Russ Denton is the kind of general counsel who executives are happy to have and outside counsel hope to work with.
In two years at Irving-based Caris Life Sciences, Denton has helped the molecular science and technology company bring new products to market with FDA approval while also leading an appeal that convinced the Fifth Circuit that a District Court had incorrectly applied the law.
“Russ has an uncanny ability to see around corners,” according to David Whittlesey, a partner at A&O Shearman. “He is always three steps ahead, whether he is navigating a complex M&A deal or investment or quarterbacking a multi-faceted, multi-jurisdictional litigation. He knows where every deal needs to go. He knows where every litigation needs to end up. He finds the most effective and efficient way to get to that point while minimizing distractions to the company and avoiding unnecessary risk.”
Whittlesey said Denton immediately helped Caris secure a senior secured term loan to boost external capital to $1.7 billion and worked with the commercial, compliance and regulatory teams on the launch of the Caris Assure product – a minimally invasive liquid biopsy option for biomarker analysis and serial monitoring of cancer patients.
Sam Zabaneh, the Austin Office Managing Partner at Latham & Watkins, said Denton has adroitly handled complex commercial transactions in conjunction with managing equity offerings and strategic matters.
“Russ is super smart, creative and hard-working. He is equally comfortable drafting a detailed legal agreement as negotiating and advocating a position,” Zabaneh told The Texas Lawbook. “Caris is an exciting pre-IPO company that operates in a complex regulatory environment. In my experience, it is rare for a lawyer to be able to operate at a high level across those functions. What I enjoy about working with Russ, is that his intellectual curiosity and creativity lead him to engage in the process more actively than most, which results in better analysis and outcomes. Russ is a thoughtful guy who cares about the results.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook congratulate Denton on being selected as the recipient of the 2024 DFW General Counsel of the Year Award for a Small Legal Department.
ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will celebrate the finalists and honorees at the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Jan. 30 at the George W. Bush Institute.
While at Shearman & Sterling, Denton helped Caris through two rounds of financing as the company’s main outside corporate counsel. In 2022, Ginger Appleberry, Caris’ deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer, called Denton to see if he’d be interested in the general counsel job.
“Going in-house was not something I had ever seriously thought about before, but the opportunity to be GC of a world-changing company like Caris was too amazing to pass up,” Denton said.
Beth Harwood, Associate Director of Business Development at A&O Shearman, said Denton manages many different subject matters at Caris, including some that are not necessarily in his sandbox, such as reimbursement, healthcare regulatory, disputes, employment, and IP.
“With 16 years of corporate legal experience and a practical, business-savvy approach to legal and business-related issues, Russ has led Caris through substantial growth during his tenure as General Counsel,” Harwood said when nominating Denton for GC of the Year.
Whittlesey said Denton’s experience as outside counsel prior to moving in-house is unparalleled because he worked across numerous verticals — life sciences, technology, consumer products, energy, telecommunications — and “in each case, he knew his client’s business better than his own client did.”
“He handled corporate transactions of all shapes and sizes in every major jurisdiction for Skadden Arps, Andrews Kurth, and finally Shearman & Sterling,” Whittlesey said. “He handled very large public transactions where he ran the deal. He helped oversee complex litigation for his clients and masterminded extremely complex M&A and private equity transactions, many times inventing new strategies that no one else had thought of to achieve his client’s goals. The same is true as the General Counsel of Caris, which offers a novel product in a fiercely competitive market. Russ often navigates issues with the company’s competition, protecting and safeguarding Caris’ IP assets and managing employee mobility issues, and many more issues of concern to the company given Caris’ multi-state and multijurisdictional geographical footprint.”
While much of the Caris legal team’s success occurs behind the scenes and out of public view, Denton cited the favorable Fifth Circuit decision in the company’s litigation with United Healthcare as a highlight of the past few years.
“We filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare relating to their recoupment practices before I joined Caris,” he said. “That case was originally in Texas state court but was removed to the Northern District of Texas. The District Court judge ended up dismissing our case as a result of a very technical reading of Medicare regulations. We appealed to the Fifth Circuit and were able to convince the Fifth Circuit that the District Court judge had incorrectly applied the law. The case has been remanded to the District Court where proceedings are ongoing.”
Denton hired John Bash, Co-Managing Partner of Quinn Emanuel’s Austin office, to help with the appeal. They collaborated to achieve a favorable outcome for Caris after crafting a briefing and oral argument to explain a very complicated and technical area of the law to the Fifth Circuit.
“Russ is an exceptional lawyer and leader,” Bash said. “He is uniquely perceptive about the arguments that will win a case, and he is very thoughtful about big-picture litigation strategy. He is also a genuinely kind and engaging person. In short, he is the kind of corporate counsel that outside counsel hopes to work with.”
Denton was born in Columbia, Mo., and lived in Jefferson City before moving to Indianapolis. His father is a doctor and his mother a nurse. He said Mom worked as the school nurse at his school in Indianapolis to keep tabs on him, as he is her only child. Denton attended Duke University as an undergrad and then Stanford University for law school because he liked the flexibility that a law degree provides, as one can work as a practicing lawyer or transition over to the business side.
Denton met his wife, Anna, when they were working as summer associates at Skadden in New York. They both stayed at Skadden for about four years before moving to Austin in 2012. Anna is the in-house securities and corporate counsel for SolarWinds, an Austin IT infrastructure management software firm. Russ and Anna have an 11-year-old daughter and nine-year-old boy/girl twins. He said the family has started going to the beach every Thanksgiving week, and he looks forward to the annual chance to decompress and spend time together.
Denton made a point of recognizing his team at Caris.
“Without this incredible team, our legal function just wouldn’t work. In addition to Ginger, who was a partner at Locke Lord before joining Caris, we have Mike Sullivan, formerly Deputy GC at Celanese, who handles corporate matters, Jeff Thomas who has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and handles IP matters, and Galyn Gafford (formerly a partner at Locke Lord) who handles contracting and data licensing. We also have three people on our contracts team, Jenn Petric, Nik Stavropoulos, Sandi Voigt and a new in-house paralegal, Kim Davis.”
In addition to launching the new liquid biopsy option — Caris Assure — Denton said another great day for his team was when the company received FDA approval for its MI Cancer Seek.
“Our regulatory team at Caris sits outside of the legal department, but they work very closely with the legal department and we help coordinate with outside counsel and others on questions that the regulatory team has,” he said. “Launching a new product [Caris Assure] in a regulated industry like ours is a cross-company effort. Our legal team supports a product launch in various ways, including reviewing and drafting marketing and other patient or customer-facing materials, reviewing IP and coordinating on reimbursement and third-party payer matters.”
FUN FACTS: Russ Denton
- Favorite book: I recently read Quit by Annie Duke. She is a poker player turned decision scientist and the book is about how making a decision to quit something can be just as important as — if not more important — than deciding to do something in the first place.
- Favorite music group: Tom Petty
- Favorite movie: I’m more of a TV person. My wife and I just finished Peaky Blinders and we really liked that.
- Favorite restaurant: Uchi
- Favorite beverage: Topo Chico, with or without tequila
- Favorite vacation: Going to the beach with my family. We have started going to the beach Thanksgiving week. It is normally a pretty quiet week for work and we get a chance to decompress and spend time together.
- Hero in life: I always liked Justin Leonard growing up. The way he carries himself and the way he plays always appealed to me.