Kelly Frels Receives Outstanding 50 Year Lawyer Award From Texas Bar Foundation

HOUSTON – Kelly Frels has been named a recipient of the Texas Bar Foundation’s 2021 Outstanding 50 Year Law Award. The award recognizes lawyers whose practice has spanned 50 years or more and who adhere to the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession and service to the public.

Frels joined Bracewell in 1970 after graduating from The University of Texas School of Law. He was the lead attorney for the Houston Independent School District in its successful transition from a segregated to an integrated system in the 1970s and 1980s. As one of the founders of the State Bar of Texas’ School Law Section, Frels is considered by many as the “Father of Texas School Law.”

Frels served as Bracewell’s firm-wide managing partner from 1995 to 2001 and as Houston managing partner from 2001 to 2003. He also served as president of both the Houston Bar Association and the State Bar of Texas.

Frels is one of four lawyers to receive the 2021 Outstanding 50 Year Law Award. The honorees will be publicly recognized on June 18 at the Texas Bar Foundation Annual Dinner in Fort Worth.