This coming Wednesday evening, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook host the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards. General counsel and senior counsel from companies ranging from Phillips 66 and Shell USA to Mitsui and Honeywell will be celebrated for their legal skills and business accomplishments.
But The Lawbook is also honoring one legendary trial lawyer who has represented hundreds of companies but never been an in-house counsel.
The Lawbook is celebrating the career of recently retired Vinson & Elkins partner Harry Reasoner for his lifetime commitment to providing access to justice for everyone.
Reasoner successfully led some of the most important and most controversial pro bono cases in Texas history. He served as chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission for a decade. And he ushered in policies that encouraged lawyers at V&E to devote more time to pro bono by giving them hourly credit for their work on pro bono cases.
To celebrate Reasoner’s impact on pro bono and public service, The Lawbook is creating the Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono Advocacy.
At the same time, The Lawbook and ACC Houston are pleased to announce that V&E has committed to making a $25,000 donation for each of the next five years to the Texas Lawbook Foundation, which supports the full-time reporting of pro bono and public service issues in the legal profession.
“People ask me if I have any biases in favor of any lawyers or law firms,” said Lawbook founder and reporter Mark Curriden, who has written about the legal industry in Texas for 28 years. “I always answer, ‘Yes.’ Harry Reasoner is the greatest lawyer in Texas history. Harry’s commitment to the rule of law, to professionalism, to zealous advocacy and to access to justice for all is unmatched.”
“It is our honor to present an award for pro bono advocacy in the name of Harry Reasoner,” Curriden said. “And we thank V&E for its support of the Lawbook Foundation and the great work Natalie is doing to showcase the pro bono and public service commitment of lawyers in Texas.”
Other items featured in this week’s P.S. column include 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 and a thank you note from the Texas Lawbook Foundation to additional recent donors.
The Latest
— Last week, Blank Rome announced that it created the Blank Rome Energy Scholarship at the University of Houston Law Center for law students who are passionate about energy and environmental law. The inaugural $10,000 scholarship was awarded last month to UH Law 3L Frank Chambers for his winning paper, “The Nuclear Option: Securing Environmental Justice Benefits Through the Movement to Replace Coal Power Plants.” Blank Rome partner Susan Bickley announced the scholarship winner at UHLC’s Eighth Annual North American Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Conference, which Blank Rome has sponsored every year.
“We have enjoyed partnering with the University of Houston Law Center to support this industry-leading event for the past eight years, and are thrilled to help establish a scholarship to assist law students who are passionate about energy and environmental law,” Bickley, co-chair of the firm’s Houston office and energy industry team, said in a statement. “Mr. Chambers’ paper on the nuclear option is well-researched and it captures the wide array of issues involved in the coal-for-nuclear option as well as the important environmental justice opportunities presented. It ranks among the most comprehensive papers written to date on the subject. Blank Rome is proud to advance such scholarship by supporting the next generation of lawyers.”
“As we transition away from coal power, we have to protect those most vulnerable to the transition — environmental justice communities living near coal power plants,” Chambers said in a recent LinkedIn post about receiving the scholarship. “Replacing coal power with nuclear power creates an opportunity to invert the typical environmental justice story by delivering clean energy that contributes to coal economic development.”
— Witherite Law Group and affiliate firm 1-800-TruckWreck on May 20 will award $150,000 worth of scholarships to 60 graduating high school seniors at Fort Worth’s Dunbar High School. Each student will receive $2,500 to help with college and will be renewed annually if the student maintains at least a 2.0 GPA and takes at least 12 credit hours. Witherite Law founder Amy Witherite created the Making a Difference Scholarship in 2014 to provide financial assistance to students who have demonstrated leadership in their schools and communities. Since the inception, the firm has awarded 109 scholarships and renewed 254 — an approximately $850,000 investment.
“The rising cost of higher education is forcing some students to go straight to work and delay or forgo college altogether,” Witherite said in a statement. “We have steadily increased our scholarship award due to loan need and economic pressures. Having financial resources to help with school gives students an opportunity to focus on academics, bettering their chance of completion and securing a fulfilling career.”
— Finally, The Texas Lawbook would like to thank several corporate legal departments and individuals who have recently given to the Texas Lawbook Foundation in advance of next week’s 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards. Any net proceeds from the event will also support the Lawbook Foundation, which funds the full-time reporter position for its pro bono, public service and diversity beat.
We thank the following for your generous gift:
- LyondellBasell ($1,000)
- TGS ($5,000)
- Virage Capital Management ($1,000)
- Vopak ($5,000)
- Audrey Momanaee of Blank Rome ($250)
- SNH Capital Partners General Counsel Jordan Silverman ($250)
If you were disappointed by the amount of taxes you owed the IRS in 2023, we welcome you to consider the Texas Lawbook Foundation in your 2024 tax deduction strategy. Anyone can donate at any time at this link and learn more about the Lawbook Foundation here.
Editor’s note: Mark Curriden contributed to this report.