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GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

Texas Mutual’s GC Retires After 26 Years as Workers’ Comp System’s Most Ardent Advocate

Mary Barrow Nichols retires Friday after 26 years as general counsel with a new startup building upon the wreckage in the mid-1990s of the Texas workers' comp system. The new startup? Texas Mutual Insurance Co. “You are now the person who cares more than anyone else about how the new Texas workers’ compensation law works,” her then-mentor, David Brown, told her as she left Vinson & Elkins. “It turns out," she says, "he has been right for 26 years.”

Mark Curriden

Exxon Mobil’s Tom Sikora: ‘The Master of International Arbitration’

Exxon Mobil senior counsel Tom Sikora has argued cases in scores of courts and tribunals in countries around the world. Sikora has led more than 50 international arbitrations with more than $80 billion at stake. He has tried cases against countries and national oil companies in more than 20 countries, including Argentina, Chile, Trinidad, Nigeria, Angola, Libya, Brazil, Canada, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

“There are few people in the world with the experience and skillset of Tom Sikora,” said Norton Rose Fulbright partner Kevin O’Gorman.

Sikora's first international law case was in 1980. He was just 15. His family's freedom was at stake.

Mark Curriden

Q&A: Tom Sikora, Exxon Mobil Senior Counsel

For Premium Subscribers: Exxon Mobil senior counsel Tom Sikora is considered one of the top international arbitration lawyers in the world. Sikora has led more than 50 international arbitrations with more than $80 billion at stake.Texas Lawbook founder Mark Curriden had the opportunity chat with Sikora about his remarkable career path and his outlook as a senior in house counsel at one of the largest corporations in the world.

Mark Curriden

NAESB Force Majeure Provisions After Winter Storm Uri: Key Considerations for Legal Departments

Last year saw a flurry of litigation in Texas state and federal courts arising from the February 2021 extreme cold weather event known as Winter Storm Uri and whether it constituted a force majeure event under the terms of natural gas contracts. With the one-year anniversary of Winter Storm Uri upon us, and with many of these cases still winding their way through the courts, prudent players within the natural gas supply chain should conduct a review of their natural gas contracts to prepare for future adverse weather events. There are key considerations legal departments in the natural gas sector must consider when reviewing their company’s NAESB contracts.

Kristin Leveille

Pizza Hut, Flowserve, Southwest Airlines, Crestline Investors, Crescent Real Estate Winners at DFW Corporate Counsel Awards

More than 150 fully vaccinated general counsel, senior in-house counsel and corporate lawyers gathered Thursday evening for the 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. Thirteen trophies were handed out for categories ranging from Business Litigation and M&A Deal of the Year to Rookie of the Year and Legal Innovation. Five of the categories had multiple finalists.

Mark Curriden

DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Ceremony – A Sneak Preview

This Thursday, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook host the 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. Nearly 70 in-house corporate counsel were nominated. Fifteen independent judges selected 17 finalists who did extraordinary legal work in 2021. They include lawyers from Toyota, Southwest Airlines, Tuesday Morning, Flowserve, Match Group, Crestline Investors and Pizza Hut.

Photo: The family of the late Clarence Brown, who will be honored at Thursday's ceremony.

Mark Curriden

Kathy McCoy: ‘A Visionary in the Ranks of Corporate Counsel’

Lawyers in the world of natural gas know Williams Companies Senior Counsel Kathryn McCoy, a former FERC lawyer who has led groundbreaking legal work developing a partnership involving LNG bunkering for ships in the U.S. She played a leading role in Southern Company’s sale of subsidiary Pivotal LNG to Dominion Energy, tackled legislation involving efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and handled major force majeure issues related to Winter Storm Uri. McCoy's knowledge of the energy industry is unparalleled and her value to her new employer, the Williams Companies, is immeasurable. She is the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

Mark Curriden

Two Final DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists/Winners

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announce the finalists for the last two 2021 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards categories: GC of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department. In-house counsel at Pizza Hut and City Electric Supply are the winners.

