Premium Subscriber Q&A: Sara Keith
In this Q&A, Sara Keith offers ideas for ways corporate in-house lawyers can give back to the community and talks about how AI is shaping expectations with outside counsel.
Houston Methodist’s Marissa Marquez’s Best Days are Helping Others
As a child, Marissa Marquez had to navigate an educational system not designed for kids like her.
A native Spanish speaker raised primarily by a grandmother without a high school diploma, Marquez learned English in school and worked her way into the gifted and talented program and eventually graduated 8th in her high school class of about 800 students.
Now labor and employment counsel at Houston Methodist Hospital, her life work and volunteerism “reflect a through line” in her life, “from her earliest experiences as a bilingual student to her current leadership roles, of using her skills and lived experience to uplift others,” said Jackson Walker partner Sang Shin.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Marissa Marquez
Marissa Marquez shares what she looks for in hiring outside counsel and describes how AI is impacting her work.
Helen Xiang’s Unconventional Path to Castleton Commodities
The Rookie of the Year Award is intended to recognize lawyers who, in a short time, demonstrate outsized influence and leadership. Castleton Commodities International Counsel Helen Xiang has done precisely that. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Xiang with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year, which recognizes lawyers who have been in-house counsel for two years or less. This is the story of her path to Castleton.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Helen Xiang
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Helen Xiang discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Enerflex Senior Counsel Melanie Benefield ‘A One Woman Army’
Melanie Benefield was a “landman” long before Billy Bob Thornton made being a landman cool — except it involved offshore assets. Fifteen years later, Benefield is a Houston-based senior counsel at Calgary-headquartered Enerflex Ltd., a global energy firm that specializes in natural gas processing, power generation and water solutions.
“What makes Melanie's nomination compelling is not just the breadth of that mandate, but what she delivered within it during 2025 — a year that tested Enerflex's business and legal team in extraordinary ways,” AZA partner Jason McManis said.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 19 attorneys) to Benefield.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Melanie Benefield
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Melanie Benefield discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Rice University GC Omar Syed: ‘A Calm and Steady Hand’ in Tumultuous Times
Omar Syed’s path to representing educational institutions came during the summer before his senior year in college while participating in a program designed to train future schoolteachers and education leaders. He realized he would "better help those schoolchildren as a public advocate and counsel than as a classroom teacher."
Now the GC at Rice University, Syed is still advocating and counseling during one of the most tumultuous periods in higher education. Citing his extraordinary successes, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding Syed the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Nonprofit.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Omar Syed
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Omar Syed discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
ExxonMobil’s David Kern ‘Spearheading Efforts to Question Age-old Assumptions’
As the corporate world focuses on artificial intelligence, global disruption caused by tariffs and now the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, ExxonMobil has quietly undertaken two massive, strategic corporate restructurings that dramatically change the business by implementing its “Retail Voting Program” and filing to redomicile from New Jersey to Texas.
While each of these transformational efforts required teams of in-house and outside counsel, lawyers agree that there is one critical common denominator in making these initiatives successful: ExxonMobil Managing Counsel David Kern. ACC Houston and The Texas Lawbook have named Kern as the recipient of the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: David Kern
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, David Kern discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
LyondellBasell GC Jeff Kaplan — Producing Exceptional Results in Times of Crisis
The multimillion-dollar lawsuits were piling up. Dozens of them, accusing LyondellBasell of “unsafe and hazardous practices” that led to a chemical leak in 2021 at its La Porte facility, causing two deaths and scores of injuries. Legal analysts predicted the Houston-based chemical company would be tagged with damage awards in the billions of dollars. The job of defending LyondellBasell fell to its 65-attorney legal department, led by its longtime general counsel Jeff Kaplan.
The result: 45 cases dismissed on summary judgment, 20 cases settled for nuisance value, three cases settled with funds from indemnitors and fatality case settlements fully reimbursed by the insurance carrier. And Kaplan and Lyondell are the recipients of the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Legal Department of the Year.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Jeff Kaplan
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Jeff Kaplan discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Plains All American GC Richard McGee — Pole Vaulting into a Lifetime of Achievements
In the world of oil and gas, Richard McGee has seen it all — and he’s done most of it. As a corporate transactional lawyer for Vinson & Elkins, he represented some of the biggest players in the oil patch, including Enron. In 2001, he joined Duke Energy, first as a lawyer and then as president of its international operations. Houston-based Plains All American hired McGee in 2009 and became its general counsel in 2012. Along the way, he led or was heavily involved in more than 100 M&A transactions totaling in the tens of billions of dollars. This month, he is working to close the $3.8 billion sale of Plains’ natural gas liquids business to Canadian-based Keyera.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named McGee as the recipient of the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Richard McGee
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Richard McGee discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
GC Will Marsh Helps Cactus ‘Transform into a Truly Multinational Business’
As general counsel of Cactus Inc., Will Marsh is experiencing a second (or third) career, depending on how you count. Wherever it fits in his 37-year legal career, Marsh is making the most of it, and so is Cactus, the Houston-based designer and manufacturer of oilfield equipment.
In 2023, Cactus expanded its offerings with the $621 million acquisition of FlexSteel Technology Holdings, a deal led by Marsh that earned him and Cactus the 2023 M&A Transaction of the Year from The Texas Lawbook and ACC Houston. Now they’ve done it again, winning the 2026 award for their $344.5 million purchase of a controlling interest in the surface pressure control business formerly owned by Baker Hughes.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Will Marsh
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Will Marsh discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Talen Energy’s GC Change is ‘Getting the Band Back Together’
When Talen Energy General Counsel John Wander told his fellow executives and corporate board earlier this year that he planned to retire, the hunt for a replacement did not take long. Next week, former Vistra Corp. Deputy GC Dan Kelly officially replaces Wander as the booming Houston energy company’s top lawyer.
‘I Only Want You’: How Steven Scheinthal Became Tilman Fertitta’s Go-To Lawyer
Steven Scheinthal has one of the most unique and challenging jobs in corporate law — the general counsel for Tilman Fertitta, whose business holdings include the NBA’s Houston Rockets, the Golden Nugget casinos and hotels, Landry’s Seafood and Morton’s and Del Frisco’s steakhouses. The Houston billionaire is also reportedly interested in acquiring Caesars casinos and hotels.
“It is tough having one boss because his frustrations become yours,” Scheinthal said. “However, we have had a tremendous number of business successes from our IPO to follow on offerings, over 50-plus acquisitions, bond offerings, the Rockets purchase." Those successes continued through 2025. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Scheinthal with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Steven Scheinthal
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Steven Scheinthal discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.