The multimillion-dollar lawsuits were piling up. Dozens of them, accusing LyondellBasell of “unsafe and hazardous practices” that led to a chemical leak in 2021 at its La Porte facility, causing two deaths and scores of injuries.
Legal analysts predicted the Houston-based chemical company would be tagged with damage awards in the billions of dollars.
The job of defending LyondellBasell fell to its 65-attorney legal department, led by its longtime general counsel Jeff Kaplan.
“Jeff is one of the calmest, coolest, most in-charge general counsels that we have had the experience of working with,” said Kyle Poelker, a partner at Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing. “Despite all his responsibilities — managing 400 people spanning four departments across 10 countries in a global company of more than 20,000 employees — Jeff does not get rattled, ever. He manages complex problems daily, even hourly, often in a compressed time frame. We have witnessed this time and again. Each time, Jeff assimilates the information, identifies the key issue and drives to an effective strategy or solution.”
The same was true with the La Porte incident and subsequent litigation.
Kaplan and his team of in-house and outside lawyers developed legal and factual defenses that proved extraordinarily successful — and they did so during one of the sharpest economic downturns the chemical industry has ever witnessed, among other challenges.
“We resolved those claims by leveraging legal arguments and trial readiness to obtain the following results: 45 cases dismissed on summary judgment, 20 cases settled for nuisance value, three cases settled with funds from indemnitors, fatality case settlements fully reimbursed by the insurance carrier after filing suit against the broker and excess insurer, won a trial against OHSA and settled a related case brought by the Texas attorney general for a nominal amount,” Kaplan told The Texas Lawbook. “The total out of pocket spend, including attorneys’ fees, was well below what we had expected it would cost.”
Citing those remarkable achievements, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook honor Kaplan and his team at LyondellBasell with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Legal Department of the Year.
The awards event celebration for Kaplan and 18 other honorees will be held May 28 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston.
“The results were exceptional, and unlike those seen by other companies facing similar claims,” said AZA partner Todd Mensing, who nominated Kaplan for the award. “LYB was able to resolve those claims with little out-of-pocket money by leveraging legal arguments and trial readiness.”
Senior lawyers at the top law firms in Texas say Kaplan is a true leader of the legal profession.
“The man has depth. Depth of intellect. Depth of character. A great sense of humor,” said Geoffrey Harrison, a partner at Susman Godfrey. “Kaplan knows how to protect his client and promote its interests in a thoughtful manner consistent with the highest ethical standards. Kaplan has surrounded himself with an absolutely top-notch legal team with lawyers who know how to try cases and know how to close deals. Kaplan has the judgment to synthesize sometimes competing points of view and harmonize sometimes competing concerns as he provides much valued guidance to his colleagues in the C-suite.”
Hillary Holmes, co-managing partner of the Houston office of Gibson Dunn, said Kaplan is “the rare lawyer who pairs sharp legal judgment with real business instinct.”
“His advice is always direct, practical and anchored in outcomes,” Holmes said. “He’s built a legal function that operates like a true strategic partner — lean, trusted and deeply embedded in the business. Just as important, he’s invested in people and culture, developing a bench of lawyers who are technically excellent, commercially minded and consistently demonstrate respect for each other and the profession.”
Kaplan said the La Porte litigation is just one of several threats LyondellBasell faced during the past 18 months.
“By far the most significant challenge has been navigating the longest and deepest chemical industry downturn in memory,” he said. “The last 18 months has forced us to make difficult decisions on how we deploy our resources to handle legal issues, and therefore we have had to be extremely disciplined — even more so than usual — with every dollar we spend and every matter we handle.”
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Jeff Kaplan discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Kaplan was born in the Chicago suburb of Skokie. His family moved to Houston when he was 11. His father was a CPA, and his mother was a homemaker. He never considered following in his father’s footsteps as a CPA.
“I never thought that CPAs were that interesting or glamourous,” he said. “In high school, I was on the debate team. The research and impromptu speaking aspects of it led me to think about the law, plus the fact that I knew I didn’t want a career in math or science.”
Kaplan went to undergraduate school at Amherst College and law school at the University of Texas, where he met his current wife.
“Laura and I sat next each other in every first-year class because we were seated alphabetically,” he said.
Upon passing the bar examination, Kaplan joined the Houston litigation boutique Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in 1992, where his practice focused on products liability and commercial defense.
In 1996, Kaplan followed Craig Glidden and other lawyers in founding Glidden Partners, a firm that represented businesses as plaintiffs and defendants. Five years later, Glidden became the first GC of Chevron Phillips Chemical. Kaplan joined a few months later.
“I had not ever considered becoming an in-house lawyer, but I wanted to continue working with some of the same people with whom I had started the law firm,” he said. “If you respect and love the people you work with, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to keep that as part of your life?”
In 2009, Glidden left Chevron Phillips to join LyondellBasell as its GC while the company was still in bankruptcy. He brought Kaplan on board as the assistant GC.
“It was yet another adventure and risk I wanted to take,” Kaplan said. “I had an opportunity to shape and rebuild a legal department to support what was a very different company coming out of bankruptcy. I was excited for the chance to hire a large number of talented lawyers and shape all of the department’s policies and processes.”
General Motors hired Glidden in 2015 to be its chief legal officer, and LyondellBasell promoted Kaplan to its top legal position.
