In this week’s P.S., we have the details of an inaugural ball put on by the Dallas LGBT Bar Association, updates on the Dallas Bar Association’s Equal Access to Justice Campaign and a reminder of a food drive currently being commissioned for one of Dallas’ poorest areas.
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The Latest Charitable Happenings
— On Thursday evening, the Dallas LGBT Bar Association hosted its inaugural Visibility Ball at Saint Rocco’s. The first-of-its-kind gala and awards event comes on the heels of the bar association gaining a voting seat on the Dallas Bar Association’s Board of Directors this fall. Net proceeds from the ball will go toward 2023 programming. The LGBTBA honored the 2021 and 2022 recipients of its Justice Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the LGBTQ+ community by fighting injustice.
*The 2021 Justice Award recipient is Congresswoman-elect Jasmine Crockett, recognized for her efforts to protect the rights of LGBT Texans as the Representative for House District 100 during the 2021 Texas Legislature — specifically, as the legislature weighed various anti-trans laws. “Jasmine put everything in her power to uplift LGBTQ voices, and stand up for LGBTQ rights,” the LGBTQBA said.
*The 2022 Justice Award recipient is Portia Cantrell, founder of The Silver Pride Project, a nonprofit that supports and advocates for the specific needs of LGBT seniors. SPP provides LGBT programming tailored toward seniors in the Dallas area, including weekly coffee & conversation meetups at local libraries, weekly “rainbow rec” at the Reverchon Recreation Center and an LGBT prom for those unable to attend their high school proms as their authentic selves. Cantrell and her wife, Dr. T’Anya Carter, are currently gearing up a new venture, the Carter Institute for Recovery, a treatment and recovery center for nurses suffering from Substance Use Disorder. It is slated to open in April 2023.
*Firm sponsors of this year’s Visibility Ball were: Holland & Knight, Kastl Law, Clark Hill, BakerHostetler, Duffee + Eitzen, Dykema, Gibson Dunn, Haynes and Boone, Alston & Bird, Linebarger Attorneys at Law, Baker Botts, Armstrong Divorce and Family Law, Thompson Coburn, DebnamRust, SMU Dedman School of Law and MR Civil Justice.
*Individual sponsors were: Hon Jerry Alexander, Dallas County District Judge Martin Hoffman, LGBTBA President Callie Butcher & Ashton Barrineau Butcher, Nadia Haghighatian & Evren Yurchak, Cheryl & Blake Murray, LGBTBA Secretary and VP of Membership Elissa Wev, Judge-elect Monique Bracey Huff, Judge Audrey Moorehead, Justice Erin Nowell, Justice Amanda Reichek and Judge-elect Nicole Taylor.
— The Dallas Bar Association is hip-deep in its annual Equal Access to Justice Campaign, which benefits the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, the arm of the DBA that provides pro bono civil legal services to low-income North Texans. So far, the campaign has raised around $800,000. The campaign will culminate at the DBA’s Inaugural Dinner & Dance on Feb. 11, which will honor 2023 DBA President Cheryl Camin Murray. Last year, the campaign raised $1.3 million, an amount it seeks to surpass. A silent auction will be held at the inaugural ball, and proceeds will also benefit DVAP.
*Tickets for the inaugural ball went on sale Dec. 5. To purchase tickets, visit this link.
*To donate to the campaign, visit this link. Questions? Contact DVAP Director Michelle Alden at aldenm@lanwt.org
*Co-chairs of this year’s campaign are senior managing counsel Stephanie Gause Culpepper of Lument and associate general counsel Yuki Whitmire of Vistra Corp.
*On Wednesday night, the campaign hosted a reception at luxury jeweler Bachendorf’s for its major donors — those who have contributed at least $1,000. Donors who attended included lawyers at Gibson Dunn, Toyota Motor North America, AT&T, Jackson Walker, Condon Tobin, Winsted, Sheppard Mullin, the DBA Probate Section, Faegre Drinker, and The Rosewood Foundation. Major individual donor attendees included Sherri Alexander, Ellen Farrell, Krisi Kastl, Cheryl Camin Murray, Stephanie Gause Culpepper and Gary Fowler.
— Dallas-area lawyers have one more week to donate canned and nonperishable food items for the food drive that will benefit the Sand Branch Community, long considered one of the poorest areas in Dallas County and one that has been without running water for decades. Drop off your items at the Arts District Mansion by Dec. 16. Suggested items include: rice, beans, boxed potatoes, flour, sugar, canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned meat, peanut butter, soup and other shelf-stable items. The food drive is being led by the DBA’s Community Involvement Committee. Co-chairs of the committee are Joe Hoffman of Katten and George Shake of Dufee + Eitzen.
— On Dec. 2, the Community Involvement Committee, with significant help from Dallas attorney John Roper, completed its Santa Brings a Suit clothes drive, which benefitted homeless recovery center Dallas Life Foundation. Although lawyers involved in the effort said it was impossible to quantify the amount of clothes donated, they said the total items easily quadrupled what was donated in 2019 and that the donation truck was quite full.
*At least 10 law firms donated clothing items, including Barnes & Thornburg, Bracewell, Haynes and Boone, Holland & Knight, Jackson Walker, Katten Muchin Rosenman, Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, Glast, Phillips & Murray, O’Neil Wysocki and Sommerman, McCaffity, Quesada & Geisler.