2010 Grants Awarded by Corporate Counsel Section

In 2010, the Corporate Counsel Section awarded $30,000 in grants, primarily to support pro bono legal services programs that provide volunteer and training opportunities to in-house and other corporate counsel. The Corporate Counsel Section began awarding grants in the mid-1990s and since that time has awarded almost $300,000.

$10,000: Texas C-BAR

Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources (Texas C-BAR) is the only project of its kind in Texas, providing free business law services across the state to community-based nonprofits developing affordable housing and other much-needed services in low-income communities. Texas C-BAR was founded in 2000 with the support of the Texas Bar Foundation and continues as a successful program today due to the support it receives from more than 45 law firms, hundreds of volunteer attorneys, the State Bar, and numerous other funders and participants.

Texas C-BAR’s program is modeled on established business law pro bono referral programs around the country, including programs in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Detroit, Boston, and New York. Business law pro bono projects have been endorsed by organizations such as the ABA's Section of Business Law and the Association of Corporate Counsel in recognition of the fact that these programs provide business lawyers with opportunities to volunteer their expertise in ways that many litigation-oriented pro bono programs do not offer.

Volunteer: Attorneys accepting referrals from Texas C-BAR represent community-based nonprofits in their work to transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy communities. The nonprofits assisted are engaged in a broad range of activities to better the lives of low-income persons, including building houses for low-income families, repairing houses for the elderly and disabled, creating after-school programs for at-risk children, and developing job training initiatives for women moving off of welfare.

The types of legal matters referred include: preparing incorporation documents, nonprofit tax advice, drafting personnel policy manuals, construction contract negotiation, preparing real estate documents, preparing partnership agreements, advice on corporate governance matters, property tax exemption advice, establishing subsidiary corporations, clearing title to parcels of land, reviewing loan documents, obtaining tax exempt status.

Learn more: http://www.texascbar.org or 512-374-2712.

$8,275: Texas Legal Services Center

Texas Legal Services Center (TLSC) is a legal aid program which provides assistance and training to poverty law advocates and their clients in the areas of litigation support, education and communication. TLSC sponsors projects that assist individuals in Texas and, in some cases, nationwide. TLSC manages Texas Law Help and Texas Lawyers Help which are statewide web initiatives to increase access to justice. Other primary areas of assistance through TLSC include: The Legal Hotline for Texans, The Health Law Project, The Facility Victims Program, The South Central Pension Rights Project and The Crime Victims Legal Hotline.

Volunteer: Attorneys volunteering with TLSC have the opportunity to work on varied types of matters including a legal hotline program that gives self-help legal advice to Texas residents who are over age 60 or who receive Medicare and programs that assist low income people who have problems accessing health care, low income victims of violent crimes, persons who have suffered abuse or neglect in residential care facilities such as nursing homes, victims of identity theft, and persons who have problems with pensions.

$3,225: Justice for Children

Justice for Children’s mission is to raise the consciousness of our society about the failure of our governmental agencies to protect victims of child abuse, to provide legal advocacy for abused children and to develop and implement collaborative solutions to enhance the quality of life for these children. Justice for Children is a non-profit organization that advocates for the safety and protection of criminally abused children when the system designed to protect them fails to do so, leaving the child at unacceptable risk. Unfortunately, Justice for Children can only directly help these children when it is made aware of the children’s plight, and when qualified and willing volunteers are available. Direct casework is only one way that Justice for Children seeks to protect children. Justice for Children also works to create change on state and national levels by pursuing legislation and other public policy changes that affect and benefit abused children.

Volunteer: Justice for Children needs your help to protect the innocent. Justice for Children relies heavily on interns and volunteers. Volunteers are needed in the following areas: Campaign for the Protection of Houston's Children!; direct casework including advocating for the safety of an abused child and/or the prosecution of the abuser through any available channel (e.g.: police, CPS, courts, etc.); mentoring including assisting lawyers on cases with issues outside of their normal expertise such as family, criminal, or juvenile law; public policy including working on state and federal legislative goals with other committee members; Casework Research Team: assisting in the preparation of a case-handling manual for all volunteers, as well as planning and/or participating in training sessions for lawyers whose experience in family-law matters is minimal; Public Relations: Helping publish Justice for Children’s newsletter, maintain and update its website, and help spread the word in the community about the good work that is being done by Justice for children.

Learn more: http://www.jfcadvocacy.org or 713-225-4357.

$2,000: Texas Access to Justice Commission Internship Program

The Access to Justice Internship Program meets the dual goals of enhancing law student participation in access to justice efforts and bringing much needed legal services to underserved areas of Texas.

The Commission and the nine Texas law schools created the Access to Justice Internship Program to encourage more students to help address the legal problems of underserved individuals and communities and educate future attorneys about those problems. This unique program places students in summer academic internships with civil legal service providers which are located in communities in Texas without close access to law schools.

The program incorporates both fieldwork and an academic component.  A stipend is provided to every student, and academic credit may also be available.

Learn more: http://www.texasatj.org/Internship

$1,000: Texas Access to Justice Commission – 2010 Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Award

Established by the Texas Access to Justice Commission, the Access to Justice Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Award is open to an individual corporate counsel and in-house attorneys in Texas. The Commission seeks to recognize an outstanding corporate counsel attorney who actively provides pro bono legal services for the poor and promotes this pro bono culture within the corporate framework. The funds are donated to the pro bono services provider of the award recipient’s choice.  In 2009 this award was presented to Peggy Montgomery, in-house counsel at ExxonMobil.

Learn more: http://www.texasatj.org/awards

$1,000: State Bar of Texas (Texas Lawyers Care) Justice for All Calendar

Texas Lawyers Care publishes a Justice for All pocket calendar, which is full of useful information and numbers for legal services clientele throughout the State.

Printed in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, the calendar allows for ease of access to back pockets and purses. Topics have included: Your Welfare Rights and Tips, Debt Collection Practices, Children with Special Health Care Needs, Vocational Rehabilitation, Injured Worker Rights, and Unemployment Benefits.

This calendar is distributed to low-income Texans, informing them of their legal rights and responsibilities.

$4,500: $500 to each of the 9 Texas law schools:

Baylor Law School

Dedman School of Law (Southern Methodist University)

South Texas College of Law

St. Mary’s University School of Law

Texas Tech University School of Law

Texas Weslayan University School of Law

Thurgood Marshall School of Law (Texas Southern University)

University of Houston Law Center

University of Texas School of Law

These funds support law school programs which develop negotiation and other corporate counsel skills.

If you have questions or suggestions for the Corporate Counsel Section’s grants program, contact Laney Vazquez, the Pro Bono and Grants Committee Chair.