Vicki D. Blanton '91

Vicki D. Blanton, Assistant Vice President – Senior Legal Counsel for AT&T Inc., provides legal advice and counsel in her primary areas of responsibility, which include the defined benefit plans (approx. $52B in assets), the 401(k) savings plans (approx. $56B), severance plans, ERISA litigation SME, and as Assistant Secretary of the AT&T Federal PAC. Vicki currently serves as the First Vice President of the Executive Board of the Dallas Bar Association with over 11,000 voluntary members, having formerly been elected as Member-at-Large, Secretary/Treasurer and Vice Chair and Chair of the Board of Directors.  Vicki’s other philanthropic, civic, and charitable endeavors include serving as a Founding Member of the Village Giving Circle of the Texas Women’s Foundation; a board member and Personnel and Compensation Committee Chair of Broadway Dallas; a member of The Dallas Assembly; a member of the Executive Board of SMU Dedman School of Law; a member of Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations; a Trustee for the Texas Center for Legal Ethics; and President of the DBA Community Service Fund Board.  Vicki also served as the Nominating Co-Chair for District 6 of the Texas Bar Foundation; a former board member for the American Red Cross North Texas Chapter; Past Chair of the J.L. Turner Legal Association Foundation Board and Co-Chair of the record-setting Equal Access to Justice campaign for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas.  The J.L. Turner Legal Association won accolades from the State Bar of Texas and the National Bar Association during her presidency in 2007.  She has received individual recognition with Presidential Awards from the National Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas and the Dallas Bar Association.  Named as a 2021 Counsel of the Year by American Lawyer Magazine; 2020 TMCP Corporate Counsel of the Year for the State Bar of Texas, an Outstanding Corporate Counsel of the Year for the Women Lawyers’ Division of the National Bar Association and a Best Lawyer by Dallas Business Journal, D Magazine, and Eclipse Magazine, Vicki is an American Fellow of the German Marshall Memorial Fund and was a Barrister in the American Inns of Court. Vicki was named a 2022 AT&T Black Future Maker. Vicki is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.  She earned a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University School of Law, and a Certificate of Study at Georgetown University’s Executive Development Program at the London School of Economics. Vicki has 2 daughters, a 2017 alumna of Howard University and a 2018 alumna of the University of Missouri at Columbia (MIZZOU).  Vicki is a frequently invited speaker on various topics including benefits and executive compensation, diversity and professional development.  Her favorite discussion point, the gender wage gap, addresses the intersectionality of those diverse subjects.