In 2015, when Richard Rosenberg became president of the board of governors for The Center in Houston, the then-65-year-old nonprofit was facing major hurdles.
The Center, which serves approximately 500 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Houston area, had almost no cash reserves. It also owed nearly $6 million to the City of Houston on the loan it took out to purchase its main campus. The morale of leadership was low, being overwhelmed and paralyzed by The Center’s laundry list of issues that needed to be addressed.
Plus, the already-deteriorating buildings of The Center’s two campuses took even more damage in 2017 as Hurricane Harvey flooded many of them.
Under Rosenberg’s leadership, The Center’s operations are almost unrecognizable compared to where they were a few short years ago. Thanks to a cross-country bike ride fundraiser, The Center has raised more than $13.5 million. The nonprofit has repaid its $6 million loan to the city. The Center replaced its longstanding CEO, CFO and chief development officer. It instituted board succession planning and rewrote its bylaws. It launched two new programs and addressed more than $1 million in property damage and other losses from Hurricane Harvey.
And this isn’t even Rosenberg’s day job.
Rosenberg is also the general counsel of U.S. Zinc, where he oversees all of the company’s legal issues in a legal department that he built more than a decade ago. This year he took on an additional role as U.S. Zinc’s chief administrative officer, so he is also in charge of the company’s human resources department and its efforts in quality control, health, safety and environment.
His work with The Center has made him the sole finalist – thus winner – of the Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Public Service/Pro Bono of the Year award.
ACC Houston and The Texas Lawbook will honor Rosenberg and two-dozen other corporate lawyers during the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards on April 25 at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Houston.
“It is unusual in my experience to find in-house lawyers who devote that amount of work to a nonprofit,” Haynes and Boone senior counsel John Eldridge, who nominated Rosenberg for the award, told The Texas Lawbook. “At times they serve on boards, but they don’t lead a transformational effort for a substantial nonprofit organization very often.”
Through his role as co-chair of Haynes and Boone’s pro bono and public service committee, Eldrige says he knows firsthand how difficult it can be to motivate lawyers to take on a pro bono or public service project.
“I understand the frequent difficulties in motivating successful, experienced lawyers to do pro bono work,” he said. “It’s not always very easy. So when you see the kind of effort that Richard undertook, it’s admirable because not many people would do that.”
Eldridge called Rosenberg a “model” lawyer-citizen.
“People like Richard make the community better,” he said.
Rosenberg got involved with The Center after his oldest daughter, Allison, who has cerebral palsy, turned 18 and began observing her friends depart for college. She, too, wanted to move out and seek her independence.
“As parents, we were super proud that we had raised her to be independent enough that she said, ‘I don’t want to live with you,’” Rosenberg said. “It’s a proud moment but also a very scary proposition to have a child with a disability say, ‘I’m ready to move out.’”
At the time, Rosenberg had already left his previous job as general counsel of Hearthstone Assisted Living. Though he had just spent 10 years in the assisted-living business, he did not know of a place that would be a good fit for his daughter. She uses an electric wheelchair and needs assistance with basic tasks such as changing and showering.
“I got close to telling my wife that she’ll just go to my old work and be among people with dementia,” Rosenberg told The Texas Lawbook. “It’s not a good situation, not where you want a young person to be.”
Then one day, as he was talking with other parents involved in a disability baseball league that he was managing, The Center came up in conversation.
The Center offers a multitude of services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), including residential programs (both independent and assisted living), employment and vocational services, day services, wellness programs and dental services.
Rosenberg’s daughter, who has now been at The Center for nine years, lives in a dorm setting, which Rosenberg says resembles the feel of a college dorm. She’s also taking classes at the University of Houston and is working in an internship program that she got through school.
“She has a disability, but she has the same desires as anyone else,” Rosenberg said. “She wants a job, wants to find a boyfriend and wants to make friends. Living in The Center provides her an opportunity to grow as an individual.”
One driving force that caused Rosenberg to become president of The Center’s board was his desire to fix problems – which he says is in his “DNA” as a lawyer. His decision was also motivated by how much the nonprofit has improved his family’s life.
Beyond that, he just puts great value in volunteer work.
“I think anytime you do charitable work, it helps your emotional IQ,” he said.
Originally from Atlanta, Rosenberg grew up with no lawyers in his family. Both parents, who are now in their eighties, were in the advertising specialties business – “anything you print on,” he explained. Both just retired last year.
“I’m very fortunate that both of my parents are still healthy and vibrant and give me advice,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg also has a sister who has a disability, so his parents served as mentors as he observed while growing up “how they handled the challenges of having a child with a disability.”
He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting at Tulane University and moved to Texas when his now-wife (public finance lawyer Cheryl Rosenberg of Haynes and Boone) got into law school at the University of Texas.
He got a job at Arthur Andersen in Austin, but as he helped his wife study for exams, he “found the law way more fascinating than being an accountant,” he said. “I took the LSAT and did well enough to get into UT.”
He spent the first nine years of his legal career in the business section of Sheinfield, Maley and Kay in Houston, the insolvency firm behind the Dow Corning breast implant class action and the Continental Airlines bankruptcy.
He described the firm’s culture as one that provided “a nice balance between family life and working hard” and one that believed “pro bono is good for the soul.”
He spent the next 10 years of his career as general counsel of Hearthstone Assisted Living, an assisted living company operating in 10 states with more than 1,750 employees and 2,700 residents. During his tenure, the company grew from having 10 to 32 properties.
U.S. Zinc came calling in 2008 after it was acquired by Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim Group. Rosenberg was hired to establish U.S. Zinc’s legal department, and today, as a “one-man legal department,” advises the company on everything from antitrust to mergers and acquisitions, litigation management, the FCPA, insurance and real estate and lease matters.
Last year, he played a critical role in Votorantim’s carve-out transaction that sold U.S. Zinc to private investment firm Aterian Investment Partners.
His day-to-day schedule varies. Sometimes his workday falls within the realm of normal business hours; other days, he’s going to 7 a.m. breakfast meetings and is still working at 7 p.m. He often spends some of the business hours taking care of matters for The Center.
“The shoutout has to go to my company,” he said. “They allow me the flexibility to take time off a bit during the day. As long as I get my job done, they allow me the flexibility to run to The Center for meetings, go do pitches or speeches,” he said. “They’ve been incredible promoters of philanthropic work and social responsibility. I’m proud to work for an organization that allows flexibility.”
“Do you ever sleep?” The Texas Lawbook asked.
“I’m sorry, can you repeat the question? I think I nodded off,” Rosenberg joked. “What you find is you just have to be very efficient.”