P.S. — Severe Storm Outreach, DVAP June Dates, HBA’s New Prez

Public service news for this week includes info on the HBA’s newest president, board of directors and award honorees; June dates for Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s legal clinics; two lawyers appointed by the governor to the state’s OneStar Foundation; and how those in Texas affected by the recent severe storms can receive legal and recovery assistance. 

Firms mentioned this week include Locke Lord, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Abaham Watkins, Womble Bond Dickinson, Bracewell, Gibson Dunn, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Baker Botts, Norton Rose Fulbright, O’Neil Wysocki, Blank Rome, Painter Law Firm, Beck Redden, Daly & Black, Okin Adams Bartlett, Parker PLLC, Wright.law, Bradley, DLA Piper, Alson & Bird, Haynes Boone, Foley, Dorsey & Whitney, Frost Brown Todd, Carrington Coleman, Gray Reed and Weil.

May 24, 2024 Natalie Posgate

P.S. — A Black Tie Affair, A Safe Space for Mothers, A Grant Deadline

This week’s P.S. features a grant deadline (today) for any Dallas-area organizations pursuing projects that support women; lawyers from Yetter Coleman, Shipley Snell, and Hunton Andrews Kurth receiving pro bono/community service-related awards; a trivia event that raised funds for Children’s Health; an upcoming gala that supports the Dallas LGBTQ+ community that’s in need of more sponsors; and a recent ribbon-cutting event at Houston’s civil courthouse to celebrate the recent installation of the first of several planned lactation pods. 

Pictured: a group of Munck Wilson Mandala lawyers at the 2023 Black Tie Dinner that supports the LGBTQ+ community.

May 17, 2024 Natalie Posgate

Shell’s Hector Pineda: A ‘Change Agent’ for DEI

Hector Pineda is kind of a big deal at Shell. Throughout his nearly three-decade career at one of the world’s largest oil companies, he’s gone from battling a snake wrangler in a West Texas courtroom to handling major projects and commercial transactions to providing strategic advice to top executives and managers leading Shell’s downstream and renewables businesses in the Americas. But no matter how high he climbs in the company, it is his ability to advance others and be a microphone for diverse voices that he is most proud of.

Pineda is one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Diversity and Inclusion, and the winner will be revealed Wednesday at an awards ceremony hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.

May 15, 2024 Natalie Posgate

Spire’s Sean Jamieson Diversifies Voices in the Natural Gas Industry

When you hear the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion, your mind probably goes to the boilerplate topics that are the subject of so many panel discussions in Corporate America — diverse candidate pool, hiring and retention practices, mentorship versus sponsorship, to name a few. But for Spire General Counsel Sean Jamieson, DEI became a life-or-death matter in the summer of 2021 as a whopper regulatory battle put an existential threat to the existence of one of Spire’s natural gas pipelines. Critics thought Spire only designed its STL Pipeline project to line its own pockets. Jamieson and Spire viewed the pipeline as a means to diversify the natural gas source in eastern Missouri to lower the cost of delivering reliable energy to the people who need it the most: a widely vulnerable, underrepresented customer base.

“This would have been bad for our business. But it would have been terrible for people,” Jamieson said. “I had spent the months before working with the technical analysts and modeling what it would mean if we didn’t have this pipeline, the number of customers we would potentially lose. I learned and internalized all the mechanics associated with what would actually happen.”   

Jamieson’s sleepless, behind-the-scenes work to bring together diverse viewpoints to solve complex problems is why Spire’s STL Pipeline is still running. It’s also why he’s a finalist for the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook’s 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

May 11, 2024 Natalie Posgate

Mother’s Day: Shared Experiences and Support 

In honor of Mother’s Day, Sidley Austin associate Tayler Bragg discusses why the holiday hits differently for her this year as someone expecting and how she feels supported by colleagues.

May 11, 2024 Tayler Bragg

P.S. — A Special Lawbook Foundation Announcement, A Five-digit Law School Scholarship & A Six-digit College Scholarship 

This week’s edition of P.S. features an award-winning environmental justice paper that earned a University of Houston law student a law firm-sponsored scholarship, an upcoming cluster of scholarships worth $150,000 that will be awarded to graduating high school seniors by a Dallas law firm, info on The Lawbook’s new pro bono advocacy award honoring a great pro bono legend in the state and a thank-you note from the Texas Lawbook Foundation to recent donors.

Plus: how to get a charitable deduction by donating to the Texas Lawbook Foundation if the recent tax season bummed you (and your wallet) out.

May 10, 2024 Natalie Posgate

P.S. — Six-figure Fundraising, HBA’s Changing of the Guard & Adulting

This week’s edition of P.S. features the unveiling of Porter Hedges’ new 1L diversity fellow, a fundraising development from the Texas Access to Justice Commission and State Bar of Texas that will benefit low-income Texas veterans, a leadership change at the Houston Bar Association and the launch of a public service website focused on “adulting.”

May 3, 2024 Natalie Posgate

Q&A: Adel Sander

In this Q&A, Adel Sander discusses what she considers when hiring outside counsel, what it is about her job that gets her out of bed, how diversity became front and center for her and what diversity and inclusion initiatives law firms can be doing to create change.

April 30, 2024 Natalie Posgate