Richard Peņa is Vice President of the American Bar Foundation. He practices law in Austin, Texas and has long been active in the bar. Mr. Peņa is a former President of the State Bar of Texas and of the Travis County Bar Association and served as Chair of the Texas Bar Foundation. He is Chair of the ABA's Commission on Immigration. He is currently a State Delegate to the ABA and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Bar Foundation. Mr. Peņa received three Presidential Citations from the State Bar of Texas for his meritorious service to the profession and has been selected as a member of the American Inns of Court. He served on the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents. Mr. Peņa received a B. A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, where the law school faculty awarded him an honorary membership in the Order of the Coif.
In 1989 he was named Outstanding Hispanic Lawyer, Austin, by the Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas, which also chose him as the recipient of its Legal Service Award for Texas in 2001. Mr. Pena is listed in Who's Who in American Law.
His many community activities include chairing a task force dedicated to helping the homeless in Austin, and serving on the Board of Directors of the Center for Battered Women, the Austin Association for Retarded Citizens, and the Boy's Club of Austin and Travis County. Under the auspices of the People to People Ambassador Program, Mr. Pena led delegations of lawyers to South Africa, China, Cuba, and Vietnam.
David K.Y. Tang,
President
Richard Peņa, Vice-President
Bernice B. Donald, Secretary
David E. Van Zandt, Treasurer
