Peace comes at a cost. But it’s one attorney Catherine Long gladly pays.
As general counsel for the Hutton Company, Long has no shortage of work in real estate, construction, and corporate law. But she believes in the importance of lawyers also doing something charitable outside their practice, so she’s taken on what she jokingly calls a part-time job – presiding as president of CISV USA, the US affiliate of Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV), a volunteer organization dedicated to building a more peaceful world through offering educational programs for youth and adults.
“CISV keeps me from working too much at my real job,” she says. “Having something to do that’s rewarding to you and helps others is important.”
CISV was founded in the wake of World War II by American psychologist Doris Allen, who believed the best way to prevent future wars is to work with children. Since then, CISV has expanded to include activities centered on diversity, sustainability, and other issues related to people getting along.
Each summer, youth from around the world assemble and live together in camps for an extended period of time. Throughout the experience, the participants form long-lasting, intense friendships, Long says. A CISV event in Chattanooga in the summer of 2013 brought together 36 14-year olds from nine countries for three weeks. Lives were changed. “The first things kids will say is it’s fun, but then they’ll also say it’s had an impact on their attitudes,” Long says. “I love hearing the stories about how the experience changed the direction of someone’s life.”
Long became active in the local CISV chapter in 2003, and spent the next several years helping with recruiting and event planning. After serving as president, she started contributing at the national level. Long is currently finishing her first year as president of the national organization. Through the role, she oversees the operations of the organization. She says the work involved “takes quite a bit of time,” but is necessary in order to ensure things run smoothly.
Although the position is volunteer, the pay off for Long is considerable. She’s especially grateful to do work that differs from her day job. “I live in the businesses world, but can then step into this other world that’s structured very differently, that has different rules and norms,” she says.
Long also appreciates how both Hutton and CISV provide her with skills and experience she can use while working in the other capacity. “As general counsel at Hutton, I’m immersed in the business side of things, and CISV needs someone with that skill set. It’s an organization, and as such, it needs money, structure, and the ability to get things done,” she says. “CISV helps me to bring a sense of fun to what I do in the business world. I try to be less hierarchical and more open to input from others.”
Long was first drawn to the law in high school. She has a B.A in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, where she graduated summa cum laude. She earned her J.D. at Yale Law School. “Yale was wonderful because it focuses on producing people who think very philosophically about the law,” she says. “I didn’t learn the black letter law as well as people at other schools because our classes were very theoretical, but I still found work.”
Believing she wanted to be a criminal defense attorney, Long took a job as a deputy state public defender in Colorado Springs, Co. A couple of years later, she grew weary of criminal law and went to work for a major Denver law firm, where she did general litigation. She quickly grew bored with that work, too, but instead of leaving the firm, she began focusing on commercial real estate and real estate finance work, which she liked. In time, she became a partner.
After time off to home school her two sons and moving to Chattanooga with her husband at the time, Long became assistant general counsel at CBL Associates and Properties. She left CBL and joined Hutton, a full service development, real estate, and construction company, in 2012.
Long’s space at Hutton’s Cherry Street location, which is undergoing renovation, is cramped, leaving room for piles of work and one framed photo of her two sons when they were young. Today, Matt, 22, is a senior at Davidson College near Charlotte, N.C., and Aaron, 19, is a sophomore at Yale. “They’re much bigger now,” she says, laughing. “I’m terrible about updating pictures.”
Although Long would seem to have little time to spare, she’s a “serious daily reader.” She enjoys a variety of genres, including classic literature and historical- and science-related non-fiction, and often is reading several books at once. Current novels on her bedside table include “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens, “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, and a travel book. “I’ll go on benders where I’ll read a lot by this author or that author,” she says. “There’s a lot of good stuff to read.”
Long is also an amateur musician, and is brushing up on her Japanese. The daughter of a Japanese woman, she practiced the latter when she visited her family in Japan this past summer.
For Long, the price of peace – or at least of doing her part to carry the torch Allen passed on to others – is the precious personal time she invests in her work for CISV. But it’s one she gladly pays because of her belief in the importance of doing volunteer work that has a positive impact on the lives of others. With Hutton keeping her busier than ever and her tenure as CISV extending through at least the end of the year, her schedule won’t be easing up any time soon. That’s okay with her, though – as long as there’s time left in the day to read.
For more information about CISV, visit www.cisv.org. CISV Chattanooga is currently recruiting youth ages 11 to 18 for its 2015 programs. To learn more, email cisvchattanooga@gmail.com.