New HBA President Mark Kelly may be found on a plane as often as behind a desk as Global Business Chair for Vinson & Elkins. In Houston, however, he focuses on his family and his goal of helping other children, teens and young adults through several new HBA projects.

THL: Tell me about your family and where you grew up.
Kelly: I was born in Houston in 1957. My family has always been involved in the oil and gas business, which took us to Alaska, where I went to elementary, junior high and high school. My father at one time was Commissioner of Natural Resources and ran for governor of Alaska. I spent three years in Juneau and 12 years in Anchorage.

THL: How did you get back to Texas?
Kelly: I came back to Texas to attend Texas A&M University on a scholarship with the hopes of pursuing a basketball career–that was short-lived. I graduated with an accounting degree and then I went to law school at SMU.

THL: What about your immediate family?
Kelly: I met my wife, Kim, a week before school started at A&M and got married in 1982. After law school, I joined Vinson & Elkins in 1981. It is the first and only firm at which I've worked. We have three kids, two daughters and a son. Kristin is 24 and an analyst at Tudor Pickering & Holt. Ryan is 21 and a senior at Texas A&M. This summer he is interning at Morgan Stanley. I expect he may go the route of investment banking as well. We also have a 16-year-old, Madeline, who is a junior at Kinkaid and enjoying her new-found freedom being able to drive.

THL: Tell me about your practice at Vinson & Elkins.
Kelly: I started with the corporate finance group in Houston in May 1981 and became head of the group in 2000. My practice has always been varied. I spend probably half my time working on financing and capital markets transactions, taking companies public, doing high yield deals. I spend a good portion of my time in the mergers and acquisitions arena, and I counsel corporations on governance issues.

From my perspective, it's been fun. I like the fact that I have a varied practice which includes working on transactions that have an international component to them, because I enjoy traveling. Several years ago, I spent 17 weeks in Paris, working on a couple of deals. I have also worked with clients in Norway, the U.K., Switzerland and the Middle East. In my current role for the firm, I help oversee the strategy for the firm's 14 offices. We have eight international offices—Moscow, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, Abu Dhabi—and six domestic offices. I also have the pleasure of being on the firm's management committee.

THL: How do you deal with all those different cultures?
Kelly: There is commonality of interest and clearly many of the emerging markets are becoming more sophisticated. Obviously, there are cultural differences in each of the regions. The perfect model is to get people who have been tied in with the firm for a long time to help run those offices, so they can embed the culture of the firm in those offices. Then you build it around local lawyers who speak the language and know the markets.

THL: How did you get from being a young lawyer at Vinson & Elkins, straight out of law school, to this position?
Kelly: It has evolved over time. When I first came to the firm, we didn't do as much in the international arena. I learned under some really good people, who trained you to be client-focused in terms of how you develop business. Part of it is your own initiative. You have mentors that help you develop your practice and your skill sets, but it is incumbent upon you to be proactive about your career. I always found that I liked developing business and developing relationships with clients. If you are successful in doing a good job for your clients, word of mouth gets around and they say, I used this lawyer and I liked him. So you get a reputation, hopefully a good one. You expand your footprint.

My practice does require a lot of travel. I have clients in New York and London. I'm back and forth to the Middle East. Earlier this year I was in Russia and India. I was in China last year. So it's constantly in motion. I'm generally out of town two or three days a week.

THL: You talked about the mentors in your career. Who were they?
Kelly: I would attribute whatever success I've had to a lot of people who took a special interest in me. Within the firm, there were people who helped me develop, who gave me license to run and do what I wanted to do, while guiding me along the way. One was John Watson, who is retired now. Bob Whilden, who is also retired, was my predecessor in the corporate group. I guess the fact these mentors are retired is reflective of my age or longevity at the firm. Both taught me a lot and I spent a significant amount of time with them. And Evans Attwell, who was our managing partner, guided me and was great to work with. In a crowd, he would chew you up and people were scared of him, but one on one he was very thoughtful, very helpful in terms of how you develop as a lawyer. He made sure that as opportunities came in, I got a chance to work on them. One of my first clients was Nathan Avery, who is still a client, and who was like a surrogate father to me.

I've always said that the day my job becomes a chore and I regret waking up in the morning and coming to the office, I will retire and do something else. There have been opportunities along the way, but I've always liked what I've done. Every day is different. You're on call with your clients 24/7 and in different time zones. You get all kinds of calls in the middle of the night and it's challenging. And working with the young lawyers – I was head of the employment committee for years – being able to bring in fresh talent and train them, being responsible for the people who have done well as lawyers, you feel like you've had a small part in their success. It reinvigorates you. It keeps you young and keeps you fresh. I still wake up every morning thinking this is a great place to be.

THL: How did you get involved with the HBA?
Kelly: The person responsible for getting me involved with the bar is Gib Walton. Gib is a good friend and asked me if I would like to get involved with the Houston Young Lawyers Association board. The firm did not have a representative on the HYLA board, and he said we ought to make sure we have people from the firm who do bar work. I eventually became president of the HYLA. I'm not a litigator, so it gave me the opportunity to meet people I might not otherwise come in contact with, but who also have an interest in helping the community. I became more involved in various committees and continued to like the interaction with other members of the bar. I ultimately decided to make the big step and become HBA president, supported by the firm. It is time-consuming, but it clearly gives you a different perspective. You can see how the bar has made a difference in people's lives. We experience daily the impact we have on our client's lives, but these are people who you otherwise would not have contact with, whether working on a Habitat house or the Trash Bash. There's so much out there that you don't see when you live in our urban bubble. It's eye-opening and refreshing.

