Three Views on Justice Reform in Coastal Counties: Prosecutor, Defense Attorney, and Judge Turned Oil and Gas Industry Advocate

Contact:

Robert Elder, Communications Director 
512-374-2764, relder@trla.org 

Hannah Allison, Director of Events and Special Development 
(512) 374-2704, hallison@trla.org 

Three Views on Justice Reform in Coastal Counties: Prosecutor, Defense Attorney, and Judge Turned Oil and Gas Industry Advocate

Oct 27, 2020 

Legal and corporate leaders in the Coastal Counties will discuss justice reform as part of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid’s (TRLA) Finding the Way Forward series. 

Two of the panelists are in the trenches of the debate over justice reform: Constance Filley Johnson, who was elected in 2018 as the criminal district attorney for Victoria County, and Lisa Greenberg, a criminal defense attorney in Corpus Christi and president of the Coastal Bend Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. 

They will be joined by Stephanie Moreno, a former County Judge for Bee County who is the executive director for the South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable, an oil and gas trade association. 

The Coastal Counties discussion is Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. via Zoom Webinar. Attendees must register in advance at www.trla.org/finding-the-way-forward.  

With moderator Kim Rolla, the interim legal director for Civil Rights & Racial Justice Program at the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center, the three local leaders will discuss: 

  • The movement to decriminalize marijuana and alternatives to incarceration for drug offenses; 

  • Special court programs such as those for mental health and veterans, and how criminal justice should work in tandem with public health policy; 

  • The role corporations can play in justice reform; and  

  • The voting rights of people who have finished serving a sentence for a felony conviction. 

The first two conversations in Finding the Way Forward series took place on Sept. 30 in Travis County and Oct. 14 in Bexar County. 

The final three conversations with local leaders in justice reform are: 

Nov. 18: El Paso County  

Dec. 3: Webb County  

Dec. 9: Rio Grande Valley  

Tickets for each conversation are $25. Ticket sales support TRLA’s ability to address the significant increase in the need for legal services across Southwest Texas. 

Complimentary access is available to the press. Contact Hannah Allison at hallison@trla.org for a virtual press pass. 

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid provides free legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney in 68 southwestern counties, including the entire Texas-Mexico border. TRLA attorneys specialize in more than 45 areas of the law, including disaster assistance, family, employment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, landlord-tenant, housing, education, immigration, farmworker, and civil rights. Our hotline is open from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CST) Monday – Friday: (956) 996-8752. 

Chris Ramirez