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For Brookfield’s Fred Day, ‘No Fire Drills’ Just Multibillion Dollar Deals   

As a rookie deal lawyer, Fred Day’s first transaction in 2007 was valued at more than $1 billion. In the 15 years since, Day has handled dozens of M&A and capital markets transactions with combined price tags exceeding $100 billion. No year in his career, however, matches the magnitude of 2022.



As managing director at Brookfield Asset Management, Day led six major infrastructure deals last year with a combined dollar value of more than $55 billion, including a $30 billion “first-of-its-kind” JV with Intel Corp. for a semiconductor fabrication facility in Arizona. As a result, Day is a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.

Vitol’s Averill Conn is at ‘the Intersection of Energy and New Technology’

Averill Conn has spent the past 29 months at Vitol, where she played a key role in the acquisition of three wind farms in Pennsylvania and another in Illinois, the establishment of Vitol’s solar and battery storage development platform, the negotiation of a long-term Renewable Energy Certificates purchase agreement with Meta Inc. in connection with a solar project in California, the negotiation of long-term virtual power and purchase agreements of utility-scale solar facilities in the Northeast involving AT&T and Vitol’s investment in FlexGen Power Systems, a software technology provider for energy storage solutions.

Citing Conn’s extraordinary success, the Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook award the Vitol Associate GC with the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.

When it Comes to Diversity & Inclusion, HPE ‘Just Gets It’

Over the last several years, general counsel Rishi Varma and associate general counsel Jude Andre have implemented a number of diversity initiatives at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, whose corporate legal department is known for its innovation, welcoming culture and commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession. The result has been a more engaged workforce around DEI issues and recognition by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook. They have named HPE — with Varma and Andre at the helm — as finalists for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion award.

Q&A: Rishi Varma, GC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In this Q&A, Varma discusses with pro bono, public service & diversity writer Natalie Posgate that role diversity plays when hiring outside counsel, 2022 diversity and inclusion successes at HPE and tips for creating a broader pool of diverse candidates when hiring.

Q&A: Jude Andre of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In this Q&A, Andre discusses with pro bono, public service & diversity writer Natalie Posgate how law firms can broaden the diversity pipeline, the importance of legal departments encouraging employees to come as they are to work, and tips for law firms on retaining minority associates.

Q&A: Will Marsh, GC, Cactus Inc

For Premium Subscribers Will Marsh is general counsel at Cactus, Inc., a Houston-based company that manufactures and sells pressure-control equipment. On the final day of 2022 he cemented for Cactus

Will Marsh: This Son-of-a-Son-of-a-Lawyer Deals in the Complex

On what he later described as his best day as GC of Cactus Inc., a Houston-based wellhead and pressure-control provider, Will Marsh brought in the $621 million acquisition of tubing manufacturer FlexSteel Technologies Holdings.

The transformational deal marked a pretty good day for Cactus, as well. And now Marsh, Cactus and Bracewell, their outside counsel, are finalists in the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards for M&A Transaction of the Year.

Eleox GC Becky Gottsegen Helps Energy Giants Work Toward a Common Goal

In the fall 2021, six large North American energy companies that vigorously compete against each other formed a joint venture that used real-time digital technology that would help them resolve certain operational inefficiencies in natural gas post-trade processing. But the new JV, Eleox, needed a GC. They chose Becky Gottsegen.



“One of my strengths is building. I like making things happen,” Gottsegen said. And that is an understatement. She has done everything during her first 16 months — negotiating contracts with business partners, handling antitrust concerns, ensuring cybersecurity and data protection, getting the six energy giants to agree on SaaS agreement terms, filing patent applications, helping pick brand colors and even “finding hip Heights office space.” Gottsegen is also a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.

Premium Subscriber Q&A: Eleox GC Becky Gottsegen

When they needed a GC for their new joint venture to solve mutual operational inefficiencies, the six energy companies who created Eleox chose Becky Gottsegen. The choice was so successful that Gottsegen is a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.


Texas Lawbook founder Mark Curriden had the opportunity to ask Gottsegen a few questions about the unusual venture, and what she looks for when hiring outside counsel.

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