The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook received a record-smashing number of nominations for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
Individuals and businesses entered 126 separate submissions nominating more than 80 different general counsel, senior in-house lawyers and corporate legal departments for 13 different awards. This year, the ACC-DFW and The Lawbook debut two new categories: Rookie of the Year and Creative Partnership.
The 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony is an evening event set for Thursday, Jan. 24, at the President George W. Bush Institute. More details to come regarding the ceremony. In addition, The Texas Lawbook and the Dallas Business Journal plan to publish in-depth profiles of each of the finalists.
Today, The Lawbook and ACC-DFW are pleased to announce the finalists for half of the categories. The remaining finalists will be unveiled Monday.
The finalists for the 2018 Public Service & Pro Bono Award are:
• Celanese Senior Assistant General Counsel Anne Brooksher-Yen;
• Texas Capital Bank General Counsel Kelly Rentzel; and
• Toyota Motor Managing Counsel Scott Young.
The finalists for the 2018 Senior Counsel for a Small Legal Department are:
• Farmer Bros. Assistant General Counsel Jennifer Brown;
• Ziosk Corporate Counsel Shruti Krishnan; and
• Southern Glazer Wine and Spirits Vice President for Labor and Employment Lauren Mutti.
The finalists for the 2018 Senior Counsel for a Mid-sized Legal Department are:
• Capital One Assistant General Counsel Elizabeth Chostner;
• EnLink Midstream Deputy General Counsel Kendall Talbott; and
• RealPage Deputy General Counsel Cori Ulrich.
The 2018 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department award is a bit different this year. There is only one finalist, but the award actually goes to three corporate in-house who are all at the same company and jointly led their company in some of the biggest litigation wins of 2018. The winner for the honor this year is:
• AT&T Assistant General Counsel Bill Drexel, Senior Legal Counsel Heather New and Assistant General Counsel Jim Meza.
The finalists for the 2018 M&A Deal of the Year, which recognizes the corporate in-house counsel and the outside law firms who handled the transactions, are:
• Capital One Project Spirit Legal Team and outside legal counsel Wachtell, Lipton;
• Energy Transfer Equity restructuring and acquisition of ETP, led by ETE General Counsel Tom Mason, ETP GC Jim Wright and outside legal advisors Vinson & Elkins and Latham & Watkins; and
• RSP Permian General Counsel James Mutrie and Vinson & Elkins for the E&P company’s sale to Concho Resources.
The finalists for the 2018 Diversity of the Year Award are:
• AT&T ’s Senior Counsel Alan Dorantes;
• Toyota General Counsel Sandra Phillips Rogers; and
• Kimberly-Clark Assistant General Counsel Chasity Henry.
There is only one finalist for the newly-created Creative Partnership Award, which recognizes innovative partnerships between corporate legal departments and its outside law firms:
• Toyota Legal One with Norton Rose Fulbright and Winston & Strawn.
The finalists for the General Counsel of the Year, Business Litigation of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced Monday.