More than 150 fully vaccinated general counsel, senior in-house counsel and corporate lawyers gathered Thursday evening for the 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. Thirteen trophies were handed out for categories ranging from Business Litigation and M&A Deal of the Year to Rookie of the Year and Legal Innovation. Five of the categories had multiple finalists.
DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Ceremony – A Sneak Preview
This Thursday, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook host the 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. Nearly 70 in-house corporate counsel were nominated. Fifteen independent judges selected 17 finalists who did extraordinary legal work in 2021. They include lawyers from Toyota, Southwest Airlines, Tuesday Morning, Flowserve, Match Group, Crestline Investors and Pizza Hut.
Photo: The family of the late Clarence Brown, who will be honored at Thursday’s ceremony.
Judge: $4B Stanford Fraud Case Against Banks to Go to Trial in Houston
After more than a dozen years of motions, objections, petitions and appeals, the multibillion-dollar civil fraud case against five banks that provided financial services to Ponzi scheme perpetrator R. Allen Stanford and his investment firm will finally go to trial later this year in Houston.
A federal judge, who has overseen the massive litigation brought by thousands of investors who claim they were defrauded more than $5 billion in hard money by Stanford and the Stanford Financial Group between 1999 and 2008, said the biggest and final of all the lawsuits is ready to be sent back to Houston to be decided by a judge and jury in the town where the scheme took place.
Kathy McCoy: ‘A Visionary in the Ranks of Corporate Counsel’
Lawyers in the world of natural gas know Williams Companies Senior Counsel Kathryn McCoy, a former FERC lawyer who has led groundbreaking legal work developing a partnership involving LNG bunkering for ships in the U.S. She played a leading role in Southern Company’s sale of subsidiary Pivotal LNG to Dominion Energy, tackled legislation involving efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and handled major force majeure issues related to Winter Storm Uri. McCoy’s knowledge of the energy industry is unparalleled and her value to her new employer, the Williams Companies, is immeasurable. She is the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
Houston Corporate Counsel Awards to Chevron, METRO, EP Energy and Prosperity Bank
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook handed out the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Thursday night to 14 in-house lawyers who achieved extraordinary success during the past two years.
Updated: Fifth Circuit Judge Gregg Costa Resigns, ‘Returning to My Passion’
Judge Gregg Costa, one of the few moderate to left leaning jurists on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, told The Texas Lawbook Thursday that he is resigning his position on the 17-member appellate court to go back to practice law. Costa, who is only 49, informed his judicial colleagues, law clerks and President Joe Biden this week that he plans to leave the bench in early August. In an interview with The Lawbook, Costa said it “has been a true honor” to serve on the New Orleans-headquartered appeals court and that it was “a difficult decision” to resign.
“I look forward to returning to my passion and getting back into the arena of trying cases,” Costa said. The Texas Lawbook has the inside details.
Two Final DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists/Winners
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announce the finalists for the last two 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards categories: GC of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department. In-house counsel at Pizza Hut and City Electric Supply are the winners.
Siva Barnwell Adams Led Chevron Through Covid Gauntlet to Close Noble Deal
Chevron senior counsel Siva Barnwell Adams worked mornings, nights and weekends in 2020 as the top lawyer representing the energy giant in its $13 billion acquisition of Noble Energy, which was the largest oil and gas transaction during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her inspiration to give it her all came 37 years earlier, when she was working part-time at Arby’s and faced an angry Clear Lake High School track coach. “Today, when I think of giving 100%, I think of her.”
Q&A: Siva Barnwell Adams
Premium-Only Content:She likes a good story, as long as it’s a short one. She plays Texas “Hold ‘Em” on a regular basis. There’s a lot to know about Siva Barnwell Adams and her work, so The Lawbook’s Mark Curriden asked.
CenterPoint’s Dynamic Duo Karuturi & Ryan: Pro Bono is in their Bones
Monica Karuturi and Jason Ryan remember their first pro bono cases. Karuturi, now the GC at CenterPoint Energy, represented a middle-aged woman who had been violently assaulted by her long-time boyfriend. Ryan, now CenterPoint’s top regulatory and governmental affairs leader, handled a family law case involving a child-custody dispute. These were cases that deeply impacted them as lawyers. Both said their parents instilled in them a passion for community service and that they have not lost their commitment for helping those who are less fortunate and in need of legal services.
Last week, CenterPoint promoted both lawyers to executive VP of the $17.5 billion energy giant. Karuturi and Ryan are the recipients of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.