Successful corporate lawyers can usually point to someone who dramatically impacted their career. For Toyota Managing Counsel Meyling Ly Ortiz, it is her Cambodian-born parents who fled the notorious “killing fields” of the Pol Pot regime in the middle of the night by taking a dangerous boat journey up the Mekong River, followed by a 300-mile journey by foot and water buffalo cart to a refugee camp in Thailand – all while Ly’s mom was eight-months pregnant with her.

“I want the whole world to know my parents,” she said. “They are why I am who I am.”

Ly Ortiz successfully resolved a major wage and hour class action litigation for Toyota and developed an innovative training program to interrupt workplace bias and harassment. But mentoring law students and young lawyers and co-chairing fundraising for Equal Access to Justice is the reason she is a finalist for the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono and Public Service. The Texas Lawbook has her story.

Keith Calcote’s son was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome in the third grade. “We knew nothing about Tourette’s or what lay ahead,” said Calcote, who has served as an assistant general counsel at Shell Oil, Motiva and Waste Management. During the past three decades, Calcote has been involved in some of the biggest corporate civil lawsuits in Texas history. But his family’s experience with Tourette’s gave him an understanding and compassion that deeply affected his profession and faith.

Lauren Haller is the the daughter of a Houston judge and the great-great-granddaughter of an emancipated slave who became a Texas legislator during Reconstruction. Now legal counsel for operations at Pattern Energy, Haller created and launched a cutting-edge effort in the recruitment, professional development and retention of professionals at one of the world’s largest renewable energy companies. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Julia Simon’s son was jogging a few blocks from the North Dallas home the family has lived in for 20 years, when a white woman saw him and screamed. The message was clear, but it took a while to fully sink in. The Mary Kay CLO explains to Natalie Posgate how the incident shook her family.

Navin Rao led Michaels Stores through an IPO, two major acquisitions, the liquidations of its Aaron Brothers and Pat Catan’s store chains and the issuance of a $500 million senior notes offering. But did you know that Sabrina the Teenage Witch bought Rao drinks? Or that he now has a new GC job? The Texas Lawbook has the details.

AT&T senior counsel Belinda Boling is a pro bono ball of fire. She has handled multiple asylum cases, including a heartbreaking representation of a teenaged girl whose mother’s murdered body was found by the FBI. She recruited more than a dozen other lawyers at AT&T to help asylum-seekers with their applications. She expanded AT&T’s pro bono program to its Latin America offices and joined forces with Akin Gump to help about 2,000 U.S. military veterans get legal assistance.

To Kimberly-Clark executives, Chasity Henry is a critical strategic advisor. To the legal profession, the associate GC is a disruptor who is forcing much needed change. To scores of young women lawyers of color, she is a role model who has made a substantive difference for diversity in the world of corporate law. To Henry herself, she is just being the lawyer she always wanted to be.