Chris Luna, chief counsel at MetroPCS, has been a fixture in Dallas business and public life. He is an outspoken proponent of diversity in both the legal profession and the businesses they serve. His legal department is a finalist in the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. Find out why in The Texas Lawbook.
Stacie McNulty ‘Embodies the Spirit’ of the Public Service & Pro Bono Award
Stacie McNulty is a highly-respected authority on intellectual property. Her observations on the subject have been cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But her long-standing commitment to programs dealing with HIV and other public health issues commands something close to awe. As a result, she’s a finalist in the upcoming Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. Details in The Texas Lawbook.
Award Finalist: Oncor’s Complex Asset Swap with Sharyland
When Oncor Electric Delivery Company and Dallas-based Sharyland Utilities swapped assets in 2017, it was more than another $400 energy distribution deal. It was a solution to a problem that had plagued and perplexed 60,000 rate payers. That’s one of the reasons the deal is a finalist in the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. Read about what made it unusual and who made it happen in The Texas Lawbook.
Brittany Perez ‘Crafts Unique & Custom Solutions to Complex Legal Issues Around the Globe’
Brittany Perez jumps horses in competition. As vice president and associate general counsel of Match.com, she’s also involved in issues as diverse as consumer class actions and cybersecurity. She’s a finalist in the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards and her profile in The Texas Lawbook spells out why. Spoiler alert: She didn’t meet her husband on Match.
Nicola Hobeiche Has a ‘Personal Sense of Obligation to Help Others’
Nicola Hobeiche is assistant general counsel at ORIX USA, but her office is often a minefield: of books or clothes or toys headed for a homeless shelter. Sure, she’s an experienced and respected trial lawyer, but she’s also a first-rate community servant and a finalist in the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. Read about her in The Texas Lawbook.
Baron Oursler Offers ‘Legal Answers that Provide Business Solutions’
Baron T. Oursler decided to become a lawyer as an 11-year-old boy. Now he’s general counsel of a $1 billion trucking company. He’s also among finalists in the Outstanding Corporate Counsel awards for 2017. Read more in The Texas Lawbook.
Keitha Wright ‘Rolls Up her Sleeves’ on Diversity
Keitha Wright was the first person in her family to graduate from college. Now the Howard University Law School grad is senior counsel at G2 Secure Staff. Because of her work inside and outside, she’s a finalist in the diversity category of the Outstanding Corporate Counsel awards. More in The Texas Lawbook.
Gary Kennedy & ‘Twelve Years of Turbulence’ as American Airlines GC
As the general counsel of American Airlines for a dozen years, Gary Kennedy has some stories to tell. In his new book, Kennedy gives readers unprecedented access to closed-door internal discussions with executives, confidential legal strategy meetings and secret – and many times contentious – negotiations between American officials, its labor unions and executives with US Airways.
Most importantly, Twelve Years of Turbulence provides a provocative insider’s description of the most successful corporate bankruptcy and restructuring in U.S. history.
ACC-DFW/Texas Lawbook 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award Goes to Gil Friedlander
For more than 13 years, Gil Friedlander led the EDS legal department. He masterminded some of the largest and most complex corporate transactions in Texas history. He showed that the general counsel was a critical strategic position within the business – not just a lawyer. And he championed diversity within the legal profession long before the cause was popular.
The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook named Friedlander the first ever Outstanding Corporate Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award.
Outstanding Corporate Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award Goes To…
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce the finalists for the official 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. There are three new categories, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. Today, The Lawbook unveils the honoree and name the finalists for all award categories.
T-Mobile Promotes Chris Luna to VP, Legal Affairs
Chris Luna, a leading legal industry advocate for diversity, has new and expanded duties at T-Mobile’s Richardson-based subsidiary, MetroPCS. He now serves on the wireless operator’s senior leadership team, supervises the company’s governmental relations activities and has more management responsibilities. In an exclusive Texas Lawbook interview, Luna discusses the biggest legal issues he faces and his handling of outside counsel.
Waste Connections GC Created Culture of Servant-Leadership Amid Tremendous Corporate Growth
Patrick Shea has been busy since he joined the Waste Connections legal department in 2004. He’s overseen 300 business acquisitions, 10 debt financings for more than $10 billion, two equity offerings that raised $800 million and helped engineer the company’s relocation from California to Texas. In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Shea, who recently won the Texas GC Forum’s Magna Stella Award for GC of the Year for a Small Legal Dept., discusses Waste Connections’ tremendous growth, his biggest legal needs and what he looks for in outside counsel.
GC John Ansbach Joins Stroz Friedberg
Stroz Friedberg, a national corporate consulting firm, announced Monday that it has hired Dallas lawyer John Ansbach, the former GC at General Datatech, as its vice president of engagement management in Dallas. Ansbach is known throughout Texas for his expertise in cybersecurity and data privacy.
Halliburton GC Robb Voyles: Four years of Extraordinary Challenges, Successes
HOUSTON (Nov. 30) – Since becoming the GC of Halliburton in 2014, Robb Voyles has successfully guided the oilfield services giant through treacherous legal waters that included a mountain of lawsuits with billions of dollars at stake related to the Deepwater Horizon deadly explosion, a global securities class action lawsuit, a nine-figure tax dispute with its former KBR subsidiary and a $28 billion merger with Baker Hughes that went bad.
In this exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Voyles looks back at the last four years and discusses his wins, losses and the reason the Texas GC Forum recognized him in November for his accomplishments.
TX GC Forum Honors Outstanding Corp. Legal Depts.
More than 300 of the most prominent in-house and outside corporate lawyers in Texas met in San Antonio Thursday and Friday as part of the annual meeting of the Texas General Counsel Forum. The Forum recognized eight lawyers and two legal departments for outstanding successes and achievements during the past year. The Texas Lawbook, which has an exclusive partnership with the GC Forum, has complete details.
Conduent Assc. GC Clay Scheitzach Named GC at DriveTime
Clay Scheitzach, a leading voice for corporate compliance in the Texas business law community, is leaving his post as associate general counsel at Conduent – formerly known as Xerox Business Services – to become the new GC at Tempe-based DriveTime. “This is a fantastic opportunity with an amazing management team and a company with an amazing culture,” he told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview.
Kelly Cope Named Hover Energy GC
Dallas-based renewable energy company Hover Energy has hired Reliance Holdings USA general counsel Kelly Cope to lead its corporate in-house legal department.
Updated – GC Forum Names 2017 Magna Stella Recipients
The Texas General Counsel Forum has awarded its prestigious Magna Stella Awards to five corporate general counsel, two corporate legal departments and three managing counsel. The recipients include four women and four men. The Texas Lawbook has updated this article to make a correction from an earlier version.
ACC & Texas Lawbook: DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards Expand & Recognize Law Firms
The Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards are getting a makeover to be more substantive and more inclusive, including honoring the successful team work between corporate legal departments and their outside law firms. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have all the details in this article.
Updated – Texas General Counsel Pay Summary
Corporate Counsel magazine has identified the top 150 best paid corporate general counsel and a dozen work at Texas-based companies made the list, including the top legal officers at Baker Hughes, iHeartMedia, Yum!Brands and nine energy companies.
Stephanie Hildebrandt Named New GC at Archrock
Archrock, a Houston-based provider of natural gas contract compression services, has hired former Enterprise Products Partners general counsel Stephanie C. Hildebrandt to lead its corporate in-house legal department. A partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, Hildebrandt replaces Donald Wayne, who left Archrock in April to become the new general counsel at Quanta Services, a Houston energy services contracting company.