Texas lawyers mourned the death Friday of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose contributions to the rights of women and the rule of law were fundamental and historic. Mark Curriden asked a few of them to reflect on her impact and how her loss could reshape the court.
Jing Bian ‘Proves that Nice People Can Finish First’
International corporate mergers often hinge on the meaning of a single term or the interpretation of a response. Enter Energy Transfer senior counsel Jing Bian, a Chinese-born, Harvard Law-educated M&A lawyer used her knowledge of Chinese culture and fluency in Mandarin to help guide the pipeline giant through a crucial joint venture. Citing Bian’s extraordinary success in less than two years in-house, Jing Bian is the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Rookie of the Year.
Q&A: Kevin McDonald
Citing his extraordinary leadership and legal acumen throughout the merger, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have awarded the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department to NetTier General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer Kevin McDonald.
Marlie Ruth’s Cancer Fighting, Mutton Bustin’ Gives GC Kevin McDonald Perspective
Kevin McDonald has experienced extraordinary career successes. He has rung the opening or closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange three times with three companies. In 2019, he helped engineer a $1.8 billion merger between Keane Group and C&J Energy, creating an oil field services powerhouse with more than $4 billion in annual revenues. For those achievements and more, McDonald is the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. The Texas Lawbook has his complete story – and an amazing story it is.
Veronica Foley Is Precision Drilling’s ‘Key to Success’
Veronica Foley was five when her grandfather, a lawyer in Columbia, was assassinated for being a political activist. The family lived in constant fear. She took different routes to school daily. Nearly four decades later, Foley is the general counsel at Precision Drilling. She and lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright last year won a heated 8-year FLSA battle that could have been devastating for the Houston company. Foley and the law firm are the recipients of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Business Litigation of the Year Award. The Texas Lawbook has the exclusive inside story.
Patent Suits Filed in WDTX Against Facebook, Google, eBay, Expedia
A longtime California technology software innovator filed nine lawsuits this week – six of them in the Western District of Texas – against some of the largest and most profitable corporations in e-commerce claiming that they illegally used his patented technology without a license.
Chief Judge David Jones: The Man Who Saved the Texas Bankruptcy Practice
Bankruptcy Judge David Jones singlehandedly breathed new life into a Texas business bankruptcy practice that saw its work shift to Delaware and Manhattan for decades. Thanks to Jones’ reforms, Houston has the busiest corporate restructuring court in the U.S. The Texas Lawbook provides an in-depth look at Judge Jones, his career and the impact he has had.
Six Days Notice, Six Witnesses, Six Jurors, 150 ER Doctors, Two Ticked Off In-House Counsel and a $9.4M Verdict
TeamHealth Chief Counsel Carol Owen sent a text to her boss: Changing outside counsel six days before a big trial. The new lawyers, AZA, worked 20 hours a day in an Arkansas hotel conference room, entirely changing strategy of the multimillion-dollar jury trial. The Texas Lawbook has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look of a chaotic few days from the eyes of the corporate GC.
H1 2020 Texas Law Firm Financials – Good News, Bad News
Revenue and client demand at Texas-based corporate law firms were down during the first six months of 2020, but they were not as bad as everyone expected, according to a new report from Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
GC Leanne Oliver’s Long and Winding Road to Law and Corporate America
Leanne Oliver could write the ultimate guide to girls about growing up. She lived in hippie communes, an old blue-green school bus, in the woods of North Idaho, in a 100-year-old log cabin and then back on the old school bus. That was just in elementary school. Today, Oliver is the GC of PepsiCo Foods North America and one of the most influential voices in the Texas corporate law community. She has a story to tell and she tells it to The Texas Lawbook.
