Jane Ann Neiswender ignored a call she received in 2013 about a job opening in the legal department of JC Penney. She was completely satisfied being a trial partner at the intellectual property and technology powerhouse Munck Wilson.
A couple weeks later, Neiswender was in a weeklong federal court trial in the Eastern District of Texas battling over a utility patent related to circuitry in burglar alarm systems.
She won the trial, but the case required her to miss her son’s 8th birthday party.
“Regardless of the demands of outside counsel practice, I always tried to make sure I was there for all of the big events for my three children,” she said. “Birthdays have always been very important in my family, and I prided myself on making my children’s birthday cakes. That year, however, the pretrial and trial settings were such that I could not make my son’s cake and was going to be out of town for his birthday. I felt like I let my son down.”
“In the strange turns of fate that shape careers, I was not looking for an in-house job when the opportunity to join JC Penney came my way,” she said.
Neiswender joined JC Penney that November as senior counsel for litigation, and she has remained in-house counsel ever since.
For the past three years, Neiswender has been the deputy general counsel at Irving-based Michaels Stores, where she has helped guide the national specialty craft store chain a digital transformation, helped purchase intellectual property of failed retail competitors and guided the business through significant supply chain issues related to recent tariffs placed on other countries.
“It is no secret that the retail industry has faced unchartered waters over the past 18 months, including consumer concern over the economy, an increasingly complex regulatory environment and new challenges stemming from tariffs,” she told The Texas Lawbook. “As a department, we work closely with the business to navigate these issues in a way that is compliant and provides our customers with the goods and value that they expect.”
Citing her extraordinary work and achievements during the past 18 months, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook have named Neiswender as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 20 attorneys).
ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will celebrate the finalists and announce the award recipients on Jan. 29 at a ceremony at the George W. Bush Institute.
“There can be no exaggeration of Jane Ann’s superb leadership in navigating Michaels in the current political climate,” said Michelle Hartmann, managing partner of the Texas operations for the global law firm Baker McKenzie. “Michaels, like many retailers with significant supply chain exposure to China, has faced and continues to face challenges with international tariffs at record highs. Jane Ann has guided the legal elements of diversifying the company’s supply chain to a wider global vendor base, including advising on tax, employment and litigation-related issues concerning the company’s current supply chain circumstances.”
“Jane Ann has been instrumental in guiding the company’s shift towards a focus on intellectual property, working diligently to align diverse stakeholders from the retail and technology sectors toward the company’s overarching strategic objections,” said Hartmann, who nominated Neiswender for the award. “And with other retailers having to close their doors, Jane Ann directed her legal team in acquiring the intellectual property of the company’s competitors, including leading the acquisition of JoAnn’s IP and private label brands this year.”
Neiswender also advised the company in dealing with multiple leadership changes, including departures of the company’s CIO and CFO in 2024 and CEO in early 2025.
Munsch Hardt shareholder Jamil Alibhai said Neiswender is “a great in-house lawyer partly because of her years practicing as a commercial and IP litigator.”
“Jane Ann’s experience in the courtroom and with complex litigation guides her in making risk-management decisions and defending litigation brought against Michaels,” said Alibhai, who points out that Neiswender is a gin connoisseur. “She demands excellence from her outside counsel and works closely with them to achieve great results in and out of the courtroom. During a recent trial defending Michaels against allegations of trade secret misappropriation and trademark infringement, Jane Ann’s knowledge about Michaels’ business helped obtain a judgment in favor of Michaels on all claims.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Jane Ann Neiswender discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Neiswender was born and raised in Baltimore. Her father is an electrical engineer and a master electrician who was the head engineer for Bethlehem Steel’s sheet and tin mill. Her mother is a first-grade teacher and spent most of her career at The Bryn Mawr School for girls in Baltimore. Her older brother, Kevin, is a chemical engineer.
“Despite being five years older than me, my brother and I were always the best of friends,” she said. “We grew up playing all kinds of sports, both organized and impromptu. Dad’s sawhorses and Mom’s outdoor coffee table often served as hurdles when Kevin and I were younger. Academics were also a priority. If we weren’t outside playing, we had our noses in a book. I remember first learning fractions with my mom by making cookies — either doubling a recipe or cutting it in half.”
Neiswender played field hockey and lacrosse in high school and ran indoor track. She was recently inducted into her high school’s athletic Hall of Fame.
While there were no lawyers in her family, Neiswender said she “wanted to be a lawyer from when I was a little girl.”
“There wasn’t an ‘a-ha’ moment when I realized it was what I wanted to do,” she said. “It was always a part of me from the very beginning. My mother would tell you she knew I was meant to be a lawyer because I was always arguing my case.”
Neiswender earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her law degree from Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.
She said one of her life-impacting events occurred when she gave birth to twin daughters as she entered her final year of law school.
“Juggling two new babies, the last year of law school and the bar exam certainly taught me about managing competing priorities,” she said.
Neiswender spent six years practicing IP law at Vinson & Elkins in Dallas and then jumped to Munck Wilson in 2011, where she was made a partner.
