Cale Curtin’s plan was to be a landman, but Chesapeake wasn’t hiring. So, he went to law school. Now, instead of negotiating with individual property owners to acquire mineral rights, Curtin is negotiating billion-dollar credit deals to acquire competitors. As such, Curtin has been recognized as a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for Rookie of the Year.
Whiskey by the Campfire with ECI Software’s Brennan Champion
Brennan Champion is assistant general counsel for ECI Software Solutions Inc., a provider of cloud-based business management software serving small and medium-sized enterprises. As one of two full-time lawyers at the Westlake company, he oversees a wide array of litigation and transactional matters across North America. He is praised for his can-do mentality and exceptional legal skills that often surpass those of more experienced lawyers. He has established himself as a trusted advisor within ECI, adeptly balancing legal risks while providing practical, business-focused legal advice across the company’s diverse global operations. For these attributes and others, Champion has been recognized as a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for Rookie of the Year.
Texas Capital Assoc. GC Ashley Ahn’s ‘Truly Inspirational Story’: ‘We Were Boat People and Refugees’
For six weeks in 1981, three-year-old Ashley Nguyen Ahn was stranded in a small boat in the middle of the ocean with her family in an effort to flee certain execution by the Viet Cong. They ran out of food and then water. She witnessed her eight-year-old neighbor die of starvation and dehydration first. Her uncle died next and then her father, whose body she watched being pushed overboard. Ahn experienced more trauma, death and desperation as a toddler than the rest of us face in a lifetime. And she remembers it all. “All of these early events made me who I am today,” she told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview. Ahn is now the associate general counsel at Texas Capital, where she and her team spent the last three years rebuilding and transforming Texas Capital into a premier financial services firm in the state. And she is a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Taxwell’s Willa Kalaidjian and Nicola Hobeiche are ‘Renaissance Women’ Achieving Extraordinary Success Under Great Pressures
Days after becoming the new Drake Software GC in 2022, Willa Kalaidjian learned Cinven was buying Dallas-based digital tax filing platform TaxAct for $720 million. Kalaidjian’s assignment: Help develop a new name for the combined businesses and lead the integration. Enter TaxAct senior counsel Nicola Hobeiche, who joined the new company via the merger. The duo immediately started the lengthy process integrating legal, compliance, procurement and legislative affairs. But they also had to simultaneously address a potentially devastating threat to the company: a series of class-action lawsuits filed in California, Illinois and Pennsylvania and separate charges brought by multiple state attorneys general related to the allegations of improper use of personal and financial information by a third-party vendor for TaxAct. Citing the extraordinary achievements of the legal department of five, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Taxwell as one of two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Corporate Legal Department of the Year.
Workrise Associate GC Kelsey Williams Revolutionized Company’s Legal Strategy and Collections
Kelsey Williams almost didn’t become a lawyer. She bucked her parents’ efforts to persuade her to follow in her father’s footsteps. But it was in a specific moment during her undergraduate literature studies that she realized she may be a natural fit for the legal profession. Today, her peers say she has a “signature brand of meticulous and thoughtful legal work” that has transformed Workrise’s profitability and stability. And she is a finalist for the 2024 DFW Senior Counsel of the Year Award.
From Blockbuster to a Billion-Dollar Deal: Bryan Stevenson’s Journey to Arcosa
Bryan Stevenson’s career has been marked by bold moves and transformative moments, culminating in his role as chief legal officer at Arcosa, where his strategic vision helped orchestrate the largest deal in the company’s history, earning him recognition as a finalist for the 2024 DFW M&A Deal of the Year Award.
Steffen Horlacher — American Airlines’ Lawyer for ‘Head-hurting, Complicated Commercial Matters’
Steffen Horlacher has been instrumental at American Airlines during his 26-year career, helping the airline navigate significant challenges like 9/11, the 2011 bankruptcy, the merger with US Airways and the pandemic. He has managed various business initiatives and partnerships that support daily operations.
Recently, Horlacher led negotiations with motorcoach carrier Landline, making American the first airline to offer service in all 50 states. He also advised on a new alliance with Alaska Airlines that created international routes from Seattle and Los Angeles.
In recognition of his contributions, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named him the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year for Large Legal Departments. This is his story.
Texas Capital Bank GC Anna Alvarado ‘Knows What Hard Work Really Is’
Anna Alvarado has an extraordinary life story. And she has experienced extraordinary success. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Alvarado grew up in government-subsidized housing at a work camp in Central California, picking grapes and selling cassette tapes. Neither of her parents spoke English. Her dad was an addict and felon who served prison time.
“Had it not been for all of those things and having to deal with all of those things, I would not be sitting here today,” Alvarado said in a 2022 interview. Today, she is a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
P.S. — SPCA and Jones Day: 2024 DFW Creative Partnership of the Year
Jones Day construction litigation partner Joseph Van Asten, the dad to two rescue dogs, was looking for a pro bono project earlier this year. Chris Luna, former T-Mobile chief counsel-turned-CEO of SPCA needed a large corporate law firm with experience in several different practice areas. The result: The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring SPCA’s Luna and Jones Day with the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Creative Partnership. During the past year, Jones Day has had 10 different lawyers work more than 200 pro bono hours on seven different matters for the SPCA, including drafting and negotiating construction agreements for the SPCA expansion project, providing advice on SPCA’s corporate bylaws and corporate governance issues and advising the nonprofit on its trademark portfolio. This is how the partnership came together.
