Premium Subscriber Q&A: Chris Blevins
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Chris Blevins discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
‘Put on this Earth to Serve:’ Award Honoree Shannon Cagnina Helped Pass Trey’s Law, Camp Safety Legislation
Shannon Cagnina, general counsel for Phillips Enterprises, is being honored with a 2025 Corporate Counsel Award for her pro bono and public service work on Trey’s Law and Texas camp safety legislation. Cagnina’s humility and faith-driven commitment to service have made her a quiet force behind reforms that are already reshaping protections for abuse survivors and camp goers.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Shannon Cagnina
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Phillips Enterprises’ Shannon Cagnina discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
‘Life is a Team Sport,’ Says Toyota’s Scott Young
Toyota Managing Counsel Scott Young is being honored with a 2025 Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service in recognition of his lifelong commitment to service, shaped by his upbringing and early humanitarian work. Alongside major legal leadership roles at Toyota, including transformative development and manufacturing projects, Young has led and expanded the company’s pro bono efforts, providing legal assistance to vulnerable communities.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Scott Young
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Toyota’s Scott Young discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel needs to know when working with him and more.
Brad Nitschke Connects Compassion to Counsel at Parkland Health
Brad Nitschke’s passion for public service started in his teens at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas.
“Justice and service have always been important to me, and my time at Jesuit left me deeply convinced that there are real problems hurting real people in the world, and we are called to use our gifts and talents to intervene where we can,” said Nitschke, who officially married his values and passion with his career mission five years ago when he joined the legal team at Parkland Health. Last month, Parkland named Nitschke its interim executive vice president for legal affairs due to his extraordinary successes. And ACC-DFW and The Texas Lawbook are awarding him the 2025 DFW GC of the Year Award for a Non-Profit/Governmental Agency to celebrate his achievements.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Brad Nitschke
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Brad Nitschke discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
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.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Brett Barnes
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Brett Barnes discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel and what outside counsel need to know when working with him.
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.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Adrienne Mosley
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Adrienne Mosley discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
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.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Sam Hardy
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Sam Hardy discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
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.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Adam Shulman
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Adam Shulman discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Nayelly Dominguez
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Nayelly Dominguez discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
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.
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.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Sarah Wariner
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Sarah Wariner discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
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.