our heroes: LEGAL EAGLES
Deborah Cascino —
Former Teacher Finds an Even
Better Way of Helping Children
She believes that the most important
thing to give a client is dignity.
D
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eborah Cascino’s career path has
been a long and winding road.
She didn’t start out as a lawyer.
The University of Texas
graduate received her degree in
Communications and started her
career in Austin working at the capi-
tal, eventually becoming a teacher.
“I’ve done some really cool stuff,”
she said. “I worked for the State; I
worked for the governor back in the
1980s. I did speech writing in 1983. I
worked for the speaker pro-tem under
Gov. Mark White. I was a reporter
and did PR and wrote newsletters. I
moved around and got my teaching
degree and worked in Beaumont. I
taught English, speech and debate for
seventh grade through 12th grade. I
loved it, but it was a really hard and a
demanding job.”
Even though she loved teaching
since 11th grade, she wanted to be a
lawyer. Almost 20 years after gradu-
ating from UT, Cascino graduated
from Texas Wesleyan University Law
School in 2003.
“It took me 20 years to come back
and go back to law school with my
little baby [Joey],” Cascino said. “I
did night school so I would have him
during the day. I would cry all the
way to school because I missed my
baby, and cried home because I had
to go study.”
After graduation she bought a
historic house that is now her office,
had her daughter, Emily, and has
been working nonstop. She’s prac-
ticed law in Weatherford for 13 years.
Dedicated to practicing family
law, Cascino’s cases are mostly about
divorce, custody and guardianships,
and wills and probate. She says that
her favorite cases are adoptions.
“The cases I love the most are the
adoptions. We don’t get to do those
very often,” she said. “They are at
the top of the list for me. Some of the
CPS cases, while very hard, can be
extremely rewarding because you are
making a difference in a child’s life.”
She also feels that her victories
come when she can help her client
navigate through the worst circum-
stances. She recalled a case where
Child Protective Services had taken
some older children away from a
mother who’d just had a baby, and
CPS also wanted to take the baby.
“I was like, ‘no, this is not happen-
ing,’” Cascino said. “We fought them
off, and it didn’t happen the way I
wanted it to, but at least she was able
to keep the baby for almost a year.
She just couldn’t hold it together. For
me, that was a victory.”
Cascino believes that no matter
who her client is or what they have
done, it is important to treat them
with dignity. For her, it is that little
kindness in a trying situation that
can help make a difference with her
client.
“I treat my clients with dignity,”
Cascino said. “even if they’re a meth
head. They deserve to be treated with
dignity, even though they may not
deserve to have custody of their chil-
dren, they still deserve to have skilled
representation of the law in the court-
room. That’s what I’m here to do.
Even though I don’t think they should
have custody of their kids, that’s not
my judgment. My judgment is to help
them and give them my advice. I’ve
had several generations come back to
tell me how helpful my advice was to
them.”
Cascino has been involved with
some high-profile custody cases,
including one of the largest custody
cases in the nation’s history, with the
custody of more than 400 children in
question. In 2008 the federal govern-
ment raided the compound of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints at the Yearning
for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, a
group led by Warren Jeffs. The raid
involved more than 400 children,
that were taken into state custody
from the sect. When another fellow
Weatherford Lawyer Tom Vick called
(see this month’s cover story), Cascino
knew that she h ad to get involved and
help the children, and that’s exactly
what she and other lawyers from
around the state did.
“We dropped everything and went
down there,” she said. “When we
got into the whole case, we started
understanding how multi-layered [it
was], and [what] a complete cultural
surprise to have this in Texas. I had
five kids as my clients, and one
was a girl, and she told me that she
had a mangled hand and I asked
what happened. She got hurt on the
conveyor belt working in the field.
She was about 10 or 11. That’s when
I knew I was in the right place.”
One of the kids that Cascino
represented was a boy who was 6 or
7 who had to pick up rocks and dig
up cacti all day. She recalled how
he laughed at her when he saw she
was in a pants suit, asking her why
she was in a man’s suit. She went
into the city’s small downtown area
and bought a longish, full, flowing
dress so her clients would feel more
comfortable talking to her.
Dignity and great representation
are the things that matter the most to
Cascino. She cares about her clients,
shows them the utmost respect, and
works diligently on their behalf to
ensure that their individual cases have
the best possible outcomes. She finds
the work rewarding.
What more can anyone ask from
a career?