Jennyfer Gray knows what it means to take it to the limit one more time. As interim general counsel of Tuesday Morning, Gray is helping lead the Dallas-based retailer through turbulent times. Facing severe economic challenges like most retailers, Tuesday Morning and Gray went through multiple financings and credit facilities, including a $110 million asset-based loan, and the transition to a new executive leadership team and corporate board. In recognition of Gray’s achievements, she is the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award recipient for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
Mark Berg & Barry Thomas: Improving Lives Across Texas
Barry Thomas and Mark Berg have many things in common. They’re both M&A lawyers by training. They’ve both handled multibillion-dollar deals in the oil patch together as high-ranking colleagues at Pioneer Natural Resources. Beyond their professional accolades, they’re both committed to public service. Berg has helped Dallas CASA significantly grow in order to achieve its goal of serving every abused and neglected child in need on the Dallas County child welfare docket. And Thomas volunteers his free time serving as general counsel of the Permian Strategic Partnership, a coalition of 20 oil and gas companies committed to improving the roads, workforce, healthcare, schools and housing of the rural West Texas and New Mexico communities that the Permian Basin encompasses.
What else do they have in common? Tonight, they’ll both will walk a stage in the George W. Bush Presidential Center to accept the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Pro Bono and Public Service Award.
What’s City Electric Supply’s Denton Muse Doing Today? Closing a Deal
In 2022, Denton Muse negotiated, drafted and closed more than 300 real estate acquisitions and commercial leasing transactions for City Electric Supply and its 642 locations in North America. That’s more than corporate law firms with hundreds of attorneys. As a result of Muse’s handiwork, City Electric significantly reduced leasing costs in 2022 and also increased the company’s negotiation leverage throughout the term. The Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook have named Muse as a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (five lawyers or less).
Kelli Roach: A ‘Ferocious Advocate’ for Black Mountain Sand
Kelli Roach became Black Mountain Sand’s first GC in July 2020, when the frac sand provider had closed two of its five mines and let go of half of its 500 people because of the Covid pandemic. Roach focused on how she would strategically help her new employer the fastest. She identified contract breaches and filed lawsuits, which led to $54 million being added to Black Mountain Sand’s bottom line. At the same time, she led the defense to have the company dismissed from a tragic wrongful death lawsuit, renegotiated several commercial contracts at considerably more favorable terms and implemented Black Mountain Sand’s first ESG program.
Citing these accomplishments, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Roach as a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.
GC Bill Dunne Helps Civitas Navigate ‘Tricky Waters’
Every day, Bill Dunne deals with overlapping, even conflicting, interests as the GC of Civitas Capital Management — deal team members wanting to close on our latest endeavor, our international team needing immediate answers on the intricacies of marketing laws in up to 40 countries. But Dunne worked day and night for several months reading and analyzing hundreds and hundreds of pages of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and guidelines to successfully register Civitas as an official investment advisor.
The achievement had a huge impact on Citivas’ business operations. As a result, Dunne is a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.
MB2 Dental’s Jonathan Koh is ‘The Fixer’
Jonathan Koh won his first court case in the sixth grade when he was the prosecutor in a mock trial in a speeding case. He was hooked on becoming a lawyer. Two decades later, Koh is the assistant GC at MB2 Dental, which provides support to more than 500 dental practices in 41 states. His mornings start with questions from dentists on the East Coast offices on payroll taxes and the day ends with doctors in California asking about California’s Covid paid sick leave law. Plus, he implemented a process that allows him to get involved early when conflicts arise between the dentists and patients and insurance providers, which helped avoid scores of lawsuits.
“I’m the fixer of the legal department, so I usually hear from people on their bad days,” Koh said. He is also a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
For GM’s Juli Greenberg, DEI is ‘Part of her DNA’
General Motors counsel Juli Greenberg was sitting in a conference room in 2018 getting CLE ethics credit when everything changed. What she learned sent her on a quest to create DEI initiatives and do her part to improve the diversity pipeline in the legal profession.
Fast forward nearly five years, and the product of Greenberg’s work has reached hundreds of people from every stage of the pipeline. She’s also the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
Forney Corp.’s Chelsea Casiano’s ‘Attention to Detail is Impeccable’
Only three years out of law school at the University of North Texas, Chelsea Casiano is the general counsel of the Forney Corporation, a 95-year-old Addison-based manufacturer of front-end combustion components. In 2022, she negotiated more than 100 contracts, implemented a new signature designation policy, updated the company’s noncompete agreements and wrote the business’ new human rights policy to regulate compliance internally and to set expectations for its suppliers and vendors.
“Chelsea has been amazing,” said Forney CEO Tom Demrick. Casiano is also a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year, which goes to lawyers who have been in-house counsel for three years or less.
OpTic Gaming’s Johnathan Jordan Handles ‘Everything Under the Sun and Then Some’
Back in middle school, Johnathan Jordan played Halo, a military science fiction game set in the 26th century in which the player controls a technologically created super soldier to battle evil aliens. But young Jordan also knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. Never did he think the two passions — law and gaming — would come together.
Last year, Jordan became the first GC in Texas of an esports and gaming business, OpTic Gaming. The legal work he has done since has been groundbreaking and the reason he is a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year. This is his call to duty.
Ocwen Financial’s Joel Israel is ‘The Gold Standard’
Joel Israel oversees about 500 mortgage foreclosure-related lawsuits as the assistant GC at mortgage giant Ocwen Financial. He tries to foster a compassionate approach as most are single-plaintiff cases with customers in unfortunate financial distress. But there are lawsuits by those abusing the system, fabricating facts and just seeking nuisance settlements.
