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GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

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.

Publisher’s Note: This content is premium subscriber thought leadership and is published outside of our paywall.

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.

Blue Peak Fiber Hires Marc Krasney as VP of Legal Affairs

Blue Peak Fiber, a high-speed internet service in the Midwest, has hired Houston lawyer Marc Krasney as its first vice president of legal affairs. Krasney, who started his new position Monday, had served as general counsel at Houston-based internet provider Pure Speed Lightwave for more than seven years.

Jury Says Ex-GC Breached Fiduciary Duty to Client

A Harris County jury recently determined that Matthew Smith, former general counsel to Microvast, had breached his fiduciary duty to his client, and owed it the cost of a laptop computer it purchased for him. The jurors rejected Smith’s argument that he was entitled to $3.4 million based on an oral agreement for stock options.

Q&A with GI Alliance CLO Cheryl Camin Murray

Cheryl Camin Murray and her legal team at DFW-based GI Alliance helped steer the nation’s largest gastroenterology practice through a physician-led buyout in August that valued the company at $2.2 billion. The deal happened a little over a year after Murray, a mother of triplets who built a thriving healthcare practice over more than two decades in private practice, joined GI Alliance as its chief legal officer.

The Texas Lawbook caught up with Murray about the Apollo-backed financing and her move in-house.

SMU Dedman Law’s Innovative Corporate Counsel Externship Program Shines, Thanks to Loyal GC Alums

During the past decade, 700 SMU Dedman law students have done externships at 100 corporate legal departments including Microsoft, Keurig Dr Pepper, Interstate Batteries, Liberty Mutual and Vistra Corp. “The program puts students in real-life situations where they have educational opportunities unobtainable in the classroom,” SMU Dedman assistant dean Stephen Yeager, creator of the externship initiative. An extern with Keurig Dr Pepper witnessed how different flavored drinks were developed. Fluor Corporation let law students visit construction sites. Mary Kay allowed its Russian-born extern to work on a project involving Russian data privacy laws. The Texas Lawbook interviewed a half-dozen SMU alumni who did externships and are now in-house counsel.

Three GCs Provide a Peek into Their Companies’ Diversity Efforts

The top lawyers at Jacobs Engineering Group, Southwest Airlines and El Rancho Supermercado spent Tuesday’s lunch hour speaking about multiple aspects of diversity within the legal profession — what diversity means for them and their organizations, why it’s important in both the in-house and outside counsel context and how it could be improved. The Lawbook attended the event, which was organized by the Dallas Regional Chamber, hosted by UNT Dallas College of Law and sponsored by Munsch Hardt and Carrington Coleman.

Siltstone Capital’s Mani Walia Wins Houston Legal Innovation Award

When the Houston private equity firm Siltstone Capital decided to expand its investment portfolio beyond energy, minerals and real estate into the arena of litigation finance, it had the perfect advisor already in the house. Siltstone General Counsel Mani Walia has leveraged his background in Big Law, plaintiffs’ IP litigation and private equity to create a new model for litigation finance investments. Citing Walia’s creativity and achievements, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook awarded the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Legal Innovation to the Siltstone Capital general counsel.

Archrock GC Stephanie Hildebrandt – A Lifetime of Achievements and a ‘Never-ending Education’

Stephanie Hildebrandt has been an in-house lawyer and general counsel at some of the nation’s largest energy companies and has been involved in some of the biggest and most complicated civil lawsuits and M&A transactions in Texas. For three decades, corporate executives from Texaco and El Paso Energy to Enterprise Products to Archrock have relied on Hildebrandt’s legal knowledge, ability to analyze an issue, wisdom and creativity to develop and execute a successful strategy.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook honor Hildebrandt with the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Q&A: Theresa Terrell

Premium-Only Content: Theresa Terrell discusses what she’d do if she won the Powerball lottery tomorrow and shares pet peeves regarding outside counsel.

Hines Real Estate’s Theresa Terrell is 2022 Houston Senior Counsel of the Year

Theresa Terrell was a rookie litigator at Jackson Walker when she realized the trial practice was not a good fit for her and a partner at the firm
encouraged her to try real estate. “I still remember the first project I worked on was reviewing leasing in connection with a portfolio acquisition of office buildings, and I never looked back,” she said. “I love that real estate transactions can feel non-adversarial – deals can get contentious, but both sides ultimately want to get to a mutually beneficial outcome.”

Sixteen years later, Terrell is still in the real estate law practice – only now as an assistant general counsel at Hines, a privately held real estate investment firm operating in 28 countries with $90 billion of investments under management. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook honor Terrell with the 2022 Houston Senior Counsel of the Year Award.

Schlumberger CLO Dianne Ralston is 2022 Houston General Counsel of the Year

Dianne Ralston had no lawyers in her immediate family and her father, a petroleum engineer, had been deposed a few times and had no fondness for the legal profession. But Ralston found law fascinating. Today, she is the chief legal officer at Schlumberger NV, where she oversees a team of 400 lawyers and compliance professionals operating in 60 countries. During the past two years, Ralston onboarded four new corporate directors, revamped and updated the global corporation’s enterprise risk management processes and dramatically reorganized her legal and compliance teams. ACC Houston and The Lawbook named her the 2022 Houston GC of the Year for a Large Legal Department.

Photo: Sharon Ferranti

Q&A: Schlumberger CLO Dianne Ralston

For Premium Subscribers Ralston, who previously served as the general counsel of two other energy companies – Weatherford International and TechnipFMC – talks about the path she took to the top tier of her profession, as well as her expectations of outside counsel.

Q&A: Niko Lorentzatos

Premium-Only Content: Niko Lorentzatos identifies what he looks for in outside counsel and recalls career mentors. Plus, Lorentzatos performing with his college band Lost in the Supermarket.

Forget Goats, Oasis GC Niko Lorentzatos is ‘The Buffalo’

Nickolas Lorentzatos faced 1,003 days of trials and tribulations and survived. The Oasis Petroleum general counsel had a tumultuous 33 months. There were the deaths of his father and mother. There was the Covid-19 pandemic and the crash of oil prices, which resulted in Oasis filing for bankruptcy. Lorentzatos in 2021 led a series of M&A deals, which included two $6 billion mergers.

“This time period pushed everyone to their limits and beyond, but the Oasis team answered the call time and again,” Lorentzatos told The Texas Lawbook. “I have never seen anything like it before and probably never will again.” The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook named Lorentzatos the 2022 Houston General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

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