This week’s P.S. Column is packed with award winners, from corporate counsels who are leading the way in pro bono and diversity initiatives to the longest-serving woman justice on the Texas Supreme Court to rock-and-roll attorneys fundraising for charities.
ACC Houston, Texas Lawbook Announce 2025 Pro Bono and Diversity Award Recipients
In the words of the great philosopher Tom Petty, “You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down.”
At a time when many law firms and businesses are shying away from their pro bono and diversity efforts and some are even eliminating initiatives that they boasted about for the past decade, a handful of corporate legal departments are standing strong because they believe their efforts are legally sound and the right thing to do.
Even retired Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, a devout conservative, told The Texas Lawbook in an interview last year that the legal profession “desperately needs to do more” to promote pro bono and diversity.
“Corporate general counsel can lead the way,” Hecht said.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the Houston Corporate Counsel Awards honoring achievement in diversity and inclusion and achievement in pro bono and public service.
ACC Houston and The Lawbook joined forces seven years ago to recognize and honor the corporate in-house legal teams that help their businesses navigate increasingly complex legal, political and business issues.
This year, The Lawbook and ACC Houston received more than 90 nominations for 14 different categories. Panels of independent judges consisting of past Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipients combed through the submissions and selected the best of the best to be finalists. Today, we announce those who have demonstrated true leadership in the pro bono and diversity categories.
Harry Reasoner Pro Bono Advocacy Award
The 2025 Harry Reasoner Pro Bono Advocacy Award recognizes achievements in pro bono and public service, including offering legal aid to the poor, military veterans and others who need legal assistance but cannot afford to hire a lawyer. The award is named after legendary Vinson & Elkins trial lawyer Harry Reasoner, who championed legal rights for the disadvantaged and under-represented throughout his five-decade career.
The 2025 Harry Reasoner Pro Bono Advocacy Award goes to the legal department at Baker Hughes and Baker Hughes Senior Counsel Ivett Hughes. She was nominated by Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program Executive Director Jessica Howton Stool.
Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion
The 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion promotes efforts to encourage people of all economic levels, all backgrounds, and all ethnicities and genders to consider law as a profession.
In a 2021 opinion by Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a renowned conservative, diversity efforts by the State Bar of Texas are constitutionally legal because they are “aimed at creating a fair and equal legal profession for minority, women and LGBT attorneys.”
The 2025 Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion Award goes to Shell USA Managing Counsel Adam MacLuckie and Shell Legal Counsel Huyen Luong. They were nominated by their colleagues at Shell, Abigail Farmer and Joel Talley.
The finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced at the annual Houston Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on May 22. In addition, The Lawbook plans to write and publish in-depth feature articles on each award recipient.
Texas Bar Foundation Honors Justice Debra Lehrmann
The Texas Bar Foundation has selected Supreme Court Justice Debra Lehrmann as this year’s recipient of the Samuel Pessarra Outstanding Jurist Award, which honors an active or retired federal or state judge who has exemplified competency, efficiency and integrity.
The award, named for the late Texas lawyer, will be presented to Lehrmann at the bar foundation’s annual dinner on June 20 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort in San Antonio. A $1,000 scholarship donation in honor of the senior justice will also be presented to the University of Texas School of Law.
Lehrmann is the longest-serving woman justice on the Texas Supreme Court in state history, according to the Texas Bar Foundation.
Then-Gov. Rick Perry appointed Lehrmann to the court in 2010. She won three subsequent elections. Prior to joining the state’s highest court, Lehrmann was a Tarrant County trial judge for 23 years.
Her leadership roles in both state and national organizations throughout her career include chairing the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section and the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section. She has also served as a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission and has belonged to the American Law Institute.
Lehrmann’s “distinguished career and steadfast service to both the bar and the community exemplify the values this award represents,” foundation Executive Director Baillie Milliken said.
Those values represent guiding principles for judges, said Lehrmann, who added that she “will work daily to uphold these ideals.”
Law Rocks Houston
In a tight race for overall champion of this battle-of-the-bands style charity fundraiser, Twenty 24 Souls got some satisfaction.
The rock band, which performed The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction during its set, claimed the top prize by just one point, Law Rocks organizers announced Thursday night to an ecstatic crowd.
The band, led in part by Brown Rudnick partner Adam Schiffer, raised money for the Blue Angels Foundation, which helps military veterans.
“It was exciting to win, especially given the high quality of the other bands,” Schiffer said. “Who knew lawyers could be so competitive?”
Schiffer said he was glad to fundraise for an organization that provides “much needed psychological care for veterans with PTSD in our area.”
In total, the event raised more than $129,000 for local non-profit organizations.
Blackacre, a band with lawyers from McDowell Hetherington, was recognized with the Hustle & Heart Award, which recognizes the group that raised the most individual donations to its chosen charity. Blackacre benefitted the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston.
The Judges’ Choice Award went to The Overcommitments, with lawyers from Chamberlain Hrdlicka. This band fundraised for Trees For Houston.
Chamberlain Hrdlicka was the event’s headline sponsor.
The panel of judges was made up of lawyers Scott Davidson and Charlie San Miguel, who perform in the four-time overall Law Rocks Houston champion band Pro Hac Vice, attorney and musician Shakeatha Davis and Ana Treviño-Godfrey director of Preclude Music Classes for Children and co-founder and Director of Education of The Prelude Music Foundation, a Law Rocks Houston grant recipient.
Other bands that competed were Little Victories, with lawyers from Andrews Myers raising money for Lone Star Legal Aid, and One Bad Crash, with attorneys from Latham & Watkins and Shell Oil Company fundraising for Belong Kitchen.