David Keltner of Fort Worth to Receive 2018 Pope Award
The Texas Center for Legal Ethics is proud to announce that David Keltner of Fort Worth will receive the 2018 Chief Justice Jack Pope Professionalism Award.
Each year, the Texas Center for Legal Ethics presents the Pope Award to a judge or attorney who personifies the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in appellate law. The Pope Award is named for former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jack Pope, one of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics' founders and the first individual to receive the Award in 2009.
Keltner, who served as a justice on the Fort Worth Court of Appeals from 1986-1990, is currently an appellate attorney with Kelly Hart & Hallman in Fort Worth. He is one of the original drafters of the Texas Lawyer’s Creed, and he worked with Chief Justice Pope in 1984 to enact the State Bar of Texas’ new disciplinary procedure rules.
“David Keltner epitomizes what every young lawyer should aspire to be—an advocate who strives to further the administration of justice in a manner that honors his clients, the attorneys that he works with and against, and the judges before whom he appears,” said Grapevine attorney Jerry Bullard, one of the attorneys who nominated Keltner for the award.
The Pope Award will be presented to Keltner by Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht at the Annual Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Dinner on September 7 in Austin.
Founded in 1989 by Chief Justice Pope and two other retired Texas Supreme Court chief justices, the Texas Center for Legal Ethics promotes the values contained in the Texas Lawyer’s Creed and fulfills its founders’ vision to be the leading center of knowledge and resources for ethics and professionalism in Texas. For more information, visit the Texas Center for Legal Ethics website at http://www.legalethicstexas.com.
For more information on David Keltner receiving the Pope Award, please contact Jonathan Smaby, executive director of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, at 512-427-1477 or jonathan.smaby@texasbar.com.