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Above Gallery: 2019 ACC Houston/Texas Lawbook Event
This week, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are announcing the winners of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
The recipients of this year’s Houston Corporate Counsel Awards include general counsel and senior counsel from Prosperity Bank, Chevron, CenterPoint Energy, Mattress Firm, Energy Transfer Partners, Pattern Energy, Motiva Enterprises, NexTier Oilfield Services and the Metro Transit Authority of Harris County.
Eleven of the 13 recipients are women. One-third are lawyers of color. One is a previous finalist and one is a back-to-back winner. Three winners are from the same business. Six of the in-house counsel work at energy related companies. And one category has two recipients who happened to be from the same business but (1) were actually nominated separately, (2) were nominated by different individuals, (3) were nominated for different reasons and (4) were selected by two different panels of judges.
More than 90 corporate lawyers were nominated for the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognizes the great legal work of the lawyers in Texas corporate in-house legal departments.
The Texas Lawbook and ACC Houston officials put together six panels of three independent judges that included: Buc-ees Deputy GC Tracy Richardson, Bristow GC Victoria Lazar, CenterPoint Deputy GC Monica Karuturi, Talen Energy GC Andy Wright, Carriage Senior Counsel Mike Elliott, TechnipFMC Legal Director Lisa Wang, BMC GC Irene Kosturakis, UniversalPegasus Chief Counsel Fermeen Fazal and Peak Completion GC Tim Johnson, Hicks Thomas Partner Courtney Ervin, Pye Legal Services CEO Stacy Humphries and Thompson & Knight Partner Walker Brierre.
The Association of Corporate Counsel and The Lawbook thank the judges for the time and effort they invested in the awards judging process.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ACC Houston leaders and The Texas Lawbook delayed the announcement of the award winners for three months. The awards ceremony has been rescheduled to Oct. 1.
The other major change for this year only is that only the winners are being revealed instead of mulitple finalists for each category. This year’s awards event, because of the need for health safety measures related to the coronavirus, will limit attendance to only the winners, ACC Houston leaders, past winners and the award sponsors.
Today, the ACC Houston and The Lawbook reveal the first six recipients of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department: Mattress Firm GC Kindal Elam Nuno.
General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department: NexTier Oilfield Services GC Kevin McDonald.
General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department: Former Weatherford International GC Christina Ibrahim.
Business Litigation of the Year, which honors the in-house legal department and its outside counsel: Precision Drilling GC Veronica Foley and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Public Service/Pro Bono Award: Motiva Enterprises Assistant GC Keith Calcote.
Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department: Mattress Firm Senior Counsel Daria Russell and Mattress Firm senior counsel Mindy Harper.
Later this week, The Texas Lawbook will announce the winners for the following categories: M&A Transaction of the Year; Creative Partnership Award; Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department; Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department; Corporate Counsel of the Year for Diversity Achievement; and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook congratulate this year’s Corporate Counsel winners. The Lawbook will publish in-depth substantive profiles of each of the award recipients later this summer.
This year, The Texas Lawbook is designating 50% of the revenue from sponsorships of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards toward the hiring of a full-time public service/pro bono reporter/writer.
Publisher’s Note: For more information about sponsoring the Houston Corporate Counsel Awards and the awards ceremony, please contact Brooks Igo at brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net.