Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
One of Kevin Feeney's first issues when he became Shell Oil senior counsel of upstream litigation was a $200 million arbitration. After a 250,000 document dump and a 17-day hearing, Shell walked away with a take-nothing judgment in their favor. Natalie Posgate profiles the deal, which is a finalist for the 2019 Corporate Counsel Awards Business Litigation of the Year.
When its private equity owner Bain Capital decided it was time to exit BMC, Pat Tagtow and his colleague, Robin Phillips, knew they had a lot of work ahead of them. By the time they were finished, PE giant KKR had purchased BMC for a reported $8.3 billion. Now they are finalists for the Houston Corporate Counsel Awards M&A transaction of the year. Claire Poole profiles them.
Andrew Gratz's first big assignment at LyondellBasell a decade ago was to work on the multinational petrochemical company’s complex bankruptcy. Now, he's leading the $35 billion corporation's strategic growth efforts, including last year's $2.25 billion acquisition of A. Schulman Inc. The Association of Corporate Counsel's Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Gratz a finalist for the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Senior Counsel of the Year Award for a Large Legal Department. The Lawbook has a complete profile.
At least 42 corporate law firms operating in Texas have experienced a “cyber incident” or an actual data breach during the past two years, according to an exclusive new Texas Lawbook survey. But 90% of law firms report that one of the vendors they use has been the victim of a cyber attack. GCs, including those at Match Group and Halliburton, say they are concerned about the safety of client information and law firms, according to the survey, are finally paying attention to cyber threats.
At BP, Jeff Heller managed the British multinational oil and gas company’s global legal teams responsible for employment and labor law, immigration, data privacy and benefits.
Robb Voyles faced a mountain of legal issues when he became Halliburton's GC in 2014. There was a securities class-action lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in damages, an SEC investigation into alleged misconduct at its operations in Nigeria, a nine-figure tax dispute with its former KBR subsidiary and scores of lawsuits with billions of dollars at stake related to the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion. Voyles successfully disposed of all of those risks to Halliburton's balance sheet during a time when the industry faced significant financial pressures. The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth profile of Voyles, who is the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Award's General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
What does it take to become a corporate general counsel in Texas? The chief legal officers at Toyota, J.C. Penney, Match Group and a leading corporate executive headhunter gave their advice this week to a group of 130 members of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter. The Texas Lawbook was there and has the exclusive details.
GCs from Apache, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, CenterPoint, LyondellBasell and 18 other Houston area businesses have been selected as finalists for the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which are hosted by the Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook. The awards recognize the successes of corporate in-house counsel.
McElroy is the first in-house lawyer and general counsel for the Texas accounting firm. At Weaver, McElroy will work on both the litigation and transactional side. In addition to managing the firm’s corporate needs, he’ll be active in the firm’s contract and acquisition negotiations, quality review teams and risk management.
Several Pier 1 lenders have retained legal counsel in anticipation of a coming overhaul as the home furnishings retailer’s earnings continue to plummet, Retail Dive reported, citing a report from Debtwire. This article from the Dallas Business Journal has more details.
During a break from orientation, Children's newest GC told The Texas Lawbook why she decided to join the country's eighth largest pediatric care provider. Litigation writer Natalie Posgate has the details.
Dallas trial lawyer Shonn Brown had an interesting Friday. In the early morning hours, she won a 10-digit jury verdict in Dallas County District Court. After lunch, she packed up her office at Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst and moved her litigation practice to Irving-based Kimberly-Clark Corp., where she is now the deputy general counsel over litigation and regulatory.
Buoyed by partnerships with the DFW and Houston chapters of the Association of Corporate Counsel, The Texas Lawbook now has more than 11,000 paid subscribers, including 2,470 corporate in-house counsel. To celebrate, we are launching The Texas Lawbook Insider, a free newsletter that provides insider details about the inner workings of The Lawbook team and offers behind-the-scenes descriptions on how specific stories came together. Here are the details.
Law firms, corporate legal departments and others have only one day left to submit nominations for the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
There are 15 categories, including General Counsel of the Year, Senior Counsel of the Year, Business Litigation and Corporate Transaction of the Year. The awards event is set for Thursday, April 25, at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Former Dynegy GC Catherine Callaway James was named to the top legal job at infrastructure giant Kinder Morgan Inc. She replaces Curt Moffatt who died unexpectedly in December. Claire Poole has more.
The Houston food and service company has selected Eve McFadden to replace Russell Libby as general counsel and corporate secretary.
Houston-based The Sterling Group announced this month that it has promoted Max Klupchak to general counsel. Klupchak joined the private equity firm in 2015 from Kirkland & Ellis, where he
Nancy Dunlap, general counsel at Rosewood Properties Corporation, died on January 21. We asked longtime friend and colleague Alan Loewinsohn about her. His response was thoughtful and warm.
David Lowery, who spent 37 years at Jones Day in Dallas, has left the firm and is now general counsel of Mill Creek Residential Trust, an apartment developer, acquirer and operator.
The chief legal officers at Adeptus Health, EnLink Midstream Partners and Match.com won General Counsel of the Year awards. Senior counsel at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, Capital One and NGP Energy also were honored for significant successes during 2018. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive details.
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