Mishell Kneeland interviewed by ABA Student Lawyer for an article about how attorneys are giving back in the pandemic

ABA Student Lawyer recently interviewed our Austin partner Mishell Kneeland to discuss how attorneys are finding new ways to give back to the community in light of the pandemic. 

Here are some excerpts from Mishell’s interview:

Lawyers do exceptional things every day. For many, that continued, even increased, during the pandemic. Throughout the country, lawyers mobilized to support their communities and, through their efforts, demonstrated their commitment to service and their community. Here are snapshots of how lawyers have changed lives with their volunteer work during the pandemic.

Masks made with love

Mishell Kneeland, a partner at Culhane Meadows in Austin, Texas, committed much of her time during the pandemic to working with Keep Austin Masked, a community-based group that came together to make N95 mask covers for medical workers and first responders.

The group also began making cloth masks for medically vulnerable populations and essential workers.

“We’re a group who range from 12-yearold kids to 80-year-old women,” she explained.

Keep Austin Masked operates through Facebook, where it communicates about dropoff and pickup locations, sanitization protocols, and distribution plans.

“We sometimes have people who can cut but can’t sew,” stated Kneeland. “So we’ve got people cutting, and then they bring us the cut pieces. We have runners who run things to drop off and will do contactless delivery to people who, for example, can sew but who are immune-compromised or high risk.”

In addition to high-quality fabric donated from such places as Bed, Bath & Beyond, fabric has come from other sources, too. “One of the things that’s really beautiful is that people donated fabric they had from projects or beautiful family things,” reported Kneeland.

“When you see some of the fabric that gets donated, you can tell it was for a quilt for a baby somebody was waiting for and loving or a beautiful Christmas project—probably some little girl’s Christmas dress.

“We get these pieces of fabric and know they were seamed with love,” she stated. “You can tell there was love in those projects, and you feel like you get a little bit of the community’s love in every donation. It’s really super beautiful.”

The complete article can be found here.


About Culhane MeadowsBig Law for the New Economy®
The largest woman-owned national full-service business law firm in the U.S., Culhane Meadows fields over 70 partners in ten major markets across the country. Uniquely structured, the firm’s Disruptive Law® business model gives attorneys greater work-life flexibility while delivering outstanding, partner-level legal services to major corporations and emerging companies across industry sectors more efficiently and cost-effectively than conventional law firms. Clients enjoy exceptional and highly-efficient legal services provided exclusively by partner-level attorneys with significant experience and training from large law firms or in-house legal departments of respected corporations. U.S. News & World Report has named Culhane Meadows among the country’s “Best Law Firms” in its 2014 through 2020 rankings and many of the firm’s partners are regularly recognized in Chambers, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers and Martindale-Hubbell Peer Reviews.


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