What started as a personal connection in a leadership class has blossomed into recognition for H&P’s legal department. The company has been named Publication Partner of the Year at the 2025 Good Apple Awards for their collaborative work on a homeless youth handbook for the state of Oklahoma. 

From Leadership Class to Life-Changing Partnership 

The journey began more than a year ago when Cara Hair, senior vice president of corporate services, chief legal and compliance officer, attended a leadership class where Colleen McCarty, executive director of Oklahoma Appleseed, spoke about their justice initiatives. Hair was immediately drawn to the organization’s mission and reached out to explore volunteer opportunities. 

Oklahoma Appleseed had been planning to create a comprehensive homeless youth handbook — a resource desperately needed in a state where homeless youth living without a parent or guardian increased by 29% from 2020 to 2022, with an estimated 120,000 homeless youth across the state.  

“The handbook is for youth into their 20s and details how kids can get a state-issued ID or their rights when staying at a homeless shelter,” Hair said. “It covers everything across the legal gambit that homeless youth might be facing.” 

Hair with her legal background saw a great opportunity to give back. 

Building the Dream Team 

When Oklahoma Appleseed approached Hair about partnering with their existing law firm on the project, she immediately thought of her colleagues. After discussing the opportunity with Debra Stockton, vice president of general counsel western hemisphere and human resources, and polling the legal team, there was clear interest in participating. However, recognizing that their relatively small legal department would need additional resources for such an ambitious project, Hair and Stockton reached out to a friend in Williams Company’s legal department. 

“Our legal department is small, but the handbook is large. We weren’t going to have enough resources,” Hair noted. “We decided to reach out to Williams, another energy company, to see if they would be interested.” 

H&P employees involved include Cara Hair, Quinn Cooper Eves, Brad Brown, Lisa Goforth, Debra Stockton, Karsten Irwin, Ellen Cordell, Sheli Friend, Neisha Higgins, Nikki Diacon, Valerie Vaughan and Heather Stephen. 

The team had to take a divide-and-conquer approach. Individuals researched and wrote chapters, which covered different topics, for the handbook. 

They would then swap chapters to edit each other’s work. They also had a few editing sessions where they got together to go over the handbook.  

More Than Just Legal Work 

The project, which officially kicked off in March 2024, became more than just a pro bono legal initiative. It served as an innovative teambuilding exercise that allowed the legal department to make a meaningful impact in their community while working together on something larger than themselves. 

The comprehensive handbook covers crucial topics that homeless youth face daily: safety, addiction treatment, rights in school, temporary housing, employment, foster care and juvenile detention. It’s designed to be a lifeline for young people aging out of foster care and those facing homelessness, providing practical guidance when they need it most. 

As an added benefit, the attorneys involved were able to earn continuing education credits through the training sessions, making the project professionally valuable as well as personally meaningful. 

Recognition and Impact 

The collaboration between H&P, Williams Company, Baker McKenzie and Oklahoma Appleseed caught the attention of the Good Apple Awards judges, earning the partners the prestigious Publication Partner of the Year award for 2025. While Hair admits she wasn’t initially familiar with the Good Apple Awards, the recognition serves as validation of the teams’ hard work and dedication. 

“It’s not why we did it, but it’s always nice to be recognized,” Hair reflected. “I’m very honored to have had that recognition of all of the work that the teams did.” 

Looking Ahead 

The handbook launched in September, joining other state versions available at homelessyouth.org. What began as a desire to make a difference has evolved into an award-winning collaboration that will provide essential resources to thousands of vulnerable young people across Oklahoma. 

The project exemplifies how corporate social responsibility can create meaningful change while building stronger teams and partnerships. For H&P’s legal department, it’s a reminder that sometimes the most impactful work happens when you step outside your comfort zone and answer the call to serve your community. 

As Hair noted, it’s also “a way to Do The Right Thing for our community” — a sentiment that captures H&P’s core values.