The Texas Lawbook has launched a new column that focuses on the charitable contributions of Texas lawyers in their communities. Natalie Posgate explains the new public service column, how to send submissions and includes a few inaugural items, including a Houston firm that made a donation that stemmed from longstanding litigation, a well-attended gala that raised $1 million and a Dallas legal power couple's goals for one of Dallas' oldest nonprofit organizations.

Seven weeks ago, a 15-year-old West African who had never been in an airplane before and who speaks very little English walked through the international arrival terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport with three bags containing everything he owned. The teen’s mother, her body stricken with cancer and worn from years of being beaten by male relatives in her homeland, raced to hug her son after nearly four years and 6,000 miles of separation.

The reunion was the result of four long years of legal work by Phillips 66 Senior Counsel Kathleen Bertolatus, who represented the mother in a series of immigration proceedings that resulted in the mother obtaining asylum and being reunited with her teenaged daughter after both faced forced female genital mutilation by their family and certain death if they didn’t comply. That was in 2019. On March 30 of this year, the great pro bono legal work of Bertolatus allowed mother, son and daughter to be together and to be safe.

BHP asked its senior in-house counsel Ashley Hill to help lead the global energy and minerals giant's efforts to diversify its ranks in two historically male-dominated industries: mining and oil and gas. The evidence five years later shows it could not have made a better selection. As BHP's top employment lawyer in the Americas, Hill was part of a thorough review of the company's recruiting, hiring, compensation and retention practices. She was instrumental in implementing a gender pay gap review that resulted in an increase in female salaries of more than $4 million.

Citing these significant successes, the Association of Corporate Counsel's Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Hill as one of the two finalists for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Travis Torrence was in high school when his aunt, a school teacher-turned-political activist, sued her local government under the Voting Rights Act challenging the “at-large” election system. “She won,” Torrence said. “That was the first time I noticed the law being used to effectuate societal change — change that for that community was historic. I remember thinking that the law was the key to justice, fairness, equity and equality.”

Torrence, the great-great grandson of a slave who is now the leader of Shell USA’s global litigation bankruptcy and credit team, fearlessly tackles diversity, equity and inclusion. He is a pioneer on issues of the diversity pipeline and programs that support the LGBTQ community. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named Torrence as one of two finalists for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Monica Karuturi and Jason Ryan remember their first pro bono cases. Karuturi, now the GC at CenterPoint Energy, represented a middle-aged woman who had been violently assaulted by her long-time boyfriend. Ryan, now CenterPoint's top regulatory and governmental affairs leader, handled a family law case involving a child-custody dispute. These were cases that deeply impacted them as lawyers. Both said their parents instilled in them a passion for community service and that they have not lost their commitment for helping those who are less fortunate and in need of legal services.

Last week CenterPoint promoted both lawyers to executive VP of the $17.5 billion energy giant. Karuturi and Ryan are the recipients of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.

Cydonii Fairfax has emerged as a leader of the Houston corporate legal community and one of the most influential role models on diversity and public service in Texas. As general counsel of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), Fairfax is playing a critical role in the implementation of a $7.5 billion transformation of one of the largest public transportation systems in the U.S. She also has implemented internal policies and practices that have led to substantive results. Nearly two-thirds of the lawyers in METRO’s legal department are women or ethnic minorities, including the top two posts. And she aggressively sends work to minority-owned law firms.

Elizabeth Ramirez was 11 when her grandmother suffered a serious slip-and-fall injury while working as a custodian. Her grandmother spoke no English. No lawyer would take her case because they didn't speak Spanish and couldn't understand what happened. "I knew at that moment that I wanted to be an attorney so I could help others,” Ramirez-Washka said. Four decades later, she is the associate GC with the Boys Scouts of America and making a huge difference.

Shonn Brown was 12 years old and walking home from school when a car of white men called her the N-word and sprayed her with orange soda. Fast-forward 35 years – a Friday night last May – Brown learned that a Sonic manager threatened to call the police on her 17-year-old son and his friends – all African American – if they didn’t leave the premises.

“This is my life. This is my Black son’s life. This is our reality,” Brown wrote on Facebook. Now a year later, Brown, a highly successful commercial trial lawyer and deputy GC at Kimberly-Clark Corporation, has become one of the strongest voices for diversity and inclusion in Texas. This is her story.