Fulbright bags exemplary award, adds 13 new partners
Houston Bar Foundation's Longevity of Exemplary Service Award was given to prominent full-service international law firm, Fulbright & Jaworski. The award, which is generally given to individuals every year, was awarded to the law firm for its abiding commitment to the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. This program is a pro bono initiative through which the law firm's attorneys reach out to help the community, particularly those people with low incomes who may not qualify for other legal aid or assistance.
Commenting on the firm's credible performance, Tracie Renfroe, chair of the Houston Bar Foundation, stated that for six consecutive years Fulbright could be given an award from the Houston Bar Foundation for its voluntary and pro bono commitments to the society. Since its inception, the firm was determined to back to the community where it practices law. The firm's attorneys spent almost 60 remarkable hours of pro bono work in 2005 and 2006, said Fulbright's Executive Committee chairman, Steven B. Pfeiffer.
In another move to consolidate the firm's strengths in litigation and international disputes, intellectual property, corporate, public finance and tax, Fulbright added 13 new partners who were all earlier serving the firm's various offices as senior associates. They are Graig Alvarez, Darryl Anderson, Michael Barrett, Mark Garrett, Eric Hall, Linda Merritt, Shawn O'Brien, Michael O'Donnell, Yvan-Claude Pierre, Mark Platt, Kristen Ieyoub Savant, Jonathan Sutcliffe, and Seth Wexler.
Foley's ongoing scholarship program takes a step ahead in diversity
Corporate legal counsel experts Foley & Lardner's Minority Scholarship Program totaled at $45,000 this year for nine awards at $5,000 scholarship each. As a part of its continuing attempt to create a more diverse legal community, the firm since the past eight years has been fostering its commitment through its annual awards program. The program has since given away more than $400,000 in scholarships to first-year minority law students.
The firm always upheld its ideals of creating a diverse legal community and nurtured a strong and effective diversity program for the advancement of minority law students. Maureen A. McGinnity, Chief Diversity Partner at Foley said that each scholarship recipient is selected by the Program Committee which looks into the individual's involvement in community activities, minority student organizations; outstanding work or personal achievements; and academic achievement. The firm also recruits a diverse pool of law students for its summer associate program and also as new associates.
This year, the law schools that participated in the program include Duke University, the University of Florida, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin, UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley.
- See Top 10 Reasons Most Law Firms Have No Idea How to Hire and Evaluate Patent Attorneys for more information.
