© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
Finalist: Non-GC of the Year for a Large Legal Dept.
By Mark Curriden
(Jan. 15) – While other eight-year-old children were watching cartoons, Kimberly Houston was fixated with TV shows like “People’s Court” and “Matlock.”
“I loved debate, and I thought it looked exciting,” she says. “That’s when I first wanted to be a lawyer.”
Houston, who grew up in San Antonio, took a pre-law class in high school and that sealed the deal.
Today, Houston has the title of Corporate Counsel with the global insurance giant Liberty Mutual. She is an expert on labor and employment law and widely recognized as a thought leader on employer-employee legal boundaries involving social media. In addition, she is a zealous advocate of lawyers giving back to the community through pro bono and public service.
“Kimberly worked tirelessly in 2017 to distinguish herself and to make an impact — both within her company and within the community,” said Vistra Corporate Counsel Ashlie Alaman, who nominated Houston for Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Non-General Counsel of the Year for a Large Corporate Legal Department.
Houston is a finalist for the award. The winner will be announced Jan. 25 at the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.
After graduating cum laude from Southwest Texas State University with a degree in political science and criminal justice, Houston worked for Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, where her appreciation of the law grew.
In 2004, she graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law and then worked for four and a half years as an employment lawyer at two law firms, including Hermes Sargent Bates.
CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, brought Houston in-house to handle its labor and employment legal needs. During her tenure at CEC, she represented the Irving-based food and entertainment chain in several regulatory matters before the U.S. Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Houston’s biggest challenge – and accomplishment – involved a class action lawsuit regarding the misclassification of exempt and non-exempt workers.
“We conducted a year-and-a-half internal inquiry about reclassifying our workers,” she says. “Our proactive steps, including certain payouts and revising policies, prevented the company from receiving formal charges.”
In 2011, Houston joined the law firm Christiansen Davis, where she served for six years as captive counsel for a handful of businesses, including a tech company and a trucking operation.
Liberty Mutual needed an experienced lawyer in Texas to guide the company’s business units through evolving employment law issues in 2017. Houston was the insurance company’s choice.
“Anytime there is a change in the presidency, there is a change in policy and enforcement at the Department of Labor, which trickles down to impact companies such as Liberty Mutual,” she says. “In addition, sexual harassment charges are projected to go through the roof.
“It is super important for in-house counsel to get to know the business units and what they are trying to accomplish,” she says. “The key is to minimize the legal risks when companies are going through changes.”
Alaman points out that Houston was able to settle more than a dozen employment disputes in 2017, which helped the client avoid going to court.
“Kimberly has brought a unique perspective and uncanny understanding of the challenges that employers face,” Alaman says. “She sees the big picture – whether dealing with complex and novel issues or vigorous adverse parties.”
Houston, as the company’s only employment lawyer in town, is playing a significant role in Liberty Mutual’s development of an estimated 6,000-person campus in the Legacy West area of Plano, scheduled to open in January 2018.
Houston says she is “equally focused on giving back to the community,” including volunteering for the food bank and charities serving the homeless population.
“The push for diversity starts with us as corporate in-house counsel,” she says. “Law firms will only add diversity if law firm partners realize that they are only going to get business from clients if they actively pursue and achieve diversity in their ranks.”
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