David Deck’s list of job responsibilities as vice president of legal and compliance at CEC Entertainment was pretty extensive pre-Covid-19.
As one of two in-house counsel for the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurants, Deck supervised the company’s litigation docket, oversaw labor and employment issues, handled franchising, contracts with suppliers, intellectual property, credit card industry compliance issues and tracking important legislation.
And then after lunch…
“David handles incredible volumes of work incredibly well, with amazing turnaround time,” said Deck’s boss, CEC General Counsel Rudy Rodriguez. “Over his 20-plus years here, it is clear that he lives, bleeds and breathes for this company.”
When the pandemic hit, Deck started at 6 a.m. and went well into the night for several days putting together a database that tracks the latest federal, state and local regulations and health standards for the jurisdictions of 555 CEC restaurants – a massive project that he undertook without being asked. He then provided analysis and guidance to corporate executives as well as managers on the ground about the impact of those ever-evolving rules.
Ah, but there is more.
On June 24, CEC filed to restructure under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code in the Southern District of Texas because the pandemic shuttered most of their restaurant doors and revenues dropped to pennies on the dollar.
Deck, Rodriguez and the CEC team spent 16-hour days collecting documents and contracts and leases to prepare for the bankruptcy filing.
“The biggest challenge was trying to run the business and provide our normal services to our internal clients while handling the voluminous numbers of documents, drafts, materials and information necessary to review, comment and provide in relation to the bankruptcy proceedings,” Deck told The Texas Lawbook in an interview. “What’s more, while a bankruptcy would no doubt be difficult in a pre-Covid-19 time, I believe that our limited staffing due to Covid-19 made the burden even greater.”
CEC survived bankruptcy, successfully restructured its balance sheet and its restaurants have been reopening across the U.S.
“David’s involvement in the reorganization process has been tremendous,” said Paul Genender a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which led CEC’s restructuring. “Suffice it to say, CEC would not have been able to develop and secure approval of its reorganization plan and stand poised to reemerge from Chapter 11 protection by the end of this year, nearly as quickly or effectively as it has without David’s extensive, tireless efforts.”
Citing those efforts, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Deck the recipient of the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal department.
The ACC DFW and The Lawbook are hosting the annual awards event June 3 at the George W. Bush Institute where the finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced.
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Mark Taylor, a principal at Baker McKenzie in Dallas, said Deck’s loyalty to Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper is extraordinarily honorable in this era when lawyers jump job to job.
“David has spent virtually his entire legal career at CEC,” Taylor said. “He stuck with CEC through thick and thin, including Covid’s impact on CEC and the restaurant and entertainment industry generally. David could see the value of the brand would outlast Covid, and he continues to partner with CEC to this day to make it a better place.”
New Jersey labor and employment lawyer Steve Gerber said Deck stands out for his passion for the law and his compassion for people.
“David cares – he cares about the profession, his client and its employees, his outside counsel and about fairness,” Gerber said. “David is a strong leader. He not only listens but hears the opinions of others. He is thoughtful, respectful and analytical.”
Genender, who nominated Deck for the award, said the “scope of David’s duties is massive, and he has helped CEC manage them by being savvy and industrious.”
“While working closely with David this year, I have observed how business-oriented, practical and efficient he is, and I can truly say his communication skills are unparalleled,” Genender said. “He is one of the most delightful clients with whom I have worked.”
Deck was born in Florida and spent his early years in a small town, Titusville, Florida, which was the gateway town to Kennedy Space Center. His grandfather worked for Martin Marietta and lived near the space center.
“I remember being on-site for the first space shuttle launch and watching other launches from my grandparent’s yard and even getting to meet astronauts,” he said.
Deck’s father was a supervisor for Florida Power & Light and is now retired and travels around the country with his dog, Sassy. Deck’s mother stayed at home with the children until Deck hit the sixth grade, when she went back to college and earned a degree in criminal psychology. She is also retired.
Deck had no lawyers in his family and initially dreamed about becoming an engineer and following in his grandfather’s footsteps. But then he watched Perry Mason and his career path shifted.
During college in Florida, Deck met a girl from El Paso.
“As a Dallas Cowboys fan since I was five, I always wanted to live in Texas,” he said.
Deck moved to West Texas, where he worked as the head runner for Hicks, Ray & McChristian – now known as Ray, Peña, McChristian – where he said he received some extraordinary mentoring from the firm’s lawyers. It is also where he met his wife. About 10 months after he and Katie were married, they moved to Florida so he could finish his undergraduate education at the University of Central Florida – majoring in legal studies.
Deck moved to Irving in 1999, worked as a paralegal in the legal department at Chuck E. Cheese to support his wife and a son while also attending night classes at Texas Wesleyan School of Law – now Texas A&M School of Law.
Working as a paralegal while going to law school made his classes more interesting.
“I was able to experience, or had already experienced, the things we were studying and was able to synthesize that in my studies,” he said. “For instance, drafting memorandum for clients, drafting handbooks, reviewing, analyzing and drafting responses to discovery requests, and drafting contracts – all of which provided insights to the real-world work attorneys perform.”
When Deck graduated and received his law degree in 2004, he decided to stay at CEC instead of going to a law firm for a few years of practice.
“The breadth of legal work available to me at all times – that usually isn’t available in the law firm setting – and because of the family atmosphere” were the reasons he stayed. “At CEC, I am fortunate enough to handle legal matters ranging from insurance defense litigation, employment matters, franchising, intellectual property and legislative matters.”
Slowly, CEC gave Deck more responsibilities and promotions. In 2013, he was named deputy general counsel and chief corporate compliance officer.
Deck has now been at CEC for more than 22 years. He said one of his biggest successes pre-Covid was the formation of the compliance program and team.
“Compliance for a global company like CEC cannot be monitored by a single person, so we formed a compliance team of key employees from each business unit – internal audit, accounting, payroll, tax, international, marketing and supply chain,” he said.
Deck and CEC then formed subcommittees of team members related to wage-and-hour issues and other employment compliance matters, such as background checks. The effort has been highly successful, and company officials agree.
Deck has gained a reputation as a bit of a practical joker.
On a morning pre-Covid, Deck arrived at the office about 6 a.m. He placed clear tape over the optical eyes of his employees’ computer mice. A couple of hours later, his colleagues were comparing notes that their mice were not working. They figured out it was Deck and promised their revenge.
Weeks passed by and nothing. A month later, he came into the office to find his phone and chair were completely wrapped with rubber bands and his keyboard and monitor was covered with sticky notes.
“The highlight of their practical joke was an airhorn attached to the bottom of my chair that I, of course, didn’t discover until I sat down,” he said. “It was a great moment and a day I’ll never forget. I have a great team with a great work ethic and sense of humor.”
Covid-19 certainly presented CEC and all retailers with a challenging year.
Deck monitored news reports and websites of state governors, state and county health departments and other agencies for Covid-19-related information. He used those orders and recommendations to develop reopening protocols and procedures with the company’s learning, development and operations teams.
“I think the biggest challenge was the differing approaches to reopening taken by the states and local municipalities,” he said. “In New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the surrounding states we were permitted to open our game areas but not in New York.”
Rodriguez said Deck undertook an “enormous task of keeping up with the regulations.”
“In my opinion, David has done this better than any person in the country,” the GC said. “When it became clear that there was no one outside source where we could keep up with all the Covid-related restrictions and requirements, David took it upon himself to create a living document where he keeps track of all of this in one place, every single day.
“It is a thing of beauty. As in so many other things, David saw a need and filled the need better than anyone else I know could do,” Rodriguez said.
Rudy Rodriguez and David Deck
Deck also played a critical role in the bankruptcy case. He reviewed all documents filed in the case and the attachments that went with them. He responded to proofs of claim filed by creditors and the assumption and rejection of executory contracts. He analyzed leases and contracts related to cure objections. And he reviewed all governing document amendments and reviewed and drafted documents related to the debtor-in-possession financing and due diligence requests from the unsecured creditors committee.
The bottom line, according to the lawyers who work with Deck, is that he is a role model for so many others.
“People should know about David’s drive to do better,” said Taylor of Baker McKenzie, noting that Deck started at CEC as a paralegal two decades ago. “Instead of languishing in that position, David charged ahead and attended law school at night while raising a family.
“Upon graduation, he took on increasingly complex roles in the legal department at CEC,” he said. “David is a great example of someone who puts in the effort to raise himself by his own bootstraps to improve his position professionally.”