The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Monday the finalists for both the 2019 Pro Bono and Public Service Award and the M&A Deal of the Year Award.
The M&A Deal of the Year is one of three categories in the DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards that honors both the in-house corporate counsel and the outside law firms that led a major business transaction.
The two finalists for the M&A Deal of the Year are:
- Plano-based Aimbridge Hospitality General Counsel Greg Moundas, who hired Weil, Gotshal & Manges partner David Gail to lead the company’s merger with Virginia-headquartered Interstate Hotels and Resorts; and
- Prosperity Bancshares General Counsel Charlotte Rasche, who turned to Bracewell partner Will Anderson and other lawyers at Bracewell in Dallas and Houston to lead the financial institution’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Dallas-based LegacyTexas Bank. LegacyTexas was led by then chief operating officer/general counsel Scott Almy.
The finalists for the Pro Bono/Public Service of the Year Award are:
- CyrusOne Senior Counsel Ashlie Alaman, a board member of the Human Rights Initiative who is passionate about the protection of immigrant safety and rights and is active with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program; and
- AT&T Senior Counsel Belinda Boling is active with DVAP and HRI, and she co-chairs the telecom giant’s pro bono committee.
The Texas Lawbook will publish in-depth articles about both cases, including interviews with the finalists, in January.
Finalists will be honored and the winners announced Thursday, Jan. 30 at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony at the President George W. Bush Center and Institute.
For a full listing of the finalists in the categories announced so far, please scroll below.
2019 DFW Business Litigation of the Year Finalists
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Wednesday that there are two finalists for the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards Business Litigation of the Year.
The Business Litigation of the Year is one of the few awards that recognize both the company’s in-house counsel and the outside lawyers involved in the litigation.
The finalists this year are:
· Fort Worth-based Pier 1 for its win in a huge securities class action case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit against two employee retirement system funds. Then-Pier 1 General Counsel Mike Carter and current GC Robert Bostrom used a litigation team at Bracewell that included trial partners Stephen Crain, Bradley Benoit and Amy Parker Beeson.
· Range Resources General Counsel David Poole and K&L Gates litigation partners Jeffrey King and Jamie Bryan successfully defeated a lawsuit by Oklahoma property owners seeking about $500 million in a dispute over natural gas production royalties.
Finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony at the President George W. Bush Center and Institute on Thursday, Jan. 30.
The Texas Lawbook will publish in-depth articles about both cases, including interviews with the finalists, in January.
On Thursday, the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Lawbook will announce finalists for the DFW M&A Deal of Year.
2019 DFW GC and Rookie of the Year Finalists
Stephanie Zapata Moore has been a corporate general counsel for nearly 15 years. Glen Hill and Aundrea Gamble Holt have been in-house counsel for less than two years.
But all three will be honored by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards on Jan. 30.
Hill and Holt are finalists for the Rookie of the Year award.
Moore is the sole finalist – and thus the winner – of the General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Holt is a senior attorney for employment law at American Airlines, where she has worked since March 2018.
Hill is the assistant general counsel at Preston Hollow Capital.
Moore was the general counsel of Luminant and is now the GC at Vistra Energy.
Finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony at the theater and conferencing center on the premises of the President George W. Bush Library and Institute on Thursday, Jan. 30.
Senior Counsel of the Year Awards Go to AT&T, Southwest Airlines Lawyers
The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook announce that two lawyers from two of the most iconic businesses in the U.S. – AT&T and Southwest Airlines – are recipients of the 2019 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department Award.
The three-judge panel of experts reviewed several nominations for Senior Counsel of the Year for corporate legal departments in Dallas-Fort Worth with 21 or more in-house lawyers, but they insisted that two candidates truly deserve the award.
They are AT&T Senior Counsel Alan Dorantes and Southwest Airlines Senior Litigation Attorney James Sheppard.
Both Sheppard and Dorantes have made significant contributions to their legal shops and the corporations that employ them.
This is the first time that The Lawbook and ACC-DFW have decided to award co-winners in a category.
The finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 30 at the theater and conferencing center on the premises of the President George W. Bush Library and Institute.
During the past week, The Texas Lawbook and ACC-DFW have announced the finalists for Senior Counsel of the Year for Small and Midsized Legal Departments, Diversity of the Year honor, General Counsel of the Year for Small and Midsized Legal departments and the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Details below.
DFW GC of the Year for Small and Midsized Legal Dept. Finalists Announced
From cheerleading outfits and three-piece suits to encrypted messaging and art supplies, the finalists for the 2019 Dallas-Fort Worth General Counsel of the Year Awards for Small and Midsized Legal Departments have experienced extraordinary successes during the past year and beyond.
The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook announce that the three finalists for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department are:
- Forterra General Counsel Lori Browne;
- Varsity Brands Chief Legal Officer Burton Brillhart; and
- Zix Corporation General Counsel Noah Webster.
