© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(June 22) – Exactly three months ago, the North Texas Tollway Authority named Dena DeNooyer Stroh its new general counsel.
“NTTA has a lot of connections between energy and transaction,” she said. “The work is unique and challenging. I cannot explain to you how much I enjoy my work and the people with whom I work.”
A 1999 graduate of SMU’s Dedman School of Law, Stroh said the position is definitely different from the three years she spent at Murchison.
“Murchison was a privately held company with the CEO as the largest shareholder, so everything was less formal,” she said. “At NTTA, everything is formal and under the public microscope. Everything we do at NTTA is public – all of our meetings and records are subject to open meeting laws.”
While Murchison has 50 employees, NTTA has nearly 800 workers, which means there are a lot more employment law issues to handle. The NTTA is also a defendant in a class action lawsuit filed in 2010 over administrative fees charged by the agency between 2008 and 2011.
“I monitored the state legislature for any laws passed that impact our board and operation, and we have constant dealings with state and local governmental agencies and officials that involved legal issues, including the widening of North Dallas Tollway,” she said.
Stroh, who was active in the Dallas Young Lawyers Association, Attorneys Serving the Community and Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, has a small legal department. She has one lawyer who handles document retention and a paralegal who handles all matters related to the state’s Public Information Act.
NTTA also employs a handful of outside lawyers. The agency has Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd & Hullett handle its eminent domain litigation. For municipal bond counsel, the NTTA turns to McCall Parkhurst & Horton and Mahomes Bolden to lead its efforts. The entity also employs Fort- Worth-based Kelly Hart & Hallman to handle specific litigation matters.
But NTTA mainly relies on Locke Lord as its primary outside counsel.
“Having worked both in private practice and in-house is a huge plus [for Dena], said Locke Lord partner Frank Stevenson, who has represented NTTA for many years. “Dena needs to spread the NTTA’s legal work around its four-county service area and among multiple firms and lawyers, while maintaining high quality. She is uniquely qualified to do just that.
“Dena grew up here and has practiced her entire career here,” said Stevenson, who is president-elect of the State Bar of Texas. “She knows Dallas and the region’s legal community. Thus she knows the large and small firms and the solos best-suited for whatever legal need confronts the NTTA.
“Within the bar, some lawyers are universally admired and others are universally adored,” he said. “Very few are both. Dena is one of those few.”
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