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‘Many Lawyers Shrink in the Face of Crisis’ — Not LyondellBasell’s Brittany Ringel Walton

LyondellBasell senior counsel Brittany Ringel Walton had just put her children to bed in July 2021, when she received an urgent call about a leak at her company’s La Porte Complex. More than 100,000 pounds of acetic acid had been released. There were two fatalities, and another 30 people were taken to the hospital. Within minutes, Walton was on her way to the scene. Her first concern was the health and safety of her LyondellBasell colleagues at the La Porte facility but she also quickly comprehended the legal and regulatory issues that would come from the tragic event and immediately took the steps necessary to start investigating and addressing those issues and concerns.

The injuries and deaths of the workers — combined with the onslaught of governmental and civil investigations and lawsuits — exposed the companies to potentially hundreds of millions in legal claims and penalties. Instead, Walton’s thoughtful and proactive leadership that hot, humid night, the next day and throughout the legal processes during the past three years since the tragedy led to widespread praise and acclaim from company leaders, the board of directors and employees. Citing Walton’s success and leadership under pressure, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Walton a finalist for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.

Q&A: Brittany Ringel Walton

For Premium Subscibers LyondellBasell’s Brittany Ringel Walton shares what outside counsel needs to know about her and more. The Texas Lawbook: What are the factors you consider when deciding about

Q&A: Sean Jamieson

In this Q&A, Sean Jamieson shares his thoughts on effective diversity and inclusion initiatives the legal industry can be engaging in, what outside counsel needs to know about him and what he perceives as the biggest challenges when it comes to DEI.

Phillips 66: Taking Two Deals to Take a Midstream Private

When Jenarae Garland arrived as a new managing counsel at Phillips 66, she could be excused for not being fully prepared for the part she would come to play in the $3.8 billion take-private purchase of DCP Midstream LP. She was the junior member of a three-attorney team leading the deal, ranking behind Deputy General Counsel Rob Task and Managing Counsel Maine Goodfellow. Along with their outside counsel Bracewell, the deal has also resulted in their nomination as finalists for 2024 M&A Transaction of the Year by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.

Spire’s Sean Jamieson Diversifies Voices in the Natural Gas Industry

When you hear the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion, your mind probably goes to the boilerplate topics that are the subject of so many panel discussions in Corporate America — diverse candidate pool, hiring and retention practices, mentorship versus sponsorship, to name a few. But for Spire General Counsel Sean Jamieson, DEI became a life-or-death matter in the summer of 2021 as a whopper regulatory battle put an existential threat to the existence of one of Spire’s natural gas pipelines. Critics thought Spire only designed its STL Pipeline project to line its own pockets. Jamieson and Spire viewed the pipeline as a means to diversify the natural gas source in eastern Missouri to lower the cost of delivering reliable energy to the people who need it the most: a widely vulnerable, underrepresented customer base.

“This would have been bad for our business. But it would have been terrible for people,” Jamieson said. “I had spent the months before working with the technical analysts and modeling what it would mean if we didn’t have this pipeline, the number of customers we would potentially lose. I learned and internalized all the mechanics associated with what would actually happen.”   

Jamieson’s sleepless, behind-the-scenes work to bring together diverse viewpoints to solve complex problems is why Spire’s STL Pipeline is still running. It’s also why he’s a finalist for the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook’s 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.

Houston Not Liable for Cop Car Crash with Bicyclist

Justices decided the first of three cases that test cities’ immunity when officers were involved in vehicle crashes while responding to calls for service. The court dismissed a
wrongful-death case filed by the family of a Houston bicyclist killed by a cop car speeding at night without emergency lights and sirens. The court found that the officer acted in good faith while responding to a suicide in progress call.

P.S. — A Special Lawbook Foundation Announcement, A Five-digit Law School Scholarship & A Six-digit College Scholarship 

This week’s edition of P.S. features an award-winning environmental justice paper that earned a University of Houston law student a law firm-sponsored scholarship, an upcoming cluster of scholarships worth $150,000 that will be awarded to graduating high school seniors by a Dallas law firm, info on The Lawbook’s new pro bono advocacy award honoring a great pro bono legend in the state and a thank-you note from the Texas Lawbook Foundation to recent donors.

Plus: how to get a charitable deduction by donating to the Texas Lawbook Foundation if the recent tax season bummed you (and your wallet) out.

Texas Supreme Court Reverses $12M Verdict Due to Racially Biased Closing Argument

The Texas Supreme Court reversed a $12 million jury verdict on Friday because the plaintiffs’ lawyer during closing arguments injected the idea of racial and gender bias as a possible reason that the defendants wanted reduced amounts awarded to the plaintiffs, one of whom is an African American woman. The justices said the plaintiffs’ lawyer injected “inflammatory argument that was uninvited and unprovoked” in his final comments to the jury that essentially accused opposing counsel of race and gender discrimination when no evidence of either existed in the trial record.

SCOTX Clarifies What Damages Are Recoverable in ‘Wrongful Pregnancy’ Cases

Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, writing for a unanimous court, explained in a 21-page ruling that in so-called “wrongful pregnancy” cases only a narrow category of damages is available: those costs incurred during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. But in this case, Grissel Velasco was seeking to recover a much broader category of damages — including the costs of rearing her daughter, mental anguish, and physical pain and suffering.

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