© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
More than 300 Texas corporate general counsel and chief legal officers gathered in San Antonio Thursday and Friday for the annual meeting of the General Counsel Forum.
Another 100 business lawyers attended the two-day conference from firms that support the GC Forum, such as Jones Day, Strasburger & Price, Gardere, Beirne Maynard, Baker Botts, Greenberg Traurig, Sutherlandand and Fish & Richardson.
The corporate lawyers were entertained Friday by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and noted author and LawProse master Bryan Garner. They spoke on their book, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Text.
Popular general counsel also spoke, including Energy Future Holdings GC Stacey Dore and Halliburton GC Robb Voyles. William Buck, the general counsel of the U.S. Anti-doping Agency, talked about the agency’s investigation into Austin cyclist Lance Armstrong.
But the highlight of the event was Thursday night’s Magna Stella Awards.
Bonilla has had many challenges during his four years as the top lawyer at Texas A&M. He led the negotiations on the acquisition of Texas Wesleyan School of Law in 2013. But none of his tasks were more high-profile or more scrutinized A&M’s departure from the Big 12 Conference and its admission into the Southeastern Conference.
The GC Forum selected ABM Industries Deputy General Counsel Lanesha Anderson to receive its annual “Outstanding AGC” award.
The “Pro Bono” legal department of the year award went to Hewlett Packard’s team of lawyers in Plano. HP’s legal staff of 85 in Texas performed more than 900 hours of pro bono in 2014, according to the company’s associate general counsel Chris Kelly.
HP lawyers work regularly on pro bono projects involving the American Legion’s National Veterans Legal Services Program and Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, which nominated the technology company’s legal team for the award.
Luna, who is president of the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation, worked with the communication company’s human resource department to implement diversity training courses and update the company’s policy toward achieving a diverse workforce. He also worked diligently to make sure that MetroPCS, which is a division of T-Mobile, used minority- and women-owned law firms to do the company’s legal work.
“My late parents were the first in our family to graduate from high school and college,” Luna told the GC Forum members attending the event. “They instilled in their eight children the importance of public service.”
During his dozen years at Silicon Labs, Ho negotiated more than $500 million in mergers and acquisitions. He manages an IP portfolio that includes 514 pending patent applications and 1,005 granted patents.
Audrey Andrews, the general counsel of Tenet Healthcare Corp., received the Magna Stella Award for Large Legal Dept.
With a team of 51 lawyers and a support staff of 61, Andrews leads all legal activities for the Dallas-based healthcare provider, which has 80 hospitals, more than 400 outpatient centers and 18 short-stay surgical centers.
The Magna Stella Award for Solo GC went to David Rex, general counsel and managing director of Southlake-based Prophet Equity.
A former M&A partner at Jackson Walker, Rex has advised in more than 240 transactions with a combined value of $6 billion. He handles all legal matters for the private equity firm, which has seen its 16 principals invest control equity into lower middle market companies that created more than $2 billion in value.
A few years ago, Rex was closing a complex transaction in New York involving a public company going private, a refinancing and three simultaneous acquisitions. Counsel for the other side had 18 lawyers seated at the table. By contrast, Rex sat across the table with just one outside lawyer and a paralegal.
“One riot, one ranger,” Rex responded.
Peter Riley, the general counsel of The Howard Hughes Corporation in Dallas, received the Magna Stella Award for Major Litigation.
A former tax lawyer at Kelly Hart & Hallman, Riley led a decade-long litigation involving the redevelopment of Pier 17 of the South Street Seaport in New York City. Tenants of the Seaport, including Simply Seafood, refused to vacate the premises, which caused significant construction delays. Riley used innovative litigation strategies to separate the eviction claim from the larger issues in the case. The lawsuit finally went to trial in the spring of 2015. HHC won and was awarded $20 million in damages.
DeVeau essentially combined four companies that were master limited partnerships into one public company. The transaction closed three months after it was announced.
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