Southwest Airlines attorney Jason Shyung remembers his first trial. He met his client – the owner of a small Sherman construction company being wrongly sued by an employee – only two weeks prior to trial. “He could have lost everything,” Shyung said. But Shyung and another young lawyer prevailed in federal court. Six years later, Southwest Airlines called on Shyung in its own potentially devastating crisis, and the young lawyer again prevailed. This is his story.
Meredith Bjorck and Her ‘Super Powers’
Meredith Bjorck had a seat at the executive table at HMS for five years and she made the most of it. She resolved all significant existing litigation within the first two years. The company’s revenue increased more than 30%, net income climbed more than 300% and the company’s stock price climbed more than 200%. Last winter, in the middle of Covid, Bjork led the deal team in the $3.4 billion sale of HMS. But what a five years it was.
From Hippies and Shetland Ponies to Fritos and Class Action Wins – PepsiCo’s Leanne Oliver’s Lifetime of Achievement
From developing and implementing a cutting-edge medical leave policy and creating a groundbreaking management training program on sexual harassment to winning major class action lawsuits and leading strategic corporate acquisitions, PepsiCo Foods North America GC Leanne Oliver has spent the past 25 years having an enormous impact on the company’s 300,000 workers and the Texas legal community.
“Leanne has brought enormous value to the company and to the entire legal profession,” said former PepsiCo GC Larry Thompson. “No one really knows PepsiCo as well as Leanne.”
Arash Mostafavipour, New CLO at Tabani Group
The commercial real estate-focused Tabani Group has hired a new chief legal officer – former Capital One financial services division chief counsel Arash Mostafavipour. “I love deal-making and they are always doing deals and looking at new deals,” Mostafavipour said. “It is a fast-moving and acquisitive operation.”
Q&A: Jim Phillips
Premium ContentThe Lawbook founder Mark Curriden discussed with PMG legal counsel Jim Phillips about his remarkable first years in-house at PMG International and what he looks for when hiring outside counsel.
Jim Phillips Helps Keep PMG “Growing and Successful” in the Covid Era
Less than two years ago, Fort Worth-based PMG hired Jim Phillips to create and build its legal department from scratch. He now supports all agency business units, which signs more than 200 media and real estate contracts a month. At age 34, Phillips regularly finds himself across the proverbial table from lawyers at Google, Apple and Facebook negotiating digital ad contracts in one of the fast-evolving business models in the economy. And he established procedures to ensure compliance with data privacy and FTC regulations – all during “an extraordinarily challenging year.”
CEC’s David Deck Already Had a Full Plate, then Came Covid-19 and Chapter 11
David Deck’s list of job responsibilities as vice president of legal and compliance at CEC Entertainment was pretty extensive pre-Covid-19. He supervised the litigation docket, oversaw labor and employment issues, handled franchising, contracts with suppliers, intellectual property and compliance issues for Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurants. When the pandemic hit, Deck put together a database that tracks the latest federal, state and local regulations and health standards for the jurisdictions of CEC’s 741 restaurants. – a massive project that he undertook without being asked.”[David] lives, bleeds and breathes for this company,” said CEC GC Rudy Rodriguez.
Q&A: David Deck
Texas Lawbook: What are the biggest challenges facing small corporate legal departments today? David Deck: I would have to say it’s the ever changing statutory and regulatory landscape. For a
Q&A: Elizabeth Ramirez-Washka
Lawbook Founder Mark Curriden discusses with Elizabeth Ramirez-Washka, associate GC of the Boy Scouts of America what she sees as her most formative personal experiences, as well as the criteria she looks for in evaluating outside counsel.
Elizabeth Ramirez-Washka: Fostering DEI Values at the Boy Scouts
Elizabeth Ramirez was 11 when her grandmother suffered a serious slip-and-fall injury while working as a custodian. Her grandmother spoke no English. No lawyer would take her case because they didn’t speak Spanish and couldn’t understand what happened. “I knew at that moment that I wanted to be an attorney so I could help others,” Ramirez-Washka said. Four decades later, she is the associate GC with the Boys Scouts of America and making a huge difference.