SCHOOL OF LAW

Contact: Laura Castro
Communications Strategy Manager
lcastro@mail.law.utexas.edu
512-232-1229

AUSTIN, Tex. — Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, speaking to an overflow crowd at the UT School of Law during orientation, encouraged students to consider a career in public service because it's "critically important" and the law is a "great agent for social change." A 1979 graduate of UT Law, Kirk is first African-American mayor of Dallas and a major Texas city.

"At some point in your life, you ought to accept the challenge to be involved in that process and shape the debate over the future of our cities and our countries," Kirk said. In 1999, he won re-election to his second term as Dallas mayor with over 74 percent of the popular vote.

Kirk, 47, told hundreds of students that he's been "fortunate to have a career that's moved in and out of both public and private service." Kirk has worked at both small and large law firms and is currently a member of Dallas-based Gardere Wynne Sewell. Prior to serving as mayor, he was assistant city attorney and chief lobbyist for Dallas, a legislative aide to former U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, and secretary of state under former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Kirk described his job as mayor as "the best job in government" because "you get to stay home and you get to build things."

Kirk, who also serves on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, talked about his own individual journey that led him to law school. "I wanted to be a lawyer partly because all my heroes were lawyers at the time. I grew up in Austin during the civil rights movement," he explained. "Most things positive that were happening for people of color were happening because someone sued somebody. I thought if I want to make a difference, I'll go to law school."

Kirk emphasized his belief that "all lawyers have some notion of the law as a noble calling or as a vehicle by which people have wrongs righted." He continued, "This is a powerful, powerful institution that you are connecting with, and I just urge you to, at some point in your life, act on that basic instinct of yours."

People can be involved in public service in a myriad of ways, Kirk told students. "You can be a city attorney, a district attorney, a trial attorney, or, God forbid, you can get really desperate and you can run for public office. But in all those ways, you have a chance to make public policy." The Dallas mayor said people could join law firms and still act as agents for social change by working pro-bono or volunteering with non-profit organizations in their communities.

Kirk, who has been considering a run for the U.S. Senate, also addressed the importance of diversity in law schools and the responsibilities that come along with obtaining a law degree. "There's a big attack, a big debate in this nation right now of the value of diversity within law schools," Kirk said. "Let me tell you, diversity is not about giving me an opportunity over you. Diversity is about ensuring that everybody who wants to compete gets to compete," he noted. "And it's ensuring that the best talent that we have in Texas gets to stay in Texas." Kirk pointed to several high profile African-American mayors in the United States who grew up in Texas but left to pursue their careers.

Kirk explained that one reason he's active in public service is to make sure opportunities for public education exist for all members of the Texas community. "You all have the responsibility to make sure we keep those (UT law school) doors open."

The mayor described a life in public service as being challenging, frustrating and, in some ways, corrupt and intensely humiliating. "Every negative thing you've ever heard about politics is true," he said. "But the only thing anybody can't ever tell you is what we do is not important. It is critically important. What we do makes a big difference."

Kirk advised students eager for a career in politics to start out at the local level. "It's fun. You don't have to move away from home, and you get to change the way we live." But students should first practice law for a couple of years, he suggested.

"Being a lawyer sometimes helps and sometimes hurts. It certainly helps in the analytical process. It can be a hurt sometimes because we are such passionate advocates that we have to step back and realize that the business of politics and the business of law are very, very different." However, he stressed, the country needs people in public service who believe it's a noble calling, understand government, and know what they're doing.

Mayor Kirk served as the chair of the U.S. Department of Commerce's 2000 Census Advisory Committee and a member of the Federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. He also co-chaired the National League of Cities' Election '96 Task Force. In 2000, UT Law named him a member of the Order of the Coif. A native of Austin, Kirk is also president of the Dallas Zoological Society.

Many of the 19,000 plus UT Law alumni enjoy lives of public service, including important public figures such as Mayor Kirk, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, '57, and former U.S. Trade Representative and Ambassador to Russia Robert A. Strauss, '41. They also include former U.S. Senator and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, '42, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, '67, and Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar, '81.

UT Law ranks eighth in the number of law clerks supplied to the U.S. Supreme Court. The law school also contributes clerks to many courts across the country through its judicial internship program. And through nine clinics, UT Law students and their professors have assisted more than 12,000 adults and children over the past 20 years.