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GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

Lee Cusenbary’s ‘Career Shows How Much One Person Can Do to Make a Difference in a Community’

Lee Cusenbary is a legend in the Texas business and legal communities. His name and reputation will forever be connected to elevating ethics — so much so that the Association of Corporate Counsel San Antonio Chapter named its highest honor after him. During 17 years as the GC at Mission Pharmacal, Cusenbary successfully led the San Antonio company through several complex multidistrict litigation cases, highly-technical patent infringement disputes, and guided it through numerous acquisitions and divestitures.

"Lee has left a lasting mark on the in-house counsel community, the San Antonio legal profession and the broader public," said Dykema member Jeffrey Gifford. "Lee made his career about being more than an excellent corporate counsel. He also made it about building a culture of ethics and of giving back.”

ACC San Antonio and The Texas Lawbook are awarding Cusenbary the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Mark Curriden

UTSA, USAA, BioBridge, VSP Vision — More San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award Recipients Announced

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have announced the recipients of the inaugural 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Awards for Lifetime Achievement, Business Litigation of the Year, M&A Transaction of the Year and Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.Two prominent and long-time San Antonio corporate legal leaders — retired Mission Pharmacal General Counsel Lee Cusenbary and BioBridge Global GC Richey Wyatt — have been selected to receive the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Mark Curriden

New GE Vernova GC of Wind Energy Dionne Hamilton: ‘We’re Working to Make the World a Better Place’

Dionne Hamilton was not looking to leave Honeywell Smart Energy where she has served as general counsel for the past five years. The Houston corporate legal veteran had rejected several recruiting efforts over the years. But GE Vernova presented a vision of the company’s vision that Hamilton found enticing. “They are leading a new era of energy — electrifying the world while simultaneously working to decarbonize it,” Hamilton, who is in her second week as GE Vernova’s GC, told The Texas Lawbook.

Mark Curriden

How Candidates and Employers Can Avoid AI Pitfalls in the Hiring Process

Artificial intelligence has quickly worked its way into every corner of the hiring process, from resumes to job descriptions. In theory, that should make life easier for both candidates and employers. But when used as a crutch, it produces documents that are inaccurate, inflated or so vague that they mislead both sides of the hiring table. My diagnosis: Too much AI, not enough human oversight.

Stacy Humphries

Daria Russell Has Helped Mattress Firm Navigate a Decade of Highs and Lows

Daria Russell has experienced a lot since she joined the legal team at Houston-based Mattress Firm in 2015 — more than a dozen M&A transactions, including a 2016 $3.8 billion merger, a crippling accounting scandal involving the company’s former corporate parent, a subsequent 2018 multibillion-dollar corporate bankruptcy and then a $5 billion merger with Tempur Sealy that closed earlier this year. In May, Mattress Firm rewarded Russell for her decade of extraordinary legal work by promoting her to general counsel, overseeing five in-house lawyers, two health and safety professionals and seven loss-prevention contractors. Russell, like most corporate chief legal officers, is dealing with issues ranging from artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights and data privacy issues to ESG compliance and everything digital.

Mark Curriden

Keurig Dr Pepper Legal’s ‘Visionary Leadership’ and ‘Transformational Influence’

Anthony Shoemaker tracks his success as a lawyer and a leader back to his high school days when he worked at a local golf club repair shop in the Houston suburbs. He learned a lot and has implemented those life lessons in his three years as the chief legal officer at Keurig Dr Pepper. The results have been extraordinary successes for Shoemaker, for the corporate legal department he leads and for the beverage giant, which is why the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook honored Keurig Dr Pepper with the DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year in January at the DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. 

This morning, KDP agreed to acquire JDE Peet’s for $18.4 billion. We are resharing The Lawbook's profile of Shoemaker and KDP's in-house team from earlier this year.

Mark Curriden

What In-House Lawyers Can Learn from Gerri Kellman of HBO’s Succession

Amid the boardroom battles and backroom scheming of HBO’s Succession, the character Gerri Kellman — general counsel of media empire Waystar Royco — delivers one of the most compelling portrayals of in-house legal work in recent years. Unlike the show’s headline-grabbing characters, Gerri operates in whispers and carefully chosen words. For general counsel and in-house attorneys, she offers a unique case study in navigating gray areas — a study that reveals how complex, high-stakes corporate law is navigated not just by rules but by relationships, judgment and discretion.

