Bending Angel

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Collaborative Divorce Houston’s Annual Membership Meeting – November 28, 2017

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As President, I was pleased to preside at Collaborative Divorce Houston’s Annual Membership Meeting on November 28, 2017.  As you can see from the group photo taken at the meeting, all our outstanding members and guests enthusiastically received the launch of CDH’s website.  We applaud Tim Crouch of The Crouch Group and its staff for the comprehensive work giving CDH a digital presence to promote the mission of our non-profit organization.  Thanks to my fellow members for making Collaborative Divorce available so that divorcing couples can resolve their differences amicably, peaceably, and without resort to litigation.

Photos courtesy of Charles Crouch.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, go to Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love.

Rotary Club of Baytown Celebrates World Polio Day with Jack Emmott

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At a well-attended meeting at the Rotary Club of Baytown on Wednesday, October 25, 2017, I had the distinct pleasure of speaking to this amazing Club.

I spoke on “Rotary International’s PolioPlus Program: the Treasure in the Darkness, a Light to the World Eliminating the Dreaded and Dark Disease of Polio.”

Sheila Crawford (Club’s President-Nominee and Executive Vice-President of BDI Resources), Jack Emmott and Nick Woolery (Club’s President and Assistant to the City Manager, Baytown, Texas).

Sheila Crawford (Club’s President-Nominee and Executive Vice-President of BDI Resources), Jack Emmott and Nick Woolery (Club’s President and Assistant to the City Manager, Baytown, Texas).

In 1985 when the PolioPlus Campaign started there were over 400,000 cases around the globe. This is astonishing since the polio vaccine was invented and administered in 1955, more than 30 years earlier.  As of July 2017 there were just 7 reported cases in the world in just three countries.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017 was World Polio Day.  If you have the time please view the YouTube video which will remind you of the devastation and loss of life which polio has caused, will enable you to see how polio survivors have thrived beyond paralysis and show how blessed you are that you and those you love will never have to face this epidemic again.   Bill and Melinda Gates and their Foundation have joined Rotary is getting the Campaign over the finish line.

To the Rotary Club of Baytown I celebrate your service to community and the needful world.

I pray that your Club and its members continue to flower in your work, now and in the future.

I will definitely come again if asked to speak.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Emmott Included for Best Lawyers in America for Family Law

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I am honored to be recognized and selected in the field of Family Law for inclusion in 2018 Best Lawyers in America (a Woodward White company).

Best Lawyers conducts peer-review surveys in which thousands of lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers to compile its list.

About Best Lawyers

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as a definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

Meeting with the Rosenberg Rotary Club on Sept. 7, 2017

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Pictured here with Billy Guerrero, President of the Club. Photo courtesy of Bob Haenel, Member

 

I received a warm welcome at the Rosenberg Rotary Club on Wednesday, September 7, 2017. Hats off to this amazing Club in its work to eradicate polio worldwide and in its humanitarian efforts to help over 150 families who lost or had damage done to their homes along the Brazos River due to Hurricane Harvey.

My remarks were about my calling as a collaborative divorce attorney, such calling being found in the ashes of polio and paralysis. As of this date due to Rotary’s Polio Plus Campaign there are only 10 reported cases of polio in the World, which number is down from 27 this time last year.

I give thanks to Billy Guerrero, President of the Club for inviting me to speak.

 

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

 

Visit with the North Shore Rotary Club at SanJac North, 9-7-17

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Pictured with me are Shawn Silman and Adam Lund, Club President and Vice-President of Capital Bank (Jacinto City).

So grateful to have been asked by Shawn Silman, Member of North Shore Rotary Club and Dean of Liberal Arts at San Jacinto College-North Campus, to speak to the Club on Thursday, September 7, 2017. Despite the effects of Hurricane Harvey, there was a large turnout at the luncheon to hear my remarks.
I congratulated the Club on Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio around the globe. I told the group that I was a victim of a flood at age six by contracting polio in floodwaters. As I have written in Bending Angels, there is always a light in the darkness. What followed the darkness of polio, the flood and now Harvey are the best qualities within our common humanity. Praise be to God, this Club’s members and all those in this area who have stepped up to rescue, support and help those in need.

