They are general counsel who engineered major mergers, acquisitions and restructurings and senior counsel who won bet-the-company litigation. They are corporate in-house counsel preaching diversity and pro bono activities in the legal profession.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honored to announce the final six recipients of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
They are:
- Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department is Harris County Metro Transit Authority Staff Attorney Kylie Loya;
- Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Department is CenterPoint Associate GC Judy Liu;
- Transaction/M&A Deal of the Year goes to Prosperity Bank General Counsel Charlotte Rasche and Bracewell Partner Will Anderson;
- Diversity Achievement of the Year award goes to Pattern Energy Legal Counsel Lauren Haller;
- Creative Partnership of the Year award goes to Chevron Senior Counsel Alyssa Schindler and Norton Rose Fulbright; and
- Rookie of the Year award belongs to Energy Transfer Senior Counsel Jing Bian; and
Last week, the Houston Chapter of ACC and The Texas Lawbook also announced these 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel of the Year winners:
General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department: Mattress Firm GC Kindel Elam Nuno.
General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department: NexTier Oilfield Services GC Kevin McDonald.
General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department: Former Weatherford International GC Christina Ibrahim.
Business Litigation of the Year, which honors the in-house legal department and its outside counsel: Precision Drilling GC Veronica Foley and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Public Service/Pro Bono Award: Motiva Enterprises Assistant GC Keith Calcote.
Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department: Mattress Firm Senior Counsel Daria Russell and Mattress Firm senior counsel Mindy Harper.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ACC Houston leaders and The Texas Lawbook delayed the announcement of the award winners for three months.
In addition, the awards ceremony has been rescheduled to Oct. 1.
Because of the need for social distancing and other requirements due to the coronavirus, the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards event will be limited to the award recipients, event sponsors, leaders of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the award judges and past corporate in-house counsel winners. More details about this year’s awards event will be forthcoming.
In previous years, the Corporate Counsel Awards included multiple finalists for each category and the winners were revealed at the awards event.
Eleven of the 13 recipients this year are women. One-third are lawyers of color. One is a previous finalist and one is a back-to-back winner. Three winners are from the same business. Six of the in-house counsel work at energy related companies. One category has two recipients who happened to be from the same business but (1) were actually nominated separately, (2) were nominated by different individuals, (3) were nominated for different reasons and (4) were selected by two different panels of judges.
More than 90 corporate lawyers were nominated for the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognizes the great legal work of the lawyers in Texas corporate in-house legal departments.
The Texas Lawbook and ACC Houston officials put together six panels of three independent judges that included: Buc-ees Deputy GC Tracy Richardson, Bristow GC Victoria Lazar, CenterPoint Deputy GC Monica Karuturi, Talen Energy GC Andy Wright, Carriage Senior Counsel Mike Elliott, TechnipFMC Legal Director Lisa Wang, BMC GC Irene Kosturakis, UniversalPegasus Chief Counsel Fermeen Fazal and Peak Completion GC Tim Johnson, Hicks Thomas Partner Courtney Ervin, Pye Legal Services CEO Stacy Humphries and Thompson & Knight Partner Walker Brierre.