The corporate legal department at Phillips 66 played the role of Oppenheimer last week at the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, as the firm’s in-house lawyers won or were finalists in one-fourth of the categories, including General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department and M&A Transaction of the Year.
More than 220 corporate in-house counsel and their outside lawyers gathered last Wednesday night at the Four Seasons to recognize more than two-dozen general counsel and senior in-house counsel who achieved extraordinary success during the past year. Half of the dozen award categories were competitive, meaning there were two or more finalists. The winners in those competitive categories are:
- The award for the Houston M&A Transaction of the Year went to Phillips 66 Deputy General Counsel Robert Task, P66 Managing Counsel Maine Goodfellow and P66 Assistant Deputy GC Jenarae Garland, and their outside counsel at Bracewell;
- The Houston Business Litigation of the Year Award went to First Reserve General Counsel Erica Radcliffe and her lawyers at Vinson & Elkins;
- McDermott Chief Legal Officer Rachel Clingman received the Houston General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (6-20 attorneys);
- The Houston General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department went to Cardinal System Holdings General Counsel Sara-Ashley Moreno;
- LyondellBasell Lead Litigation Counsel Brittany Ringel Walton was honored with the Houston Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department (21 or more lawyers);
- The Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion went to Sean Jamieson, general counsel at Spire Resources.
This was the sixth year that the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook partnered for the Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
Fifteen judges — mostly members of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and past Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipients — reviewed more than 60 nominations for 14 award categories. There were no nominations this year for the Creative Partnership Award or for the Legal Innovation Award.
The Lawbook and ACC Houston diverted from its normal practice of honoring an in-house lawyer for the Houston Pro Bono and Public Service Award by honoring retired Vinson & Elkins partner Harry Reasoner, who made pro bono a prominent part of his six-decade career.
The other Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipients for 2024 are:
- Phillips 66 General Counsel Vanessa Allen Sutherland won the Houston General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department (21 or more lawyers) award.
- Vopak General Counsel Hugo Testé for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (2-5 lawyers);
- DistributionNOW Deputy General Counsel Jordan Chester for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (6-20 lawyers);
- Virage Capital Management Director of Litigation Funding Leslie Hillendahl for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (five lawyers or fewer);
- Cindy Dinh, corporate counsel for Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, for Houston Rookie of the Year;
- Tana Pool, general counsel of global seismic data analytics company TGS, received the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.
To read exclusive profiles of this year’s finalists and honorees, click here.
