Dona Cornell took the GC job at the University of Houston System in 2002 because it seemed like it would be a slower pace. “I was so wrong,” Cornell said. “It is more like being in trial all the time.” Twenty years later, Cornell is still the chief legal officer for the university system, which has an annual budget of more than $1.8 billion, more than 10,000 employees and 77,000 students. She and her legal team confront some groundbreaking issues, including the university’s invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, significant changes to higher education law including Title IX and how to handle classes during the pandemic.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook award the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Nonprofit/Public Institution to University of Houston System General Counsel Dona Hamilton Cornell.
For Mark Curriden’s full profile of Dona Cornell Click Here.
Texas Lawbook: What has been your best day at the University of Houston?
Dona Cornell: I enjoy working with people trying to achieve their dreams, which can vary from teaching at the Law Center and in the College of Education, to working with donors to help them craft their dreams of helping others, to helping a dean navigate difficult issues with faculty or students, to making sure our Title IX office has the necessary support so they can do their job well in a difficult environment. My best day is when I can help someone in some meaningful way.
Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel?
Cornell: I look for someone who understands what higher education is all about and the complexities of it and what the risks and rewards can be. Someone assertive but not aggressive and puts our interests before their own, and someone who understands I will read the bill!
Lawbook: Do you have pet peeves regarding outside counsel?
Cornell: Not telling me bad news right away. I do not like bad news, but I always want to know as soon as they do.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Cornell: My job requires that I always become a bit of an expert on everything, so outside counsel can speak plainly to me. The biggest value outside counsel can provide me is efficiency.
Lawbook: How important is pro bono and diversity in your hiring of outside counsel?
Cornell: I totally am interested in what they do in this regard. Our clinics at the Law Center have done fabulous things in their pro bono efforts for years, and I expect our outside counsel to have the same mentality. It is unfortunate that the legal system can be hard to navigate for the disenfranchised and the socioeconomically challenged among us, and we have an obligation to do what we can to alleviate that. The University of Houston has also had the privilege of having several firms work on a pro bono basis for us, including Tony Buzbee and, currently, Susman Godfrey.
Lawbook: What do you look for in the next generation of lawyers?
Cornell: I am always looking for someone to take my place, to be eager to learn what I do and listen to how I do it. I love to teach and share what and why I do things, but I also like to listen and learn from them. I believe in a collaborative practice, learning from lawyers and non-lawyers alike as we are so much better collectively. I give my team the credit for all of our successes.
Lawbook: What are one or two life-impacting experiences you’ve had?
Cornell: Moving to Houston in 2002, with two school-age children — [I was] a mother who needed childcare to take a new job. I had no real contacts here, and I was not sure if I was making the right decision to leave Austin, where I had been since college. The other is more recent. I was caring for a young girl last August when her mother, someone who I had previously become a surrogate mother to when her own mother died in 2007, became sick with Covid. Her daughter has always considered me “grandma.” Unfortunately her mother died, and we are now raising a 7-year-old long after our children have grown and gone. Life-impacting is a gross understatement, but the moments of joy are equally unparalleled.