A Pro Bono ‘Ball of Fire’

Successful corporate lawyers can usually point to someone who dramatically impacted their career. For Toyota Managing Counsel Meyling Ly Ortiz, it is her Cambodian-born parents who fled the notorious “killing fields” of the Pol Pot regime in the middle of the night by taking a dangerous boat journey up the Mekong River, followed by a 300-mile journey by foot and water buffalo cart to a refugee camp in Thailand – all while Ly’s mom was eight-months pregnant with her.

“I want the whole world to know my parents,” she said. “They are why I am who I am.”

Ly Ortiz successfully resolved a major wage and hour class action litigation for Toyota and developed an innovative training program to interrupt workplace bias and harassment. But mentoring law students and young lawyers and co-chairing fundraising for Equal Access to Justice is the reason she is a finalist for the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono and Public Service. The Texas Lawbook has her story.