I shared how the lessons I learned in dark times led me to be a collaborative divorce and family lawyer. Collaborative process works because it protects privacy, preserves important relationships, allows couples to fashion their own outcomes with the support of professionals in communication, parenting and finance and does not let the outcome be decided by the attorneys, the courts or juries.

At Gray Reed and McGraw, LLP, our Firm is dedicated to offering the collaborative law resolution process to those who choose to use it.

If you like this prayer, please share.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

 

12th Annual Collaborative Law Luncheon in San Antonio

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With Tom Vick, President of the State Bar of Texas and Camille Milner, Immediate Past President of CDT

I was overjoyed and energized to attend the 12th Annual Collaborative Law Luncheon at the Advanced Family Law Course in San Antonio. Collaborative Divorce Texas’s featured speaker was Tom Vick, President of the State Bar of Texas. In his talk entitled, “Musings of a Collaborative President”, Tom shared the importance of the collaborative process to resolve conflict to preserve relationships and protect children from collateral damage in divorce. Camille Milner, Immediate Past President of CDT, introduced Tom in an eloquent and heartfelt manner.

Thanks to Tom and Camille for an outstanding program which benefited the attendees of this sold out event. All of us can take Tom’s moving remarks back to our communities and better serve our clients.  My firm, Gray, Reed and McGraw, LLP was one of the proud sponsors of the luncheon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

Thanks to the North Channel Star for This Article about my Rotary Appearance

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Thank you, Highlands Rotary, for the generous account of my appearance.  Like your members, I am daily amazed that God gave me the “ability to reflect back and see that illness, physical limitations, and adversity have ultimately been conduits for spiritual growth.”  Click on headline image to read the article.  God bless you, Jack.

 

 

A gathering at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Friendswood, Texas. 

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Mary Sterling

On Sunday, July 9, 2017, I was invited by my dear cousin, Mary Sterling, to speak to a large gathering at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Friendswood, Texas.   Mary’s father, The Rt. Rev. William E. Sterling, served as its Rector prior to being elected the sixth Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Texas.

After church services members of the congregation joined me for lunch and the breaking of bread. I shared the story of my four-hoofed angel, Old Donk, told in my book, Bending Angels.

Whether it is polio, an illness, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or a marriage that ends in divorce, God will give us each day what we need to face such passages.

God will provide to all of us our daily bread just as Old Donk received her bread in her daily comings and goings in Emmottville. Tomorrow will take care of itself.  Today’s blessings from God will be the spiritual good to feed and sustain our souls on Earth and in heaven.

The Rev. Geoffrey C. Gwynne, Rector of Good Shepherd

May God bless this house of worship and all who dwell and pray in it.

Amen

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law  and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.

 

 

Sharing “Bending Angels”with Paul Nielsen, his fiancé Cyndi Harwell, and their friends

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I was so blessed to attend a gathering of their friends and family to share my book Bending Angels with them.
Wearing my ” Wonder Boy Emmott” baseball cap I told everyone what I received from the coach after my dream died of becoming a great baseball player. Polio killed that dream but the gift from the coach and the plans God had for me far exceeded what a career in baseball would have done for me.
Paul has overcome the death of loved ones and more recently cancer. I presented a well-deserved “Wonder Boy” cap to Paul. He is an amazing legendary oil and gas attorney and servant of the Lord.  Paul, may God bless you and Cyndi now and forever. You are my hero.

State Bar of Texas Collaborative Law Section’s Annual Meeting

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Pictured with me are Julie Quaid and Linda Solomon.

On Friday, June 23, 2017 in Dallas I attended the State Bar of Texas Collaborative Law Section’s Annual Meeting. Julie Quaid, Outgoing Chair, capped off an exceptional year with introducing Linda Solomon, Texas’s nationally acclaimed collaborative mental healthcare professional. We learned practical tips for managing conflict in our work to help married couples divorce peaceably and preserve their relationships.
Julie and Linda, thanks for reflecting your healing and inspirational light on us in the past and on this memorable day.

 Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120 lawyer full service firm in Houston, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to BendingAngel.com.