The tough, smart lawyer stands up for kids

"I'm the Texas Hammer," Jim Adler booms sternly from the TV screen.
    
His energetic commercials in English and Spanish have made him a Texas celebrity.  Dubbed the "king of the car crash lawyers" by a Houston Chronicle reporter this spring in an article about lawyers who advertise on television, there's no doubt that Jim Adler is a public figure.  Kids imitate him with relish.  Adults smile at his name.  Everyone, it seems, has heard of him.

"Yeah," they say, "the tough, smart lawyer."
    
Given his fame, the next question is inevitable.

"What's he really like?" people ask, urging anyone who knows him to dish some inside scoop about the "tough, smart lawyer."  To meet Jim Adler is to meet a discerning attorney and nationally known lecturer on personal injury law who is working hard these days to improve child safety and education.
   
While Jim S. Adler & Associates has successfully represented the injured in Texas for more than 30 years, it's clear that the firm's founder hates the pain and grief that accidents can cause and the fate of kids who get left behind in school, setting them up for a life of poverty and underachievement.  The two issues are the heart and soul of a new community relations campaign he began in June.
    
"Everybody in Texas knows that child safety and education are at the top of the list when it comes to things we need to improve in this state," he says.
    
His determination to lead is evident in plans that are underway to explore an affiliation with the Child Safety Center at Texas Children's Hospital and to partner with the University of Texas to improve student writing skills in low income high schools in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio    a crucial step in scoring well on college entrance exams and preparing for university level work.  The efforts are just the beginning of his push to give kids "The Adler Advantage" when it comes to safety and education.
    
"I want them to have an edge they wouldn't have otherwise."
    
There's no doubt he means it; and no doubt that the plans underway are just the beginning of a tough, smart commitment to improve the quality of life for Texas' kids.