Dan Micciche’s efforts to promote schools as a Dallas school board trustee and help clients as a lawyer at Akin Gump are paying off in unexpected ways.
The third-term trustee will be honored Sept. 21 at the Children at Risk annual gala for his work improving schools and fighting for the district’s poorest children. Since being elected in 2012 to serve District 3, Micciche has helped integrate social and emotional learning into the curriculum, mandated daily minutes for school recess and required the district to serve food to all students as part of the Breakfast in the Classroom program.
“The policies that he has advocated for on behalf of Dallas ISD students have been replicated in other school districts and even at the highest level, the Texas legislature,” Children at Risk officials said in a statement. “We are incredibly excited to honor his work at this year’s Night In Venice.”
A lawyer by trade, Micciche became involved with the school district when he ran a volunteer program at Fannin Elementary on Ross Avenue for seven years. When Fannin’s students were consolidated into other area schools, Micciche wanted to stay involved and saw that his Dallas ISD trustee was up for re-election.
Micciche maintains excellence as a lawyer, and he has been recognized as a best lawyer for 15 consecutive years in “Best Lawyers in America,” one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed publications in the legal profession. This year, the publication named him the DFW Lawyer of the Year in Tax Law because of “extremely high” feedback from his peers.
At Akin Gump, Micciche is known for mentoring counsel and associates. His mentees have continued the tradition of giving back. On Sept. 3, Texas Lawyer selected one of his protégés, Gemme Descoteaux, to its Best Mentors list. In the article, Descoteaux praised Micciche for his honesty and his willingness to invest time in other people.
“Dan cares deeply, and it shows in his interactions,” she said. “I always knew that Dan had my best interests at heart. I could ask Dan for advice, and he would tell me the cold, hard truth, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.”