The finalists for the General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department are:
- Blucora Chief Legal Officer Ann Bruder;
- Michaels Companies General Counsel Navin Rao; and
- Neiman Marcus General Counsel Tracy Preston.
The finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 30 at the President George W. Bush Institute.
The Texas Lawbook announced last week the finalists for Senior Counsel of the Year for Small and Midsized Legal Departments, Diversity of the Year honor and the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Details below.
Tomorrow, ACC-DFW and The Lawbook will announce the finalists for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department and Rookie of the Year.
DFW Senior Counsel of the Year Finalists Unveiled
In what can only be described as a photo finish, the finalists for the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel of the Year’s Senior Counsel for a Small Legal department and Senior Counsel for a Midsized Legal Department have been decided.
The DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that the three finalists for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department are:
- Freeman Company Associate GC Adelle Casey;
- Ben. E. Keith Co. Assistant GC Punam Kaji; and
- Ashford Inc. Associate GC Jim Plohg.
The finalists for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department are:
- Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems Senior Counsel Jeffrey Hunt;
- The Michaels Companies Assistant GC Janie Perelman; and
- Pioneer Natural Resources Senior Associate GC Barry Thomas.
The finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 30 at the President George W. Bush Institute.
The Texas Lawbook announced earlier this week that Kimberly-Clark Assistant GC Chasity Henry will receive the Diversity of the Year honor for her extraordinary work and successes in pursuing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.
In addition, T-Mobile Chief Counsel Chris Luna and former American Airlines GC Gary Kennedy are receiving the Lifetime Achievement Awards.
DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Diversity Award Goes to Chasity Henry
Chasity Henry has the reputation for getting things done.
For example, she was strategically involved in Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s $1.7 billion cash acquisition of Bai Brands in January 2017 and she was a lead lawyer in Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s 2018 sale of its industrial welding and personal protective equipment businesses to Vancouver-based SureWerx.
When so many others talked about the need for more diversity in the Texas corporate legal profession, Henry got to work.
With little fanfare, the Kimberly-Clark assistant general counsel invited a group of African-American women – most of them graduates of UT Law – to a program at Vinson & Elkins to discuss their experiences with diversity and inclusion in 2014.
With Henry as its founder, The NEW Roundtable – a non-profit which draws half of its members from the corporate in-house world – was born.
But the 2006 UT law school alum didn’t stop there. In the summer of 2018, Henry helped launch DAPP Direct. DAPP stands for Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that Henry is the recipient for the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Diversity of the Year Award.
On Monday, ACC-DFW and The Lawbook announced that T-Mobile Chief Counsel Chris Luna and former American Airlines GC Gary Kennedy will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The finalists for the other categories will be announced during the next week.
Henry, Luna, Kennedy and other finalists and winners for the other award categories will be honored at a ceremony the George W. Bush Institute on Thursday, Jan. 30.
In addition, The Texas Lawbook will publish an in-depth feature of Henry and her efforts later this month.
Lifetime Achievement Awards to T-Mobile’s Chris Luna and Former American Airlines GC Gary Kennedy
T-Mobile Chief Counsel Chris Luna is a former Dallas City councilman who has championed diversity and pro bono while shepherding one of the largest telecom companies in the world through major mergers and big-time litigation.
Former American Airlines General Counsel Gary Kennedy guided the transportation giant through the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks, the company’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy and its subsequent merger with US Air.
Both lawyers have been highly respected leaders in the business law community – both in-house and outside counsel – in North Texas for decades.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to announce that Kennedy and Luna are the recipients of the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The impact that Chris and Gary have had on the corporate legal world is unparalleled,” said ACC-DFW President Derek Lipscombe, who is managing counsel for labor and employment at Toyota. “Gary and Chris embody leadership. Throughout their careers, they have taken courageous stands for basic principles that are dear to our profession – ethics, advocacy, inclusion, equal access to justice for all and simply a commitment to doing what is right.
“ACC and The Lawbook are so proud to be able to honor two lawyers who embody true leadership,” Lipscombe said.
Luna and Kennedy will be honored at the 2019 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards event on Jan. 30 at the George W. Bush Institute.
A 1986 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Luna has been a corporate in-house lawyer at MetroPCS and T-Mobile for more than 14 years. He was promoted to vice president of legal affairs in December 2017. For more than a decade, Luna has been a leader of the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation, which raises money for scholarships for low-income Latinos interested in going to law school.
Kennedy, who spent nearly three decades as a lawyer at American Airlines, zealously advocated for diversity in the legal profession and instituted a mandatory pro bono program for the legal department. He currently serves on the Pimco board of directors and is a frequent lecturer regarding his book, Twelve Years of Turbulence, which chronicles his time as the lead lawyer at American Airlines.
Over the next week, The Texas Lawbook and ACC-DFW will announce the finalists for the various categories of the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
The Lawbook plans to publish in-depth interviews and feature articles with each of the finalists.