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Everything's Bigger in Texas, Including the Tiaras: Texas Tech Law Student Crowned Miss Texas 2012

A Texas Tech Law student has been crowned Miss Texas 2012. Let's find out more about her...

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In recent months, we’ve covered quite a few stories about attorneys from Texas with a certain je ne sais quoi — we’ll call it “flair.” Today, we’ve got some positive news from the Lone Star State, straight out of Texas Tech University School of Law, an institution known for “keepin’ it real.”

Although the school is ranked at No. 101 by U.S. News, just on the cusp of the traditional second and third tier, a tipster notes that “one tiara is better than any tier.” In exciting news, over the weekend, a beautiful rising 3L at Texas Tech Law was crowned as the new Miss Texas 2012.

We know, we know: pics or it didn’t happen.

We aim to please, so of course we’ve got the pictures — yes, the pageant included a swimsuit competition — as well as an interview with this law student turned beauty queen.

Let’s check out the new Miss Texas 2012, shall we?

Behold the beauty of DaNae Couch, the recently crowned Miss Texas 2012. Now that’s an Elle Woodsian blazer if we’ve ever seen one! According to her LinkedIn page, Couch has already accomplished a great deal during her time at Texas Tech Law. She’s a staff editor for the school’s Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal, and she previously served as a summer intern for the Supreme Court of Texas.

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This weekend, she earned yet another coveted credential: the glory of being crowned as Miss Texas. Couch joins a long and distinguished tradition of law students and lawyers who have won beauty contests. And she’ll now be the envy of GCB fans the world over.

NBC Dallas-Forth Worth has more information:

The reigning Miss Dallas, DaNae Couch earned the new title at the Miss Texas Pageant at the Allen Event Center on Saturday night. …

Contestants competed in categories such as private interview, lifestyle and fitness — which includes swimwear — talent, evening gown, and the make-or-break onstage question.

Couch received a $10,000 cash scholarship and the use of an Infiniti from Grubbs Infiniti.

Texas Tech Law even dedicated a section of its website to their very own beauty queen:

Couch’s hobbies include the following: dancing, Zumba, reading, and competing in Mock Trial. As a future lawyer, we hope she knows that reading isn’t going to be a leisure activity for her much longer. For the talent portion of the competition, Couch performed a twirling routine to “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” Yes, twirling; that’s actually a thing. But because she’s a member of this writer’s sorority, she gets a pass. Pansy power!

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When Couch found out that we would be writing about her, she responded in jubilant Texan style: “Wow! I read Above the Law every day! I would love to talk with y’all!” We were able to speak with her this afternoon. Here’s what this upbeat beauty queen had to say about the law, and her new life as Miss Texas 2012.

ATL: What kind of law are you hoping to practice in the future?

I get this question quite a bit, and I’m sure that my parents are the most anxious for me to figure this out. I’ve developed a passion for litigation, and Texas Tech has a really great advocacy program. I’m on the national mock trial team at my school, and I’ve participated in intra-school trial competitions since the second semester of my 1L year. I’ve interned at the Supreme Court of Texas, and this summer, I’m interning at the U.S. Attorney’s Office at Fort Worth. I wanted to see what litigation was like from both sides of the fence. I’m not entirely sure if I want to do civil or criminal litigation, but I’ve enjoyed all of the exposure I’ve had to it thus far.

ATL: Do you have a job lined up for after law school?

I’ll actually be taking a year off from law school because being Miss Texas is a full-time job. I’ll be traveling around the state and promoting my platform, “Hope for Family Recovery: Life beyond Addiction.” I’ll also be competing in the Miss America pageant in January. Once my year of service is over, I’ll go back and finish my final year of law school. I’ll likely be graduating in May of 2014, but that depends on how the Miss America pageant goes!

ATL: How can a beauty queen make an impact on the legal profession?

I think that the way I can make an impact on the legal profession as Miss Texas is through my advocacy and speaking skills. I actually won the overall interview portion of the competition this past weekend. I hope to do a lot with drug and alcohol addiction. I’d like to try to find ways that existing laws can be changed to better help people who are struggling with addiction, while balancing the fact that these people should not be breaking the law. I’ll be looking for ways we can legally improve what we have in place right now, and hopefully I can use my education and my current title as Miss Texas to do so.

ATL: Do you have any advice for people who are hoping to go to law school?

Prospective law students should be prepared to work really hard. I know a lot of people think that the law isn’t the best field to go into right now because of the market for legal employment, but I found my law school experience to be really rewarding. It’s not like skipping through a field of daisies — it requires a lot of dedication, and a lot of hard work. If you want to get into the profession and change things, it will require a lot of hard work.

My best advice: prepare yourself to work really hard, and make the most of every opportunity that’s available to you. My law school experience was filled with a lot of diverse experiences, because you only have those three years one time. It’s been really rewarding, because I’m learning so much about the law, and so much about myself. I’ve seen many different aspects of the law, and hopefully it will make me a marketable employee in the future.

Couch will move on to compete in the Miss America pageant in January 2013. We bet that Texas Tech will be pleased if she wins the crown, because she’d probably be counted as employed upon graduation.

Good luck, DaNae! We here at Above the Law will be rooting for you!

Flip through to the next page to see additional pictures of DaNae Couch, as well as some video coverage….

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