As assistant general counsel of Southwestern Energy, Rob Ellis has notched big victories. None bigger than last October when Ellis and his team of lawyers at Yetter Coleman sued a chemical company whose operations on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River allegedly trespassed and interfered with the underground drilling operations of a Southwestern Energy subsidiary. A three-week trial resulted in a unanimous verdict awarding Ellis’ company $70 million in damages. Citing the huge courtroom victory and his service to the greater Houston community, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston chapter and The Texas Lawbook have awarded Ellis the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department (five or fewer lawyers).
More Stories
Q&A: Averill Conn of Vitol
Averill Conn was working at home in the fall of 2020, as were most of us, due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown. Conn received “a cold call from a headhunter” looking to hire an experienced attorney to support Vitol’s power, gas and renewables businesses. She had never taken a job through a recruiter and wasn’t looking to make a move.
She took the call, and Vitol is glad she did.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, had a chance to ask her about her experiences, both at Vitol and in-house in general.
Jeff McNabb: Patterson-UTI’s ‘Offensive Coordinator’
Jeff McNabb’s destiny to be a trial lawyer started in the first grade when his teacher conducted an impromptu trial and appointed McNabb to represent a fellow student involved in a playground argument. Now decades later, McNabb is head of litigation for Patterson-UTI Management, where he won two major courtroom victories in 2022 — one against former employees who allegedly took the company’s confidential information and the other involving an insurance coverage dispute for several underlying worksite injuries.
Citing McNabb’s leadership in those cases, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook recognize him as a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Q&A: Jeff McNabb of Patterson-UTI
Jeff McNabb’s destiny to be a trial lawyer started in the first grade. Decades later, McNabb is head of litigation for Patterson-UTI Management, where he won two major courtroom victories in 2022 — one against former employees who allegedly took the company’s confidential information and the other involving an insurance coverage dispute for several underlying worksite injuries.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Lawbook, asked McNabb to share some of his thoughts about hiring outside counsel and the role of diversity in whatever he requires.
Q&A: Brookfield’s Fred Day
As managing director of investments at Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management, Fred Day led six major infrastructure deals last year with a combined dollar value of more than $55 billion, including a $5 billion take-private transaction of British home repair services company HomeServ and the acquisition of a majority ownership in Deutsche Telekom’s tower portfolio in Germany and Austria for more than $19 billion.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, asked Day about the role of diversity in his rarefied world of dealmaking.
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.