BB Vets

BB Vets is part of Baker Botts’ Veterans Affinity Group, which is comprised of over 40 firm lawyers and staff who are military veterans, military spouses or family members, and supporters of our mission. BB Vets is an active and essential component of our diversity and inclusion efforts in all our offices.

This important group has many facets and includes the following initiatives:

• Generally support our staff members and lawyers who are military veterans or military family members including their integration into the firm
• Support business development efforts including potential clients with veterans in senior management, clients seeking to staff their cases and deals with military veteran lawyers, and clients with connections to the military and defense
• Lead recruiting and engagement efforts to help identify veteran talent for the firm
• Address military/defense related questions that arise in deals and cases
• Advise lawyers conducting veteran pro bono disability and upgrade cases
• Collaborate with accelerators including Bunker Labs, Capital Factory, and The Ion on military related panels, programming, and networking events
• Commemorate military related holidays. Recent events hosted by BB Vets include:
  • Memorial Day Commemoration Event in which Khizr Khan addressed the firm. Mr. Khan is a Gold Star father, a Baker Botts alumnus, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2016, Mr. Khan became a household name following his speech at the Democratic National Convention in which he held up a copy of his pocket Constitution. He is the father of Captain Humayun Khan, a U.S. Army officer who was killed in Iraq in 2004.
  • Veterans Day Commemoration Event in which James A. Baker III addressed the firm. Secretary Baker is the nation’s 61st Secretary of State, 67th Secretary of the Treasury, former White House Chief of Staff and Senior Partner in our Houston and Washington offices. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and therefore a member of BB Vets. Long active in American presidential politics, Secretary Baker led presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush over the course of five consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to 1992. He is the great-grandson of James Addison Baker who joined the firm in 1872.
  • Joining Wreaths Across America Day, by hosting groups in all of our U.S. offices to lay wreaths on veterans’ graves at Arlington National Cemetery and veterans cemeteries adjacent to all of out U.S. offices.
• Assist our lawyers who serve as Pro Bono Counsel to:
  • The Veterans Consortium to which the firm donates all attorney fee awards back to the organization including more than US$100,000 (and hundreds of billable hours) in the last two years alone
  • Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation, the entity tapped by Congress to build a memorial honoring veterans of our nation’s longest war
  • National Mall Liberty Fund D.C., the non-profit authorized by Congress to construct a memorial honoring the thousands of enslaved and free African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War
  • National Veteran Small Business Coalition, the largest U.S. non-profit trade association representing veteran- and service-disabled, veteran-owned small business in the Federal marketplace