Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Victoria Salem left her liquified natural gas law practice at Latham & Watkins in London in June 2015 to join the corporate legal department at Occidental Petroleum handling major transactions. Today, Salem joins a growing number of in-house lawyers rejoining law firms by becoming the newest partner in the Houston office of the Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance.
Chevron Phillips Assistant GC Cheryl-Lynne Davis and Baker Botts associate Teresa Jones — both women of color and lawyers who specialize in environmental law — shared Thanksgiving dinner in 2023. Over turkey and all the fixings, Davis and Jones discussed professional struggles they faced and together started working on a solution that now benefits some of the largest corporations in South Texas.
“What started as a casual conversation quickly became a shared mission: to create space for people like us to build community, exchange knowledge and uplift one another,” Jones said.
The seeds Davis and Jones sowed that day led to the creation of Black Women in Energy and Environmental Law, an organization that focuses on their professional purpose as lawyers and personal mission to support and ensure the wellness of Black women engaged in energy and environmental law. BWEL has witnessed tremendous success in the 16 months since it was founded. ACC Houston and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Davis, Jones and the members of BWEL with the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Creative Partnership.
Julia Wright was a third grader when she did a book report on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “I didn’t know women could be lawyers until I read that book,” Wright told The Texas Lawbook. “I knew then that it was what I wanted to do. Throughout the 1980s, my dad would cut out newspaper articles showing the data of increased enrollment in law schools of women, showing me it was possible.” Forty-two years later, Wright is the general counsel at ChampionX, where she is one of two finalists for the 2025 Houston General Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsized Legal Department.
Sarah Payne went to college and graduate school to be a journalist covering the music industry with the dream of writing for Rolling Stone. Her father, then a Houston trial lawyer, had other ideas. “I was worn down by my tenacious father over the course of two decades,” Payne told The Texas Lawbook. “My entering the profession was likely inescapable. It’s in my veins for better or worse." Payne recently led her employer, Maverick Natural Resources, to a huge courtroom victory after a four-year contract dispute with XTO Energy regarding revenue sharing as part of a joint venture. Citing the jury trial success, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook named Payne the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipient for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
Oliver achieved many successes during her nearly three decades at PepsiCo and was promoted six times. She successfully defended the multinational food and beverage company against major class-action lawsuits, led strategic corporate acquisitions, and developed innovative employment policies and management training programs. Ex-PepsiCo General Counsel Larry Thompson told The Texas Lawbook in a 2021 profile of Oliver that, “No one really knows PepsiCo as well as Leanne. She has brought enormous value to the company and to the entire legal profession.”
Sylvia Kerrigan and Ernest Kohnke have been corporate in-house counsel for 25 years. Kathryn Hand and Gillian Hobson have been in-house for less than two years. All four of them will be honored at the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
The general counsel and chief legal officers of Transocean, Hines Real Estate, Microvast Holdings, ChampionX, LGI Homes and Applied Optoelectronics have been selected by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook as finalists for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards for General Counsel of the Year. And the in-house lawyers at Phillips 66 and Talen Energy are finalists for the 2025 Houston Corporate Legal Department of the Year.
The awards for Business Litigation and M&A Transaction are unique in that they recognize both the in-house counsel and the outside lawyers who worked on the matters. Finalists include in-house lawyers from Marathon Oil, Waste Management, Baker Hughes, and McDermott.
Energy and infrastructure dominated a significant portion of the corporate legal work of Texas lawyers in 2024. Calpine, Chevron Phillips Chemical, Energy Transfer, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, Phillips 66, Shell and Weatherford International all played integral roles. So, it should not be a surprise that corporate in-house counsel for these companies are among the finalists for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognizes the legal and business successes achieved by lawyers employed by these iconic companies.
Rudy Rodriguez recently found a new home with another strong brand with a fiercely loyal customer base serving kids and families. He spoke with The Lawbook about his move.
Texas General Counsel Forum CEO Lynn Switzer Bozalis lost her battle with cancer. She was 60. North Texas Tollway Authority GC Dena Stroh said Bozalis "brought energy, good humor and drive to succeed. FullSpeed Automotive General Counsel Kelvin Sellers said she “had such an incredible spirit” and is “a big reason for the success of the Forum.” And Halliburton CLO Van Beckwith said Bozalis was "the consummate leaders’ leader. She brought an extraordinary excellence to every situation. Lynn simply made life better."
More than 400 corporate general counsel, senior in-house counsel and prominent business lawyers across North Texas celebrated the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Thursday night at the George W. Bush Institute. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook presented awards to 15 in-house counsel who achieved extraordinary successes during the past 18 months.
