In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Dallas Cowboys deputy general counsel Kaleisha Stuart discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
The Texas Lawbook: What has been your best day with the Cowboys?
Kaleisha Stuart: My favorite days at the Cowboys are our Black History Month luncheons. Each year since we launched The Fellowship, our Black employee resource group, we have hosted a Black History Month luncheon at the training table (i.e., cafeteria) at The Star in Frisco. All employees are invited, and it is one of the best-attended employee events at the company. The specially curated lunch menu features Black culture classics like sweet potato pie, collard greens, cornbread and banana pudding. In addition to live music, the event centers around an intimate fireside chat with special guest stars. The first year we hosted Cowboys legend, Darren Woodson, and AT LAST! founder and entrepreneur, Randy Bowman. Another year, we hosted our star quarterback, Dak Prescott, then fresh off winning his Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, alongside Cowboys VP of Player Personnel Will McClay. It is always a special afternoon with a packed, standing-room-only crowd — a true fan favorite!
Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel?
Stuart: In selecting outside counsel, we prioritize practicality, trust and fair billing. We need outside counsel to provide practical, actionable advice that allows us to keep moving forward quickly. Carrie Hoffman is a master at this — she taps into her deep understanding of employment law to provide direct, business-oriented advice. Trust is also key. As lawyers for all the Jones family businesses, we are generalists — which is a nice way of saying we aren’t experts in any body of law. Trust that our outside counsel, the experts, are helping us manage our matters wisely is key. And finally, billing us fairly is so important and goes back to the issue of trust.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about working with you?
Stuart: We are fun clients. As long as our key needs for practical, actionable advice, trust and fair billing are met, we are pretty easy clients.
Lawbook: What pro bono or public service efforts are you involved in that you can discuss?
Stuart: I am a member of the Baylor Scott & White Health Women’s Health Council for the brand-new Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Frisco at PGA Parkway. This council of women serves as the voice of the women’s experience at the hospital, helps shape and refine offerings and assists in building awareness of services and programs. I am so proud to be part of the council because this medical center has been carefully designed to provide preeminent healthcare for women. It is an honor to play a role in that important mission.
I co-created and co-teach an advanced-level sports law class at SMU Dedman School of Law each spring semester. The class focuses on an array of sports law issues from youth sports, [name, image and likeness] matters, Olympic drug testing, labor issues to sports media. Teaching and connecting with my students has been a fun and deeply rewarding way to invest in the future of our profession. I am cognizant of the power teachers possess to build up and encourage students, and it has been such an honor to play that role for my incredible students. It has also been deeply rewarding to feel connected to the long line of educators in my family, including my dear mother.
And finally, leading our black employee resource group, The Fellowship, is the other big service project that takes up a lot of my time.
Lawbook: Regarding DEI, where do most law firms drop the ball? Why are law firm diversity numbers struggling to improve?
Stuart: I am careful not to be too critical or prescriptive towards the DE&I efforts of organizations to which I am not a part. I haven’t been a firm attorney for several years now, so I cannot pretend to have all the answers. The reality is that, regardless of race or gender, firm life is tough. My experience taught me that a key difference between attorneys that thrive in the firm system and those that fall through the cracks often comes down to whether they have a more senior attorney that has taken an interest in their development. Promoting more diversity throughout the ranks of the firm, as opposed to focusing chiefly on pipeline programs to get diverse candidates in the door, is an important part of creating an organization that can sustain the retention and development of diverse attorneys.
Lawbook: What is the role of GCs and in-house counsel in seeking the solution to improve diversity and inclusion?
Stuart: GCs and in-house counsel play an important role in improving diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. As the conscience of the company, the legal department must model and implement values of diversity and inclusion within its own ranks if it expects the company at large to do so. I am fortunate to work in a department, led by Jason Cohen, that strongly values the role of women in leadership. Our department boasts six women, three women of color and two naturalized citizens. I love the quote “We don’t see with our eyes, we see with our whole lives,” and together we bring a diverse and wide set of life experiences to solve the Cowboys’ legal problems.
In-house counsel and GCs also have the awesome ability to make incremental improvements to our profession by using its outside counsel spend wisely. Whenever possible, giving business to qualified attorneys who share the company’s values creates a virtuous circle that rewards the law firms that support and treat their attorneys well.
Lawbook: What have been one or two of your biggest accomplishments in pushing for diversity and inclusion with the Cowboys?
Stuart: My biggest accomplishment, which was not achieved alone but rather through the hard work of a group of dedicated employees, was the creation of the Dallas Cowboys’ first employee resource group, The Fellowship. During the summer of 2020, while in the grips of BLM demonstrations and COVID-19 pandemic, and with the enthusiastic support of the executive team, a few other Black leaders and I hosted a series of virtual “listening circles,” where we invited all of our Black employees to share their experiences working at the Cowboys. What we heard was that these employees loved working for the company but wished there were more ways to connect. As a direct response to that desire for connection, we launched The Fellowship, an employee resource group open to all employees with a mission to support and develop Black employees, create educational and engagement opportunities for all employees and to use our platform to support our community. This mission has come to life over the ensuing years through fun social events, countless volunteer events, insightful Black History Month programs, engaging speaker series, a monthly media club and an annual Juneteenth event which showcases and supports small Black-owned businesses, performers and artists for a family friendly celebration.
The successful launch of The Fellowship also fueled the development of two other incredible employee resource groups, WIN, focused on supporting women employees, and Unidos, which supports our Latino employees.
While I don’t claim The Fellowship has made a difference in the lives of every single Cowboys employee, I am proud to say that many employees of all backgrounds have found community, support and meaning at work through The Fellowship.
Lawbook: How do you navigate a male-dominated industry such as pro football?
Stuart: I am very lucky to work at this particular club where the voices and leadership of women are highly valued. This starts right at the top with Mrs. Jones and her daughter, Charlotte Jones. They are huge supporters of women in our organization, and I have always felt that women belong at the Cowboys. I am also fortunate to navigate this industry as a lawyer because that is one of the realms, along with HR, marketing and finance, that women have made great inroads. I am also a big believer that the quality of our lives is deeply impacted by the way we talk to ourselves and the stories we tell ourselves about our experiences. Kevin Warren, former Big Ten commissioner and current president of the Chicago Bears, mentioned in a talk he gave for The Fellowship when he was still commissioner that he doesn’t mind being the “only” in a room because it presents him with an opportunity to stand out. That reframing of our otherness as an opportunity reclaims our own power and is an idea I have kept top of mind in the years since his talk.
Lawbook: What has been your biggest challenge during your time with the Cowboys?
Stuart: The biggest challenge during my time at the Cowboys was navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. I was fortunate to be part of a small committee tasked with reenvisioning our operations from top to bottom and setting new rules and procedures for keeping our employees, guests and fans safe. One particularly challenging project involved working with our production company to figure out how to safely film season 15 of our hit reality television show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team in summer 2020. I worked tirelessly with my human resources partner, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director and our production company to craft, implement and monitor procedures to allow the DCC auditions to proceed in a COVID-safe filming bubble, one of the first of its kind and one that ultimately became a model for other similar reality TV shows. We were proud to get through weeks of filming with no infections. It was a challenge because there were so many unknowns; we were guided by the science we knew at the time but largely had to trust ourselves to make sound decisions. I lost a lot of sleep and perhaps a year or two off my life simply from worrying about the wellbeing of everyone involved, but it is the project I credit with helping me see myself as not just a lawyer, but also a trusted leader in our organization.
Click here to read the Lawbook profile of Kaleisha Stuart.