Julia Wright was a third grader when she walked into the school library at Foster Elementary looking for a book report subject. She spotted a book on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who had just been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I didn’t know women could be lawyers until I read that book,” Wright told The Texas Lawbook. “At the time, there weren’t many practicing women. I knew then that it was what I wanted to do. Throughout the 1980s, my dad would cut out newspaper articles showing the data of increased enrollment in law schools of women, showing me it was possible.”
Forty-two years later, Wright is the general counsel at ChampionX, an oil field and gas technology solutions company with a $4.7 billion market cap that has witnessed extraordinary growth and changes during her seven years on the job. Since becoming ChampionX’s GC in 2018, Wright has:
- led the company’s spinoff from Dover Corporation;
- led the new company going public;
- built processes and controls for the new entity;
- led the negotiation and closure of the acquisition of the spin-off of Ecolab’s Chemical Technologies business, which successfully closed during COVID in June 2020;
- integrated the two companies amid the regulatory review process; and
- oversaw the expansion of the company’s board of directors.
And for the past year, Wright and her team have been leading their biggest and most important project yet: the $8.2 billion sale of ChampionX to SLB — the company formerly known as Schlumberger — which is expected to close within a few months.
“Julia is a trusted advisor who has navigated ChampionX through various high-profile, bet-the-company transactions,” said Baker McKenzie partner Justin Whittenburg. “Julia sets the example for all general counsels globally, as evidenced by not only her diverse and committed legal department but also by her leadership and counsel through various high-profile transactions.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook, citing those successes, named Wright as one of two finalists for the 2025 General Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsized Legal Department. The awards ceremony is set for May 22 at the Four Seasons downtown.
“Julia does an excellent job of managing her legal department to maximize value to her business and minimize expenses,” said Whittenburg, who nominated Wright for the award. “Julia’s successful negotiation of ChampionX’s merger with SLB has been her largest and most relevant success recently.”
Wright also serves as chair of the board of Hephae Energy Technology Company, a company developing novel drilling parts with high-temperature electronics that are vital to the exploitation of superhot rock for geothermal power generation.
Stephen Jacobson, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, said Wright is always in sync with her company’s objectives and makes those known to everyone she works with.
“Julia inspires members of her internal team and outside counsel to develop creative and practical solutions,” Jacobson said. “Julia is a tough negotiator but is always professional, respectful and fair, even in stressful or challenging circumstances. She works extremely hard and expects the same from those working with her. Julia is particularly adept at delegating projects, including ‘stretch’ projects, to her internal legal team to encourage growth, while still overseeing them with the appropriate level of oversight.”
Wright was only one of two lawyers when she joined in 2018. Now she has 44 members of her legal department — 26 are women and 18 are men. The team includes 20 lawyers of whom 13 are female. About half of the department is diverse with a strong representation of Asian lawyers that enables the team to provide around-the-clock support to global operations in more than 74 countries.
She said one of her greatest successes of the past few years has been designing a lean, fit-for-purpose legal compliance and trade compliance program and then building a collaborative team focused on customer service.
“I have a crackerjack team that is humble, business-minded, and full of all-around great humans who make even challenging seasons fun,” Wright said. “Getting the culture right is always a challenge.”
ChampionX CEO Sivasankaran Somasundaram said Wright has gotten it right, creating a culture that empowers people to consistently solve problems and pursue excellence. He said Wright works closely with leaders to ensure the company’s objectives are met and risks are mitigated.
“Her team loves working for her,” he said. “The lean thinking and continuous improvement mindset really differentiate Julia from other GCs. I have not seen this in the other GCs I have worked with. She has created an offshore center of excellence in India to complement and support the global team. She is relentless in pursuing excellence. She builds high-performance teams that are responsive to business needs.”
Wright is a native Houstonian who spent much of her childhood in Kingwood, surrounded by an extended family who all lived in the area and in Liberty County.
Her father, Eugene B. Wright, was a lawyer with a solo practice for 50 years, handling everything from family law cases to bankruptcy matters to business disputes. Her mother operated the family-owned Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and held various other jobs. Her stepmother had a career as an optometrist.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Julia Wright discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
“We never had babysitters when I was a child. We just went to work with our family,” she said. “I would sometimes work in my dad’s law office — where I learned to type on an IBM Selectric — or go to the KFC store or go to the farm with my other grandparents, which was noisy and hot riding on the combine tractor, so I tried to get out of doing that. At 7 years old, I would skin the chicken so it could be battered and fried. I also made the biscuits. I figured out the button to push to open the cash register, so I would grab quarters and go across the street to play Pac-Man at the laundromat. I guess that was my pay.”
Does she still like KFC today?
“To answer your question, I’ve been vegetarian for 30 years now,” she said. “I’m really fortunate to have come from a family of people who ran their own small businesses — whether it was a farm or fast-food restaurant or Western Auto store or law practice. Watching them work so hard created the strong work ethic I have. You just do what you need to do to get it done.”
But, she said, her father’s law practice “had an enormous impact on me.”
“My father is an amazing lawyer,” Wright said. “I grew up going to court with him in Liberty County. I would sit on the wooden bench in the courtroom and observe my father trying cases.”
