For all of our 50 plus years the men and women – attorneys and staff – at Carrington Coleman have sought and engaged in volunteer service work for a variety of organizations and individuals. Their involvement finds expression in many forms, including important leadership positions within civic, charitable, and professional organizations throughout the Dallas area.

Carrington Coleman proudly supports these efforts, often sponsoring key events and fundraisers.  As a firm, our attorneys and staff can often be found supporting one another’s passions through charitable giving, volunteerism, and participation in their co-workers’ events. Each year, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call to action, the firm commits to serving a specific need in our community by selecting and supporting an organization that serves that need.

Some of our key civic, charitable and professional organizations include:

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Each year Carrington Coleman hosts a fundraising campaign for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, with firm-sponsored luncheons, ice-cream socials, and jeans days to encourage its attorneys and staff to donate to this organization’s worthy causes. United Way works with individuals and organizations across North Texas to create opportunities and access for all, challenging the systemic barriers associated with race. United Way creates lasting change to ensure all North Texans have access to education, income, and health—the building blocks of opportunity.

Attorneys Serving the Community (ASC)

Carrington Coleman has a long history of leadership in ASC, with two of its female attorneys serving as the Lead Chair in 2007 and 2015 and many others co-chairing subcommittees for over a decade. ASC’s mission is to bring together women lawyers who collectively utilize their resources and talents to support local non-profit organizations whose programs benefit women, children or families. Each year, ASC presents fundraising events that support its selected beneficiary, culminating in the annual ASC Luncheon. ASC’s annual beneficiary receives not only all of the money raised by its events but also enjoys increased public awareness of its services. Since 1987, ASC has raised nearly $5 million for Dallas area non-profits.

Leadership Dallas

Carrington Coleman is proud to have had numerous of its attorneys selected to Leadership Dallas over the years. Each year, the Dallas Regional Chamber selects a group of diverse individuals to participate in the Leadership Dallas program. The 10-month program helps improve the quality of life in the North Texas region by identifying a pipeline of future leaders, educating the class members about the issue most important to our future, connecting the class members to other highly motivated individuals in the community, and inspiring the class members to create positive change for our community.

Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL)

Carrington Coleman is proud to support many of its associates and young partners’ involvement and leadership in DAYL. With attorneys serving as co-chairs of committees such as Aid to the Homeless, Freedom Run, Judiciary Committee, Trials Skills Boot Camp, the Bolton Ball, and Women’s Mentoring Circle, Carrington Coleman is a long-time supporter of DAYL’s professional and civic initiatives.

Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court

Carrington Coleman has always advanced ethics and civility as key traits expected from its attorneys and staff. The firm’s long history with the Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court dovetails with this mission. The Patrick E. Higginbotham American Inn of Court promotes professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence among legal professionals who focus on litigation. The Inn’s members include federal and state judges, lawyers from firms of all sizes, in-house counsel, federal and state prosecutors, public defenders, law professors, and legal-aid lawyers from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who are each outstanding members of the legal community.

Firm Initiatives

Beginning in 2011, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call to action, the firm began a year-long commitment to serve a specific need and organization that serves that need. That effort continues today.

2021 – Café Momentum

Carrington Coleman saw that the need to give back to our community was much stronger during the pandemic. We partnered with Café Momentum, a fellow downtown organization. Café Momentum is a non-profit restaurant that offers a compensated 12-month internship program to justice-involved youth aged 15 to 19. Café Momentum's objective is to help our community's most at-risk kids achieve their greatest potential by providing them with life skills, education, and employment opportunities. We raised over $2000 for Café Momentum, by organizing a Zoom cooking class guided by their chefs. Attendees learned how to create the famed Café sausage gravy and biscuits using the Café's biscuit mix.

2019 – Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas
Carrington Coleman held an event in June 2019 to raise funds for donation to Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas.  The firm plans to volunteer at their facility and will be holding a supply donation drive later in 2019.  Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas is a nonsectarian mental health and social services agency that impacts over 13,000 lives a year.  For more than 65 years, JFS has welcomed anyone through their doors regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or the ability to pay.  Their mission is to provide professional, effective and affordable mental health and social services that promote lifelong self-sufficiency and well-being for anyone in need.  When people turn to Jewish Family Service for help, they can rely on licensed professionals with the education, expertise, experience, and heart to make a positive difference in thousands of lives every year in an atmosphere of respect and confidentiality.

