Features

Danielle Cooper Daughtry – National Urban League

A sweet return home to headquarters in Harlem

Around the office, Danielle Cooper Daughtry hopes to be known as the candy lady—and with good reason.

With two and a half decades of experience as a law associate, corporate and chief counsel, Daughtry watched employees avoid in-house counsel like they’d avoid a school principal—something she, a strong believer in communication, found problematic. So, around 2016, she started keeping a large bowl of candy on her desk in plain view.

Danielle Cooper Daughtry | General Counsel and Senior Vice President of legal affairs | National Urban League

Danielle Cooper Daughtry | General Counsel and Senior Vice President of legal affairs | National Urban League

“They’ll come to grab a chocolate bar and start a casual conversation,” Daughtry says. “Often, they’ll share some problem they’re facing or anticipating, and I can start working to resolve it—all while maintaining a casual, open atmosphere. In short, candy helps.”

Communication is equally important to her at National Urban League, which she joined in March 2021 as general counsel and senior vice president of legal affairs. While she still has the candy bowl for impromptu one-on-ones, she also uses scheduled meetings with her department and internal partners to create a more productive and creative atmosphere.

“The goal is not agreement but consensus, collaboration, teamwork and communication,” Daughtry says. “Everyone should understand why certain decisions were made.”

Coming home

As Daughtry explains, National Urban League’s goal has always been to assist underprivileged communities, so it’s currently developing a mixed-media building in Harlem on 125th St. in Harlem, New York, to bring in jobs and celebrate urban history and culture.

It also marks the return of National Urban League’s headquarters—currently located in the New York City’s financial district—to Harlem. Although the league has stayed in New York since its inception in 1910, it moved from Harlem to mid-town but never outside New York. According to Daughtry, this project is the dream of CEO Marc Morial and has been over 10 years in the making.

Once completed, the building will not only house National Urban League’s headquarters, but also the Urban Civil Rights Museum, the United Negro College Fund offices, Harlem-based Jazzmobile, and 100 Black Mens’—and there will be space for more.

To handle the financial aspect of such a large, complex project, Daughtry often works closely with the chief financial officer, Calvin Harris Jr. The project is currently on track to stay within its $242 million budget.

Danielle Cooper Daughtry | General Counsel and Senior Vice President of legal affairs | National Urban League

While Daughtry, Morial, Harris Jr. and others closed a large financial deal with Goldman Sachs as a major investor, National Urban League’s senior vice president of partnerships and advancements is doing the heavy lifting. He’s raising more funds to transform the 400,000 square feet of space on the site of a former state-owned parking garage into a multi-purpose building.

“The part of the project I’m most excited about is bringing new services and business to Harlem, such as the project anchors, Tarder Joe’s and Target,” Daughtry adds.

Team work to realize a dream

The building will also contain 171 residential units, all of which will be affordable housing. Thirty percent of those will be supportive housing for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, Daughtry says.

Because of that, the project benefits from New York State tax bonds. National Urban League has also used New Market Tax Credits as a source of funds for the project, as it’s anticipated to bring employment and economic growth opportunities to Harlem.

Even with CFO Harris Jr.’s assistance, Daughtry says she needed outside expertise to assist in reviewing the many highly technical aspects of the deal.

Staying true to the National Urban League’s mission and goals, she seeks outside help and guidance from firms that champion minorities and marginalized groups. For instance, she’s working with Dawanna Williams, founder and managing principal of Dabar Development Partners, a minority-owned real estate development and investment firm.

“Even in matters of construction, under Marc’s leadership, National Urban League wants to use partners who are experts in their field and committed to uplifting communities,” Daughtry says. “All of our project partners, from Dabar and L+M Development Partners to The Prusik Group and real estate developer, Taconic Partners, have these traits.”

Constructing a digital future

On projects such as these, Daughtry uses a large contract management system, which she’s trying to move into a digital platform. National Urban League can annually receive more than 500 contracts. With a network of over 90 affiliates serving 3,000 communities across 37 states, a single umbrella contract may apply to 10 affiliates, for instance, so one contract is essentially 10.

“Our current system assigns a ticket number to each contract for tracking purposes, but we need automation,” Daughtry says.

Danielle Cooper Daughtry | General Counsel and Senior Vice President of legal affairs | National Urban League

As part of the contract system, National Urban League needs to track everything from private and federal grants to third party vendors. The new system will not only sort this important information, but it will also replace back-and-forth emails with notifications—eventually.

“We are still exploring platform options with the assistance of Michael Miller, senior vice president of strategy, innovations and technology,” says Daughtry.

Her parents instilled in her and her sisters the importance of helping the community. She grew up in New York, with her father a member of the government and an activist, while her mother was a public-school teacher. They influenced Daughtry to obtain a bachelor’s in political science from Spelman College, then a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

At Georgetown, she served on the Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, was a student attorney in the Juvenile Justice Clinic, and was a member of the Black Law Students Association.

“Working with National Urban League is a culmination of my parents’ passions and mine,” Daughtry says. “It’s truly a dream when your skills further your passion.”

View this feature in the Vanguard Winter II 2022 Edition here.

Published on: January 12, 2022

regions:

categories: ,

Showcase your feature on your website with a custom “As Featured in Vanguard” badge that links directly to your article!

Copy and paste this script into your page coding (ideally right before the closing tag) where you want to display our review banner.

Testimonials

The piece highlighting my company, Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., came out fabulous. Our company is in the new and used car sales and service industry. Everyone was great to work with and extremely professional. They produced a high-quality product and have provided expert assistance and guidance post-production of the article.
– Wade Poulson, General Counsel, Bob Baker Enterprises Inc.
It was a great honor to be featured in Vanguard Law. Working with every member of the team, from the initial interview with Erin Clark, through production with Victor Martins, writing the article with Taryn Plumb and creating the final content with Dave Gushee, was a true pleasure. Everyone was very professional, enthusiastic and supportive, and their creative approach and positive attitude clearly came through in the final product.
– Kevin C. Rakowski, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance with Radian Group Inc.
As promised in advance, my feature in Vanguard has increased my visibility within the profession and prompted more than a few people I have not communicated with recently to reconnect. One of the Italian law firms I have used in the past is now in the process of interviewing me for an article on their website and tweeting out the feature story. Activity and the number of people connecting with me on LinkedIn has soared, which is great. The Vanguard writers and editorial staff were great to work with—highly professional and made the effort to make the experience both fun and rewarding (they were also respectful of the time pressures and demands all lawyers face). I was very pleased with the experience and the final outcome. Needless to say, I have been very pleased. All in all working with Vanguard has been a very positive experience which generated good publicity for both Shawcor and myself. My sincere thanks.
– Tim Hutzul, General Counsel, ShawCor Ltd.
I was honored to be the subject of an article. I enjoy reading Vanguard articles and seeing how other attorneys got to their positions and see their jobs. It's also interesting to see how different law firms partner with the subjects of the articles.
– Henry Marquard, in-house counsel, Stanley Consultants Inc.

LATEST EDITION

Fall II 2023

READ NOW

GET VANGUARD IN YOUR INBOX.

  • * We’ll never share your email or info with anyone.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.