Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Ben E. Keith Assistant GC Punam Kaji is the hands-on GC of the future. She walks her company's food distribution warehouse and rides along with sales people to catch issues before they become problems. Oh, and this is important, she actually cares about the people she works with.
Burton Brillhart won a $3.1 million trade secrets case and a copyright victory at the U.S. Supreme Court. He finalized Bain Capital's $2.5 billion acquisition of Varsity. But Brillhart's really good stories are about his grandfather, Homer Dean, a South Texas lawyer for 60 years and a close personal friend of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Dean was the Jim Wells County Attorney in 1948 when the infamous Precinct 13 ballot dispute occurred giving the U.S. Senate election to LBJ. Now that's news.
For years, Jeff Hunt piloted E-2C Hawkeye planes for the Navy, including several encounters with the Russians. Now, he's senior counsel at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in Dallas, where he navigates the military contractor through a labyrinth of global laws and regulations on contracts and transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As The Texas Lawbook reports, Hunt also had an amazing career as a Navy JAG officer.
In the 2nd grade, Adelle Casey watched a movie about the Supreme Court and told her mother she wanted to be a judge. Today, she is the associate general counsel of The Freeman Company, the world’s largest event marketing business, where she is leading business-changing deals. She is not, however, on the Supreme Court. Yet.
Michaels Stores Associate GC Janie Perelman is a brilliant legal strategist and courtroom tactician who seems to be able to go without sleep. She's led the defeat of several class action lawsuits and helped prevent even more. No lawyer has ever handled a major data breach as successfully as she did. Just one warning: Don't call her crafty.
Barry Thomas' earliest memories as a boy were with his dad out in the oil patch. Now an associate GC at Pioneer Natural Resources, Thomas is one of the most respected energy lawyers in Texas. He is also the top lawyer for a non-profit consortium of 20 energy companies that are investing time and money to improve living conditions for the people of the Permian and West Texas.
To Kimberly-Clark executives, Chasity Henry is a critical strategic advisor. To the legal profession, the associate GC is a disruptor who is forcing much needed change. To scores of young women lawyers of color, she is a role model who has made a substantive difference for diversity in the world of corporate law. To Henry herself, she is just being the lawyer she always wanted to be.
Alan Dorantes worked on the set of Oliver Stone’s "Born on the Fourth of July." He was once Matthew Broderick’s stand-in and he is almost certainly the only corporate lawyer in Texas with an award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The AT&T senior counsel is a national expert on diversity in the legal profession and is involved in several groundbreaking public service projects in Texas. He's also packing his bags and leaving town.
Former American Airlines GC Gary Kennedy was at the center of extraordinary growth, extreme tumult and radical change at one of the world’s largest commercial airlines. He implemented groundbreaking mandatory pro bono and diversity efforts. He navigated American through the tidal wave of litigation set in motion after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks and negotiated an historic agreement that settled a decades-long dispute with Southwest Airlines regarding Dallas Love Field. Most of all, Kennedy guided American through one of the largest, most complex and financially successful bankruptcies in U.S. history.
Chris Luna won his Dallas City Council election by 156 votes, earning him the nickname Landslide Luna. Now chief counsel for Metro by T-Mobile, Luna is one of the leading and most influential voices in the Texas corporate legal community. During his 35-year career, Luna has played a critical role in several major corporate transactions and advocated tirelessly for increased diversity in the legal profession. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honored to give the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement to John Christopher Luna.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Monday the finalists for both the 2019 Pro Bono and Public Service Award and the M&A Deal of the Year Award.
Halliburton GC Robb Voyles is being promoted to CLO and he has named Baker Botts litigation partner Van Beckwith as his successor. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive interviews with Voyles and Beckwith, who is relocating to Houston and starting the new position Jan. 1.
Houston appellate law expert Kimberly Phillips has long been an advocate for increased diversity in the legal and energy sectors. Now, she is advocating from a new lofty position: general counsel of global litigation at Shell Oil Company.
Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht says the number of Texans needing legal assistance but who cannot afford an attorney is increasing so fast that the state's legal profession is not equipped to handle the demand for basic legal services for military veterans, abused spouses and children and other low-income residents. Even so, new Texas Lawbook data shows that most corporate law firms in Texas are not doing their share of pro bono work, even as those same firms achieve record profits. The solution may rest with in-house corporate legal departments and general counsel. The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth report.
Arnold Spencer has tried around 100 cases in his legal career. But a recent Perry Mason moment during an insurance negligence trial came to him while wearing a different hat: a fact witness. Natalie Posgate tells his tale and how he and lawyers at Hedrick Kring secured a $20 million jury verdict this week on behalf of residents of a burned down Dallas condominium.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are officially accepting nominations for the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognize the best of the best legal work being performed by corporate in-house counsel. There are 14 categories this year, including three categories that also recognize successful partnerships between general counsel and their outside law firms. The Lawbook has full details.
The Texas GC Forum chose in-house lawyers at AT&T, Boeing Global Services, ExxonMobil, Platinum Dermatology, Southwestern Energy and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to receive the Magna Stella Award. The biggest winner is Houston-based Mattress Firm. The Texas Lawbook has the names.
The Fort Worth-based airline conducted a national search to replace Paul Jones, who retired earlier this year. Willkie Farr partner Priya Aiyar, whose practice specialized in litigation and global trade and investment disputes, will start the job in September and will relocate to American’s DFW headquarters.
The past six months have been a whirlwind for Baron Oursler. He played a critical role in the sale of his employer, FleetPride, to a New York private equity firm. His wife gave birth to their first child, who was born six weeks prematurely and spent a month in the hospital. And he recently started a new job as GC of Worldwide Flight Services. The Texas Lawbook has the inside details.
For the first time, members of the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel - J.C. Penney Senior Counsel April Goff and Pinnacle Group GC Erin Stewart - have been named Top 10 30-Somethings by the global group of in-house lawyers. One of them starts a new job this week.
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