“As an adult, I reflect on those cases as a window into the challenges of the human condition,” she said. “The cases were intensely personal but also relatable. Witnesses would cry on the stand during cross-examination, and that sheer emotion pushed me into corporate law instead of litigation. My father is now retired, but he was masterful with a jury. He told me I could do anything with a law degree but encouraged me to reconsider going to law school. In his words, ‘law practice is a jealous mistress.’ It’s an odd turn of phrase, but I understand what he means. I have found my career relentlessly demanding.”
Wright earned a bachelor’s in liberal arts from Southern Methodist University, a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University and a law degree from Fordham Law School. Her dad swore Wright in after she passed the bar exam in 2002.
For three years, Wright practiced corporate securities law at Vinson & Elkins and Baker McKenzie in their Dallas offices.
In 2005, she made the move in-house to Nabors Corporate Services in Houston as associate general counsel.
“I was working on some neat deals in 2005 when I was approached about an in-house role,” she said. “Initially I was not interested. I didn’t want to be limited, as I was still so early in my career and had so much to learn. When I went to interview with Bruce Taten and the Nabors Industries team, we clicked and I learned in the interview talking to the team that I would have broad responsibilities. Cutting my teeth in that law department was a phenomenal experience and while there were many challenges, I am grateful for the opportunity to have handled litigation, employment matters, intellectual property matters, customer and vendor contract negotiations and tax restructurings, not to mention all the M&A work we did.”
Tesco Corporation named Wright its general counsel in December 2009 — a position she held for nearly two years before returning to Nabors for more than seven years, where she became its general counsel.
In February 2018, she was hired to be the GC at ChampionX, which at the time was called Apergy Petroleum Corp.
“My role has evolved from serving as a general counsel and secretary of a soon-to-be standalone public company to leading a transaction to significantly expand our business both in business lines and geography to supporting overall integration of the new business to contributing to global strategy and supporting a transaction approved by our board and shareholders to be acquired at a premium by another public company,” Wright said. “It’s been a whirlwind requiring flexibility and a strong ability to plan for future challenges and events.”
Wright said that ChampionX “embraces continuous improvement,” or CI, and that “every employee is empowered to eliminate inefficiencies and improve processes.”
“At first, I was thinking this method only applies to manufacturing and not to legal services,” she said. “I was so wrong. With a lot of support from my peers who excel at CI, I began to implement simple changes at home and when I saw that these changes were simple and improved my life, I opened my mind to how this could help my team. Since then, we have had several members of the law department create a CI Team to help encourage and support improvements within our team.”
Wright said the team developed a low-cost ticketing system that allowed more efficiency in responding to requests for support. Prior to that, requests were emailed and sometimes didn’t go to the person on the team best suited to help that request at that time.
“I have the privilege to sit on a high-functioning, positive leadership team, so I have improved as a leader watching and learning from my CEO and peers,” Wright said. “At ChampionX, when there is a problem or a failure, it’s not treated as a ‘people problem’ but rather a ‘process problem.’ We are encouraged to think that our employees want to come to work and win the right way, so if something goes wrong, we ask how did the process fail. That’s very different than blaming individuals and not owning the process failure. Similarly, I am not very comfortable with employees asking why we do what we do and why we make certain changes. At ChampionX, I have learned that having those questions asked helps improve the output — it’s not a threat. These are gifts I’ll take with me for the remainder of my career.”
Elizabeth Mata Kroger, a partner at Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, said Wright is “an effective leader because she is smart and analytical and knows when and what to delegate.”
“Julia is also clear in her communications and expectations and responsive when questions arise or guidance is needed,” Mata Kroger said. “She has high expectations, but she imposes them equally upon herself and those around her.”
“I don’t know how she does it, but she always makes herself available. I don’t think I have ever waited more than 24 hours for her to respond to any of my emails or voicemail messages, and more often than not, I hear from her within hours,” Mata Kroger said. “In the over 20 years that I have had the privilege to work for her, I have never heard her ascribe blame to others. She works with integrity and honesty, which is essential for a good leader. People respect Julia for her intelligence, her work ethic and her integrity. You can’t be an effective leader without that respect.”
Of course, Wright’s time as GC at ChampionX is winding down.
Wright is leading the company’s sale to rival SLB, which was announced in April 2024. The deal is expected to close this summer.
“Dianne Ralston is a great GC for SLB, so I will not be staying on after the transaction closes,” she said. “I look forward to other GC opportunities and board opportunities. I’m really enjoying serving on the board of Hephae Energy right now. I’d like to join another board. I also want to start volunteering in a meaningful way.”
Fun Facts: Julia Wright
- Favorite book: Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera was a book I read in college that connected me with the person who has been my best friend for the past 30 years.
- Favorite movie/TV show: The Wizard of Oz because it delights me each and every time I watch it.
- Favorite musician or band: The Grateful Dead and Billy Strings!
- Favorite restaurant: I’m on an adventure to learn to cook, so my family and I do not eat out often. But when I do, I treat myself to truffle fries and a glass of cold champagne.
- Hero in life and why: My college friend Briam Moser because he is an avid learner who is curious about the world. He is always there to challenge me to grow in thought and faith and to do the hard work with pure intention.