Change management requires a leader who values continuous learning and team building. It begins with empathy and effective listening to identify how to best utilize each person’s skills for team success. This role is similar to that of a point guard or a quarterback, where collaboration and a broad perspective are key to achieving larger organizational goals efficiently.
Upon becoming vice president of legal affairs and general counsel at FirstService Residential Inc., LaToyia Pierce Frink began the task of uniting six regional offices into one cohesive team to consolidate the company’s legal approach and streamline its strategies, and improved internal communication to inform managers about cross-regional legal issues that could impact their work.
For these attributes and more, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have selected Pierce Frink as one of two finalists for the 2024 DFW General Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsize Legal Department, which is six to 20 lawyers.
Kaleisha Stuart was the only Black lawyer working in-house for an NFL team when she joined the Dallas Cowboys legal team in 2016. “Over the years, legal departments have grown and diversified,” Stuart told The Texas Lawbook. “Noticing this trend, I decided to create a group for the Black women lawyers working at NFL teams. The goals of the group were to make Black women taking on these new roles feel immediately welcome, to have a safe, supportive outlet to share ideas or ask questions and to make new friends."
As deputy GC for the most valuable sports franchise in the world, Stuart has achieved some extraordinary successes in business, law and diversity. “I can’t think of anyone more deserving of recognition for the DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion than Kaleisha,” Cowboys CFO Tom Walker said. “Kaleisha’s leadership ‘off the field’ in our internal DEI initiatives has been instrumental since early in her career here, which is matched only by her success ‘on the field’ in helping guide our legal department through a period of unprecedented business growth. If you get five minutes to spend with her, you’ll understand why I feel as strongly about her recognition as I do.”
As general counsel at Caris Life Sciences, Russ Denton has made a significant impact in just two years, gaining the respect of both executives and outside counsel. His expertise has facilitated the launch of FDA-approved products while successfully leading an appeal that corrected a District Court's legal misapplication. Outside counsel praises Denton for his ability to navigate complex M&A deals and multi-faceted litigation, always aiming to minimize risks for the company. His innovative approach and skillset are why he is the recipient of the 2024 DFW General Counsel of the Year Award for a Small Legal Department.
When Micheal W. Dobbs took his first in-house job and joined Texas Pacific Land Corporation in August 2020, the pandemic was raging and the company was in the midst of arguably the biggest change in its more than 132-year history: transitioning from operating as a liquidating business trust to a Delaware corporation. He is now the senior vice president, secretary and general counsel of TPL, which is one of the largest landowners in the state. Dobbs and his outside counsel at Sidley have been named as one of two finalists for the 2024 Business Litigation of the Year Award by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.
Helmerich and Payne International Drilling learned in 2020 that a direct competitor and sometimes business partner was suing H&P claiming that it had infringed on eight of Nabors’ patents related to technology on its automated drilling products and sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The plaintiffs sought an immediate preliminary injunction to stop H&P’s sale of the disputed products and asked the federal judge for an expedited jury trial. Working under intense pressure and deadlines, H&P GC Debra Stockton aggressively led H&P’s discovery efforts, initiated an investigation into Nabors’ own automated drilling technology and filed counterclaims of infringement against Nabors. This case is an incredibly rare example of an accused party "flipping the v" and vindicating itself from baseless allegations of wrongdoing while at the same time exposing the aggressor party as the real wrongdoer. Citing this extraordinary courtroom success, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named H&P, Stockton and Baker Botts as one of two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
Jacobs GC Justin Johnson began his legal journey inspired by criminal law depicted in TV dramas. Initially pursuing criminal defense, he worked on felony appeals during law school. However, a 2L summer assignment shifted his focus to M&A. Captivated by its pace and complexity, Johnson is now known for his ability to calmly direct complex deals — and that’s why he is a 2024 finalist for the DFW M&A Deal of the Year Award.
Cale Curtin's plan was to be a landman, but Chesapeake wasn’t hiring. So, he went to law school. Now, instead of negotiating with individual property owners to acquire mineral rights, Curtin is negotiating billion-dollar credit deals to acquire competitors. As such, Curtin has been recognized as a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for Rookie of the Year.
Brennan Champion is assistant general counsel for ECI Software Solutions Inc., a provider of cloud-based business management software serving small and medium-sized enterprises. As one of two full-time lawyers at the Westlake company, he oversees a wide array of litigation and transactional matters across North America. He is praised for his can-do mentality and exceptional legal skills that often surpass those of more experienced lawyers. He has established himself as a trusted advisor within ECI, adeptly balancing legal risks while providing practical, business-focused legal advice across the company's diverse global operations. For these attributes and others, Champion has been recognized as a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for Rookie of the Year.
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