Paula Hinton Provides Personal Perspective on Texas-Wide Parental Leave Proposal for Civil Attorneys

The State Bar of Texas Committee on Court Rules has issued a formal proposal that would require courts to grant trial continuances to civil attorneys, regardless of gender, for the birth or adoption of a child. The rule would provide automatic three-month continuances for lead counsel, and allow for discretionary continuances for secondary counsel.

Paula Hinton, a partner in Winston's Houston office and chair of the firm’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, provided her very personal perspective to Law360 in support of the proposal.

Early in her career, Paula was denied a continuance by a judge during her pregnancy.

“The judge leaned forward, looked at me over the bench, and said, ‘Ms. Hinton, when you got pregnant, you knew you had this trial setting.’ Being the daughter of a lawyer and being in court my whole life … I said, ‘Your Honor, when I got pregnant, your trial setting wasn’t exactly on my mind.’”

Paula stated further, “Imagine, we’re here 31 years later and this must still be happening, or they wouldn’t be drafting this [proposal] in 2019.”

If approved by the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, the proposal will be sent to the Texas Supreme Court’s rules attorney and supervising justice for additional study.

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