Kathleen Benner’s first job out of college, armed with a marketing degree, was traveling from manufacturing facility to manufacturing facility, trying to sell corrugated boxes to purchasing managers.
“Those environments were challenging for a female. And as a woman in my 20s, I was constantly combating sexual harassment,” Benner said. “After about a year, I decided that if I wanted a more respectable and sustainable environment, I’d need a career change.”
Benner went to a bookstore and bought a book about whether to seek an MBA or a JD.
“I didn’t even know what a JD was, but I read the book in one day and decided to go to law school,” she told The Texas Lawbook. “That decision was validated almost immediately. From the first day of class, I enjoyed engaging in rigorous debate with people who shared similar interests and talents. That very day, I knew I had found my people.”
Three decades later, Benner is the associate general counsel at Children’s Health System of Texas, where she provides strategic and legal oversight for the new $5.4 billion pediatric campus in Dallas and guides the organization’s approach to legal services for labor and employment matters for 10,000 team members.
Benner said she joined Children’s Health a decade ago because she “wanted to be part of building something.”
“In-house provides the added benefit of seeing the work come to life,” she said. “Representing a mission-based nonprofit pediatric health system has been a game changer. I have never stayed anywhere for 10 years before, and I have never been prouder of my work.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook have named Benner as one of two finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 20 attorneys).
ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will celebrate the DFW Corporate Counsel Award finalists and announce the winners at the awards event on Jan. 29.
“Kathleen’s leadership extends across some of the organization’s most complex and high-impact initiatives,” said Children’s Health Chief Legal Officer Amy Yeager, who nominated Benner for the award. “She serves as the legal lead for construction matters related to the new $5.4 billion, 4.9 million-square-foot pediatric campus in Dallas — one of the largest and most transformative health care projects in the country.”
“Kathleen has led efforts to establish processes for contracting, governance, regulatory compliance and risk allocation, while leading all major legal workstreams associated with this landmark project,” Yeager said. “Under her leadership, construction documents were finalized, construction began, and the project is now moving into an owner-procurement phase involving nearly $1 billion in supply-chain contracts. As of November 2025, the legal team managed $700 million in contracts, with another $1 billion expected by the end of 2025.”
Michelle Rieger, a shareholder at Winstead, said that Benner is “curious, tenacious, calm under pressure and always prepared.”
“Whether we are in a Zoom call or in a room full of people, she is the one framing the issue and then listening to the pros and cons of the action plan,” Rieger said. “She is the first person to ask the pointed question about legal issues and options and considers the information provided to her, balancing that with her own knowledge and thoughts. She will keep asking questions and leading the debate until the room settles on the best course of action for CHST.”
“It’s a great environment, and she’s very much like a professor — prodding, listening, asking, confirming, supporting,” she said. “Yes, sometimes things can get heated, but she’s the one bringing everyone back around to ‘What’s best for the mission?’”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Kathleen Benner discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Rieger said she has known and worked with Benner for more than a decade, and the new pediatric campus is the counsel’s biggest success to date.
“It is an enormous project involving hundreds of people designing, constructing, outfitting and preparing what will be a fantastic addition to the Dallas community,” she wrote in an email to The Lawbook. “Kathleen directs and supports a number of different teams through the business and legal process and keeps everyone focused on the ultimate mission: the kids and their parents who will someday use this hospital. It’s not an easy process, particularly since — in addition to internal legal and business teams — she’s working with outside businesses and professionals from all walks of life and fitting all of the moving parts together. And she does it all in addition to her other duties at CHST.”
Benner was born in Chicago and grew up in its western suburbs. Her father started a business that sold equipment to fire and police departments. In fact, he sold the first bulletproof vest to the Chicago Police Department. Her mother worked at an elementary school and later in life went into real estate.
“I grew up in a family shaped by entrepreneurship, independence and hard work,” she said. “My father was an entrepreneur in the truest sense, and he instilled in me a strong work ethic and a deep respect for self-reliance. He also made no secret of the fact that he didn’t particularly like lawyers, which makes my eventual career path somewhat ironic. He now considers me his ‘revenge on the legal community.’”
Benner earned her bachelor’s degree in business in 1991 from Northern Illinois University and then her law degree from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law in 1996. After practicing corporate transactional law at a midsized law firm in Chicago, she opened her own law firm while her children were still young so she could “balance my professional and personal life.”
A few years later, she joined a healthcare startup as its legal counsel and a part-owner.
“This experience was incredibly rewarding and introduced me to the world of health law,” she said. “Even though the startup ultimately failed, it was a very rewarding chapter in my career and introduced me to the fact that healthcare was not only an industry but an area of specialized law practice. And then, I was in love.”
She then returned to school, earning her master’s degree in health law and policy from Loyola University Chicago in 2013.
That year, Benner and her family moved to Dallas, where she became the chief privacy officer at LifeCare, a long-term acute care network of a dozen hospitals across nine states.
In 2015, she received a call from then-Children’s Health General Counsel Larry Faust recruiting her to join Children’s legal team.
“This transition allowed me to focus on my true passion — health law in a mission-driven organization. Win-win,” she said.
Yeager, Children’s CLO, said Benner’s “influence also extends into public health.”
“Kathleen has been deeply involved in initiatives that address the social determinants of health, shaping the legal strategies that protect and expand the system’s equity-focused programs amid an evolving federal policy environment,” Yeager said. “Her leadership bridges legal and health care institutions, advocating for improved outcomes for all children.”
