Fawaz Bham Named Among the Dallas Business Journal’s Most Inspiring Leaders of 2020

Hunton Andrews Kurth is pleased to announce that Fawaz Bham has been selected by Dallas Business Journal as a recipient of the 2020 Most Inspiring Leader award. The award honors “six companies and 14 individual leaders that courageously led the region through our ongoing health care crisis and the economic devastation that followed.” Through a variety of industries and companies large and small, honorees were chosen based on peer reviews and an in-depth questionnaire of their leadership and success in spite of the pandemic.

Bham is an associate in the Capital Finance and Real Estate practice group of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Dallas office and is heavily involved in the firm’s pro bono committee. Over the years Bham has led meaningful pro bono initiatives such as launching the small business clinics in Dallas in conjunction with community partners, which has helped hundreds of startups and business owners address their legal issues. Most notably, Bham teamed up with the Dallas Attorney Volunteer Program (DVAP) to launch the organization’s virtual legal aid intake clinic platform. After DVAP was forced to shutter all fourteen of its monthly legal aid clinics in early March as a precaution against the growing coronavirus pandemic, he wanted to make sure those in need in the Dallas community still had access to legal resources.

Bham quickly assembled and led a multi-disciplinary project team consisting of lawyers, IT managers, administrators, engineers and security experts, to replicate the legal aid application and the intake and interview process conducted at the traditional in-person clinics in a virtual format. Together, they designed and implemented a user-friendly online intake tool complete with established primary and backup voice conferencing systems, a Spanish language alternative for applicants, and a client document upload feature to enable volunteer lawyers to effectively conduct and document interviews with those in need. Within just a few weeks of the shutdown of the in-person clinics, a team of 18 lawyers from Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Dallas and Austin offices conducted DVAP’s first ever fully-virtual legal aid intake clinic, “meeting” with 38 applicants and processing summaries back to DVAP seamlessly. To date, lawyers have participated in almost 30 clinics and helped over 1,500 applicants through the virtual clinics platform, addressing a variety of matters such as employment, wills, divorce, custody, small business issues and more. The platform has successfully advanced pro bono work by leveraging technology, broadened the accessibility of pro bono services to the community and enhanced the flexibility and resources lawyers need to continue giving back to their communities.

The Dallas Business Journal’s Most Inspiring Leaders honorees will be recognized in a virtual awards program on November 19, 2020, and will be featured in a print and digital special publication of the Dallas Business Journal on Friday, November 20. The full list of recognized individuals can be found here.