2018 – Reading Partners
Carrington Coleman believes that every child deserves the opportunity to learn to read.   That’s why we decided to focus our efforts in that direction and team up with Reading Partners.  Carrington Coleman held an event in 2018 to raise funds for donation to Reading Partners.   The firm also volunteered to read to the children and held a book drive to donate books to this worthwhile organization.  Reading Partners mobilizes communities to provide students with the proven, individualized reading support they need to read at grade level by fourth grade.  They know that reading is the foundation for all future learning, and the ability to read transforms lives and empowers children and communities to reach their full potential.  Research shows that students who read at grade level by fourth grade have a greater opportunity to succeed in school and in life.  Reading Partners works with under-resourced schools and engages volunteer reading partners to work one-on-one with students who struggle with reading.  An evidence-based and community-driven organization, they recruit and train volunteers to work one-on-one with students for 45 minutes twice a week, following a structured, research-based curriculum.  Their program model works and is backed by evidence-based research which proves that their students make significant gains in reading.  On average, Reading Partners’ students more than double their rate of learning while in the program

2017 – Bonton Farms
Carrington Coleman joined with Bonton Farms who is driven by the mission to restore lives, create jobs and ignite hope in a once forgotten and neglected neighborhood with some of the most marginalized people.  What started out as a garden in a small lot has grown into two fully functioning farms and the Bonton Market.  They grow organic food and hope for a better tomorrow, right in the Bonton community and on a separate 40-acre farm south of Dallas.  They are determined to grow the best-tasting, healthiest produce in the city while inspiring hope in everyone around them.  They also house free-range chickens, goats, turkeys, rabbits and beehives that provide an abundance of fresh eggs, milk and honey.

2015 and 2016 – North Texas Food Bank
For many years the North Texas Food Bank has served hungry people. There should be no hunger in this nation, or any other. The reality is that hunger exists in our community. This year, our commitment is to volunteer time and resources to the North Texas Food Bank. While our individual role will be relatively small, it is the combined efforts of individuals, companies and other organizations to help this vital outreach to those that have little. We encourage others to join in this effort by volunteering time and donating money to help the North Texas Food Bank.

2014 – Dallas Urban Debate Alliance
Many lawyers were debaters in their high school and college days and they will quickly tell you that it has served them well in their careers. The Dallas Urban Debate Association gives every Dallas ISD student a chance to participate in a rigorous academic endeavor to help them become articulate and informed leaders in their schools and communities. In addition to undertaking a focused fund-raising effort on behalf of DUDA, Carrington Coleman attorneys and staff volunteered to work at debates as judges and in other roles. This service opportunity showcased the abilities of young people, many of whom are in disadvantaged circumstances, to excel and rise above the challenges and excel in the classroom and the community.

2013 – Community Partners of Dallas
The Carrington Coleman family joined with Community Partners of Dallas whose mission is to “ensure safety, restore dignity and inspire hope for the abused and neglected children served by Dallas County Child Protective Services.” Our volunteers were part of the annual Easter basket handout helping children in extremely difficult circumstances have a little sunshine. Our folks also took part in a toy drive and a “Keep the Change” program that raised several thousand dollars to assist Community Partners.

2012 – Family Gateway
It is astonishing that there are homeless families in this day and age in America. Family Gateway provides housing and comprehensive services to homeless families with children. Their programs focus on meeting basic needs of children and their parents, and then, most importantly, empowering them to move from their current crisis back to self-sufficiency. The firm has a very long history with Family Gateway and has supported them for many years by providing pro bono legal work. During our year of service the firm had a “Fill the Backpack” drive, donating school supplies for the new school year. The firm also had fund-raising activities throughout the year. In the end we saw again what can and must be done to help families in unthinkable circumstances.

2011 – Children’s Medical Center
Carrington Coleman has had a long relationship with Children’s Medical Center. Children’s was a logical first choice. Our purpose was to give a little bit of comfort and joy to the children and families who were being treated at the hospital. We held a food drive to provide snacks and meals for families in the ICU waiting rooms. Birthdays are a big deal to children so we created Birthdays in a Box, to make it easier for families confined to the hospital to celebrate memorably with their children. We ended the year with a day of service at Children’s. Our folks staffed several playrooms during the day. Arms loaded with lots of crafts and the willingness to play, our volunteers read, played pool, had pretend tea parties, played video games and raced Hot Wheels. While having the opportunity to serve others, our lives were enriched by the families at Children’s Medical Center.