GCs from Apache, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, CenterPoint, LyondellBasell and 18 other Houston area businesses have been selected as finalists for the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
The Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook announced Monday the 23 finalists – Buc-ee’s deputy general counsel is one of them – for the awards, which recognize the successes and legal acumen of corporate in-house counsel.
The finalists will be honored – and the winners announced – at the awards event Thursday, April 25, at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Houston.
ACC Houston and The Lawbook plan to use the annual awards ceremony to celebrate the careers of two highly respected corporate counsel and elder statesmen in the Houston legal community: Total E&P USA Associate General Counsel David Houck and recently retired Plains All American Pipeline GC Lawrence Dreyfuss.
Both Houck and Dreyfuss are legendary in-house lawyers and will be honored with the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award.
ACC Houston and The Texas Lawbook received more than 90 nominations. An all-star panel of independent judges – including retired Exxon Mobil GC Jack Balagia, AIG Associate GC Russ Dempsey, Quantlab Chief Legal Officer Tim McInturf, Gulf States Toyota Chief Legal Counsel Scott Cordes, Total GC Elizabeth Matthews and Talen Energy GC Andrew Wright, to name a few – reviewed and evaluated the submissions and determined the finalists.
During the next month, The Texas Lawbook will publish in-depth feature articles profiling each of the finalists and the legal work behind their nominations.
Our judicial panels were tougher on submissions than the Texas Supreme Court. In some categories, the judges selected two or three finalists. In others, however, they chose only one, feeling that a single nomination was the clear-cut winner.
The submissions that were most successful, according to the judges, were those that provided the most information and the most detail.
There are three categories – Creative Partnership Award, Business Litigation of the Year and M&A Transaction of the Year – that honor both the in-house corporate legal departments and the outside law firms that helped them achieve success.
Here are the finalists:
Creative Partnership Award: Carriage Services Legal Counsel Mike Elliott and Shook Hardy Bacon partnership is the sole finalist.
Public Service/Pro Bono of the Year: U.S. Zinc Corp. GC Richard Rosenberg is the sole finalist.
Diversity of the Year: Belinda Senneway and Matthew Coward of Shell Oil are the sole finalists.
Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department: Amber Shushan of PetroChina is the sole finalist.
Senior Counsel of the Year for a Mid-sized Legal Department: (a) Blaine Edwards of Superior Energy Services and (b) Elizabeth Hawkins of Targa Resources.
Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department: (a) Andrew Gratz of LyondellBasell and (b) Shannon Kinney of ConocoPhillips.
Rookie of the Year: (a) Amelia Xu of Tidewater Inc. and (b)Kraton Corporation Assc. GC Jennie Howard.
General Counsel of the Year for Small Legal Department: (a) UniversalPegasus Int’l Chief Counsel Fermeen Fazal; (b) Keane Group GC Kevin McDonald; and (c) Peak Completion Technologies GC Timothy W. Johnson.
General Counsel of the Year for a Mid-sized Legal Department: (a) Precision Drilling General Counsel Veronica Foley and (b) Kraton Corporation GC James “Jay” Simmons.
General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department: Halliburton GC Robb Voyles is the sole finalist.
Business Litigation of the Year: (a) Shell Oil Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Feeney and Thompson & Knight partner Robert Paddock; (b) Buc-ees Deputy GC H. Tracy Richardson III; and (c) Baker Hughes Legal Counsel Anthony Matheny and Bracewell Partner Richard Whiteley.
M&A Transaction of the Year: (a) Apache Corporation General Counsel Anthony Lannie, Assistant GCs Patrick Whitman and Michael Myers and Bracewell partner Alan Rafte; (b) BMC Software General Counsel Patrick Tagtow and outside counsel Kirkland & Ellis; and (3) CenterPoint Energy Associate GC Monica Karuturi, Akin Gump partner Robert Shearer and Baker Botts partner Timothy Taylor.
The Texas Lawbook is in the process of interviewing all of the finalists and will publish articles about each one.
Publisher’s Note: To become a sponsor or purchase a table for the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, please contact Texas Lawbook publisher Brooks Igo at brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net or 214.384.4080. The event is Thursday, April 25, at the Four Seasons Hotel.
ACC Houston & The Texas Lawbook would like to thank the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Presenting Sponsors:
