to conflicts, be it working with other attorneys as president of the State Bar of Texas, meeting with leading lawyers throughout the world as head of numerous People to People Ambassador Program legal delegations, or in handling and successfully resolving thousands of cases through the years. He is also the founder of Center Court Mediation Group.
Pena has been a member of the ABA House of Delegates since 1998 and served as a state delegate from 2002 – 2007. He has also served on the Nominating Committee Executive Committee, Conference of State Delegates and the Presidential Appointments Advisory Committee; as chair, Fellows of the American Bar Association; and on the ABA Task Force on Hurricane Katrina, among numerous other association appointments.
Pena is past president of the State Bar of Texas and the Travis County Bar Association, and former chair of the Texas Bar Foundation and the American Bar Foundation. Through the People to People Ambassador Program, Pena led delegations of Texas and U.S. lawyers to South Africa, China, Tibet, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia and India.
Pena received his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was awarded an honorary membership in the Order of the Coif. He also obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas. In 2007 Pena received the Distinguished Lawyer Award from the Austin Bar Association.
With more than 413,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.
