Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas AG Ken Paxton have no legal authority to order state child-abuse investigators to act against parents and doctors who participate in medical and mental-health actions involving transgendered minors, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. The state’s highest court, in a fractured opinion mostly confined to procedure, upheld a lower court injunction stopping the state’s child welfare agency investigation into the specific case being challenged, but adding that lower courts exceeded their authority by making the injunction statewide.
Q&A: Ashley Hill
Premium-Only Content: Ashley Hill reveals her pet peeves regrading outside counsel and makes a case for being hopeful about the future of diversity in the legal profession.
For BHP’s Ashley Hill, ‘DEI is Organic, Has Never Met a Stranger’
BHP asked its senior in-house counsel Ashley Hill to help lead the global energy and minerals giant’s efforts to diversify its ranks in two historically male-dominated industries: mining and oil and gas. The evidence five years later shows it could not have made a better selection. As BHP’s top employment lawyer in the Americas, Hill was part of a thorough review of the company’s recruiting, hiring, compensation and retention practices. She was instrumental in implementing a gender pay gap review that resulted in an increase in female salaries of more than $4 million.
Citing these significant successes, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Hill as one of the two finalists for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
Talen Energy Picks Weil Gotshal to Lead Bankruptcy and Restructuring
Houston-based Talen Energy filed the largest Texas corporate bankruptcy case of 2022 late Tuesday citing more than $3 billion in debt. A plethora of large law firms – Akin Gump, Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Davis Polk, V&E and King & Spalding – are involved, but Talen GC Andrew Wright chose Weil Gotshal as lead debtor’s counsel.
Q&A: Diane Greene
Premium-Only Content: Diane Greene describes her most life impacting experience and identifies what she looks for in hiring outside counsel.
Diane Greene & GSFSGroup Legal Team: ‘No Stopping Until There’s a Solution’
Diane Greene and her legal team at GSFSGroup faced a monumental task: Develop and complete a transformational partnership agreement regarding vehicle product services that required the approval of 23 state regulatory authorities and 15 consumer finance lenders — all in less than three months. And that was before the other side’s GC left in the middle of the deal.
The agreement, the largest and most important in the history of GSFSGroup, added $165 million to its revenue stream and grew its product volume 28 percent. Greene and her team are finalists for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Transaction of the Year.
Q&A: Bo Shi
Premium-Only Content: Bo Shi shares insights for outside counsel and empathizes with those 5 p.m. Friday requests.
Rookie Crescent Energy GC Bo Shi is ‘Premier Example of Immediate Value’
Bo Shi had a crazy 2021. He started the year as a lawyer at Vinson & Elkins representing trading platform TradeZero Holding in a $556 million SPAC merger. Independence Energy hired Shi as GC in October where he spent three intense months in the company’s $5.7 billion M&A deal with Contango Oil & Gas.
Nine weeks later, the transaction closed, a publicly traded company called Crescent Energy was created and Shi was named its GC. But there were no holiday breaks. Instead, he handled a $200 million securities offering and engineered an $815 million acquisition. The result: Shi is a finalist for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year.
Q&A: Travis Torrence
Premium-Only Content: Travis Torrence discusses his career mentors, what he looks for in hiring outside counsel and how law firms can improve retaining diverse talent.
Shell’s Travis Torrence ‘Brings His Authentic Self to the Table’
Travis Torrence was in high school when his aunt, a school teacher-turned-political activist, sued her local government under the Voting Rights Act challenging the “at-large” election system. “She won,” Torrence said. “That was the first time I noticed the law being used to effectuate societal change — change that for that community was historic. I remember thinking that the law was the key to justice, fairness, equity and equality.”
Torrence, the great-great grandson of a slave who is now the leader of Shell USA’s global litigation bankruptcy and credit team, fearlessly tackles diversity, equity and inclusion. He is a pioneer on issues of the diversity pipeline and programs that support the LGBTQ community. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named Torrence as one of two finalists for the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.