Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Jennifer Brown loves coffee, especially South American coffee. She drinks three cups a day, no cream and no sugar. “It is a huge factor when you are a lawyer for a business and you really believe in the company and the product, and I love coffee,” says Brown, who is assistant GC at coffee manufacturer Farmer Brothers.
The Texas Lawbook hosted a soiree honoring last year’s award winners, this year’s judges and ACC-DFW leadership. This is the inaugural DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards Alumni reception.
During his four years at Summit, GC Daniel Gerber has handled five M&A deals, drafted hundreds of contracts and agreements, updated the privacy guidelines and procedures and helped the company avoid potentially costly litigation. Summit CEO Dale Young says, “Daniel’s execution makes visions become a reality."
When Capital One’s financial services division decided to exit the mortgage origination and servicing business in 2017, it had a pretty sticky problem: How do you shed a portfolio of 113,000 mortgages valued at $17 billion in an orderly and cost-conscious fashion? Apparently, you task your Assistant GC Elizabeth Chostner to deal with the details.
As lead labor and employment counsel at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, Lauren Mutti handles everything from a $9 million litigation docket to sales compliance policies nationwide. She describes herself as the daughter of a "corporate gypsy," but others describe her as a community-committed lawyer who is terrific at her job.
EnLink Midstream Partners CLO Alaina Brooks and Deputy GC Kendall Talbott have been a team for a half-dozen years. Together, they implemented a $13 billion simplification, brought several midstream projects online, eliminated dozens of nuisance lawsuits and sold a $3.12 billion interest in EnLink. Now they’re finalists for an ACC-DFW award.
Adeptus Health General Counsel Tim Mueller has seen good times and bad times. During a three-year period, Adeptus experienced wild expansion, did an IPO, had its market cap hit $1 billion, filed for bankruptcy and restructured with a new plan for steady growth. Through it all, Mueller's legal counsel has been both sound and poised. The Lawbook has the story.
Interstate Batteries’ Kelvin Sellers has crafted partnership agreements with 200 retail stores, penned sponsorship contracts with NASCAR’s Kyle Busch, engineered the 19 percent acquisition of Aqua Metals and helped the company’s expansion into South America and China. Now, he is a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel's GC of the Year Award.
The images of children at the border, forcibly separated from their parents, were excruciating for Anne Brooksher-Yen, a mother of two kids. So, the senior associate GC at Celanese Corporation acted. Now, six Celanese attorneys have joined with lawyers at Haynes and Boone to represent eight immigrant families seeking asylum. The Texas Lawbook has the story.
As managing counsel for Toyota Motor North America, Scott Young is the automaker’s leading legal expert on commercial real estate development, lease negotiations and corporate transactions. He's also developed a well-earned reputation for pro bono and public service.
AT&T’s legal department won two huge courtroom victories against the federal government in 2018. The telecom giant defeated a $4 billion FTC false advertising case and demolished a DOJ antitrust challenge to its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. AT&T also made huge strides in promoting diversity in the legal profession. The Texas Lawbook has details.
Kimberly-Clark Assistant GC Chasity Henry has been involved in several large corporate M&A, but her most important success is one she started with little fanfare. As founder of the NEW Roundtable, Henry is helping women of color achieve new successes in the legal profession. She is a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel's Diversity of the Year Award.
One of the richest pairs on the planet are divorcing. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and novelist MacKenzie Bezos are calling it quits after 25 years. Their high profile wealth, estimated at $137 billion, makes it big news - but news that will likely fade because they seem to have followed a few basic rules. Charlie Hodges and Brian L. Webb explain those rules.
Christina Sanders is just 33 and been an assistant GC at NGP Energy less than a year, but she's already had a big impact at the Dallas private equity firm, including a major role in a $1.65 billion acquisition and an IPO for a portfolio companies. Sanders success, according to ACC-DFW and The Texas Lawbook, make her a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Rookie of the Year Award.
Despite being just 45, Dena Stroh has become one of the most influential lawyers in North Texas. She is the GC of the North Texas Tollway Authority, past president of the Dallas Women Lawyers Association, a leading voices in the Texas legal profession for gender and ethnic diversity and a “damn good lawyer.” The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that Stroh is a finalist for the General Counsel of the Year Award for a Small Legal Department.
Mark Berg is one of the most influential lawyers-turned-corporate executives in the entire oil and gas industry. His legal work and dealmaking acumen turned Irving's Pioneer Natural Resources into a $30 billion energy giant. The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to present Berg with its Lifetime Achievement Award at the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards on Jan. 24.
Janna King will practice in the cloud-based law firm’s health and pharmacy group.
As GE's executive counsel for M&A, Houston lawyer Victoria Lazar quietly led the $23 billion integration of the legal departments for the merger of GE Oil & Gas and Baker Hughes. She is now heavily involved in GE's efforts to reposition its corporate portfolio. In an exclusive Texas Lawbook interview, Lazar discusses her Romanian-Jewish family, her extraordinary legal career and big-time dealmaking.
The general counsel and corporate legal departments at Adeptus Health, AT&T, Capital One, EnLink Midstream, Interstate Batteries, J.C. Penney, Kimberly-Clark, Match, North Texas Tollway Authority, NGP Energy Capital, Pier 1 and Toyota are finalists for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards in North Texas. The Lawbook has details.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook received a record-smashing 126 nominations for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. A panel of 18 prominent GCs and lawyers reviewed the submissions and The Lawbook has this year's finalists.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
