Paul
Furrh
Nominated by Clarissa Ayala
"Paul began his legal aid career at East Texas Legal Services (ETLS) in 1980 and was named executive director in 1982. ln 2002, when ETLS merged with Gulf Coast Legal Foundation and a portion of Legal Aid of Central Texas to form Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA), he was named chief executive officer.
LSLA serves over two million eligible clients (at 125% poverty) in rural and urban areas. The organization has a proud and long-standing tradition of successful client-centered work and has achieved victories that not only benefit the individual clients who brought forth legal issues but also have broader impacts on low-income communities at the local, state and national levels. The firm's actions have led to systemic policy and procedural changes in domestic violence, public education, public housing desegregation and health care access for children.
Under Paul's leadership, LSLA has played and continues to play a vital role in helping low-income individuals and families recover from disasters. To put matters into perspective, Texas claimed seven of the fourteen National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Disasters in 2019 and is the only state to regularly face disasters from each category the agency tracks - drought, tropical cyclone, flooding, wildfire, freeze, winter storm and severe storm. Paul’s MIE Article "In The Time of Malhado," sets out a disaster outreach process replicated by many legal aid programs nationally.
Hurricane Harvey caused 100-year flood plan flooding. An explosion and fire caused by the flooding destroyed LSLA's Houston Headquarters. Paul oversaw the litigation, final settlement and three-year effort to rebuild its headquarters. The Houston staff operated at first from disaster recovery centers, coffee shops and donated spaces, and later from home when the pandemic hit and presented the entire world with a new type of disaster.
In 1998, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) required states to engage in State-Planning to consider coordinated legal services in each state. His peers elected Paul to chair the Texas Legal Services Corporation Planning Committee, which developed a plan LSC accepted to reconfigure eleven LSC programs to the current three. The mergers in 2002 marked a significant change in the delivery of legal services in Texas and created three of the largest LSC programs in the nation.
Under Paul's leadership, and since the merger 22 years ago, LSLA has tripled its staff and budget. LSLA consistently resolves more than 25,000 cases and helps over 60,000 individuals and families annually. Over the last 44 years, Paul has hired, developed and trained advocates who have become "lifers" like him. He believes keeping and developing excellent lawyers is the key to providing high-quality litigation for our client community and producing experts that serve them. He has adopted competitive salary scales and benefits for legal aid staff, and LSLA salary scales are at the top in Texas. None of this work could have been accomplished without Paul's skills, knowledge and willingness to help others. He has left a permanent mark on legal aid in Texas and the nation."
