About
Thomas William George
Thomas William George was born and raised in Sheridan, Wyoming, and attended the Sheridan public schools until graduation from high school. He has several academic degrees and has traveled extensively and studied legal systems in the Soviet Union, China, and Western Europe.
He has taught Health Law at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin, Commercial Transitions and Ethics at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, Business Law and Ethics in the MBA Program of the Graduate School of Management, and Law and Ethics for Health Care Professionals in the Master of Arts Program at the Graduate School of Counseling, St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas, and has assisted in the Practice of Medicine course at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas. He has also taught Medical Jurisprudence to medical students, as an adjunct professor, at the Institute of Medical Humanities, UTMB, Galveston, Texas. He has often appeared as principal presenter, speaker, and panel member of various conferences and seminars over several years at the University of Texas at Austin, and other forums, for example at the University of Texas Student Science Research Conference, on the topic “Ethical Issues of Stem Cell Research,” and at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, presenting the topic “On Public Understanding of the Ethics of Stem Cell Research: Ethical Considerations”; the University of Houston Law Center, various end-of-life symposia; as a testifying expert witness before the 2007 Texas State House of Representatives State Affairs Committee in behalf of the Texas Healthcare and BioScience Institute regarding proposed legislation relating to the governmental funding of stem cell research, the testimony entitled “A Public Understanding of the Ethics of Stem Cell Research”; and as a principal speaker at an Annual Meeting of the American College of Legal Medicine, on the subject entitled “Genetic Fingerprinting, Science, Law and an Ethical Standard.” He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus.
He has also served for several years as a member of the State Bar of Texas Continuing Legal Education Committee that determines the acceptability and certification of courses and programs that qualify for mandated continuing education of lawyers in the State of Texas. In addition he is a mediator, trained by the American Arbitration Association and the Harvard Negotiation Prospect, and has been elected and served as a member of the City Council and as Municipal Judge, Rollingwood, Texas. He has served on several ethics committees, including Chair of the Texas Healthcare and BioScience Institute State and Federal Relations Ethics Subcommittee. He has been engaged in the private practice of trial law, served as chief trial counsel in many complex litigation cases, and is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Civil Trial Law. He has also been appointed and currently serves as a regualer member of the Seton Family of Hospitals Institutional Review Board(IRB), Austin, Texas;Seton Southwest Hospital Ethics Committee, Austin, Tesxas; St. David’s Hospital Ethics Committee, Austin, Texas, and St. Edward’s Institutional Review Board(IRB), Austin Texas.
Academic Degrees
B.S., May 1963, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska
M.S., August 1964, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
J.D., May 1970, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C.
LL.M., May 1995, Houston Health Law and Policy Institute, Houston Law Center,
Houston, Texas
Ph.D., May 2009, Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
Education, Professional Development and Continuing Education.
Thomas George recently completed a Ph.D. from the Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, May 2009, consisting of seventeen courses, that included academic, research, and practicum-internships requiring an average of at least three (3) extensive papers per course, practica in pediatrics, surgery, and end-of-life critical treatment hospitals research and writing a doctoral dissertation: The Reasonable Exercise of Responsibility: Legal Liability of Institutional Review Boards. This research included an investigation and review of all statutes, Executive and Governmental Agency Orders and all significant reported and unreported Common Law cases relating to Human Experimentation in the United States. This research also included an historical ethical and legal analysis of human research extending from the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi Doctors, international Declaration of Helsinki and the United States Belmont Report and U.S. Common Rule regarding the regulation of human research.
Developed Graduate Course materials for lecture at the University of Texas Medical Branch for
Lecture on Institutional Review Board legal liability issues and issues of public policy relating to human subject research. 2008.
Attended numerous ethics issue specific classes and seminars; an example is the Clinical Ethics Seminar. This seminar included the basic text, Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decisions in Clinical Medicine, 6th ed., Seton Medical Center, Austin, Texas. January-April, 2007, Seton Hospital, Austin, Texas.
Attended clinical ethics courses and seminars at UTMB and participated with the Clinical Ethics Committee of Seton Hospital, patients, and families of patients that addressed end of life issues. 2007-2008.
Participated in the “Art & Craft of Discussion Leadership:” Louis B. Barnes, Professor of Organizational Behavior Emeritus, Harvard Business School, and received a Certificate of Completion: October 17, 2003.
Developed Graduate Course materials for University of Texas School of Journalism: Mass Communications Law and Ethics, together with Dr. Demetri Vacalis, University of Texas at Austin, 1990-1991.
Certification: Harvard Law School Roscoe Pound Program for Lawyers. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989
Presenter at Medical & Health Care Litigation Symposium: The Review of Litigation, University of Texas School of Law, State Bar of Texas Litigation Section, University of Texas Club, March 2, 2001
Developed, together with Dr. Demetri Vacalis, a new course, Master of Arts in Journalism Concentration in Medical Writing, University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas Health Science Center – Houston, 1999.
College of the State Bar of Texas: 80 hours academic studies entry requirement-two three year continuing legal education terms, 1989-1995.
Continuing Annual Legal Education for Board Certification Specialty in Civil Trial Law: Texas Board of Legal Specialization: Minimum 15 hours per year; an example of seminars include: Litigation Update Institute 2006: 9.25 Hours, including 1.25 Hours of Ethics; Litigation Update Institute 2008: 13.25 Hours, including 2.5 Hours of Ethics. 1980 to the present time.
In excess of 200 hours of Continuing legal education to maintain the annual requirements of the State Bar of Texas and membership in the College of the State Bar of Texas over a twelve year period, 1997-2009
Attended many legal/public policy conferences and seminars; an example is “The Future of the Biomedical Research Industry in Texas, hosted by the University of Texas Medial Branch in Galveston, June 24-25, 2004.
International Studies:
Chinese Legal Systems: Peoples Republic of China, Beijing, China, 1987.
Soviet Legal Systems: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Soviet Legal Systems: Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, 1984
English Legal Systems: Comparative Law, English Legal Systems: London, England, 1982; attended the English Inns of Court, The Inner Inn, and studied the structure and sytstem of the Old Bailey Common Law Court, London, England, 2012.
Licenses: Certifications: 1970 – 2009
United States Supreme Court (1974)
State Bar of Texas (1973)
Board Certified-Civil Trial Law: Texas Board of Legal Specialization (1980)
State Bar of Virginia (1970)
Bar of the District of Columbia (1970)
All Texas State Courts: Trial & Appellate (1973)
Federal District Courts: Western, Eastern, Southern & Northern Divisions (1973)
5th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals (1973
AV Rated (Highest Rating) for legal Professionalism and Ethics, by Martindale-Hubbell, an Internationally recognized Lawyer Rating Society (1985-present)
Registered as a “Preeminent Lawyer,” by Martindale-Hubbell. Top 5% of all United States law firms. ( 1985-present.)
Master of the Bench (Highest Level), American Inns of Court, Robert W. Calvert Inn of Court, Austin, Texas. (2008 – present.)