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PepsiCo Foods’ Adrienne Mosley: ‘Out of our poverty came a great, life-changing blessing’

Adrienne Brown Mosley’s mother did not have money for a present for her 18th birthday. Instead, she convinced a lawyer in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to allow young Adrienne to follow her for the day. “This shadowing day changed the entire trajectory of my life,” Mosley said.

Mosley is now the deputy GC of PepsiCo Foods North America, where she has developed initiatives to build a culture of compliance in a more stringent antitrust regulatory environment, helped enact innovative product partnerships to address supply chain challenges and worked to reinvigorate the corporate giant’s diversity and inclusion efforts through innovative mentoring programs.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Mosley the recipient of the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.

January 12, 2023 Mark Curriden

Premium Content Q&A: Adrienne Brown Mosley

Adrienne Mosley shares what makes her tick and offers advice for law firm managing partners about diversity.

January 12, 2023 Mark Curriden

SCOTX Ponders Impact of UT Attorney-Client Privilege Case on Public Information Requests

A nonprofit news organization seeks documents uncovered during a consulting firm’s investigation into allegations of favoritism in admissions to the University of Texas. Although the report was made public, UT says the underlying documents fall under attorney-client privilege.

January 12, 2023 Janet Elliott

Pivotal Year on the Horizon for Texas Cryptocurrency Miners

As the so-called crypto winter chases weaker and less committed participants from the market, the remaining players will likely see a vastly changed landscape once the snow melts. From the dot-com bust of the early century to the fallout of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, market trauma has ultimately led to a heightened regulatory response, and one would expect the effort to regulate the cryptocurrency industry—something that was well underway even prior to 2022—will gain significant momentum in the coming year, not just in terms of crypto’s intersection with securities law but also its relevance to the ongoing energy transition.

January 10, 2023 Miguel Suazo & Tanner Whited

CDT Roundup: 18 Deals, 11 Firms, 167 Lawyers, $8.3B

M&A in 2022 was down by a lot, especially in deal value. Post-pandemic 2021 was a record year, so some decline was more than possible. But according to Refinitiv, the 37 percent global decline in deal values from 2021 was, in fact, the worst year-over-year drop in value since 2001. This week’s CDT Roundup observes a few other ways in which 2022 stood out, as well as the names of 167 lawyers who helped forge the first deals of 2023.

January 10, 2023 Claire Poole

Law Firm Lobby Shops Offer Clients One-Stop Shopping

With fewer large Texas law firms retaining lobby practice groups, those that remain are busier than ever as the 2023 legislative session promises key decisions on tax and regulatory issues for a wide range of corporate clients. The Texas Lawbook talks with three veteran lobbyists working to pass, change and kill legislation.

January 10, 2023 Janet Elliott

ERCOT to Texas Supremes: ‘Quite Literally, Chaos Will Follow’

If the Texas Legislature wanted the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to be immune from civil lawsuits, it would have passed laws stating so, lawyers representing two large energy companies told the Texas Supreme Court during oral arguments Monday. The justices clearly understood the full stakes of the decision before them.

“Are you arguing that ERCOT is too big to fail?” Justice Boyd asked.

“In essence, yes,” former Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, representing ERCOT, answered.

January 9, 2023 Mark Curriden

Litigation Roundup: Dallas Owes Developer $850K, Exxon Challenges ‘Windfall Tax’

In the first edition of Litigation Roundup in 2023, the City of Dallas has to pay up in a real estate dispute, Exxon Mobil sets its sights on undoing a “windfall tax” the European Union has imposed on energy companies and the Fifth Circuit revives an excessive force case against a cop who punched a man at Hobby Airport.

January 9, 2023 Michelle Casady

Fifth Circuit: Bankruptcy Court Cannot Decide Validity of ERCOT, PUC Pricing During Winter Storm Uri

Just Energy, a Canadian-owned power retailer operating in Texas, must go through state administrative proceedings and state court in Travis County – not federal bankruptcy court – to challenge the record-high rates that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas charged power companies during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Thursday.

January 6, 2023 Mark Curriden

P.S. — 5Ks, Housebuilding & Fair Debt Collection

A grant that will help consumer debt defendants in Texas. A 5K that helps women struggling with substance abuse. A new board appointment for the Austin Habitat for Humanity. A major Texas corporation recognizes a law firm for it diversity efforts. All in this week’s P.S. Firms featured this week include Gibson Dunn and Winstead.

January 6, 2023 Natalie Posgate