Texas Lawyer
by Bill Jeffreys
October 12, 2015
“CenterPoint Energy has long had a heritage of community involvement and pro bono activity among its lawyers, assistant corporate general counsel Monica Karuturi said. But it was slipping in 2013.
“New General Counsel Dana O’Brien kickstarted it back to life in 2014 and, Karuturi insists, the staff ran with the ball from there and embraced the effort.
“O’Brien made service one of five imperatives in the legal department’s strategic plan.
“‘Just to reemphasize that it’s important to do,’ regulatory senior counsel Stephanie Bundage said. ‘There’s a level of accountability that I think she pulled to the department to meet those goals.’
In the summer of 2014, legal staff met at the Houstonian Hotel Club & Spa to plan what it would do.
“‘The team as a whole really determined that community service had to be one of the key aspects of this plan.’ Karuturi said. ‘The group determined that being community leaders was important.’
“The outcome was a plan where the company wanted all to participate in pro bono efforts, either by doing at least 10 hours of pro bono work a year or by taking part in multiple events put together by a committee led by Karuturi and Bundage. The company also wanted 80 percent of lawyers and legal staff to connect with the community by putting in at least 25 service hours or by serving on boards of non-profits and community organizations. And the company said it would keep track of who was doing what, a move Karuturi said reemphasized that it was important to do and that there was a level of accountability within the company.
“This was all on the dominant Houston office, with 15 lawyers and 10 additional staffers. It was not a condition of employment, Karuturi said. She said it was an ‘aspirational goal’ that the group wanted.
“‘But the boss wants it,’ we said, in a derisive, almost sophomoric tone.
“‘Here, I would not say that that’s the sentiment,’ Karuturi said. She insisted that the employees helped shape the plan and are invested in it. ‘You do it because you want it.’
“In December, CenterPoint was recognized as the top community-minded company in its industry by The Civic 50, an annual listing put together by volunteer service organization Points of Light in conjunction with Bloomberg LP and an academic panel of nine experts from universities across the country.
“The study evaluated how hard companies tried to reach out and what strategies they used, how that effort supported business interests and also folded into the company’s everyday business, and how they measured the impact of what it was doing.
“And there was one more, large factor: The study looked at how a company supported community engagement from the base up, with institutionalized policies, systems and incentives.
“‘Our corporate citizenship program reflects our strategy to operate and grow our business while serving our customers and communities, mobilizes employees to create positive change and builds bonds with our customers,’ CenterPoint President and CEO Scott Prochazka said.