Texas Independent Bar Association History

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 A. 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. The report was recently renamed the "Texas Criminal Law Report," following Mr. Greenwood's retirement

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 five 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:

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 a (fax or email) copy of The Criminal Law Report, a weekly criminal law newsletter authored by a group of writers that includes prosecutors and defense lawyers . (Click on photo for information about the value you'll get from The Criminal Law Report) and/or to request a free sample.

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. TIBA also organizes and presents a multi-disciplinary conference in Hawaii each year, which has 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 a course supervised by the Union of Cuban Jurists in Havana, Cuba, in November of 2000, and another Cuba course is planned for sometime in 2004.

Low-Cost Continuing Legal Education:

TIBA charges its members annual membership dues of only $85 per year - fifteen percent (15%) less than Greenwood & Schulman charged for just the seminar back in 1993. Membership is free for law students. All TIBA members may attend TIBA seminars free of charge.*

Additional Information:

Members can obtain delivery of The Criminal Law Report by regular (surface) mail, but must pay a postage and handling charge of $185 per year (higher outside U.S.). Regular (surface) mail copies are usually not mailed until the date of publication (Mondays)

* Weekly case law seminars are free to all members. Certain seminars, such as the annual conference in Hawaii, are open to the public and all attendees pay a seminar fee. Members of the Association pay significantly discounted fees.