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The History of Texas Independent Bar Association ("TIBA")

The Mission:

Texas Independent Bar Association ("TIBA"), formerly known as Dave's Bar Association ("DBA"), is an independent, statewide association of professionals and an academic institution dedicated to providing high-quality, low-cost continuing legal education.

The Beginning:

Roy Greenwood and David Schulman began presenting weekly educational programs in 1993. Their first program was launched after the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association discontinued its weekly seminars which focused on discussions of new criminal cases from the Courts of Appeals and Court of Criminal Appeals. Both Greenwood and Schulman were frequent speakers at these weekly events and took over the organization of these seminars in the fall of 1993. To enhance their educational vision, the two attorneys began publishing the Greenwood/Schulman report, a weekly criminal law newsletter detailing these new cases, in 1996.

In January of 1997, changes in the MCLE policies of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) caused a restructuring of the group. The MCLE Department of the SBOT instituted a policy that would have caused accreditation costs to shoot up from $5 per attorney per course to $165-$175 per course. Greenwood and Schulman were charging only $50 per course. However, SBOT personnel informed Greenwood & Schulman that accreditation fees were not charged to associations that did not charge its members to attend CLE seminars. Thus, the "Greenwood & Schulman" seminars became known as "Dave's Bar Association."

During the spring of 1997, approximately 50 people became members of DBA, and the organization has grown to more than 200 members over the past thirteen years, and has more than 20 volunteer faculty and staff members. Because of this statewide growth and change in focus, in April of 2002, DBA decided to change its name to Texas Independent Bar Association, to more effectively describe its scope, while maintaining its mission to provide low-cost high-quality continuing legal education to its members.

High Quality Continuing Legal Education:

In 2004, the Greenwood/Schulman report was renamed “TIBA’s G&S Texas Criminal Law Report,” following Mr. Greenwood’s retirement, and a group of eight writers took Mr. Greenwood’s place. In 2012, the report was renamed the “Jasuta/Schulman report,” with John Jasuta taking the authorship place originally occupied by Mr. Greenwood.

Today, TIBA presents weekly seminars covering all the published Texas criminal cases from both the intermediate appellate courts, the Courts of Appeals, and the “court of last resort,” the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. To provide the foundation for these seminars, all members receive an EMail copy of both “the Jasuta / Schulman report,” the weekly criminal law newsletter authored by John G. Jasuta and David A. Schulman, AND “Dr. Dave’s Daily Digest,” a daily bulletin which Mr. Schulman writes and circulates (every Monday through Friday) about cases relevant to criminal practitioners. Contact our office via eMail at eMail at "officemanager@texindbar.org" if you would like to sample our reports.

TIBA has presented general educational seminars such as the “Day at the Court” seminar, which was held in the Texas Supreme Court building and featured a dias made entirely of Court of Criminal Appeals employees, as well as past and current judges of the Court. For a dozen years, beginning in 1998, TIBA organized and presented a multi-disciplinary conference in Hawaii, which featured judges and law professors as speakers, as well as interesting presentations by such varied professionals as polygraph experts, television reporters, police officers, communications experts, as well as criminal defense attorneys. Members of the association attended courses supervised by the Union of Cuban Jurists in Havana and Cienfuegos (Cuba) in November of 2000, May of 2008, November of 2010, November of 2012, and November of 2015. Our scheduled trips for 2018 and 2020 were cancelled, but another Cuba course is planned for November of 2022.

If you are interested in TIBA’s 2022 trip to Cuba, please contact our office via eMail at eMail at "officemanager@texindbar.org."

Low-Cost Continuing Legal Education:

Since January 1, 2021, TIBA has charged its members annual dues of only $65 per year, with all members entitled to receive both our daily and weekly reports. Associate members, those electing to receive just the weekly report, and pay only $50 per year.

All TIBA members may attend TIBA’s weekly case law meetings free of charge, either in-person or on-line. Other seminars are open to the public and all attendees pay a seminar fee, while members of the Association pay significantly discounted fees. Contact our office via eMail at eMail at "officemanager@texindbar.org" if you would like to sample our reports.