Bree Buchanan

Bio

About this Writer

Bree Buchanan, J.D., a 1985 graduate of Southwestern University, joined Annie’s List as Executive Director in February 2007 after 17 years of practicing and teaching law. Upon graduation from the University of Texas School of Law in 1989, Ms. Buchanan worked at Legal Aid of Central Texas where she represented hundreds of family violence victims over the next eight years. In the early ‘90’s, Ms. Buchanan dedicated two years to exclusively representing these clients in Williamson County.

From 1998 to 2002, Ms. Buchanan served as the Public Policy Director for the Texas Council on Family Violence, where she was responsible for development and implementation of TCFV’s legislative initiatives at both the state and federal level. She conducted government relations and developed policy initiatives with state agencies, including the Department of Family and Protective Services, Department of Human Services, Office of the Attorney General and Department of Criminal Justice. During this time, Ms. Buchanan served a three-year term as an appointee to the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence and was named the “Outstanding Young Lawyer of 2000” by the Austin Young Lawyers Association.

In 2002, Ms. Buchanan was appointed to the faculty at the University of Texas School of Law as a Clinical Professor and the Co-Director of the Children's Rights Clinic. She served on the State Bar of Texas Child Abuse and Neglect Committee and was a founder and board president of the Central Texas Association of Counsel for Children. In 2005, Ms. Buchanan was presented with the Rogoff Award for outstanding contribution to public interest law by the Austin Bar Association. She was also honored that year by the Williamson County Crisis Center with their Leadership Award in Education.

In 2005, after a lifelong fascination with politics and years of service to the Democratic Party, Ms. Buchanan declared her candidacy for a seat on the Third Court of Appeals. After 14 months of campaigning against a well-funded incumbent in 24 counties of central and west Texas, Ms. Buchanan received almost 49% of the vote.

History

Member for

16 years 38 weeks