Mark Curriden

Siva Barnwell Adams Led Chevron Through Covid Gauntlet to Close Noble Deal

Chevron senior counsel Siva Barnwell Adams worked mornings, nights and weekends in 2020 as the top lawyer representing the energy giant in its $13 billion acquisition of Noble Energy, which was the largest oil and gas transaction during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her inspiration to give it her all came 37 years earlier, when she was working part-time at Arby's and faced an angry Clear Lake High School track coach. "Today, when I think of giving 100%, I think of her.”

Mark Curriden

Q&A: Siva Barnwell Adams

Premium-Only Content:She likes a good story, as long as it's a short one. She plays Texas "Hold 'Em" on a regular basis. There's a lot to know about Siva Barnwell Adams and her work, so The Lawbook's Mark Curriden asked.

Mark Curriden

CenterPoint’s Dynamic Duo Karuturi & Ryan: Pro Bono is in their Bones

Monica Karuturi and Jason Ryan remember their first pro bono cases. Karuturi, now the GC at CenterPoint Energy, represented a middle-aged woman who had been violently assaulted by her long-time boyfriend. Ryan, now CenterPoint's top regulatory and governmental affairs leader, handled a family law case involving a child-custody dispute. These were cases that deeply impacted them as lawyers. Both said their parents instilled in them a passion for community service and that they have not lost their commitment for helping those who are less fortunate and in need of legal services.

Last week, CenterPoint promoted both lawyers to executive VP of the $17.5 billion energy giant. Karuturi and Ryan are the recipients of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.

Mark Curriden

Southwest Airlines’ Chief Legal Officer Mark Shaw – A Lifetime of Achievements

Since Mark Shaw joined Southwest Airlines 22 years ago, he has faced some monumental challenges, including the repercussions from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; the 2008 financial crisis; the $1.4 billion acquisition of AirTran Airlines in 2010; litigation with the grounding of Boeing 737 Max planes in 2019; and the Covid pandemic, which led SWA to raise an extraordinary $18.5 billion in capital from multiple securities offerings of debt, equity and convertible notes, as well as loans and grants from the federal government. To be sure, Shaw is not close to being finished.

Even so, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that Shaw is the recipient of the 2021 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Mark Curriden

Q&A: Carolyn Benton Aiman

Premium-Only Content From being the first African American elected to be Queen Cardinal at Harlingen High School in 1980 to leading one of the most successful corporate diversity efforts at one of the world’s largest corporations to being named the new chief legal officer of Sempra Infrastructure earlier this year, Carolyn Benton Aiman has earned a global reputation for leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The Lawbook's Mark Curriden asked Aiman about the kinds of relationships she expects with outside counsel and what they might need to know about her.

Mark Curriden

Sempra CLO Carolyn Benton Aiman: ‘DEI Should Be in a Corporate Legal Department’s DNA’

[Diversity, equity and inclusion] "should be more than an initiative or a once-a-year conversation. This has to be part of the DNA, like safety in a corporation, like culture in any relationship,” said Sempra Infrastructure Carolyn Benton Aiman. “You must tend to it. Legal departments and law firm leadership should set an expectation, and leaders should be selected for their ability to develop people across all demographics. Leaders not only talk diversity, but their actions should match their words, including who they surround themselves with and with whom they work.”

The Association of Corporate Counsels Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook agree and have named Aiman as a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Mark Curriden

HP’s Hartz: ‘People Were Going to Jail. We Knew We had a Great Case’

For a decade, HP battled a Taiwanese-based CD-ROM maker in courts from Texas to California over allegations of price fixing. HP senior counsel Brad Hartz and his team worked several thousand hours on objections, motions to dismiss, depositions and intense fights over discovery. HP's outside counsel, Beck Redden, worked another 5,000 hours. It all paid off on June 5, 2020, when a federal appeals court handed Hartz and Beck Redden a $438 million victory. This is the behind the scenes story of one of the biggest judgments upheld by the Fifth Circuit in a decade and the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Photo (credit Dylan Aguilar): Brad Hartz (center right) with attorneys from Beck Redden

Mark Curriden

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