The Merianne Gaston Award for Excellence in Legal Support

This award recognizes a legal support professional whose conduct, commitment, and actions demonstrate extraordinary dedication to the legal profession. The award is named in honor of Merianne Gaston, who worked for over 30 years at the State Bar of Texas. She served the Texas Bar College from 2009 until her retirement in 2018, first as Managing Director and then as Executive Director. Merianne dedicated her entire career to promoting the importance of continuing legal education and improving the quality and content of the programing.

2022 Recipient – Amber Haney

Amber Haney has been the Senior Paralegal at The Haney Law Firm for 20 years.  The firm was started by her mother, Susan J. Haney, who passed away from terminal brain cancer in 2021.

Amber is heavily involved with The Capital Area Paralegal Association (CAPA), where she is the Immediate Past President, the Pro Bono Committee Chair and the Programs/Speaker Committee Chair.   She is also on the Board of Directors for Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas.

For the past three years, Amber has ensured that paralegals across the state have access to high quality CLEs. Prior to Covid, she was on the speaker committee for the 2019 Texas Advanced Paralegal Seminar and presented at the 2019 Poverty Law Conference. She also delivered a TBLS and NALA accredited presentation on pro se divorces to paralegals to better assist those participating in pro bono divorce clinics.

After Covid shut down regularly scheduled CLEs, she quickly switched gears and secured speakers willing to present via Zoom to CAPA members and figured out the logistics on how to continue CLEs in the Covid world.

Her CLE efforts are not limited to CAPA. She also participated in and helped facilitate a CLE for Volunteer Legal Services to potential volunteer attorneys on virtual trials. The CLE was a vital part of making sure that pro bono services could continue.

As the current Speaker Committee Chair for CAPA, she is in charge of lining up a diverse and interesting set of speakers to present at their monthly luncheons, creating marketing campaigns to garner participation and running the actual presentations. Her efforts have not gone unnoticed as she was named the 2021 Paralegal of the Year for the organization.

In 2019, Amber was awarded the Austin Young Lawyer’s Association Liberty Bell Award, The Paralegal Division of the State Bar of Texas Exceptional Pro Bono Award, the Pro Bono Support Staff Award from the State Bar of Texas, and the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Capital Area Paralegal Association.

Amber obtained an Associate of Applied Arts and Science in Paralegal Studies from Austin Community College and graduated from Texas State University summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences.

Past Recipients