Olaf Growald
Gary Nickelson (left) and Michael Heiskell (right)
It can take Michael Heiskell, the 2020 recipient of the prestigious Blackstone Award, a bit of time to open up about his fascinating, history-making past. A result of his humility, no doubt. Growing up in a small Black community called Pelham, Texas — a town just a hop and a skip from Fort Worth that was settled by ex-slaves in 1866 — Heiskell became the first Black graduate from the Baylor Law School at Baylor University.
“I mean, that was an experience in and of itself,” Heiskell says without any further explanation.
Yet, breaking this glass ceiling wasn’t something Heiskell had originally planned.
“I was intent on becoming a biologist,” Heiskell says. “But I took a political science class at Baylor with Dr. Robert Miller, and he said, ‘You know, you ought to think about this. You’re doing well. You seem interested.’
“I was reading a lot and staying up to date on some political things because back then things were pretty active with the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. So, this is what eventually led me to study law.”
Heiskell’s experience runs the gamut. He worked in the district attorney’s office in Galveston County before moving to Dallas to become a federal prosecutor. His next step was opening a private practice in Fort Worth called Johnson, Vaughn, and Heiskell — Heiskell’s two original partners are now deceased, but he keeps the name to honor their legacy.
Since opening his private practice, Heiskell has seen high profile cases that include rap artists, megachurch pastors, and convictions that have led to the death penalty. On defending such cases, Heiskell laments that it “takes everything out of you” and can be “life altering.”
“Our profession is the only one that’s in the Constitution,” Heiskell says. “The Sixth Amendment, the right to counsel. So, we have to take that to heart because medical professionals have the Hippocratic Oath that they must follow. Correct?
“And when people ask me, ‘How can you defend someone [you know is guilty]?’ I say, ‘Well, does anyone ever ask a doctor?’ You bring in a patient who may have committed some heinous crime himself and been shot, and you bring him in, ‘Hey, how can you treat this guy?’ Defending people, saving lives regardless of who they are or what they’ve done, it’s what we do.”
The Blackstone Award, named after Sir William Blackstone — a British legal scholar in the 18th century — has been awarded annually since 1963 to an attorney who shows consistent ability, integrity, and courage. According to a press release from the Tarrant County Bar Association, “Michael Heiskell exemplifies all these qualities. He is widely known in our profession for his professionalism, legal prowess, and commitment to our community. He gives back selflessly to the profession and has helped citizens, both well known and unknown, the powerful and the powerless.
“He is a lawyer’s lawyer.”
The award is the highest honor bestowed upon an attorney from the TCBA.
Fort Worth Magazine was fortunate enough to have last year’s recipient of the Blackstone Award, Gary Nickelson, present in our photo studio to hand the award to Michael Heiskell. Due to the pandemic, the normal awards ceremony the two would have attended was canceled, and the Tarrant County Bar Association was nice enough to allow our magazine the opportunity to present the award to Heiskell.
