The Houston Bar Association mourns the loss of James B. Sales who passed away last Saturday.

Over his long and illustrious legal career as a trial lawyer at Fulbright & Jaworksi (now Norton Rose Fulbright), James Sales received virtually every major award given by the legal profession, including the ABA Foundation Outstanding Service Award. He helped create the Texas Lawyers' Assistance Program to aid members of our profession struggling with substance use, and his lasting contributions and impact to the Houston Bar cannot be overstated.

He served as President of the Houston Bar Association from 1980-81 and as part of his presidency led the effort to establish both the Houston Volunteer Lawyers – to provide legal assistance to low-income Houstonians - and the Houston Bar Foundation – to fund those efforts.  James Sales served as the first Chair of the Houston Bar Foundation, alongside Harry Reasoner as Vice Chair. They worked tirelessly to motivate law firms, charitable foundations and others to support the Houston Bar Foundation and created the Foundation’s Fellows Program to allow individual members of the Houston legal community to support the Houston Bar Foundation and its mission. He was also instrumental in the formation of the HBA Dispute Resolution Center to provide no-cost mediation services. Another aspect of lasting impact was the hiring of long-time Executive Director of the Houston Bar Association, Kay Sim.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Sales family at this difficult time of enormous loss.

Christopher V. Popov
2022-2023 Houston Bar Association President

Photo Credit: Gittings Photography