Charlene Wandrisco, Managing Director and Senior Counsel American Airlines For their work at American Airlines, colleagues Charlene Wandrisco and Bruce Wark are recipients of the 2022 DFW Corporate Coursel Award for
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Q&A: Charlene Wandrisco of American Airlines
Charlene Wandrisco and Bruce Wark have been named co-recipients of this year’s competition for Senior Counsel of the Year for large firms by the DFW Chapter of Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook.
Lawbook founder Mark Curriden had a chance to discuss with Wandrisco her standards for hiring outside counsel, the legal profession’s diversity problem and her best day ever at American Airlines.
SAExploration Sues Auditor for Malpractice, Negligence, Seeks $45M
Houston oilfield services corporation SAExploration is suing its long-time former auditor for allegedly failing to detect a $100 million fraud scheme operated by the company’s former top executives for several years. SAE accuses Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas of negligence, malpractice and “dereliction of duty” that resulted in SAE being forced into bankruptcy, subjected to multiple federal investigations, being delisted by Nasdaq and targeted for class action lawsuits.
A Word with Human Trafficking Institute’s Victor Boutros
Victor Boutros knew he wanted to devote his legal career to combatting human trafficking before he even got to law school. Now more than two decades later, after working in private practice, serving as a federal prosecutor and writing a book, Boutros leads the Human Trafficking Institute, which partners with foreign governments to help them implement trafficking enforcement systems.
The Texas Lawbook recently sat down with Boutros and will cover a CLE later today in Dallas about human trafficking trends and updates and how lawyers can get involved. More details, including how to register, in this article.
American Airlines’ Charlene Wandrisco and Bruce Wark are ‘Masters of Law and Airlines’
American Airlines Deputy GC Bruce Wark has had a three-decade complex, love-hate relationship with sometimes business partner, many times courtroom opponent online ticket distributor Sabre, including two vigorously fought litigation matters last year. American Senior Counsel Charlene Wandrisco, whose office is a 90-second walk down the hall from Wark, spent 2022 helping redesign the airline’s loyalty program, implementing a new partnership with Microsoft that streamlined American’s internal operations and improved customer travel experiences for customers and worked to strengthen collaboration with TSA to create a mobile identification pre-check.
The legal work of the two lawyers, a litigator and a dealmaker, achieved major successes that made American into a better global airline. The result is that Wandrisco and Wark are recipients of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
P.S. — Casino Nights, Running Tights, Calling All Trivia Brights
A fun run in Houston that benefits people with intellectual disabilities. A CLE on human trafficking. A casino night that benefits abused and neglected children. A trivia night that benefits legal aid. Natalie Posgate details them all in this week’s P.S.
Premium Content Q&A: Stephen Cole
Premium Subscriber Insider: Keurig Dr Pepper senior counsel and head of litigation Stephen Cole talks about what he looks for when hiring outside counsel, ever-increasing hourly rates and his advice to young lawyers interested in doing work for Keurig Dr Pepper.
Premium Content Q&A: Anthony Shoemaker
Premium Subscriber Insider: Keurig Dr Pepper Chief Legal Officer Anthony Shoemaker discusses the career he almost had for CBS Sports, the challenges he has faced since taking over the company’s legal department, what he looks when hiring outside counsel, the role of GCs in pushing law firms toward more diversity and his advice to young lawyers interested in doing work for Keurig Dr Pepper.
Keurig Dr Pepper’s Legal Department – ‘$1 Billion Profit Center’
This is the story of three lawyers at Keurig Dr Pepper — Jim Baldwin, Anthony Shoemaker and Stephen Cole — who took a huge risk in leading a normally conservative, litigation-adverse company in suing a business partner, the business partner’s profanity-spewing founder and Dr Pepper’s biggest and universally feared competitor, Coca-Cola. Along with outside counsel at Gibson Dunn, they took a highly complex dispute and boiled it down to one sentence in a contract. By the end, they had opposing counsel pleading with the judge to push for a settlement weeks before trial. The result: a $925 million victory and a finalist for the 2022 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
WFH to LAW: Gray Reed’s Renovated Houston Office Aims to Feel Like Home
Coming off a record year in 2021 in which it generated $112.5 million in revenues, the 150-lawyer firm partnered with the architectural and design firm Abel Design Group for a yearlong project to create a “next generation space” at Four Oaks Place in the Galleria, where the firm has been headquartered since 1998. The 61,600 square foot modernized space features more inviting gathering spaces, including a wine lounge and fireplace, and improved technological capabilities.
Gray Reed Chief Operating Officer Mark Gargiulo said the revamped office even coined a new phrase. “Over the last couple of years, everyone has most certainly become familiar with WFH or Work From Home. However, our space has generated questions about how one might Live At Work, ironically abbreviated LAW.”