Using innovative research techniques and an aggressive litigation strategy, Israel and his outside counsel at Womble convinced California judges to reject two such lawsuits. In doing so, they sent a message that frivolous litigation would not be tolerated. They also are finalists for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
American Airlines’ Charlene Wandrisco and Bruce Wark are ‘Masters of Law and Airlines’
American Airlines Deputy GC Bruce Wark has had a three-decade complex, love-hate relationship with sometimes business partner, many times courtroom opponent online ticket distributor Sabre, including two vigorously fought litigation matters last year. American Senior Counsel Charlene Wandrisco, whose office is a 90-second walk down the hall from Wark, spent 2022 helping redesign the airline’s loyalty program, implementing a new partnership with Microsoft that streamlined American’s internal operations and improved customer travel experiences for customers and worked to strengthen collaboration with TSA to create a mobile identification pre-check.
The legal work of the two lawyers, a litigator and a dealmaker, achieved major successes that made American into a better global airline. The result is that Wandrisco and Wark are recipients of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Keurig Dr Pepper’s Legal Department – ‘$1 Billion Profit Center’
This is the story of three lawyers at Keurig Dr Pepper — Jim Baldwin, Anthony Shoemaker and Stephen Cole — who took a huge risk in leading a normally conservative, litigation-adverse company in suing a business partner, the business partner’s profanity-spewing founder and Dr Pepper’s biggest and universally feared competitor, Coca-Cola. Along with outside counsel at Gibson Dunn, they took a highly complex dispute and boiled it down to one sentence in a contract. By the end, they had opposing counsel pleading with the judge to push for a settlement weeks before trial. The result: a $925 million victory and a finalist for the 2022 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
PepsiCo Foods’ Adrienne Mosley: ‘Out of our poverty came a great, life-changing blessing’
Adrienne Brown Mosley’s mother did not have money for a present for her 18th birthday. Instead, she convinced a lawyer in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to allow young Adrienne to follow her for the day. “This shadowing day changed the entire trajectory of my life,” Mosley said.
Mosley is now the deputy GC of PepsiCo Foods North America, where she has developed initiatives to build a culture of compliance in a more stringent antitrust regulatory environment, helped enact innovative product partnerships to address supply chain challenges and worked to reinvigorate the corporate giant’s diversity and inclusion efforts through innovative mentoring programs.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Mosley the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards Finalists: Debbie Bartlett, Juli Greenberg, Bill Dunne and Kelli Roach
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have announced the finalists for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion, General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department and the Lifetime Achievement Award. The legal departments include Texas Instruments, General Motors, Black Mountain Sand and Civitas Capital Group.
2022 DFW Finalists Announced for Senior Counsel of the Year, Rookie of the Year
In-house counsel at American Airlines, City Electric Supply, Forney Corporation, MB2 Dental and OpTic Gaming are finalists to be honored for the 2022 Dallas Fort Worth Corporate Counsel Awards. Each year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook recognize about two-dozen corporate in-house counsel for the extraordinary legal work and leadership they demonstrated during the previous year.
ACC-DFW, Texas Lawbook Announce PepsiCo Foods, Pioneer Natural Resources, Tuesday Morning Legal Departments to be Honored
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Thursday the second group of finalists for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. On the final Thursday of each January, ACC DFW and The Lawbook honor corporate in-house counsel who faced extraordinary challenges during the prior year and achieved tremendous successes on behalf of their clients and the legal profession. Today, we announce the finalists for DFW Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department, DFW GC of the Year for a Small Legal Department, and the DFW Pro Bono and Public Service Award.
Texas Lawbook, ACC-DFW to Honor GCs at McAfee, Celanese, HF Sinclair, Keurig Dr Pepper, Ocwen Financial
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Tuesday the first round of finalists and a few winners for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. Each year, ACC DFW and The Lawbook honor leading lawyers within the corporate in-house community who scored extraordinary successes and had a substantive impact on the legal profession and the business community in North Texas.
The Lawbook announces the finalists and winners in four different categories: Business Litigation of the Year; M&A Deal of the Year; General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department; and General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Pros and Cons of Arbitration vs. Jury Trial for Employers
Should employers consider the inclusion of a mandatory arbitration clause in their employment agreements? This article addresses some of the pros and cons of an employer’s use of an arbitration clause rather than having its disputes litigated before a jury.
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In-House & Outside Lawyers Talk Need, Best Practices at Pro Bono Summit
A group of high-ranking in-house counsel and private practice pro bono specialists swapped stories and methods for how they’ve been able to achieve pro bono engagement and keep their lawyers incentivized to give back through pro bono. Plus, the in-house lawyers discussed their positions on partnering with law firms on pro bono projects.
At HPE, Pro Bono is ‘A Bedrock Principle’
For the 250-member legal team at Hewlett Packard Enterprises, pro bono is in their DNA. The corporate lawyers worked with Baker McKenzie and Texas Appleseed to update a legal handbook for homeless teenagers, helped veterans draft wills, worked with victims of domestic violence, assisted immigrant youth in obtaining DACA status and launched a Texas Virtual Legal Clinic for Youth. Citing HPE’s extraordinary successes, the Texas General Counsel Forum is honoring the Houston technology company with the 2022 Magna Stella Award for Outstanding Pro Bono.
How Mary Kay Maintains its Roots in DEI
Sixty percent of the people in Mary Kay’s legal department are persons of color. Eighty percent are women. Forty percent speak more than one language. Nearly six decades after the Addison-based company was founded, the cosmetic giant remains a model of diversity and inclusion. The Texas General Counsel Forum is honoring Mary Kay GC Julia Simon and senior managing counsel Naisha Covarrubias with the Magna Stella Award for Outstanding Diversity.