Clinton Willett was a teenager when his mother waged a mighty battle against cancer — a fight she heartbreakingly lost.
“Being a lower-middle-class family, I saw the devastating financial implications of such a fight,” said Willett, noting that his father was a career U.S. Postal Service employee. “I knew I had to find a career that would allow me to provide a different lifestyle and comfort level for my family if I worked hard enough.”
Fifteen years later, Lynne Willett would be mighty proud of her son.
Clinton Willett earned a bachelor’s degree from Dallas Baptist University, graduated cum laude from the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law and is now corporate counsel of City Electric Supply in Dallas.
“Clinton has successfully risen from a driven new attorney to the ‘go-to’ finance, corporate structure and IP counsel for the C-suite and other top business leaders of our multibillion-dollar company,” said City Electric Supply Chief Legal Officer Meg Shockley. “Because he has demonstrated a remarkable ability to handle international matters, [Clinton] now oversees Australia and is integral in the development of our UK legal team.”
Shockley confided to The Texas Lawbook that she is promoting Willett to global corporate counsel in 2024 — even before he turns 30.
“This sounds cliché, but every day is my best day working at CES,” Willett told The Lawbook. “Since our team is so new and small, we have been working very hard to accomplish objectives related to service and growth. We are realizing these accomplishments regularly because of everyone’s hard work and Meg Shockley’s leadership.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook congratulate Willett for being one of two finalists for the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for Rookie of the Year.
ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will honor the finalists and announce the winners at the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Jan. 25 at the George W. Bush Institute.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: The Lawbook visited with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Rookie of the Year finalist and UNT Dallas College of Law alumnus about law school recruiting and what outside counsel should know about him.
“Clinton is a powerhouse attorney who has become indispensable to City Electric,” said Shockley, who was one of three individuals who nominated Willett for the award. “Only in his second year in-house, in 2023 he handled over $1 billion in complex finance deals and is now involved in City’s global restructured financing. He has revamped and improved the global handling of City Electric’s intellectual property and is effective at developing productive relationships with executives worldwide.”
Shockley said that City Electric’s CFO, Phil Flaherty, entrusts Willett with “handling complex global financing exceeding $1 billion” and that Willett worked with outside law firms to save the company more than $250,000 in legal fees last year alone.
Willett introduced and implemented a “robust AI-based contract management system, which is enabling our company to generate and store all real estate, commercial, IT and other contracts in an efficient system that protect City Electric,” she said.
Artoush Varshosaz, who co-leads the global litigation practice at K&L Gates, said Willett is detailed oriented and always well-prepared.
“Clinton researches the issues thoroughly and works hard to educate himself on novel issues and specific nuances of the law,” said Varshosaz, who also nominated Willett for DFW Rookie of the Year. “He’s not afraid to get into the weeds when necessary, all while maintaining an eye on the big picture for his business. He exercises judgment and poise well above his experience and communicates clearly and with confidence.”
“However, Clinton also does not bear the burden of a large ego and is always respectful, so he’s easy to integrate into any team,” Varshosaz said.
Willett was born and raised in Arlington — “He’s an Arlington guy. He’s lived in Arlington his whole life and recently started his own family there. He cares deeply for the city, Texas Rangers baseball and all the awesome craft breweries around town,” Varshosaz said — and he loved playing the trumpet throughout junior and high school.
Willett enjoyed watching Law & Order, Criminal Minds and other crime shows growing up.
“Inevitably, there would be a lawyer involved — whether it be criminal defense, prosecutor [and] — I always thought those people were responsible for the final resolution, and I liked the idea of having tangible accomplishments,” Willett said. “This is opposed to how I witnessed my dad talk about his job being mundane and repetitive but paid the bills. I knew I needed a career where I could look back at pivotal moments or accomplishments to be fulfilled.”
In college, Willett rediscovered the law during courses on music publishing, copyright, business and public law, which included watching a couple of hours of court proceedings at the George Allen Civil Courthouse in downtown Dallas.
Willett was hired by a Dallas-based international legal boutique in early 2021.
“I was having a second child and realized that I loved being a father far more than I enjoyed being a lawyer,” he said. “I knew that a change of pace in my work life would be required to be as present of a father as I wanted to be.”
In November 2021, he joined the City Electric Supply legal team and has become a star.
Willett said his biggest challenge has been “learning the nuances of our products and business and our business leaders’ preferences.”
Willett actually spent a few days working in a couple of City Electric Supply locations and he cultivated friendships with long-term employees to help educate him when he is confronted with unfamiliar products.
“Clinton is eager to take on the most challenging projects and perform with truly impressive accuracy and speed,” said K&L Gates partner Sana Hakim, who also nominated Willett for the Rookie of the Year award.
“I am a firm believer that good counsel, in any situation, cannot exist without some level of expertise in the non-legal aspects of your client’s business,” he said. “I was wholly unfamiliar with electrical products and quickly realized that I needed to become as much of an expert as possible to provide well-considered counsel and recommendations.”
Some of Willett’s biggest accomplishments during the past two years at City Electric Supply include:
- Implementing a company-wide contract lifecycle management platform;
- Securing a registered trademark for City Electric Supply’s primary logo;
- Bringing all corporate finance work in-house; and
- Establishing a robust extern program through SMU law school.
“We suspect Clinton’s greatest successes are those most people will never see or fully understand,” Varshosaz said. “Under Meg Shockley’s leadership, the legal team at City Electric has been hand-picked and charged with materially expanding its size and scope of responsibilities over the global business.”
“As the department has grown in size and sophistication, a lot of the new responsibilities fell onto Clinton’s shoulders,” Varshosaz said. “He has taken the lead on several areas of law and supports business lines with which he previously had little to no experience, including international legal matters. He never complained or shied away from the challenge. He stepped up to the challenge and showed himself to be a critical component of his department.”