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.
Oncor GC: ‘There is only one deal on the table’
Oncor General Counsel Allen Nye will become the utility’s CEO. In an exclusive interview, Nye discusses negotiations with Warren Buffett, the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy and how the Texas Public Utility Commission will view the proposed deal with Berkshire Hathaway.
Oncor GC: 'There is only one deal on the table'
Oncor General Counsel Allen Nye will become the utility’s CEO. In an exclusive interview, Nye discusses negotiations with Warren Buffett, the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy and how the Texas Public Utility Commission will view the proposed deal with Berkshire Hathaway.
Masergy Names Jeff Walker its new GC
Jeff Walker, who spent the past decade in leadership positions in the Energy Future Holdings and RadioShack legal departments, is the new general counsel at Masergy Communications. In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Walker discusses his in-house experiences – including having to tell a majority shareholder no and firing his company’s president – his plans for outside counsel at Masergy and his recent family vacation of a lifetime.
Millennial Energy Hires Clay Brett as New GC
Houston-based Millennial Energy Partners has hired, as you might expect, a millennial to be the independent, privately-held oil and gas firm’s first general counsel. Former Wilkie Farr lawyer Clay Brett, 30, will lead the young company’s corporate legal department.
Bizarre $12M Trade Secrets Case for Quantlab Finally Nears an End
A decade-long legal battle between a privately-held Houston financial research firm and Ukrainian mathematician and a Wisconsin securities lawyer nicknamed Emo over secret algorithms and mathematical formulas that aid high frequency trading is finally coming to an end thanks to a decision by the Fifth Circuit. The story involves FBI raids, secret meetings at a Greek Orthodox monastery in Arizona and the patron saint of St. Petersburg. Quantlab GC Tim McInturf of Houston discusses the importance of this bizarre trade secrets case and the work of his outside counsel.
Russ Hubbard: Keeping American Airlines Data Safe & Secure
When American Airlines promoted Russ Hubbard to associate general counsel last week, the airline was demonstrating how important cybersecurity and data privacy are to the company. Hubbard is one of the nation’s leading legal experts on an issue that now threatens every business in the U.S. This article is looks at Hubbard’s career and the steps he’s taking at American to protect his employer and their passengers.