From Drag Races to Charitable Cases: Austin Lawyer Fighting To Save Abused Children

At 120 miles per hour, Hubert Bell Jr. used to love the open road. The freedom. The blur of the pavement and trees as he raced down the street. Now, the 66-year-old attorney lives for the moment -- the moment a baby smiles in the safe arms of their new protector; the moment a child falls asleep without fear and without pain.

He works in a greyish, off-white building just off the side of the road. Nothing special about it, perfectly blending in with the surrounding apartments. But inside, located on the third floor, is the man who is anything but ordinary.

The building itself contains a set of small offices. The main lobby is furnished with two large brown dining chairs and a tall cabinet filled with various awards all addressed to one man, Hubert Bell Jr.

As he sits behind a large coffee colored desk, his back is hunched and his face is hidden behind a large pair of circular glasses. He doesn’t say a word as he begins sifting through numerous stacks of papers, and then turning to look at his computer, then back to the papers.

Despite his tender age and his salt and peppered hair, as he stands up to walk across the room, his presence becomes much larger. The man, once hunched over in his seat, squinting at papers, stands and effortlessly glides across the room, completely upright at 6’3 and large enough to play on any professional football team.

In addition to his goliath-like stature, his voice booms across the room, undoubtedly practice from working in courtroom.

Bell is an attorney who generally works with business law, taking on cases involving corporate representation, administrative law, banking, insurance defense and so on. Despite his extensive resume in law, this wasn’t his initial plan.

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Born in Caldwell Texas in 1949, Bell was born into humble beginnings.

As the youngest of six, he was the last of his siblings to attend primary school at Rosenwald. The school was a small three-room building with no heat or cooling units. Its only literature were old, outdated textbooks that were handed down after years of use from the surrounding white schools.

“The school reminds me of the Little House on the Prairie,” says Bell. “The community where the school was locate was settled by my ancestor, Simon Bell around 1865, right after slavery was abolished. It was called Belltown.”

The town was a small robust area with a small store owned by his relative, Horthan. A few years later in 1885 Bell’s grandfather, William, purchased 80 acres of the land in Burleson County, land that Hubert Bell Jr. owns today.

Similar to his persistent and well-achieved ancestors, there is one trait that certainly has been handed down through generations, a competitive spirit.

In addition to being a phenomenal student, Bell was an outstanding athlete. As a young child, he played basketball, football, and baseball. When he was just 14 years old, he recollects his brief moments as a professional baseball player.

“I tried out for the Saint Louis Cardinals when I was 14. I was always tall and I forgot my age when I filled out the application, so I said I was 18,” Bell adds jokingly. “Most of the participants were cut, but I made it through all three days of camp. By the second day, the coach new I wasn’t 18 but let me play anyways. He told me to come back and try again later.” Bell never returned.

Once he was 18, he found a new way to crave his competitive nature.

“Every young kid back then wanted a fast car, a hot rod and I loved the competition. It was the speed, the thrill of going fast, and I was good. At least for the level I was in,” he declared.

While getting his bachelors at the University of Houston in accounting, Bell raced at the Houston International Raceway between Houston and Galveston, Texas.

His first car was a green 1970 Plymouth Cuda. Many years later Bell sold his Cuda for a green 1970’s Plymouth Duster. It wasn’t long after his Duster, that he would give up drag racing altogether.

“I got better sense as I got older,” Bell chuckles. “I had to give up racing. I didn’t want to be an accountant, so I moved out to Austin, to go to law school. If I ever retire, I’ll probably go back to it. A 70 year old man racing.”

Longtime friend and coworker, Andre Hampton, doubts that Bell will ever get back into racing.

“I’ve known Hubert for over 23 years. When I get his age, I’m going to think about retiring, but I don’t think he ever will. I am pretty sure that the concept of a vacation is something that is rare to Hubert,” snickers Hampton. “I’m almost willing to bet that the man hasn’t taken a two week vacation in probably 20 years.”

After graduating with honors from the University of Houston in 1978, Bell moved to Austin to pursue a career in business law, after years as a public accountant. In 1983, he received his al Doctor degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Five years later, in ’88, he opened up his own practice, The Law Office of Hubert Bell Jr. in Austin, Texas.

Just because he dropped racing, doesn’t mean he lost his competitive edge. After arriving to Austin, Bell decided to begin breeding racehorses on his grandfather’s 80-acre land.

“I owned several horses and I won a total of 64 races,” he announces proudly. “I’m pretty sure it is the most wins from any black owner in Texas, maybe even the United States.”

Once Texas stopped allowing racers to earn money through purses, the racing industry took a hit. Bell still raises his horses on his grandfather’s land, but he has lost his interest in breeding them for competitive racing.

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Bell is not an extraordinary man for his passion of fast cars or fast horses. It’s not even the numerous awards and accolades he’s received as an attorney.

For the past two years he has been volunteering his free time to be a mentor for the young children with the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).

Initially, Bell wanted to join the school system and teach lifestyle classes to high school students. He wanted to educate students on how to take out loans, build credit, and other traditional life tasks that most people learn as the they get older.

When he found that most high schools didn’t offer that course nor want to, he decided that as long as he was working with one child, that was one less that had to struggle.

“A fellow lawyer told me about CASA in Travis County. I figured it won’t be a group of kids, but at least it will be one,” he added.

Even as a child advocate, Bell never let’s his competitive spirit die.

“He is a competitive person by nature,” said Michael Stern, a former family law attorney for CASA and coworker at Bell’s law firm. “He a stickler for details and as a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) lawyer, you don’t get those degrees and those licenses, and pass those test without being a little bit persnickety and stubborn and compulsives. ”

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In 1985, Superior Court Judge, Davis Soukup of Seattle, WA founded the Court Appointed Special Advocate organization with hopes of ensuring that judges were getting “all the facts” when it came to the welfare of abused and neglected children. Today, CASA has over 955 programs nation wide with over 600 volunteers who advocate for more than 1,600 children each year.

The National Child Abuse Neglect Data System states that in 2005 over 899,000 children had been abused, both mentally and physically. CASA’s main goal is to “promote and protect the best interest” of children who have been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services.

According to the organization’s Annual Local Program Survey Report, in 2014, over 251,000 children were under CASA care. Of those who were brought through the system, more than 207,000 children were served by CASA volunteers like Bell.

In his two years as a child advocate, Bell has encountered some tough but also memorable experiences.

“I’ve taken my kids to sporting events and drag races, since most have never been,” he adds excitedly. “But the best memory was when I was talking to one of my clients, he told me how he would handle deal with a particular problem he

was having and it was exactly what I had told him three months before. I just smiled, I didn’t say anything.”

Bell is one of many volunteers, geared towards making the lives of children better and continuously urges others to step up to the plate.

“These kids didn’t ask to be born into these abusive families,” he says. “These kids will likely end up in prison or dead and not because they are bad kids. So even if we help just one, its one more than none.”