The Texas Lawbook

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GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

Sarah Hurt: A Big Impact in a Short Time at Jefferson Energy

Sarah Hurt has been the GC at Jefferson Energy Companies for a year and has scored huge achievements. Three separate pipeline systems have been placed into service. The issuance of $425 million in Port of Beaumont bonds and a major terminal project well underway. The Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook announce Hurt is a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

Mark Curriden

Q&A: Sarah Hurt

In an exclusive Texas Lawbook Q&A with Sarah Hurt, the general counsel at the Jefferson Energy Companies squares off on the kinds of challenges facing in-house counsel, her pet peeves about outside counsel and what lawyers need to know about her if they want her business.

Mark Curriden

MilliporeSigma’s Christallyn Williams: A DEI Leader in the Texas Legal Community

Christallyn Williams was a junior in high school when she demonstrated her courage to step forward on issues of race, diversity and inclusion. The leadership she showed in a Houston classroom a couple decades ago continues today. Williams is senior corporate counsel for labor and employment law at MilliporeSigma, a multibillion-dollar global life-sciences company. She is also one of the most successful lawyers in Texas in pursuing diversity and inclusion in the profession and a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Mark Curriden

Q&A: Christallyn Williams

An exclusive Texas Lawbook Q&A with MilliporeSigma senior counsel Christallyn Williams on challenges facing in-house counsel, her pet peeves about outside counsel and what lawyers need to know about her if they want her business.

Mark Curriden

2021 Houston CCA Winners: TechnipFMC CLO Victoria Lazar, HP’s Brad Hartz, PROS’ Mary Isensee

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce the final three categories for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards and the recipients for each of those honors. Those categories are Rookie of the Year, Business Litigation of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award. In-depth profiles of the finalists and winners will be published over the next month.

Mark Curriden

Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists for Achievements in D&I and Pro Bono and Public Service Revealed

Each year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook honor corporate in-house counsel who are true role models for improving the legal profession from the inside and out. There are three finalists for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion and one finalist for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.

Mark Curriden

TX GC Forum Honors Lawyers Dawud Crooms, Farah Bhayani, Rishi Varma, Robert Bell and Others with Magna Stella Awards

The Texas General Counsel Forum honored seven top in-house counsel and the corporate legal departments at CenterPoint Energy and Toyota Motor North America on Thursday night with the 2021 Magna Stella Awards. Lone Star Circle of Care GC Tillery Stout received the award for GC of the Year for a Non-Profit. And legal leaders at Diamondback Energy, Enterprise Products, G6 Hospitality, SAExploration and Intercontinental Terminals were honored for their accomplishments.

The Texas Lawbook attended the Texas Forum annual meeting in Austin and has these exclusive details.

Mark Curriden

Futurist to GCs: Businesses Face Constant Chaos, Worker Mental Health Crisis, High Turnover and Declining Productivity

WNDYR CEO Claire Haidar’s presentation to the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter was designed to be a cold, hard slap about the days ahead for most businesses. Companies today are fraught with constant chaos and face crisis after crisis. The workforce is increasingly unstable and is becoming less and less productive. Corporate leaders are trying to implement hybrid working conditions – efforts that she predicts will fail miserably. Bottom line: Business leaders face challenges today like nothing they have ever seen before.

Mark Curriden

Former Concho GC Heads to Bracewell

Travis Counts is the second former C-suite hire from a major oil and gas player this year. He has negotiated and closed transactions exceeding $75 billion in value over his career, which includes Concho's $9.5 billion sale to ConocoPhillips that closed in January.

Brooks Igo

Remembering Clarence Brown – General Counsel, Leader, Husband, Father, Friend, Fashion Guru

Clarence and Shonn Brown were married for 21 years and became one of the power couples of corporate law in Texas. He was the GC of Kronos Worldwide. She is the deputy GC of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a multinational personal care products maker. Last Friday, Clarence Brown died from complications from a head injury. He was 52. But the impact he had was immeasurable. The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth report.

Mark Curriden

Frost Bank Names New GC

Frost Bank clearly has a thing for lawyers at Haynes and Boone. The Texas bank has named former Haynes and Boone litigator C.E. Rhodes, who also practiced at Akin Gump and Baker Hughes, to be its new general counsel and corporate secretary. The Texas Lawbook has details.

Mark Curriden

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