In recognition of her longstanding service to the bar, Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Polly Fohn has been elected chair of the Houston Bar Foundation (HBF).
Established in 1982 as the charitable arm of the Houston Bar Association, HBF supports programs that provide pro bono services to the indigent, promote community understanding of the legal system, and foster the administration of justice.
“I am honored to help lead an organization that does so much to even the scales of justice by helping the less fortunate in Houston exercise their legal rights,” said Fohn, a partner in Haynes and Boone’s Appellate Practice Group. “The foundation’s mission is particularly critical at a time when so many in our community are struggling to meet their basic needs.”
She added: “It is also rewarding for me to follow in the footsteps of so many of my colleagues in Haynes and Boone’s Houston office, such as Lynne Liberato and Mark Trachtenberg to name a few, who have led and served the Houston Bar.”
Fohn has served as a director and in other capacities for HBF, which donates critical funding to Houston legal clinics that support veterans, domestic violence victims, low-income hospital patients, among other indigent and self-represented litigants.
In 2019, the Houston Bar Association gave its President’s Award for Outstanding Service to Fohn, in recognition of her role as editor-in-chief of is bimonthly publication, The Houston Lawyer.
Fohn has argued cases to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Texas appellate courts and has been involved in appeals of some of the largest jury verdicts in Texas since graduating from Harvard Law School in 2008.
In addition to her work with HBF, she is a regular speaker at State Bar of Texas CLE programs and gives back to her community as a Young Leader of the United Way of Greater Houston.
Haynes and Boone is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With 600 lawyers, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It also was recognized across the board for excellence in the BTI Consulting Group’s 2020 “A-Team” report, which identifies the law firms that in-house counsel commend for providing superior client service.