In the first quarter of 2024, Baker Hughes launched a global legal and compliance diversity, inclusion and belonging counsel with the mission of infusing those values into the legal department through internal and external engagement.
In Houston, Ivett Hughes took on the task of leading and coordinating the firm’s pro bono efforts and external engagement.
Her team of 22 lawyers, plus legal staff, partnered with Houston Volunteer Lawyers, a nonprofit that provides free legal aid to low-income folks in the Greater Houston area on civil matters including evictions, wills and legal guardianships.
The Baker Hughes team set a goal of serving four clients — roughly one pro bono case per five lawyers in its Houston office.
They blew past their goal by an “astonishing” 500 percent, said HVL Executive Director Jessica Howton Stool, who nominated Hughes and her firm for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service. Ivett Hughes and the firm will be honored with the award during the annual awards ceremony May 22.
Ivett Hughes’ commitment to pro bono work, which spans well over a dozen years, sets her apart from other corporate in-house counsel, industry colleagues said. She is keen to persuade her employers to devote resources to pro bono initiatives and to motivate her peers to carry out the work, said John Eldridge, senior counsel at Haynes Boone who has worked with Hughes on pro bono matters for about 15 years.
“Ivett is poised, practical and persistent, using those and her many other attributes to help those in need of legal assistance,” Eldridge said. “She was always adept at harnessing talent towards a common goal … and this is the hallmark of leadership.”
Hughes leads by example. She’s known to spend weekends at pro bono clinics, fundraisers and bar meetings.
In addition to company sponsored events, Hughes, who was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, has sought additional pro bono immigration work and found it to be particularly meaningful.
She says her zeal for helping others comes from her parents. Her father served in Colombia’s military forces and later in the secret service as a detective. She describes her mother as the “pillar of the family” who reared six children and kept the home orderly. Her parents instilled kindness, compassion and respect for others in their kids, Hughes said, recalling times she witnessed her parents help others despite financial challenges before them.
“I learned that helping others does not always take a lot from you and yet, it can be very rewarding and of course impactful,” Hughes said.
Hughes’ legal career has had two acts: One in her native Colombia and one in the United States.
As a child, Hughes was intrigued by her father’s stories of a brother, who lived in another Colombian city and worked as a lawyer, obtaining court orders to conduct searches and seizures. She especially began to envision a career in law when she read a book in the sixth grade that featured a female lawyer who was smart, elegant and disciplined in her pursuit of justice.
“I remember finding all parts of her work fascinating and I could picture myself doing all that and especially helping people solve their problems,” Hughes said.
The chance to start helping others with their legal plights came in law school, Hughes said, where she was required to participate in legal clinics. Many of the cases she worked on were in family law. After graduating from the Universidad Libre de Colombia in Bogota, she worked at a small civil law plaintiff’s litigation firm handling mostly small commercial contracts and employment disputes. All the while, she was raising two sons from an early marriage, she said.
In 1991, Hughes moved to the U.S. with her children and husband. She wasn’t licensed to practice law in the U.S., so she took a job as a paralegal at Halliburton and later as a contracts specialist and contracts manager on international engineering and construction projects. After graduating from the University of Houston Law Center in 1998, she was transferred to Halliburton’s labor and employment law practice group, where she managed litigation in Venezuela. Eventually, she handled litigation in 14 Latin American countries, including Brazil, for which she learned Portuguese.
With Halliburton and now with Baker Hughes, Ivett and her outside counsel colleagues have hosted daylong clinics on weekends in Houston neighborhoods, Eldridge said. The lawyers conduct triage work during the clinics and take on some cases through resolution, he added.
When the company rolled out its initiative, the regional counsel looked to the Houston Volunteer Lawyers’ infrastructure and found it offered the right support for corporate attorneys, Hughes said. One of the challenges facing corporate lawyers whose expertise is in energy technology is assisting in areas of law they don’t routinely encounter, Hughes said.
The company’s lawyers have been able to meet the needs of marginalized communities, Stool said, in areas such as estate planning and veteran support initiatives. They dedicated more than 200 hours to pro bono legal clinics last year, according to Hughes.
Doing pro bono work together has also fostered a work culture that is enthusiastic about volunteering, Hughes said.
“At Baker Hughes, the culture of volunteering falls under one of the core principles of the company, which is ‘care,’” Hughes said. “We care for the communities where we work, and we want to impact in positive ways.”
Baker Hughes is unique in that it involves attorneys, paralegals and legal staff, which demonstrates that corporate pro bono work is not limited to the lawyers, Stool said.
“Through their exceptional leadership, strategic pro bono initiatives and measurable impact, Baker Hughes has established itself as a corporate leader in pro bono service,” she said.
Fun Facts: Ivett Hughes
- Favorite book: Legal fiction books by John Grisham, but especially Time to Kill because of the narrative showing prejudice and social issues in the legal system in the U.S. at the time the story took place.
- Favorite movie/TV show: Given that my life is a bit busy, I enjoy comedies such as the Book Club I, which I found very funny. Will make it a point to watch Part II.
- Favorite musician or band: Very hard question because I love pretty much all kinds of music. Roberto Carlos, Andrea Bocelli, Vicente Fernandez and André Rieu.
- Favorite restaurant: My answer might be biased because my favorite restaurant is Fabian’s Latin Flavors, owned by my son. I try to go there at least once a week for dinner between Thursday and Sunday for a steak or another Latin dish.
- Hero in life and why: My parents are my heroes because of their commitment to providing for the family in all aspects of our upbringing. They ensured that we learned core values to guide our lives. These values and their dedication and sacrifices were the cornerstone of our family, which I deeply admire as they shaped my character. Besides my parents, I consider Leonardo da Vinci a hero because of his outstanding accomplishments. I believe that although he is recognized as one of the most brilliant minds in history for his limitless curiosity and innovative spirit leaving a lasting mark on art, science and technology, it does not match the significance that his contributions have inspired and influenced generations.