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.
Q&A: Dona Cornell
Premium-Only Content: Dona Cornell talks about her best day on the job and what she looks for in the next generation of lawyers.
University of Houston System GC Dona Cornell is a ‘Force and Trailblazer’
Dona Cornell took the GC job at the University of Houston System in 2002 because she thought it would be a slower pace. "I was so wrong," Cornell said. "It is more like being in trial all the time." Twenty years later, Cornell is still the chief legal officer for the university system, which has an annual budget of more than $1.8 billion, more than 10,000 employees and 77,000 students. She and her legal team confront groundbreaking issues, including the university’s invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, significant changes to higher education law including Title IX and how to handle classes during the pandemic.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook award the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Nonprofit/Public Institution to University of Houston System General Counsel Dona Hamilton Cornell.
Q&A: Andy Wright
Premium-Only Content: Andy Wright dishes on what he sees as the most important business issue facing corporate legal departments and what he looks for in hiring outside counsel.
Talen GC Andy Wright – ‘No Issue He Won’t Tackle’
No corporate general counsel in the history of the Texas power industry has been involved in more multibillion-dollar deals or guided companies through as many business-threatening crises as Andrew Wright. He played a lead role in 2007 when private equity bought energy giant TXU for $45 billion. He co-led Energy Future Holdings through the eighth largest bankruptcy in the U.S. and co-led the subsequent spin-offs of Vistra Energy and the $18.8 billion Oncor sale.
Wright is now the GC at Talen Energy, where he is once again handling groundbreaking deals, dealing with the litigation aftermath of Winter Storm Uri and helping navigate his company through significant energy market challenges. Wright is also the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipient for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Houston Transaction of the Year Finalists: Phillips 66 and GSFSGroup
The panel that judged the Transaction of the Year category stated that both legal teams are “highly deserving” of the award. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook will honor the four and more than a dozen other corporate in-house lawyers on May 19 at the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive details.
Q&A With Mark Shank, a Bare-Foot Skiing Employment Law Author
Mark Shank was a high school sophomore when he read a novel by Irving Wallace called The Seven Minutes, a legal thriller about a First Amendment trial over the banning of a book considered “the most obscene pornography ever written.” The lawyer in the book won an historic jury victory and convinced a teenaged Shank he should become a lawyer. Five decades later, Shank is the author of the 2022 edition of The Texas Litigator’s Guide to Departing Employee Cases. The Texas Lawbook interviewed Shank about his life, legal career and the behind-the-scenes making of his book.