The Patrick A. Nester Outstanding Achievement in CLE Award

This award honors a Texas attorney for outstanding achievement in CLE as a course director, speaker, author, or creator of a new course and highlights their significant impact on the legal community’s ongoing education and professional development. The award is named in honor of Patrick A. Nester of Driftwood, Texas, who served as the Executive Director of the Texas Bar College until his retirement in 2017. Mr. Nester was also the Director of TexasBarCLE, the State Bar of Texas’ CLE department, from 1986 to 2000 and again from 2005 to 2016.

2026 Recipient – Heather L. King

Heather King is a shareholder at KoonsFuller and manager of the Southlake office located in Tarrant County, Texas. She is a graduate of TCU (1987) and Texas Tech School of Law (1995) and has been practicing family law for 30 years (a paralegal for 10 years prior to that), Board Certified since 2000.  Among her many leadership activities, she is a past president of the Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association, Tarrant County Bar Association, Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists and former Chair of the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. She has been awarded the Joseph McKnight best CLE Article Award, Dan Price Award for professionalism, TexasBarCLE Standing Ovation Award, Sam Emison Award, and The Gene Cavin Award, the SBOT’s highest honor for lifetime contributions to CLE.