HOUSTON – Former Bracewell LLP managing partner Kelly Frels, who many consider the “Father of Texas School Law,” has won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Texas Legal Awards. He will be recognized at an awards ceremony on October 15 in Dallas.
With a career spanning over five decades, Frels spearheaded the desegregation of the Houston Independent School District as its lead lawyer in the 1970s and 1980s. He also served as President of the State Bar of Texas, and he co-founded that organization’s School Law Section, which he later chaired. As Bracewell’s managing partner from 1995 to 2001, Frels guided the firm through a period of crucial development and growth. Now an emeritus member of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Board, Frels was also the lawyer primarily responsible for establishing the Houston Community College in 1970, which is now a multi-college system that more than 2.1 million students have attended.
The Texas Legal Awards are presented annually by ALM Media’s Texas Lawyer and highlight the outstanding work and achievements across the full breadth of the state’s legal community.
Read Texas Lawyer’s Q&A profile on Frels here.