Keurig Dr Pepper, Taxwell Finalists for 2024 DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have created a new award category for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year honor recognizes in-house working as a team to achieve extraordinary success. This year, two corporate legal departments stood out from all the rest.
“We’ve honored GCs of the Year, Senior Counsels of the Year, Business Litigation and M&A Deal of the Year, but we realized that there are situations where corporate legal departments may have major initiatives on multiple fronts or facing a significant crisis while also dealing with major transitions within their companies,” said Texas Lawbook publisher Brooks Igo. “We needed an award that looked at the bigger picture by examining all the different challenges.”
Legal Hiring Trends: A Look Ahead to 2025
Russell Newhouse, founding principal of legal search firm Newhouse + Noblin, shares insights into which sectors and industries corporate legal departments are focusing post-election and heading into the new year.
DFW Business Litigation, M&A Deal and Creative Partnership of the Year Announced
The corporate legal departments at Arcosa, Helmerich & Payne, Jacobs Solutions, SPCA of Texas and Texas Pacific Land and their outside law firms are finalists in three key categories at the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced the finalists for the 2024 DFW awards for Business Litigation of the Year, M&A Deal of the Year and Creative Partnership. These three awards are unique because they celebrate the in-house corporate legal departments and their outside lawyers.
2024 DFW Senior Counsel, Rookie of the Year Finalists Unveiled
Corporate in-house lawyers at American Airlines, Texas Capital Bank and Workrise are on the short list for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Awards for Senior Counsel of the Year. And attorneys from ECI Software Solutions and Matador Resources are the finalists for DFW Rookie of the Year.
ACC-DFW and Texas Lawbook Select DFW GCs of the Year
The general counsel at Toyota North America, Sandra Phillips, and the GC at the North Texas Tollway Authority, Dena Stroh, have been selected by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook to receive the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department and a Governmental/Nonprofit Legal Department respectively.
In addition, ACC-DFW and The Lawbook have named Texas Capital GC Anna Alvarado and FirstService Residential GC LaToyia Pierce Frink as the two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for GC of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Caris Life Sciences GC Russ Denton and Momentum GC Robin Everly as finalists for GC of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
ACC-DFW & Texas Lawbook Name Lifetime Achievers: Bridgett Zeterberg, Marita Covarrubias, Derek Lipscombe
Bridgett Zeterberg has been a GC for nearly three decades guiding companies such as Total Wine, Tuesday Morning and now Torrid Holdings “through periods of significant transformation.” For more than 25 years, Marita Covarrubias has been an in-house lawyer and leader at Tenet Healthcare “managing some of the largest employment and general business litigation matters throughout the country.” Derek Lipscombe has been an in-house lawyer focused on labor and employment litigation for 20 years at AAA Texas, JC Penney and Toyota North America.
Zeterberg, Covarrubias and Lipscombe have a new common attribute: the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring them with the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Texas GC Forum Honors Corporate Legal Leaders of 2024
The Texas General Counsel Forum held its annual Magna Stella Awards dinner in San Antonio Thursday night recognizing nine chief legal officers and senior in-house counsel for their extraordinary achievements and leadership successes. The GC Forum provided The Texas Lawbook exclusive access to its annual meeting and the awards ceremony. More than 350 lawyers from corporate legal departments and law firms attended the event. The recipients included lawyers from Air Liquide, LyondellBasell, PlayPower, Schwab, Sumitomo, Texas Children’s Hospital and XRI Holdings.
Correction: David Starr’s name was mistakenly printed Carr in several references. The Lawbook apologizes for the error.
The NEW Roundtable Turns 10 — A Decade of Making a Difference
Jacobs Deputy GC Chasity Henry founded the NEW Roundtable, a nonprofit that brings together in-house and outside counsel with the mission of promoting the advancement of African American women lawyers. NEW stands for Network of Empowered Women. The organization is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week with a gala. The NEW Roundtable started with Henry and about two dozen other Black women lawyers and has grown to nearly 100 members, including Black women who are in-house counsel, lawyers at law firms or in government service or in academia.
“This broad base enables us to drive impactful connections and career development across various sectors of the legal profession,” Henry said in an interview with The Texas Lawbook. “Our members’ professional achievements across the legal spectrum demonstrate that The NEW Roundtable is not just creating opportunities — it is transforming the legal landscape for Black women attorneys. Through community, mentorship, and strategic alliances, we are reshaping what is possible in the legal profession.”
The Lawbook recently interviewed Henry about the 10th anniversary of the NEW Roundtable, the successes and challenges of the organization and the legal profession regarding diversity and inclusion.
Sonida Selects a New GC: Tabitha Bailey
Dallas-based Sonida Senior Living Corporation has hired former Avantax General Counsel Tabitha Bailey as its new chief legal officer starting Jan. 1.
Apache Names David Bernal New VP of Legal
Bernal succeeds long-time general counsel Anthony Lannie, who retired.
Pedernales Electric Coop Names New GC
A long-time energy industry lawyer with extensive experience practicing before the Texas Public Utility Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been named the new general counsel at Johnson City-based Pedernales Electric Cooperative.
Match Names former Twitter GC as CLO
Dallas-based Match Group has named former Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett as its new chief legal officer replacing Jared Sine, who resigned earlier this year to become CLO at GoDaddy.