Frost Bank clearly has a thing for lawyers at Haynes and Boone.
Based in San Antonio, Frost Bank announced Tuesday that it has hired former Haynes and Boone litigator C.E. Rhodes to be its new general counsel and corporate secretary.
Rhodes, who starts his new position next month, is currently a managing director and chief compliance officer at New York-based New Fortress Energy, a global energy infrastructure company that focuses on natural gas and clean energy.
A former associate general counsel at Baker Hughes, Rhodes replaces James Waters, who left Frost Bank in July to be the new general counsel at Cleveland-based KeyCorp.
Both Waters and Rhodes are former lawyers at Haynes and Boone. Waters was a transactional lawyer, while Rhodes was a member of the firm’s trial team.
Haynes and Boone litigation partner Mark Trachtenberg, who was a young associate working with Rhodes in litigation, said “C.E. was a rising star from the beginning.”
“C.E. was highly regarded and known for exercising great judgment and very good on his feet,” Trachtenberg said. “He was clearly on the partnership track, but he got an offer [from Baker Hughes] too good to pass up.”
A graduate of Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Rhodes spent six years at Haynes and Boone and then a dozen years as in-house counsel at Baker Hughes, where he served in several roles, including corporate compliance and global strategy.
Rhodes spent 2019 as a corporate transactional lawyer at Akin Gump in Houston before joining New Fortress Energy in Feb. 2020.
“We are fortunate to have C.E. Rhodes join our executive team,” said Frost Chairman and CEO Phil Green. “He’s someone who is familiar with Frost’s lines of business and its philosophies, and we welcome him to the Frost family.”
Frost is a subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, which has $46.7 billion in assets.
Rhodes also serves on the Texas Bar Foundation board of trustees.