When facing a large lawsuit, corporate general counsel sometimes need to remember to the CEO and the board of directors informed about the litigation. Neither senior management nor the directors have much, if any, experience with litigation. GCs can avoid a lot of frustration and second-guessing by taking the time upfront to explain the litigation process to them and provide regular updates thereafter.

Because GCs need sign-off from the CEO or board regarding many decisions, including settlement authority, alternative dispute resolution (e.g., mediation) and budgeting, GCs will avoid second-guessing by keeping senior management and the board fully informed. This column provides a check list for GCs.

Cliff Vrielink has represented some of the world’s leading energy companies in highly complex international transactions valued in the billions of dollars. But for four years, Vrielink and his wife tried to adopt two children from Haiti. A legal process that should have taken weeks became years. The couple took a dozen trips to Haiti. They hired lawyers in Haiti and sought help from U.S. officials in New York. Nothing they did helped or mattered.

“I’ve done multi-billion-dollar global mergers and acquisitions involving multiple corporations and assets in multiple countries that were simpler than the adoption process we faced,” said Vrielink, a 20-year veteran of international M&A law.

This is the story of Cliff and Ayse Vrielink’s efforts to adopt a boy and a girl from Haiti and why an antiquated international adoption system must be fixed.

Cliff Vrielink has represented some of the world’s leading energy companies in highly complex international transactions valued in the billions of dollars. But for four years, Vrielink and his wife tried to adopt two children from Haiti. A legal process that should have taken weeks became years. The couple took a dozen trips to Haiti. They hired lawyers in Haiti and sought help from U.S. officials in New York. Nothing they did helped or mattered.
“I’ve done multi-billion-dollar global mergers and acquisitions involving multiple corporations and assets in multiple countries that were simpler than the adoption process we faced,” said Vrielink, a 20-year veteran of international M&A law.
This is the story of Cliff and Ayse Vrielink’s efforts to adopt a boy and a girl from Haiti and why an antiquated international adoption system must be fixed.

At age 43, Energy Future Holdings GC Stacey Doré is one of the few women corporate general counsel at a Fortune 500 company and she is certainly one of the youngest. She finds herself leading one of the largest business bankruptcies in U.S. history, even though she had no prior bankruptcy law experience. No business lawyer in Texas is under more pressure or scrutiny these days than Doré.

But lawyers with intimate knowledge of the situation say that EFH’s executive leadership and board specifically chose Doré to be the general counsel in 2012 to lead the company through what it knew could be a long and contentious bankruptcy.

The Plano-based retailer laid off about two-dozen lawyers and staff last week. The company had about 50 in-house lawyers just three years ago, but now has less than 25 after deciding to outsource most litigation, employment and labor law and tax law needs.

The general counsel at 20 of the largest Texas businesses earned $1 million or more during 2014, according to a new study conducted by Corporate Counsel magazine. Texas-based companies employ 13 of the 100 highest paid chief legal officers and 33 of the top 350. The general counsel at AT&T, Baker Hughes, Energy Future Holdings and Marathon Oil each earned more than $2 million a year in salary, bonuses and stock options.

Kathryn Koorenny was a star in-house lawyer at American Airlines. She guided the Fort Worth airline through the potentially crippling 9/11 litigation and the massive bankruptcy reorganization. Now, she’s the new general counsel at billion-dollar global consulting firm AlixPartners, running a legal department of 15 and dozens of outside counsel relationships.

Only one question: Can she cook a world-class bowl of chili for AlixPartners Chili Cook Off? Koorenny answers all the questions.

Kathryn Koorenny was a star in-house lawyer at American Airlines. She guided the Fort Worth airline through the potentially crippling 9/11 litigation and the massive bankruptcy reorganization. Now, she’s the new general counsel at billion-dollar global consulting firm AlixPartners, running a legal department of 15 and dozens of outside counsel relationships.
Only one question: Can she cook a world-class bowl of chili for AlixPartners Chili Cook Off? Koorenny answers all the questions.

Exactly three months ago, the North Texas Tollway Authority named Dena DeNooyer Stroh its new general counsel. Stroh, the former GC at Murchison Oil & Gas and a former partner at two prominent Dallas law firms – Gruber Hurst and Carrington Coleman – said her first 90 days on the job have shown her the position is perfect for her.

More than 200 lawyers, judges, law school deans and law students were in attendance at the Belo Mansion Thursday to celebrate the future generation of Hispanic lawyers and veteran Hispanic lawyers at law firms and corporate legal departments that have “paid it forward.”

Lawsuits over contract disputes and regulatory battles with the government are larger litigation threats to Texas-based businesses – especially oil and gas companies – than are class action litigation from consumers and employees, according to a new study by the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

Lawyers often boast about the view from their office windows, but none can match the scene from Kate Cassidy’s desk: home plate at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Baseball is in her DNA. Her father was a catcher in the Minnesota Twins farm system. She was sitting in the centerfield bleachers when Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game.

“My job is very similar to lawyers who work in just about any corporate legal department, except..” Cassidy says. “I love baseball.”

William Buck, the GC of Exxon Mobil Corporation’s Upstream Companies, has a message for corporate legal departments: Do your fair share of pro bono. The new Houston Bar Foundation chair, who specializes in transactional law, says, “I plan to remind all companies that we in-house lawyers also have pro bono obligations. We in-house lawyers are more than capable of handling some of these pro bono needs.”