The Texas Bar Foundation awarded its prestigious Fifty Year Outstanding Lawyer Award to Carol Vance along with three others for the year 2008. Vance is former District Attorney of Harris County and former president of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association and the National District Attorneys Association. He is a retired senior partner of Bracewell and Giuliani and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Vance was a founder of the National College of District Attorneys and helped write the 1974 Penal Code on the State Bar and the TDCAA committee. He chaired the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where he, along with Chuck Colson and Governor George W. Bush, helped start the first Christian Prison in the U.S. That prison, the Carol S. Vance Unit in Sugarland, is named after him and enjoys an incredibly low 8-percent recidivism rate.
Though Vance demurs, saying he does not deserve the award, he notes that “it is great to see DAs, retired DAs (and assistants and ex-assistants) recognized for either professional or community service.” Congratulations, Carol, on a much-deserved honor!