In this Q&A with The Lawbook, Mallett discusses her time at the SEC, the challenges facing the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office, the SEC’s expansion of its whistleblower program and the impact on Texas businesses, and other SEC enforcement trends that impact companies and those in the financial investment world.
Bloomberg Law: Alfredo Perez to be Next SDTX Bankruptcy Judge
If approved, Perez would join his former Weil Gotshal law partner, Judge Christopher Lopez, as one of the bankruptcy judges handling big cases in Houston.
Susman Godfrey’s 2023: The Best Financial Year Ever for a Texas Law Firm
Susman Godfrey co-managing partner Vineet Bhatia told The Texas Lawbook that the Houston-based firm “had a pretty good year in 2023.” In fact, it was the single best financial year for any law firm’s Texas operations in history. Texas Lawbook 50 data research shows that the 110 lawyers for Susman Godfrey in Texas doubled their revenue and nearly doubled their profits per partner over 2022. Keep in mind, 2022 was also a record financial year for the firm.
The firm’s Texas lawyers scored some monumental courtroom victories — most of them coming with hefty contingency fee paydays. Bhatia called it “an alignment of the stars” and added, “We had a lot of happy partners.”
SEC Assistant Director of Enforcement Joins Kirkland in Dallas
A veteran enforcement lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has joined Kirkland & Ellis’s Dallas office as a partner.
Houston GCs of the Year — Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists
Phillips 66 General Counsel Vanessa Allen Sutherland and Vopak General Counsel Hugo Teste have been named the Houston GCs of the Year for large and small corporate legal departments, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook. ACC Houston and The Lawbook also announce that McDermott Chief Legal Officer Rachel Clingman and Mitsui U.S.A. General Counsel Linda Primrose have been named finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department, while Cardinal System Holdings GC Sara-Ashley Moreno and PURIS CLO Thomas Gottsegen are finalists for the Houston General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department. The Lawbook previously announced the finalists for M&A Transaction of the Year, Business Litigation of the Year, Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion and Senior Counsel of the Year for small, midsized and large corporate legal departments.
Houston Appeals Court: Winter Storm Uri Cases Against Transmission and Distribution Giants to Move Forward
The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston ruled Tuesday that 20,000 plaintiffs in wrongful death, personal injury and other Winter Storm Uri-related lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from Texas electric transmission and distribution utilities may move forward to trial. The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that trial judge Sylvia Matthews was correct in allowing allegations of gross negligence and intentional misconduct to proceed against the TDUs, which include CenterPoint Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery and American Electric Power, but that charges of common-law negligence and strict-liability nuisance are prohibited by state law. Legal experts say the Fourteenth Court’s opinion is a partial win for both sides.
Senior Counsel at DNOW, LyondellBasell, Phillips 66, Virage Capital — Houston Corporate Counsel Award Finalists
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have selected LyondellBasell Lead Litigation Counsel Brittany Ringel Walton and Phillips 66 Senior Counsel Kristina McQuaid as the two finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department. In addition, ACC Houston and The Lawbook have chosen DistributionNOW Deputy General Counsel Jordan Chester as the sole finalist and thus the recipient of the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Virage Capital Management Director of Litigation Funding Leslie Hillendahl as the winner of the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year Award for a Small Legal Department.
Paul Hastings Chair: ‘A Ton of Opportunity for Us in Texas’
As eight new corporate finance partners settle into their new Houston and Dallas digs at Paul Hastings this week, the law firm’s leader told The Texas Lawbook that “we are not going to stop there.”
“There are other practice areas we are exploring,” Paul Hastings chair Frank Lopez said in an interview. “There’s a ton of opportunity in Texas. Texas may be our No. 1 priority. It is fertile ground for us.” Just six months ago, Paul Hastings operated a sleepy Houston outpost of 22 lawyers. Since September 2023, however, the law firm has been on a hiring spree in Texas, nearly doubling their numbers in the state with lateral hires from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Akin Gump and Vinson & Elkins. And firm leaders believe they could be at 60 lawyers in Texas by summer and possibly 100 attorneys within a year.
Honeywell, Phillips 66 Finalists for 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel M&A Transaction of the Year
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have selected Honeywell International and Phillips 66 as the finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year. For 2023, a year that recorded some huge mergers and acquisitions, an independent panel of judges selected by The Lawbook and ACC Houston cited the extraordinary legal work of the in-house counsel and outside lawyers on Phillip 66’s $3.8 billion take-private transaction of DCP Midstream and Honeywell’s $670 million acquisition of Compressor Controls Corporation.
First Reserve, Forum Energy and SilverBow Finalists for 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Business Litigation of the Year
The general counsel at First Reserve, the GC at Forum Energy Technology and the associate GC at SilverBow Resources all scored big courtroom victories for their companies last year and have been selected by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook as finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.