The move to JC Penney took place in November 2013.
“At the time, JC Penney was probably the only in-house job I would have considered, because when I joined, the legal department functioned like a law firm,” she said. “We didn’t use outside counsel in Texas, and even in cases outside of Texas, we used outside counsel only as local counsel. We still set the case strategy, took the depositions, wrote the briefs and argued them. JC Penney gave me the opportunity to do what I loved while giving additional flexibility to focus on my family.”
After lengthy stints in the legal departments at Burlington Stores and Sabre Corporation, Neiswender joined Michael Stores in 2023.
Neiswender said the opportunity to learn from The Michaels Companies General Counsel Tim Cheatam and “help achieve his vision for the legal department was intriguing.”
“I have always been excited to help build and grow teams, and Michaels provided that opportunity in a company that promotes celebration and joy,” she said.
Neiswender said she could not discuss some of the biggest challenges she faces at Michaels due to confidentiality.
“This year, my team and I have focused on helping the company navigate complex operational and team member challenges while maintaining stability and trust,” she said. “Through communication, active listening and consistent engagement, our team was able to help our business grow by planning and executing decisions thoughtfully, compliantly and with empathy.”
Hartmann said Neiswender used her strong background in intellectual property to “help steer the company’s focus on digital transformation — which included negotiating with and managing the legal aspects of outsourcing arrangements with international vendors to upgrade the Michael’s online presence, MarketPlace, and negotiating the legal aspects of expanding delivery of the company’s products through partnerships with services like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Instacart.”
One of Neiswender’s biggest successes at Michaels came last summer when she had to make the decision in an IP case about whether to settle or go to trial.
“We made the decision to go to trial in a lawsuit that had been filed against Michaels,” she said. “We were rewarded with a jury verdict in our favor.”
The case was ATC Media LLC v. Michaels Stores Inc. in the Northern District of Texas.
The plaintiff made claims of breach of contract, trademark infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets. The case related to certain paint-by-number kits Michaels had sold during the Covid-19 pandemic, which were marketed as Artist’s Loft Masterpiece Paint by Number.
The plaintiff, Masterpiece Paint by Numbers, contacted Artistree, a Michaels company that does custom framing, about providing framing services for the paint-by-number kits her company sold.
“She alleged that the Michaels misused certain information she had provided when she had met with Artistree in developing the Artist’s Loft Masterpiece Paint by Number kits,” Neiswender said. “In reality, Michaels had developed the idea prior to any contact with plaintiff and in no way breached any contract, infringed any IP or misappropriated any trade secret.”
“While litigation is often resolved, there are some cases where in-house counsel must make the decision to try the case,” she said. “This was one of those. We firmly believed that Michaels had done nothing wrong, and we had faith that when a jury would be presented with the facts, that they would decide in our favor.”
Neiswender, who is very active in matters, worked hand-in-hand with Alibhai at Munsch Hardt in determining legal strategy and prepping witnesses. She attended the entire three-day trial and was in the courtroom for the jury verdict.
“While it is always gratifying for the lawyers to have a jury find in their favor, the real impact is on the individuals who had done the hard work to independently develop ideas, source the ideas, create the packaging and marketing the product,” she said. “That jury verdict vindicated all of their work. Being able to defend that hard work is a privilege.”
David Woodcock, a partner at Gibson Dunn in Dallas, said Neiswender’s “experience as a first chair trial lawyer makes her perfect for managing a complex litigation docket.”
“But Jane Ann’s biggest successes never become public. She works on some of the most sensitive issues at the company, like hot line complaints, cybersecurity issues and sensitive HR matters,” Woodcock said. “Her ability to guide the company to efficient and nonpublic resolutions of these issues is why Jane Ann has the respect and trust of her internal clients and Tim Cheatham.”
“As much as any other in-house counsel I’ve worked with, Jane Ann always wants to understand how the legal questions impact the real people involved,” he said. “She’s willing to make tough decisions, but she always does it with immense compassion.”
Fun Facts: Jane Ann Neiswender
- Favorite book: I’m going to have to go with Tartuffe by Molière. It sparked enormous controversy — and was initially censored — because of its themes of human gullibility, hypocrisy and how closely the play linked virtue and vice. It is a hilarious portrait of life in the court of Louis XIV that is simply entertaining to read, but at the same time its themes are as applicable today as when the farce was first written.
- Favorite music group: Queen
- Favorite movie: Witness
- Favorite restaurant: Trulucks and its crab Napoleon.
- Favorite beverage: Sparkling water with lime.
- Favorite vacation: There are two. The first, is my first trip to France when I was 14. It sparked a life-long love of French literature and culture and motivated my decision to major in romance languages and literature. The second is a recent trip to Africa. The beauty and warmth of the people in Kenya and Tanzania were truly spectacular.
- Hero in life: My brother, Kevin. He has always set the gold standard for me in all aspects of life. He is a trusted sounding board and my unerring gauge when I have thorny issues to resolve.