Brent Turman

JSX GC Kerrie Forbes: ‘Law and Aviation in My Blood’

Kerrie Forbes stood behind a huge red ribbon on the tarmac at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport with a 30-seat JSX jet behind her. It was 11 a.m. on April 28, the grand opening of JSX’s new Southern California airport terminal, which Forbes describes as her best day on the job since she joined JSX as chief legal officer in January 2024. Orange County was the 2016 birthplace of JSX — a now Dallas-headquartered public charter jet operator offering business-class service to more than 350,000 passengers last year — and the site of its rebirth of sorts nine years later. Legal industry experts say that Forbes, who was an in-house lawyer at Southwest Airlines for 16 years, was the perfect lawyer to be JSX’s first general counsel. She recently discussed her career and more in an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook.

Mark Curriden

Brink’s Recruits New CLO from 7-Eleven

Kristen Cook, a 15-year lawyer with 7-Eleven who most recently served as chief of staff to the CEO, is joining the Dallas-headquartered global cash and valuables management company as chief legal officer, executive vice president, and corporate secretary. Cook discussed her 7-Eleven tenure and move to Brink’s with The Lawbook.

Brooks Igo

Marita and Derek — A Shared Journey of Extraordinary Success and Partnership

Marita Covarrubias is a high-ranking Dallas lawyer at Tenet Healthcare who shares a name with a secret agent on The X-Files. Derek Lipscombe was a former Houston Astros bat boy turned award-winning newspaper reporter who is managing counsel for Toyota North America. Both lawyers of color, Covarrubias and Lipscombe have represented their multibillion-dollar corporations in bet-the-company litigation matters — from class-action lawsuits involving cybersecurity and data breaches to massive antitrust challenges — in courtrooms across the country, and both have become critical advisors to the top executives and board members at Tenet and Toyota. Earlier this year, Covarrubias and Lipscombe became the first husband-wife duo to receive the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement. “Marita and Derek exemplify what it means to dedicate a lifetime of excellence, integrity and the betterment of the legal profession and the North Texas business community,” said Association of Corporate Counsel DFW Chapter President Alvin Benton, who is senior counsel for corporate compliance at Capital One in Dallas.

Mark Curriden

Premium Subscriber Q&A: Marita Covarrubias and Derek Lipscombe

In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Tenet's Marita Covarrubias and Toyota North America's Derek Lipscombe discuss the traits they seek in outside counsel, what outside counsel needs to know when working with them, how their jobs have changed over three decades and being parents to an amazing son with special needs.

Mark Curriden

‘Going to Do What’s Right:’ ACC San Antonio Ethics Award Winner Christine Reinhard on a Career Defined by Integrity 

Christine E. Reinhard, co-founder of San Antonio-based labor and employment law firm Schmoyer Reinhard, was honored with the ACC San Antonio Lee Cusenbary Ethical Life and Leadership Award in the private lawyer category. Launching her firm during the Great Recession, Reinhard prioritized integrity, transparency and client service – values rooted in her upbringing and reinforced by her law partner, Shannon Schmoyer. Today, their firm is believed to be the largest women-owned law firm in San Antonio and a leader in ethical legal practice.

Krista Torralva

ACC San Antonio Ethics Award Winner Vincent R. Johnson Reflects on Legal Reform from Watergate to Today

Vincent R. Johnson was an aspiring lawyer when the Watergate scandal was unfolding. Disciplinary proceedings were brought against more than 20 lawyers for misconduct including obstruction of justice and violation of campaign laws, and “it was embarrassing to be a lawyer at that point in time,” Johnson said. But there was no doubt in Johnson’s mind that he wanted to be an attorney. As the ethics professor retires from St. Mary’s University School of Law this year, the Association of Corporate Counsel San Antonio chapter has honored him with its prestigious Lee Cusenbary Ethical Life and Leadership Award. Pictured: Johnson with Lauren Valkenaar at the St. Mary's Alumni Luncheon in June.

Krista Torralva

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