Engagement & Community Development

Community Development

We trace our commitment to serving our local communities to our founding nearly 80 years ago. Founder J.S. Bracewell was renowned as a champion for the underdog, advocating passionately for the poor and disenfranchised. His vision, articulated in a 1965 firm meeting where he asserted, “A lawyer ought to be a leader in human affairs. He ought to regard himself as a servant of society, capable of making a substantial contribution untangling the troublesome problems of our present day,” continues to serve as a source of inspiration. 

Our lawyers and business professionals actively volunteer with over 150 nonprofit organizations. 

Bracewell’s firmwide Day of Service has been a cherished tradition since 2012, offering volunteer opportunities through service projects that bring office together in serving their local communities. 

The firm supports law student organizations across the United States, including Duke Texas Club, Georgetown Energy Law Group, GW Law 1L Inns of Court, Houston Law Review, SMU Women in Law, Texas Business Law Society, Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law, Texas Law Review, Texas Law Women’s Law Caucus, Texas The Review of Litigation, Tulane Texas Law Society, UHLC Association of Women in Law, UHLC Student Bar Association, UVA Lonestar Lawyers, UVA North Grounds Softball League, UVA Women in Big Law and Vanderbilt Energy and Environmental Law Society.  

Bracewell also supports organizations that provide resources to students from underserved communities as they pursue higher education and career opportunities, including Momentum Education, John Jay College of Criminal Justice Pre-Law Institute, University of Houston Law Center Pre-Law Pipeline Programs and The University of Virginia School of Law Roadmap Scholars Initiative. 

Community Involvement

Houston House Foundation oversees the investment and distribution of assets of the endowment for the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. I am one of five trustees of the Foundation, and we meet at least quarterly to receive updates and advice from our institutional investment advisors and to make decisions about investments of the Foundation’s assets and distributions to Ronald McDonald House Houston.

Tony Visage, Ronald McDonald House Foundation, Trustee

Harlem Lacrosse is a comprehensive, in-school intervention program that uses the sport of lacrosse as the “hook” to get kids engaged so we can help support them to do their best in the classroom and in their communities. Harlem Lacrosse actively recruits special education students and students identified by school administrators as most vulnerable to academic decline and school dropout. As a result, Harlem Lacrosse serves high poverty and special education students at rates that surpass those of our school sites.

Kate McGregor, Harlem Lacrosse, Advisory Board Member

I have served as a mentor for many law students and undergraduate students over the years, have led fundraising campaigns for the UH Law Fund and was on the committee to help raise money for a new law school building. I also assisted in visits to the Texas legislature to lobby for public funding for the law school. I have assisted in recruiting new students through the Board of Visitors and was very involved in legislative advocacy for the new medical school at UH.

Richard Whiteley, University of Houston, Advisory Board Member