THL: What do you see as the role of the HBA today?
Kelly: I want to see us grow and continue to develop. I'd like to see more lawyers involved, to expand our base of volunteers. Our volunteer base has been somewhat static for a while, and I think we rely too heavily on the big firms to fill in the gaps. I hope we can get some of the firms that have not previously participated involved. They may not understand everything we do. One of the things I'd like to do this year is to enhance our communication and get the word out about all the HBA does, to bring in additional people to volunteer.

THL: What are some of the HBA programs in which you've been involved?
Kelly: I chaired the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program and the Houston Lawyer Referral Service. I was chair of the Houston Bar Foundation in 2001. I also co-chaired
the HBA Professionalism Committee and the Campaign for the Homeless.

THL: Tell me about some of the things you want to focus on this year.
Kelly: I wanted to do something that reached out to at-risk children. We are going to work with the Houston Alumni and Youth (HAY) Center that serves kids when they age out of the foster care system. They try to bridge the gap for kids from 18-25, try to prepare them to go out into the real world. The HAY Center's funding was cut last year, so they are struggling to maintain their resources. In talking with them, we found there are several things that they need. One is legal representation to seal and expunge juvenile records. A lot of these kids have committed petty crimes, and when they get to a certain age, it's possible to go through the court system and seal their records, so they get a fresh start. It's difficult for them to try to get jobs if they've got a record. The counselors also had issues on which they wanted legal advice, so we are going to provide sessions where attorneys will talk to the counselors about topics they will choose. We'll also have volunteers to interface with these young adults, who have had no mentors, no parents, no role models. They're really not prepared to go out and face the world. Some have fundamental questions like how do I apply for a credit card, how do I apply for a job? We're going to have sessions where we talk to the young adults and answer their questions. Finally, they wanted us to assist with a "ready room" with necessities, clothing and other things that these young adults need when they go out on their own. With our established clothing drives and book drives, we're going to look at that as well.

Also, in today's world where you have instantaneous messages, everybody has a Blackberry or an iPhone, there are a lot of risks for kids and a lot of ways they can get in trouble. I think kids may not be aware that certain impulse actions could have devastating consequences. With the help of the HYLA, we're going to distribute a DVD put together by the Texas Young Lawyers Association on cyberspace safety. There are four age-specific videos on it, for elementary through high school students and parents as well. It talks about the risks of texting, cyber-bullying and what is called "sexting," and how they can get in trouble with those things. We are going to communicate with the school districts and try to get the DVD out to all of the schools in Houston, as well as have attorneys speak to some of the schools.

THL: Are there other new projects you are going to put in place?
Kelly: I'm concerned that we don't interface enough with the law schools. I've met with the placement coordinators and the deans. In this job market, even law students that are in the top half of their class have difficulty getting jobs. We are going to revamp our Web site and create a section that is specific to them. They can learn about the CLE, networking and volunteer opportunities available to them through the HBA. And it may be a way down the road to expand our membership, a way to introduce them to the HBA so they feel they want to be involved.

Also, we have looked very carefully at our budget and the use of our funds. We will continue to focus on that in a difficult economic climate. We have not had a dues increase for seven years, but costs continue to rise. Ultimately, we are going to have to have a dues increase, but that's something that we hope to put off by being prudent on how we spend our money.

THL: What do you think has changed the most since you began the practice of law?
Kelly: The timing of things. When I first started, you had a lot more time to think about issues. Now client's expectations are instantaneous. You can send documents by electronic means quickly. There's good and bad in that. It's much easier to edit and make changes. But clients' expectations, expecting you to do things much quicker, is challenging. I think that's dramatic ­—how people work. You can work all over the world. It's real time.

It's clearly a much more competitive environment. Firms are global now and so there is a lot of pressure to remain competitive. I think you have to, in some ways, work much harder. There are more demands on your time than there used to be, but it's much more exciting, much more interesting.

THL: What do you like to do with any spare time you have?
Kelly: I'm very involved in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and have been for 26 years. I'm now a vice chair on the parade committee and previously served on the barbecue committee. Again, it puts me in contact with people I would not otherwise know. And it's such a huge charity for scholarships, which is great. They do a fabulous job. It's really quite a business.
I'm on the board of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I think it's an incredible museum. They've got a big geological exhibit that was always my grandfather's favorite. Being involved in petroleum engineering, he loved that, so when I was young, we would go there and to the planetarium.

I love athletics and sports. I'm a season ticketholder to the Rockets and the Astros. I still go to my college football games. I love to run. I used to play basketball, but I've gotten where the knees are bothering me, so I don't do that much anymore. I love golf, and I love to hunt and fish. And I still love to travel and see the world. Growing up in Alaska, I didn't have an opportunity to do that, since we were so far away. I've made it my mission to travel and to make sure my kids travel. I wanted them to see the world early, to go places and do things as a family.

THL: Is there anything else you would like to bring out or would like people to know about you?
Kelly: It will be a challenging year with my travel schedule. I'm running fast and hard with everything I have, but I'm looking forward to it. Fortunately, I have a really good board. The HBA office is great support for what we do. The firm's been incredibly supportive. I believe it will be a really fun year, and I plan to do my best to have a successful
year.