(July 27) – Paul Leslie, the executive vice president and general counsel at Parkland Hospital in Dallas for the last eight years, is returning to private practice at Estes Thorne & Carr, the women-owned boutique announced on Thursday.
Leslie, a past winner of the General Counsel Forum’s Magna Stella Award for Outstanding General Counsel in the government/non-profit category, led a legal team of nine attorneys and 19 support staff at Parkland. During his tenure at the public hospital, he managed large, complex transactions including the construction of Parkland’s new $1.3 billion facility and the formation of the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation.
At Estes Thorne & Carr, Leslie will focus his law practice on health care regulatory compliance and litigation.
“I had climbed all of the mountains for me at Parkland and feel I still have some runway left,” Leslie says. “Parkland is set up for another 30 years of storied success.
“I can’t say enough great things about Parkland. What a great healthcare operation and mission for North Texas in serving the poor and indigent.”
The St. Mary’s University School of Law graduate knows his new firm well. When Leslie was named the interim GC of Parkland in 2010, he was practicing at Estes Thorne, which was then called Taber Estes Thorne & Carr. Leslie knows firm founders Dawn Estes, Jessica Thorne and Lori Carr from when they all worked at Gardere together.
“We’ve known Paul a long time. We know what a great attorney he is and how easy he is to work with,” Thorne, managing partner of the 14-lawyer firm, says.
“It’s a natural fit and exciting opportunity for us. Paul has mentored me for many years.”
The women-owned boutique was a go-to firm for Leslie during his tenure at Parkland.
“I know if I can associate myself with a group [like Estes Thorne & Carr] I’m giving myself a big advantage,” he says. “They know how to deliver value to clients.”
Leslie started his career out of law school as the first full-time briefing attorney for James A. Baker, who later became a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, at the Dallas Court of Appeals. He then got a job at the insurance defense law firm Touchstone Bernays, where he worked under Webber Bell.
“I lucked out and got myself surrounded by successful people who exuded integrity,” Leslie says.
After gaining significant courtroom experience at Touchstone, Leslie lateraled to Gardere, where he later became the firm’s hiring partner.
Leslie left Gardere in 2005 for his first in-house position as associate general counsel at Tenet Healthcare, which was then a Fortune 250 company. He says he is attracted to the challenges that come with the ever-changing regulatory and legal landscape in the healthcare industry.