© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Todd Thorson and Rachael Gearing of Winston & Strawn
(Aug. 15) – Plenty of lawyers and law firms get involved with causes and provide their services pro bono. It’s a way to give back to the community and to strengthen ties in areas where the ordinary course of business may not lead.
With Latinos representing a large and growing segment of the U.S. population, it’s more important than ever to encourage and empower Hispanic youths to become tomorrow’s leaders.
Last month at the University of North Texas in Denton, more than 100 Hispanic high school juniors assembled to learn about navigating the next challenges they’ll face in life. The event, hosted by the National Hispanic Institute (or NHI), creates experiences that engage accomplished high school and college age youth in community leadership.
NHI pushes students to envision themselves with the important roles they will have as community leaders by participating in debate challenges, college visits, and learning about the college application and admissions process.
NHI also gives students a chance to participate in community development think tanks and to graduate from an intense education program with a curriculum focused on self-reflection and self-change. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of such a forward-thinking organization?
But behind the scenes, non-profits such as NHI also have a number of concerns that they deal with daily, namely: (1) the safety of the participants, volunteers and employees; (2) financial stability and control; and (3) control over their brand and reputation.
That’s where we’re honored to lend a helping hand.
A number of us in the Dallas office united to offer pro bono corporate governance and general counsel services to NHI. Our team currently provides NHI with access to a wide variety of legal services, including advising the Board of Trustees and day-to-day legal support for the executive team.
Last month, we even took time to travel to Austin where NHI board members engaged our attorneys in a lively Q&A session about the challenges facing the nearly 40-year-old organization. From that brainstorm, we were able to invent, engineer and reach creative solutions to some of NHI’s most pressing matters.
From a legal standpoint, small changes in process, documentation and policy can make all the difference in helping keep potential issues at bay. This, in turn, keeps NHI leaders doing what they do best.
In Denton last week, NHI held one of its annual Collegiate World Series conferences which prepares students for college applications, the emotional ups and downs of adapting to life away from their parents, making large financial investments, managing time effectively, understanding various cultures and lifestyles different from their own, and making critical decisions that eventually chart the course of their life journey.
This conference features team competitions that challenge students to take an investigative and question-driven approach to mapping out the next 12 to 60 months of their lives. A member of the Winston team was honored with the opportunity to be a guest judge at the Collegiate World Series final competition.
Three of NHI’s former students recently announced their intentions to run for Congress. It’s those kinds of outcomes for Latino students that make it an honor to help with furthering NHI’s important mission.
Todd J. Thorson is a Dallas-based partner in Winston & Strawn’s private equity and corporate transaction practice. Rachael N. Gearing is an associate in the Dallas office.
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