Shannon Wright’s (J.D. ’22) first thoughts about giving back to her alma mater started as early as her orientation at the University of Houston Law Center. She remembers how learning about the significant salary disparities in post-graduate law jobs prompted her to reflect on the financial challenges many future lawyers face.

“Some people make a lot of money when they get out of law school, but an equal number are going to get out of law school and not make very much money. Yet, they've incurred the same amount of expense to get there,” she explains.

Having been a single parent working at a non-profit, she implicitly understood the role financial concerns play in career choices, and she wondered how she could help.

“So what can we do to try to level that playing field? How do we allow people to make the choice they're passionate about versus choosing a job that pays more, just so they can pay off their debt?”

As she continued at UHLC, Wright appreciated the financial support she received that set her up for success after she graduated. The Dean’s Merit Scholarship relieved the financial burden of her studies. She was able to gather valuable professional experience at a law convention, thanks to support from UHLC. The convention is where she first connected with Jackson Walker, the firm where she works now.

While these experiences left an impression on her, her kids have their own favorite memories of her time at UHLC.

“If you ask my kids, they’ll say the biggest thing that I accomplished was graduating number one in my class and carrying the mace up on the stage at graduation. They still talk about that,” Wright shares. “I had one of the partners at our law firm [Jackson Walker] come to my office when I first started. At that time, they didn't have office space, so I was in an equity partner office, and my son was there with me. The partner asked my son, ‘Hey, why did your mom get such a big office?’ My son said, ‘Because she finished number one in her law school.’”

Even after her success, Wright held onto what she learned about new lawyers’ financial concerns from her early days at UHLC, and this inspired her to start the Nasim Emamdjomeh, Greg Lu, Neil Segel, and Shannon Wright Endowed Scholarship with three of her UHLC classmates.

“I had classmates who were very passionate about particular areas, and they really wanted to make a difference. That was the whole reason that they went to law school. But those jobs often don't pay what working in a big law job does. To be able to take that public interest job, to go pursue your passion, because you aren't worried about having $150,000 worth of student loan debt, it's freedom,” she says.

Wright hopes to encourage more recent UHLC graduates to follow in her and her classmates’ footsteps and not wait until they are later in their career to give back.

“If you start making a habit of generosity from the time that you graduate, it's easy to continue,” she shares. “You can watch it grow over the course of your career. I’m only a couple years in, and it’s been fantastic.”

By establishing an endowed scholarship and sharing her experience with giving early in her legal career, Wright hopes to inspire a culture of generosity among new graduates, ensuring that future generations of lawyers have the freedom to make career choices driven by purpose and passion.