For Yuki Whitmire, it was the perfect storm, though at times it may have felt like the Bermuda Triangle. Last March, the securities and corporate transactional lawyer accepted a new job as Vistra Energy’s associate general counsel and corporate secretary with a start date in early April. In those few weeks in between, Covid-19 hit. But Whitmire, who has still never stepped inside her office at work, has done such an amazing job that she is the 2020 DFW Senior Counsel of the Year for a Mid-sized Legal Department. This is the story of her first year at Vistra.

Ashley Yen was in kindergarten when she drew a picture of herself in the future: a stick figure of herself in a suit and glasses holding a briefcase, “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” said Yen, who is associate in-house counsel and assistant vice president at Methodist Health System. She is one of the youngest and arguably the most important in-house counsel in North Texas in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of Yen, Methodist was one of the first hospitals in DFW to administer the vaccine.

American Airlines GC Priya Aiyar may be the smartest lawyer in corporate America. So say lawyers and executives who watched her in action during the pandemic. She clerked for Judge Merrick Garland and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. She’s been the GC of the U.S. Treasury and a chief legal advisor at the FCC. Every bit of those smarts were needed to address the plethora of legal issues American faced during the past year.

“Priya has no ceiling,” AA Executive VP Stephen Johnson said. “If she remains in the airline industry, the industry will experience a revolution in operations and Priya will be a key reason for that evolution. She is unlike any other lawyer who has ever worked in the airline industry.”

At 35, Ricky Torlincasi is one of the youngest GCs in the oil patch. He’s been on the job at Blackbeard Operating less than two years, but he’s already helped integrate three mergers, led the acquisitions of Anadarko Basin assets from BP and ConocoPhillips’ legacy Waddell Ranch, and the divestitures of assets in Oklahoma and South Texas. Then there’s the litigation he’s handled.

Torlincasi’s successes have him as a finalist for the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Rookie of the Year Award.

Imagine a law practice in which you serviced tens of thousands of real estate transactions annually and oversaw the litigation in thousands of cases a year. Welcome to the world of Fannie Mae Deputy GC Todd Barton and his team, who provide legal support for all properties in the U.S. that are acquired by Fannie Mae in foreclosure.

How does he do it? The answer rests in the fact that Barton is the recipient of the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Innovation. The Texas Lawbook has his story.

No corporate in-house counsel saw her or his world turned upside down any faster or more severely because of the Covid-19 pandemic than CEC Entertainment CLO Rudy Rodriguez. The 741 Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper restaurants in 47 states were shut down within days last March, thousands of workers were furloughed and then came bankruptcy.

The situation required extraordinary legal work, strong leadership and a tender heart. Rodriguez provided it. CEC survived and is poised to thrive. And Rodriguez, as a result, is a finalist for the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department. This is his story.