The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have selected Honeywell International and Phillips 66 as the finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year.
For 2023, a year that recorded some huge mergers and acquisitions, an independent panel of judges selected by The Lawbook and ACC Houston cited the extraordinary legal work of the in-house counsel and outside lawyers on Phillip 66’s $3.8 billion take-private transaction of DCP Midstream and Honeywell’s $670 million acquisition of Compressor Controls Corporation.
ACC Houston and The Lawbook have partnered for five years partner on the annual Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognize the hard work, legal successes and leadership skills of general counsel and senior counsel at Houston area businesses. This year, ACC Houston and The Lawbook received more than 60 submissions.
The M&A Transaction of the Year award is one of three that honors the work of the in-house legal department and the lawyers and law firms they hired to work on the deal.
Individual finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporation Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year are:
- Gindi Vincent, general counsel for Honeywell International’s integrated supply chain and procurement, and its outside lawyers at Arnold & Porter. Dionne Hamilton, Honeywell GC for Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions, nominated Vincent for the award.
- Phillips 66 Deputy General Counsel Robert Task, P66 Managing Counsel Maine Goodfellow and P66 Assistant Deputy GC Jerarae Garland, and their outside counsel at Bracewell.
ACC Houston and The Lawbook will honor the finalists and announce the winner at the annual Houston Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 15, at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston.
The Lawbook and ACC Houston will announce the finalists for the remaining categories during the next week, including general counsel of the year, senior counsel of the year, business litigation of the year and achievement in pro bono and public service.
In-depth profiles of each finalist will be published in April and May.
Net proceeds from the Houston Corporate Counsel Awards goes to fund The Texas Lawbook’s full-time pro bono, public service and diversity reporter and writer. More details can be found at TexasLawbookFoundation.org.
The Texas Lawbook previously announced the finalists in two other categories. The finalists for 2024 Business Litigation of the Year, which also recognizes in-house counsel and the law firms they employed on the matter, are:
- First Reserve General Counsel Erica Radcliffe, who was nominated by Vinson & Elkins;
- Forum Energy General Counsel John Ivascu, who was nominated by Yetter Coleman; and
- SilverBow Resources Associate General Counsel Jennifer Cadena, who was nominated by the AZA law firm.
Also previously announced were three finalists for the category of Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. They are:
- Adel Sander, Ascend Performance deputy general counsel, who was nominated by Foley partner Rachel Steely;
- Hector Pineda, Shell USA associate general counsel for downstream and renewables, who was nominated by Shell senior counsel Eric Maddock; and
- Sean Jamieson, general counsel at Spire Resources, who was nominated by Vinson & Elkins partner Quentin Smith.