“Kathleen’s professional experience is shaped by her lived experiences as a parent navigating complex systems as she raised three children with disabilities, including public education, healthcare and community resources,” she said. “She understands where these systems succeed and where they fall short, and she applies that insight to her work, advocating for solutions that expand access to care and foster greater understanding across the communities that Children’s Health serves.”
Benner said having three children with learning disabilities has definitely impacted her life.
“Navigating the discovery, advocacy and institutional systems related to their disabilities fundamentally changed me,” she said. “It made me acutely aware of how systems impact families, a perspective that deeply informs my work in pediatric healthcare.”
Jamie B. Ashton, a partner at Ogletree Deakins, said Benner “combines legal excellence with business acuity in a way that is rare and extraordinarily effective.”
“She is fiercely protective of the institution’s mission and reputation — one of my favorite things about her,” Ashton said. “Yet she never loses sight of operational realities and long-term value creation. She does not just address an issue; she learns from litigation and advisory matters and implements those lessons to improve future outcomes.”
Ashton said Benner “models collaboration and clarity.”
“She treats outside counsel as true partners,” she said. “A call with Kathleen is much more than her listening and agreeing to a planned strategy on a litigation or other matter. It is a true collaborative discussion, Socratic exchange of ideas, challenge to the most obvious course of action and dissection of all possible options before execution. Her communication with outside counsel and others is direct, transparent and empathetic, which builds trust across teams. She elevates those around her, insists on high standards and makes space for debate that produces better outcomes for Children’s Health.”
Benner said her biggest challenges over the past 18 months have included negotiating and executing of the ground lease for its new pediatric campus.
“It is an 80-year lease for 34 acres in the center of the Southwestern Medical District,” she said. “It took aligning diverse stakeholder priorities and gaining trust through collaboration. Additionally, the rapid rollout of federal executive orders beginning in January required immediate and sustained attention. The first quarter of the year was marked by intensive study, assessment, planning and execution across multiple domains.
“The executive orders touching on DEI-related initiatives were particularly complex, given their intersection with organizational culture,” she said. “Importantly, they created a clear prioritization and cadence for reviewing employee engagement efforts. This process brought stakeholders together to ensure clarity, consistency and continued effectiveness of employee work groups, while remaining firmly grounded in the organization’s longstanding cultural values.”
Benner’s coworker, Children’s Health Associate GC Shannon Couffer, said Benner “approaches complex issues with clarity and precision, ensuring solutions are both practical and strategic.”
“Kathleen has played a pivotal role in navigating high-stakes legal issues and structuring innovative agreements that advance Children’s Health’s mission and strengthen strategic partnerships with UT Southwestern,” Couffer said. “Her leadership in streamlining compliance processes for employee resources has significantly reduced risk while enabling operational efficiency. Additionally, when the new presidential administration issued numerous executive orders this year, Kathleen led the analysis and implementation coordination, advising senior leadership on the proper path forward. These achievements have had a lasting impact on both our legal department and the organization as a whole.”
“It’s truly a privilege to work alongside her and see her recognized for the excellence she brings every day,” Couffer said. “Her impact will be felt for years to come — not only through the initiatives she has led but through the culture of integrity, collaboration and innovation she has helped shape.”
Benner said one of her best days during the past decade came in 2020 when her 15-year-old son was injured playing lacrosse.
“I took him to the Children’s Health Andrews Institute for Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in Plano,” she said. “CHAI was one of my earliest major projects. I was on the team that stood up the Andrew’s Institute and then managed negotiation for design and construction contracts which built the Children’s Specialty Center 2 where CHAI lives. Bringing my child there for treatment and experiencing it as a parent was incredibly meaningful. And my son was very proud of me — hence, best day.”
Benner said being a lawyer at a nonprofit healthcare institution is definitely different than being with a for-profit company.
“Success is not measured solely in financial terms,” she said. “Every decision must balance mission, compliance and long-term sustainability. The work is deeply human.”
Fun Facts: Kathleen Benner
- Favorite book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. The book offers four simple but powerful principles for moving through life: be impeccable with your words, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions and always do your best. I’ve found these tenets extraordinarily impactful, both personally and professionally. Focusing on them has genuinely made my life better and has shaped how I lead, communicate, and make decisions.
- Favorite music group: The band Dreams, and for good reason. My husband is the drummer. Dreams was an ’80s hair band that played at my college, which is where we met. The four bandmates are still close friends and still play together occasionally. It’s a reminder that some relationships, and some music, stand the test of time.
- Favorite movie: Contact starring Jodie Foster. It’s thoughtful, curious and explores big questions about faith, science and meaning without easy answers.
- Favorite restaurant: Gloria’s — fajitas, always.
- Favorite beverage: Wine.
- Favorite vacation: A family trip to Italy, where we visited Fornaci di Barga, the town my husband’s family comes from. We traveled with our three children and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary there. We visited the church where my husband’s grandparents were baptized and renewed our vows, surrounded by Italian-speaking family. Our middle son officiated the ceremony. It was meaningful, joyful and unforgettable.
- Hero in life: I admire resilience. My heroes are people, like my three children, who carry burdens that are often invisible and face unique challenges not just daily, but sometimes hourly. They wake up knowing their day will be harder than it needs to be, and that tomorrow may be harder still. Yet they show up. They keep trying. And remarkably, they do so without letting those challenges dampen their spirit or limit their dreams. Anyone who chooses optimism, effort and joy in the face of difficulty is a hero to me.