The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

Brett Barnes Helps Build Presidio into a Publicly Traded Powerhouse

Brett Barnes is a landman.

His title is general counsel for Presidio Production, a Fort Worth upstream oil & gas company. But Barnes is a landman. Maybe not in the sense of the popular Paramount streamer — "I've never been kidnapped by a cartel," he notes — but a landman, nonetheless.

For the last eight years, he's been GC at Presidio Petroleum, a company that acquires mature, producing oil and gas properties in a market that is hitting a newfound stride. The company is on the cusp of going public thanks to a deSPAC merger announced late last year.

The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook have named him 2025 GC of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.

Allen Pusey & Mark Curriden

PepsiCo Foods GC Adrienne Mosley’s ‘Remarkable Journey’

PepsiCo Foods Deputy General Counsel Adrienne Mosley entered 2025 with a dizzying number of projects on her agenda.

Mosley started the year by leading the company’s $1.2 billion acquisition of the Mexican-American foods company Siete Foods. She guided the legal components of the rebranding and reformation of PepsiCo’s Lay’s and Tostitos brands. She played a leading role in the transformation of the company's North America legal department in the wake of the company combining its North America food and beverage operations. And she supported the overhaul of the law department’s adoption of digital technologies and process optimization. In March, corporate executives promoted Mosley to general counsel of PepsiCo Foods. 

“Adrienne stepped into the GC role amid a perfect storm — a major restructure of both the law department and the business, a new executive team and a challenging business environment,” said Phillips Murrah director Leanne Oliver, who is the former PepsiCo Foods GC. “Adrienne provided the calm during the storm.”

Mark Curriden

Energy Transfer’s Sam Hardy Reflects on ‘Verdict of A Lifetime’

Energy Transfer Partners faced months of protests that delayed the Dakota Access Pipeline, prompting a defamation suit against Greenpeace and allied groups over allegedly false statements that fueled sometimes‑violent demonstrations.

Sam Hardy became deputy general counsel in 2022, inheriting the case and hiring Gibson Dunn’s Trey and Collin Cox and former Judge Gregg Costa, valuing their deep trial experience and alignment with Energy Transfer’s aggressive, trial‑ready culture. By 2025, the company sought $350 million; a North Dakota jury instead awarded $667 million, including $400 million in punitive damages.

Hardy’s team also won a complete defense win in a $150 million fraud and contract case against Goldman Sachs and secured a $15 million settlement of a securities class action once valued above $2.1 billion, earning Hardy the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook’s recognition as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Michelle Casady & Mark Curriden

Look Closer, Think Bigger: The M&A Mindset of Celanese’s Adam Shulman

Adam Shulman lives by two lessons from his father: anything becomes interesting when examined closely, and mastery begins with the willingness to be terrible.

As vice president of corporate global strategy and development at Dallas-based Celanese, Shulman applies both principles daily. Celanese is a global leader in producing specialized chemicals and engineered materials essential to countless industries, from cellulose acetate used in glasses and packaging to high-performance polymers found in solar panels and orthopedic implants.

This appreciation for complexity and disciplined curiosity helped earn Shulman recognition from The Texas Lawbook and the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel as a finalist for the 2025 M&A Transaction of the Year.

Allen Pusey & Mark Curriden

For Jacobs Deputy GC Sarah Wariner, the Best Legal Advice Comes from Diverse Voices

Known for her collaborative leadership and strategic judgment, Sarah Wariner, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Jacobs, has built high-performing teams by prioritizing diverse perspectives, mentorship and business-focused legal strategy. Her commitment to diversity and inclusion amid a shifting legal landscape has earned her recognition from the ACC DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.  

Krista Torralva & Mark Curriden

Daughter of Immigrants, 7-Eleven Corporate Counsel Nayelly Dominguez Builds Pathways, Not Just Programs

From a first-generation student to a corporate lawyer with a national platform, Nayelly Dominguez has spent her career expanding access and mentorship to attorneys from underrepresented communities. For her work across in-house legal departments and bar associations, she is one of two lawyers receiving the award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion from the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.

Krista Torralva & Mark Curriden

Dropbox Senior Counsel Victoria Nwankwo ‘Solves Problems Before They Become Serious’

Victoria Nwankwo was a freshman at Oklahoma City University when her father died unexpectedly. She calls it a defining moment.

"That experience forged my resilience and shifted my perspective on what constitutes a 'crisis.' I tend to remain calm under professional pressure because I've navigated significant personal adversity,” she said. Two decades later, those hard-learned life experiences have made Nwankwo one of the most creative and successful corporate employment lawyers in North Texas. As senior managing counsel at the cloud storage company Dropbox, Nwankwo last year she guided the company with a $7 billion market cap through a painful global restructuring and downsizing of 20 percent of its global workforce while also leading the business through rapidly evolving political and regulatory landscapes.

Now, she is a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards.

Mark Curriden

Senior Counsel Jane Ann Neiswender Helps Michaels Defend IP and Navigate Tariffs

For the past three years, Jane Ann Neiswender has been the deputy general counsel at Irving-based Michaels Stores, where she has helped guide the national specialty craft store chain through a digital transformation, helped purchase intellectual property of failed retail competitors and guided the business through significant supply chain issues related to recent tariffs placed on other countries.

“It is no secret that the retail industry has faced unchartered waters over the past 18 months, including consumer concern over the economy, an increasingly complex regulatory environment and new challenges stemming from tariffs,” she told The Texas Lawbook. “As a department, we work closely with the business to navigate these issues in a way that is compliant and provides our customers with the goods and value that they expect.”

Citing her extraordinary work and achievements during the past 18 months, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook have named Neiswender as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 20 attorneys).

Mark Curriden

‘What Could Be Better?’: The Scratch-Golfer PGA Deputy GC Who Turned Passion into Profession

Ted Koehler has his dream job. And maybe yours.

He's a near-scratch golfer (a 0.90 handicap at the moment), a game he learned from his father. He makes his living advising the Professional Golfers' Association of America, the premier organization for more than 30,000 PGA professionals nationwide.

He gets to attend events like the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. And because he's involved in their planning, it could be regarded as a job requirement. He gets to play some of the best golf courses in the world.

If dream jobs were golf balls, Koehler's has the feel of a 375-yard tee shot airmailed from a titanium driver, fairway-flush on the Par Five of Life.

As deputy general counsel in the PGA's three-attorney legal department, Koehler has been nominated by The Texas Lawbook and the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel as 2025 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Practice.

Allen Pusey & Mark Curriden

Another Billion-Dollar Win for Keurig Dr Pepper, Another Nomination for Business Litigation of the Year

Two years ago, Stephen Cole reflected on his career as the vice president and assistant general counsel of Keurig Dr Pepper and was confident his best day at the company came after a summary judgment ruling resulted in a $925 million win against competitors Coca-Cola and BodyArmor. 

But Cole, now a five-year veteran of KDP, has stayed busy ever since.

In July, the company’s legal team, along with outside counsel at Kirkland & Ellis, defeated a lawsuit from Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling that had been seeking more than $1 billion in damages over the ending of an agreement that had allowed Reyes to distribute Dr Pepper/Seven Up in California and Nevada.

Because of this work, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Cole a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Michelle Casady & Mark Curriden

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