The Houston Bar Foundation names its new chair and recognizes many more for their pro bono work. Dallas lawyers at one firm advocate for people of color incarcerated by outdated drug laws. The North Texas Chamber of Commerce names new lawyer leadership on its board. All that and more in this week’s P.S. column.

This week’s edition of P.S. features details on the next Weil associate to be selected for the firm’s unique pro bono volunteer program, how to get free legal help if you were the victim of the Jan. 24 tornado that hit the Houston area and the February dates for the Dallas Bar Association’s legal hotline. Natalie Posgate has the details.

In this week’s P.S., Natalie Posgate highlights a sizable donation one firm and one company gave to the Houston Food Bank, upcoming free legal clinics in Dallas and a group of new sponsors of the Lawbook Foundation.

Barry Thomas and Mark Berg have many things in common. They’re both M&A lawyers by training. They’ve both handled multibillion-dollar deals in the oil patch together as high-ranking colleagues at Pioneer Natural Resources. Beyond their professional accolades, they’re both committed to public service. Berg has helped Dallas CASA significantly grow in order to achieve its goal of serving every abused and neglected child in need on the Dallas County child welfare docket. And Thomas volunteers his free time serving as general counsel of the Permian Strategic Partnership, a coalition of 20 oil and gas companies committed to improving the roads, workforce, healthcare, schools and housing of the rural West Texas and New Mexico communities that the Permian Basin encompasses.

What else do they have in common? Tonight, they'll both will walk a stage in the George W. Bush Presidential Center to accept the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono and Public Service Award.

As winners of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono and Public Service, Mark Berg and Barry Thomas have more in common than the fact that they are high-ranking colleagues at Pioneer Natural Resources: They are both committed to leveraging their time and talents for the betterment of others.

Pro Bono Writer Natalie Posgate had the opportunity to chat with Berg and Thomas both about their pro bono projects and about ways that readers of The Texas Lawbook can help.

General Motors counsel Juli Greenberg was sitting in a conference room in 2018 getting CLE ethics credit when everything changed. What she learned sent her on a quest to create DEI initiatives and do her part to improve the diversity pipeline in the legal profession.

Fast forward nearly five years, and the product of Greenberg’s work has reached hundreds of people from every stage of the pipeline. She’s also the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Juli Greenberg visited with Texas Lawbook pro bono, public service and diversity and inclusion reporter Natalie Posgate about the biggest challenges facing corporate legal departments and law firms regarding diversity, which diversity programs she thinks are effective and the significance of the pipeline.

Victor Boutros knew he wanted to devote his legal career to combatting human trafficking before he even got to law school. Now more than two decades later, after working in private practice, serving as a federal prosecutor and writing a book, Boutros leads the Human Trafficking Institute, which partners with foreign governments to help them implement trafficking enforcement systems.

The Texas Lawbook recently sat down with Boutros and will cover a CLE later today in Dallas about human trafficking trends and updates and how lawyers can get involved. More details, including how to register, in this article.