Sheila Haddock ’94 honed her lawyering skills as a national-champion advocate at South Texas College of Law Houston, and today she fiercely advocates for her clients as a litigator with Zalkin Law, LLC.
The boutique firm represents sexual abuse survivors against institutional defendants, including churches, colleges and universities, public and private schools, and other youth-serving organizations.
“To say my work is rewarding is an understatement,” Haddock said. “I love doing the kind of work I do alongside people who share my commitment to the law and to making a difference in the lives of these courageous survivors. We focus on building relationships with our clients and their families, supporting them in the healing process and pursuing justice.”
In fact, it was the people — and their specific type of cases — that called Haddock back to lawyering after six months thinking she would follow her husband Keith into early retirement. She moved from Houston to San Diego in late 2016 just as campus sexual assault scandals were reaching a crescendo and the me-too movement was gaining momentum.
At the time, Zalkin Law, LLC, based in San Diego, was handling several Title IX cases around the country, including one against Haddock’s alma mater, Baylor University. With her background and experience in school law, Haddock was intrigued. Within days of meeting with lawyers at the firm, she was back to work and all in.
Over three decades, Haddock has defended governmental employers in private practice, served as in-house counsel for a large public school district, and represented individuals who have suffered injury and discrimination.
The journalism graduate received her J.D. in 1994 and was named Outstanding Advocate in the law school’s nationally recognized advocacy program. She competed at South Texas Law as an oralist and brief writer, winning multiple state, regional, and national titles, including best brief in the national finals of both the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition and the National Association of the Bar of the City of New York Moot Court competition.
A former college newspaper editor, Haddock believes journalism is the best major to prepare students for law school. “Journalism teaches you how to think critically, how to research, how to ask questions and really listen, and how to write concisely,” she said.
Her son Hunter also studied journalism and is now an attorney with the Zalkin firm. A special moment in Haddock’s legal life occurred when she was pregnant with Hunter.
“I was working with Rick Morris, one of my advocacy coaches and mentors, at a Houston firm, and we were coaching a moot court team together that was competing in D.C.,” she said. “My legal assistant surprised me, coordinating an opportunity for Rick to present me for admission and be there when I was sworn into the United States Supreme Court Bar.”
Morris ’91 is still a close friend of Haddock and her husband, a retired corporate executive. She also remains good friends with Professor Rob Galloway, vice president for advocacy at South Texas Law. He coached her in all her moot court competitions while in law school.
“Rob chose me for the first moot court team he coached,” she said. “Some of my fondest memories are Dean Treece grilling us on our ‘key concepts’ and long nights brainstorming at my dining table with Rob and my partner Gary McLaren, always striving to find the perfect phrase. The advocacy program absolutely made my law school experience.”
More than 30 years later, Haddock still approaches brief writing and oral argument the “South Texas way,” only now it has become a family affair. Back in Texas and working with Zalkin from her home office — with her dog Sox keeping her company — she talks “key concepts” with her son and consults her husband for the perfect word or phrase.
“I am scheduled for oral argument in the Fifth Circuit next week, and I am making my folder. I’m looking forward to the feeling I always get when I walk in a courtroom — a little nervous, but mostly excited because I know I am prepared. I am a South Texas advocate,” Haddock said.
She credits South Texas Law for the “opportunity to become not only the lawyer I am but the person I am. The advocacy program – and the people that are the program – gave me the confidence and the tools to develop my talents and, in turn, empowered me to make a positive difference in the lives of those around me. For me that’s what it’s about — and for that I thank South Texas.”
