Texas Life Fellow George C. Chapman
October 2, 2008, Fellows in the news
DALLAS, TX - George C. Chapman is the recipient of the Dallas Bar Association's 2008 Morris Harrell Professionalism Award. The award will be presented at the DBA's Annual Meeting on November 7.
Chapman is Senior Counsel in the Trial Practice Group in Thompson & Knight's Dallas office. He obtained his law degree from The University of Texas at Austin with honors, and has been practicing with Thompson & Knight ever since. His primary area of practice is general and commercial litigation.
The award, co-sponsored by the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism and the DBA, is given annually to the attorney who "best exemplifies, by conduct and character, truly professional traits which others seek to emulate and who all in the bar admire... a lawyer who is well respected by his or her peers and makes them proud of the profession." Morris Harrell, the award's namesake, was a former president of the DBA, the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the National Conference of Bar Presidents.
"Receiving this award has a special significance for me, since Morris Harrell was one of my early mentors. I had the privilege of practicing with Mr. Harrell for about four years before he left to start Rain Harrell Emery Young & Doke, a predecessor firm to Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell," says Chapman.
Chapman served as the 78th president of the DBA, where he sought to enhance the working relationships of lawyers at a time in history mired by attorney acrimony. He instituted a Professionalism Task Force, which promulgated a "Lawyer's Creed" and a set of "Guidelines of Professional Courtesy," making the DBA the first local bar association in Texas (and the second local bar nationwide) to adopt such a mandate. He was also the primary author of the American College of Trial Lawyers "Code of Pre-trial Conduct," released in 2003.
Chapman has consistently been honored as one of The Best Lawyers in America and among the Texas Super Lawyers. He is a life member of the Salesmanship Club of Dallas, an elder at Park Cities Presbyterian Church, and he served as a trustee of The University of Texas Law School Foundation for 20 years.
"George Chapman is an outstanding example of professionalism, and the legal community - not just in Dallas, but statewide and nationwide - has benefited from his commitment to civility," said DBA President Frank E. Stevenson, II. "George leads by example. As a seasoned litigator with a distinguished career, George demonstrates that a lawyer can be both thoroughly successful and unwaveringly honorable at the same time. He is a very deserving recipient of the award named for the man who personified professionalism."
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