Premium-Only Content: Dona Cornell talks about her best day on the job and what she looks for in the next generation of lawyers.
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University of Houston System GC Dona Cornell is a ‘Force and Trailblazer’
Dona Cornell took the GC job at the University of Houston System in 2002 because she thought it would be a slower pace. “I was so wrong,” Cornell said. “It is more like being in trial all the time.” Twenty years later, Cornell is still the chief legal officer for the university system, which has an annual budget of more than $1.8 billion, more than 10,000 employees and 77,000 students. She and her legal team confront groundbreaking issues, including the university’s invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, significant changes to higher education law including Title IX and how to handle classes during the pandemic.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook award the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Nonprofit/Public Institution to University of Houston System General Counsel Dona Hamilton Cornell.
Gibson Dunn Adds Another PE Partner from Willkie
After only 16 months at Willkie, Jesse Myers has moved to Gibson Dunn. He joins former Willkie colleague, Michael De Voe Piazza, who made the move to Gibson in March. He also joins a cadre of transactional partners who have left Willkie in the past several months. Claire Poole has the details.
Q&A: Andy Wright
Premium-Only Content: Andy Wright dishes on what he sees as the most important business issue facing corporate legal departments and what he looks for in hiring outside counsel.
Talen GC Andy Wright – ‘No Issue He Won’t Tackle’
No corporate general counsel in the history of the Texas power industry has been involved in more multibillion-dollar deals or guided companies through as many business-threatening crises as Andrew Wright. He played a lead role in 2007 when private equity bought energy giant TXU for $45 billion. He co-led Energy Future Holdings through the eighth largest bankruptcy in the U.S. and co-led the subsequent spin-offs of Vistra Energy and the $18.8 billion Oncor sale.
Wright is now the GC at Talen Energy, where he is once again handling groundbreaking deals, dealing with the litigation aftermath of Winter Storm Uri and helping navigate his company through significant energy market challenges. Wright is also the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award recipient for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
Houston Transaction of the Year Finalists: Phillips 66 and GSFSGroup
The panel that judged the Transaction of the Year category stated that both legal teams are “highly deserving” of the award. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook will honor the four and more than a dozen other corporate in-house lawyers on May 19 at the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive details.
Q&A With Mark Shank, a Bare-Foot Skiing Employment Law Author
Mark Shank was a high school sophomore when he read a novel by Irving Wallace called The Seven Minutes, a legal thriller about a First Amendment trial over the banning of a book considered “the most obscene pornography ever written.” The lawyer in the book won an historic jury victory and convinced a teenaged Shank he should become a lawyer. Five decades later, Shank is the author of the 2022 edition of The Texas Litigator’s Guide to Departing Employee Cases. The Texas Lawbook interviewed Shank about his life, legal career and the behind-the-scenes making of his book.
CDT Roundup: 16 Deals, 16 Firms, 157 Lawyers, $2.3B
A Haynes and Boone survey on oil and gas borrowing bases is reflecting a new confidence in the industry’s immediate future. The result is unsurprising, given the steady rise in prices since their nadir in April 2020. Perhaps more surprising is the increasing adoption and disclosure of ESG policies at O&G firms, the basis for a second Haynes and Boone survey. The CDT Roundup discusses both, along with the weekly roll call of lawyers involved in last week’s deals.
Two Energy Deal Lawyers Boomerang to Norton Rose Fulbright
The firm has brought back two former Fulbright lawyers from Baker Botts and Winston & Strawn.
Registered Series in Texas LLCs are Almost Here
On June 1 amendments to the Texas Business Organizations Code adopted in the 2021 Texas Legislature will become effective. This article highlights how one of those amendments can be expected to bring better transparency and usefulness for series of Texas limited liability companies.