Nick Munro recently went through boxes of his childhood keepsakes when he came across a third-grade writing assignment.
“I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I responded by saying I wanted to be a lawyer for a professional sports team,” Munro said. “It was pretty neat to see it all these years later.”
Childhood dreams do come true.
In the 27 years since, Munro has served as associate general counsel for the San Antonio Spurs and now as associate senior counsel at Frost Bank, where he has worked on major sponsorships and agreements between the San Antonio-based financial institution and two of Texas’ professional sports teams: the Spurs and the Texas Rangers.
Munro’s successes at Frost go well beyond professional sports deals. He led a comprehensive rewrite of the bank’s online banking agreement and now plays a key role in addressing Frost’s artificial intelligence efforts.
Outside the office, Munro serves on the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Junior Livestock Auction Committee, where he facilitates fundraising, secures sponsorships and helps enhance VIP engagement to support youth exhibitors and the educational and scholarship opportunities the auctions generate. He said this work reinforces the Rodeo’s role as a vital institution for Texas youth development and agricultural heritage.
“The company is expanding and has entered into high-profile sponsorships and partnerships,” said Frost Bank General Counsel C.E. Rhodes. “Nick has done a great job helping Frost navigate through those opportunities. Everyone enjoys working with Nick, as he has quiet confidence about him and works extremely hard to deliver a practical solution to help the business achieve its objectives.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Munro as the 2026 San Antonio Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 20 attorneys).
Munro and a dozen other corporate in-house counsel will be honored Thursday at the 2026 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Awards. Rhodes will also be honored with the 2026 San Antonio GC of the Year award.
“Nick’s record shows a corporate counsel who does not simply manage legal risk but actively enables business strategy, positions his organization for technological change, invests in the professional development of his peers, and contributes to the community that sustains both the bank and the city,” said Dykema senior counsel Jake Vollebregt. “He operates with quiet effectiveness across traditional commercial work and cutting-edge AI governance, across high-profile negotiations and internal counseling, and across the corporate and civic spheres.”
“In an era when in-house counsel are expected to be both guardians and business partners, Nick Munro consistently delivers on both mandates,” said Vollebregt, who nominated Munro for the award.
“Nick’s work produces concrete outcomes,” he said. “He negotiated high-profile agreements that expand Frost’s reach, modernized legal frameworks that reduce long-term risk, created AI governance structures that support responsible innovation, and strengthened ACC programming and youth-focused community initiatives while remaining grounded in the careful, detail-oriented counseling that effective in-house practice demands.”
Munro was born and raised in El Paso. His father owned and operated a business in town for 45 years, while his mother was a stay-at-home mom who was active in her children’s education and activities.
On the personal front, Munro and his wife, Tyler, also welcomed their first child — a son named Maverick — into their lives this year.
A Transformative Spurs Externship
After earning a bachelor’s degree in sports and fitness management at the University of Texas, Munro earned a law degree from Texas Tech University School of Law in 2015.
“The biggest event that impacted my career was getting selected as an extern with [the general counsel’s office] of the San Antonio Spurs in my third year of law school,” he said. “I almost certainly would not have gotten a full-time job with the Spurs straight out of law school and likely would not have ended up in San Antonio.”
“Getting the externship with the Spurs and proving that I was a valuable addition to the team set me on the path that I am on today,” he said.
After passing the Texas bar examination in 2015, the Spurs hired Munro first as a legal assistant, then as legal counsel and eventually promoted him to associate GC.
“I grew up a Spurs fan, so it was even more of a success to be working for a team that I grew up rooting for,” he said. “Because the legal department was so small when I joined, I had to learn quickly and had a lot on my plate. I wouldn’t have had the success I had without the support of our GC, Bobby Perez, as well as Stephanie Ashe. Their guidance was instrumental in helping me develop into the lawyer I am today.”
Ashe is the associate director of risk and benefits with the Spurs.
Munro’s accomplishments with the Spurs include being involved in transactions such as the creation of the San Antonio FC USL club, the rollout of the jersey patch sponsorship in the NBA, the construction of The Rock at La Cantera and the naming rights agreement with Frost.
