William Powers Jr.

Texas Appleseed is deeply honored to present the 2010 J. Chrys Dougherty Good Apple Award to William Powers Jr., the 28th president of The University of Texas at Austin and former Dean of the university’s School of Law.  Mr. Powers is widely respected as a legal scholar and a national leader within higher education whose life’s work is characterized by a passion for greater justice, a dedication to protecting the public interest, and an unwavering commitment to fostering greater diversity within legal education and the legal profession.

After attending Harvard Law School and serving in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Powers joined the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law in 1977 where he established a reputation as one of the nation’s leading scholars in personal injury and products liability.  He is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor and holds the Hines H. Baker and Thelma Kelley Baker Chair in Law.  As Dean of the law school, Mr. Powers’ emphasis on promoting diversity led to the quadrupling of the number of African American students and the doubling of the number of Hispanic law students -- an achievement attracting national attention, including four consecutive top rankings of the law school as the “number one pick” for Hispanic students by Hispanic Business magazine.

Mr. Powers has worked as a legal consultant with the U.S. Congress, the Brazilian legislature, and the Texas legislature.  In 2001, he chaired a committee that examined the financial transactions of the Enron Corporation.  The resulting report received widespread attention and has come to be known as “The Powers Report.”

Mr. Powers has authored dozens of articles of articles on tort law and legal philosophy and several books on products liability.  He and his wife, Kim Heilbrun, a commercial real estate attorney, have five children.

Pro Bono Awards

2010 Pro Bono Leadership Award
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Texas Appleseed will present the 2010 Pro Bono Leadership Award to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP for their extraordinary commitment to protecting the rights of thousands of immigrants with mental disabilities in our state and nation's immigration courts and detention centers.  The firm’s Pro Bono Partner Steven Schulman enlisted more than 20 attorneys who donated more than 2,600 hours help Texas Appleseed research, conduct field interviews, and develop policy recommendations for improved legal representation and quality of care in the immigration system.  Our findings are the subject of ongoing meetings with the U.S. Department of Justice and Immigration Customs Enforcement to explore needed reforms.