This week’s edition of P.S. includes information on a sizable donation received by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, a group of Asian Pacific Interest Section lawyers receiving awards — including for efforts related to diversity and inclusion and pro bono work — at an annual conference, a prestigious ABA award that will honor a lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright and details on a law firm’s achievement of 100 percent pro bono participation among its attorneys.
The Latest
— The American Bar Association has named Austin lawyer Gina Shishima a recipient of the 2024 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. Shishima will be honored with the award in August at the ABA’s annual meeting in Chicago. Shishima, who is Norton Rose Fulbright’s U.S. chief strategy and operations partner, is among a group of four other women receiving the award: visiting scholar Dolores Atencio of the University of Denver Strum College of Law’s Latinx Center, Maryland Associate Judge Pamela J. Brown of the Howard County District Court, retired California public interest lawyer Estelle H. Rogers and former Gannett Co. Chief Legal Officer Barbara Wall, currently serving as a Gannett board member. Established in 1991, the Margaret Brent award recognizes women lawyers who carry forward the legacy of Brent, the first woman lawyer in the U.S., through professional excellence and active dedication to paving the success for other women lawyers.
As a member of NRF’s firm management, Shishima has played a key role in various firm initiatives that support women lawyers internally, the firm said. An intellectual property lawyer with a Ph.D in molecular biology, Shishima has also served as the firm’s U.S. head of intellectual property and U.S. chief diversity officer. In addition to serving on the global executive committee, Shishima is the first woman of color to be a member of the firm’s U.S. management committee.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Margaret Brent Award, joining a group of incredible women who have accomplished so much and helped so many,” Shishima said in a statement. “To be recognized for advancing opportunities for women in the legal profession is very special.”
One of last year’s recipients of the Margaret Brent award also hailed from Texas: Sidley Austin chair Yvette Ostolaza.
— For the 15th consecutive year, 100 percent of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s full-time U.S. lawyers participated in pro bono projects, the firm announced this week. This year also marks 31 consecutive years of HuntonAK meeting or exceeding the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge to donate at least 3 percent of its annual billable hours to pro bono services. Globally, more than 800 lawyers and staff firmwide contributed 51,752 hours toward pro bono in the last fiscal year, which ended March 31.
— Today kicks off the two-day, 26th annual conference for the State Bar of Texas’ Asian Pacific Interest Section. During this weekend’s conference, which is at the Hilton Austin, numerous attorneys will receive awards. They are:
- Texas Regional USPTO Director Hope Shimabuku, receiving the Justice David Wellington Chew Award;
- Haynes Boone Dallas office managing partner Sakina Rasheed Foster, receiving the Champion of Diversity Award;
- Dallas Sheppard Mullin partner Phil Kim, receiving the Pro Bono Award;
- Austin Vela Wood partner Chi Reece, receiving the Outstanding Mentor Award;
- Equinix senior legal counsel of real estate Madhvi Patel, BakerHostetler counsel Sophilia Wu and Husch Blackwell associate Sophia George, all receiving the Best Under 40 Award; and
- the Austin Asian American Bar Association, receiving the Affiliate of the Year Award.
This year’s chair of APIS is Dallas lawyer Saba Syed, a partner at Bell Nunnally & Martin. The chair elect is business immigration attorney Sang Shin, a partner based in Jackson Walker’s Houston office.
— This week, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra announced that its chairman of the board, it received a $5 million donation from its chairman of the board, Mercedes T. Bass, in light of her 80th birthday on Wednesday. The gift, which will be allocated over five years, will in part encourage even greater support for the orchestra’s service to the community, FWSO said in a statement. Bass is the ex-wife of Fort Worth billionaire Sid Bass and an avid philanthropist of the arts. In addition to her FWSO board service, she also runs in elite social circles in Manhattan and Aspen, Colorado, through her board service and philanthropy work with the Metropolitan Opera and the Aspen Institute and Aspen Music Festival and School.
Business lawyers currently serve on FWSO’s board, including Marianne Auld, chairman of the executive committee and managing partner of Kelly Hart and Kelly Hart of counsel Don Plattsmier, who his FWSO’s interim treasurer.