The challenges and successes have been plentiful for Kaplan and his team during the past decade-plus. Specific examples during the past 18 months include:
- A victory in French court recovering over $35 million in remediation costs from the prior owner of a facility LyondellBasell acquired. “French litigation and French law are quite unique, and we were sweating the result until the very last moment,” he said.
- Recently finalized a complicated, multinational transaction to sell chemical manufacturing sites in the UK, Spain, France and Germany to a start-up chemical business. “The transaction has required attention from nearly everyone in our department, and several of our legal colleagues joined the new company at closing,” he said.
- Finalized a multibillion-dollar project in Saudi Arabia to supply feedstock, resulting in the manufacturing of petrochemical products and derivatives. This was awarded to LyondellBasell by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy.
- The relocation of LyondellBasell’s corporate headquarters, building new office space and moving 1,300 employees to the Galleria area. “I took on responsibility … because I thought our office was outdated and no one else was willing to lead a remodel,” Kaplan said.
The company initially planned to remodel its headquarters in 2019, but the Covid-19 pandemic hit and LyondellBasell got a new CEO.
“So, we took a fresh look at the project and, instead of remodeling, decided it would be faster and less expensive to move to a new office,” he said. “The smartest thing I did was hiring a seasoned real estate professional to lead the move. My role was to help make decisions on the office design and to ensure the CEO and executive committee members were all well-informed and able to offer their input along the way. The project was completed on time and under budget in March 2025.”
But the biggest victory came in the La Porte litigation. The fatality case settlements were fully reimbursed by the insurance carrier after Kaplan and his team filed suit against LyondellBasell’s broker and excess insurer.
“As LYB’s outside counsel on this incident, we can testify firsthand to the thoughtful decisiveness that Jeff displayed when important strategic decisions arose,” AZA’s Poelker said. “Indeed, Jeff never got over-burdened by the magnitude of the event but instead proceeded rationally, as a partner, to help us navigate towards the best outcome. This included letting us take early swings at legal defenses that, at the time, were not certain.”
Norton Rose Fulbright partner Carter Crow said Kaplan’s success is partly due to the extraordinary lawyers he has hired in his legal department.
“They plan well for potential crises, and they are not reactionary,” Crow said. “Jeff stays calm in situations that are stressful. He is always level-headed, and he makes sure the right people are involved.”
Dave Louie, a lead legal counsel at LyondellBasell who has worked with Kaplan for more than seven years, said his boss thinks long-term and strategically.
“Jeff consistently stressed to the department our responsibility to be both trusted partners to the business while balancing our responsibilities as guardians of the company,” said Louie, who is also being honored by ACC and The Lawbook. “Everything looks like a nail to someone who has a hammer. Likewise, a lot of lawyers see everything as a risk, but in reality, there are degrees and probabilities. The intersection of a good lawyer and GC is one who figures out how to balance risk with helping the company do business. Jeff has set that tone in our department.”
During his 16 years at LyondellBasell, Kaplan has served three CEOs, four CFOs and four chief human resource officers.
“Jeff’s longevity proves that he is the real deal — one critical stakeholder after another has recognized his irreplaceable value,” Mensing said. “He has a keen ability to read the room and effectively communicate, even in stressful circumstances.”
Kaplan said he believes in the philosophy of former General Electric GC Ben Heineman.
“Our role as in-house lawyers is to be both a partner to the business and guardian of the company,” he said. “I always keep both in mind, and it has served me well. It helps that I generally get along with people, recognizing we won’t always agree but that in nearly all cases my LYB colleagues have good intentions.”
The result is that Kaplan has seen his role and responsibilities expand during the past decade.
LyondellBasell executives recently added three departments — human resources, government relations and corporate communications — to his duties.
“Getting my arms around those new organizations is a very high priority for me,” he said. “I am fortunate that, as you are recognizing with this award, we have a fantastic legal department that allows me to take on these responsibilities, knowing the legal side of the house is in good hands.”
Gibson Dunn’s Holmes said that Kaplan’s contributions go beyond just advocating for LyondellBasell.
“Jeff is deeply committed to mentorship and pro bono work, and he leads by example in both, which has a ripple effect across his team and the broader legal community,” she said. “Several times over, I have seen him identify talented lawyers, strategically mentor and advocate, and develop them into the next generation of the leaders of Houston’s bar. And he has an unwavering commitment to pro bono work in Houston. Jeff is the model of servant leadership.”
Fun Facts: Jeff Kaplan
- Favorite book: I enjoyed reading My Effin’ Life, the memoir of Geddy Lee, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer whose parents survived the Holocaust a few short years before he was born.
- Favorite movie: Fletch. Eminently quotable.
- Favorite drink: It’s hard to beat a red Bordeaux wine.
- Favorite restaurant: My current favorite is Maximo, a traditional Mexican restaurant in the West University area of Houston. It’s not too fancy but is a Michelin-recommended restaurant with a James Beard-recognized chef. More importantly, I enjoy watching my wife light up when we eat there because they serve the food she grew up with in Mexico City.
- Favorite vacation: My first trip to Napa with friends — both also general counsels who practiced at Beirne, Maynard & Parsons with me — because it sparked in me an interest in wine that I did not have before visiting.
- Hero in life: My dad has probably been the most influential person in my life. He was a CPA who worked hard but always found time for his only hobby — his family. I learned just by being around him, even if I couldn’t emulate his patience, positivity and kindness. He proved that nice guys don’t finish last.