Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner M.C. Sungaila, a member of the firm’s Appellate Practice, has joined the board of the Pacific Symphony, a major symphony that has achieved national and international milestones in 2018, including a debut performance at Carnegie Hall and a five-city tour of China.
Pacific Symphony, which performs nearly 100 concerts each season at its home at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and in other venues around the county, is the largest orchestral institution founded in the U.S. in the last half century.
Sungaila, who joined the Pacific Symphony board in October, has previously served on a number of other arts boards, including the boards of Opera Pacific and Red Hen Press, and has received many honors for her longstanding commitment to community service and pro bono work in California and beyond.
Pacific Symphony President and CEO John Forsyte praised the newest addition to the Board: “M.C. has demonstrated a great passion for community service and a particular love for the role the arts can play in impacting the community. She is a strategic thinker and a generous member of our community. We are so pleased that she is joining the Board of Directors.”
The symphony performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, part of Segerstrom Center for the Arts (formerly the Orange County Performing Arts Center), in Costa Mesa, Calif. Its mission is to inspire, engage and serve the region through exceptional music performances, education and community programming.
Sungaila has continuously led or served on community boards since 1995, including the Opera Pacific, Break the Cycle, the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, International Association of Defense Counsel, and the Orange County Bar Association. She also was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of the World Affairs Council, Orange County, an organization that educatescitizens on important and critical issues concerning world affairs.
Groups as diverse as California Women Lawyers, Alpha Phi International Fraternity, the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and Coastline Community College Foundation have recognized Sungaila. The Daily Journal recently named her as one of the Top Women Lawyers in California for the ninth consecutive year. She was also recently named Attorney of the Year by the Orange County Women Lawyers Association for her lifelong dedication to securing important rights for women and girls nationally and internationally.
Last year, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, whose recipients include seven U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, leaders of industry, artists and others whose work has made a lasting impact on humanity, for her combined professional achievements and humanitarian and pro bono work.