Munro said he was still with Spurs’ legal team when the Frost Bank Center naming rights agreement was negotiated and came together in 2023. He helped guide the legal strategy and negotiation, while working with the franchise’s business, marketing and executive leadership teams.
“My responsibility was to help find solutions that protected the Spurs’ interests while enabling a landmark partnership to move forward,” he said. “The biggest challenge wasn’t necessarily the legal issues themselves. It was bringing together a variety of business, operational, branding and risk considerations into a framework that worked for everyone.”
“What I enjoyed most was helping create something that will be part of San Antonio’s landscape for many years,” he said. “It’s not often that lawyers have the opportunity to work on a project where you can literally see the result every time you drive past the arena or attend an event.”
The Transition to Frost Bank
Joining Frost in 2024 was “partially due to serendipitous timing,” Munro said.
He spotted a job posting while browsing LinkedIn and decided to submit an application.
“I respected Frost as an organization and had built relationships with a few Frost employees due to the Spurs and Frost partnership that dates back to the early days of the Spurs franchise,” he said. “Similar to the Spurs, Frost’s culture aligned perfectly with my beliefs and upbringing, which made it an attractive place to work. I was looking for a new challenge, and the opportunity presented itself. I took the leap and am proud of what I have accomplished and learned since making the move.”
Frost Bank Associate General Counsel Chris Castillo said Munro is even-keeled, which helps in the difficult or stressful situations that inevitably arise.
“Learning the banking business has been a big challenge since Nick previously worked in sports and entertainment, but his work ethic, humility and curiosity have helped him tackle it successfully,” Castillo said. “His biggest successes at Frost have been leading updates to some of our most important customer-facing enterprise agreements and holding the pen on some of our most significant sponsorship agreements.”
“What really differentiates Nick is that, unlike most lawyers, he isn’t afraid to admit when he doesn’t know something, and he is also good at finding the people and resources to get the answers he needs,” he said. “This combination is his recipe for building trust.”
After joining Frost, Munro took the lead legal role in crafting the agreement with the Texas Rangers that established Frost as the MLB team’s official financial literacy partner.
“The main differences for me were that I was representing Frost Bank and that it was a smaller deal that didn’t involve naming rights,” he said. “Although we are in the early days of the partnership, I am proud of the way it has started and am hopeful that we will remain partners for years to come. If the opportunity arises, it would be great to expand the scope of the agreement in the future as well.”
Munro said his biggest challenge since joining Frost has been “managing the increasing complexity of the environment we operate in.”
“Technology is evolving rapidly, customer expectations are changing, cyber risks continue to grow, and regulatory requirements remain extensive,” he said. “More often than not, all of those factors intersect in a single project.”
Success, he said, cannot be found in saying no but in “helping the business find a path forward that appropriately manages risk.”
“We are increasingly expected to serve as translators between legal requirements, business objectives, risk management considerations and operational realities,” he said. “For me, the most challenging part has been balancing speed and innovation with the responsibility to protect the institution and maintain the trust of our customers and stakeholders.”
Munro said his best day at Frost wasn’t when a major deal was signed or when a project was completed.
“It was the moment I realized I had found an organization whose values aligned with my own,” Munro said. “Frost has a culture of integrity, humility and service that is increasingly rare, and I’ve been fortunate to work with people who genuinely care about doing what’s right for our customers and communities.”
“That’s not to say there haven’t been some exciting milestones along the way,” he noted, “from helping negotiate various partnership agreements to supporting Frost’s AI initiatives and other strategic projects.”
Click here for a Premium Subscriber Q&A with Munro, where he shares what outside counsel should know about working with him.
Seven fun facts
Favorite book: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. It’s just a wonderful story with unforgettable characters. I’ve read it a couple times and enjoyed it just as much the second time as I did the first. I’ll always watch the TV miniseries adaptation if I come across it while browsing channels on the TV.
Favorite music group: The Grateful Dead.
Favorite movie: Pulp Fiction.
Favorite restaurant: Ardovino’s in El Paso — Joanna’s pizza and garden green salad.
Favorite beverage: Frozen Margarita, Tajín rim.
Favorite vacation ever: My honeymoon to Italy and Greece.
Hero in life: My dad. He has set an example for me my entire life, and I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today without him.