The Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are honored to announce that former EDS General Counsel Gil Friedlander is the recipient of the official 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award.
The ACC-DFW and The Lawbook received 95 nominations for this year’s Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards, but the decision to name Friedlander, who is now senior counsel in the Dallas office of Sidley, with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award was unanimous.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is one of three new categories created this year by the ACC-DFW and The Lawbook.
Two other new categories, which were announced earlier this week, are Business Litigation of the Year and M&A Deal of the Year. These two awards recognize both the in-house corporate counsel and the outside lawyers who advised the companies.
The finalists for all categories are listed in articles below.
(Dec. 19) – General counsel in the Dallas-Fort Worth area faced huge legal issues during the past year. Their corporate legal departments handled monster-sized mergers, giant corporate spin-offs, complex bond issuances and bet-the-company trials and appeals.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook are pleased to recognize the tremendous success of these chief legal officers with its 2017 General Counsel of the Year Award.
The ACC-DFW and The Lawbook received dozens of nominations for GC of the Year, which we divided into three categories: small legal departments with five or fewer lawyers; mid-sized legal departments with six to 20 lawyers; and large legal operations with 21 or more attorneys.
The finalists for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department are:
• Wing Stop GC Darryl Marsch;
•CHC GC Hooman Yazhari and
• FleetPride GC Baron Oursler.
The finalists for General Counsel of the Year for a Mid-Sized Legal Department are:
• Hunt Consolidated GC David Hernandez;
• Real Page GC David Monk; and
• Trinity Industries GC Theis Rice.
In the category for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department, an odd development occurred. Multiple nominations were made. Two individuals were nominated multiple times. Sometimes, they were nominated together. Both work – or did work for the same corporation. Together, they handled some of the most complex corporate transactional work, regulatory work and litigation of the past three years.
The finalists and winners of the 2017 Outstanding General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department goes to Energy Future Holdings General Counsel Andy Wright and former EFH GC Stacey Doré.
Doré and Wright together led dozens of lawyers in one of the most complex – and most expensive – corporate bankruptcies and restructurings in Texas history.
The Texas Lawbook will publish profiles of each of the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award finalists in early and mid-January. The winners will be unveiled at the official award ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 25, at the Bush Institute. More details coming.
For the names of the finalists in the other categories, please scroll below.
Outstanding Corporate Counsel Finalists – Business Litigation of the Year & M&A Deal of the Year
(Dec. 18) – When the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook joined forces for the official 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards, the leaders of the organizations decided that the awards needed to focus more substantively on the actual legal work and successes of corporate legal departments.
To accomplish this, ACC-DFW and The Lawbook made two key changes: We plan to publish more in-depth articles showcasing the legal expertise and accomplishments of corporate in-house counsel, and we created two new award categories designed to focus entirely on specific business litigation successes and corporate M&A dealmaking.
The Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award finalists for Business Litigation of the Year are:
-
- Energy Transfer Partners GC Tom Mason and Deputy GC of Litigation Tonja De Sloover and their outside counsel, Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst and Vinson & Elkins;
-
- North Texas Tollway Authority GC Dena DeNooyer Stroh with law firms Locke Lord and Haynes and Boone; and
-
- Trinity Industries GC Theis Rice and Deputy GC Sarah Teachout, with lawyers at Akin Gump, Gibson Dunn and Haynes and Boone.
The Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award finalists for M&A Deal of the Year are:
-
- Energy Future Holdings GC Andy Wright, Vistra Energy GC Stephanie Moore, Oncor GC Allen Nye and former EFH GC Stacey Doré, and their outside counsel Kirkland & Ellis, Jones Day, Enoch Kever and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher;
-
- North Texas Tollway Authority GC Dena Stroh and the law firms McCall, Parkhurst & Horton, Mahomes Bolden and Locke Lord; and
These two categories offer an additional element that is new to the awards: We plan to recognize the outside lawyers hired by the corporate legal departments to do much of the legal work.
During the first two weeks of January, The Lawbook will publish articles on each of the nominees, including details on the work done by outside counsel.
The finalists will be celebrated and winners announced on Thursday, Jan. 25, when the ACC-DFW and The Lawbook hosts the 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards at the George W. Bush Institute.
On Tuesday, The Lawbook and ACC-DFW will announce the finalists for the General Counsel of the Year and the recipient of this year’s General Counsel Lifetime Achievement Award.
(Dec. 15) – On Thursday, Jan. 25, hundreds of general counsel and business lawyers will gather at the George W. Bush Institute for the annual Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.
Two of the most important honors that evening will highlight diversity in the legal profession and the need for more public service and pro bono.
The ACC and The Texas Lawbook received 95 nominations this year for the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards. We received more nominations for Diversity than any other category, which shows its level of importance. The number of nominations for Public Service were not far behind.
The finalists for the Outstanding Corporate Legal Department for Diversity are:
Juanita Harris and David McAtee of AT&T;
Keitha Monet Wright of G2Secure Staff; and
Chris Luna of T-Mobile/MetroPCS.
The finalists for Outstanding Corporate Legal Department for Public Service & Pro Bono are:
Stacie McNulty of PanOptis Patent Management;
Nicola Hobeiche of Orix USA; and
Dan Kelly and Ashlie Alaman of Vistra Energy.
In early January, The Texas Lawbook will publish profiles of each of the finalists. The Texas Lawbook announced the finalists for Non-General Counsel of the Year on Thursday. On Monday, we will disclose the finalists for Outstanding General Counsel of the Year.
(Dec. 14) – The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook officially announced nine finalists Thursday for the Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards for Non-General Counsel of the Year.
The Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards recognize the tremendous legal work of corporate in-house lawyers who have faced challenges and scored successes.
The ACC-DFW and The Texas Lawbook invited nominations for five weeks in October and November. Ninety-five submissions were made. We then put together an extraordinary group of general counsel and senior lawyers to review the nominations, discuss their qualifications and name their finalists for 11 categories:
General Counsel of the Year for large, mid-sized and small legal departments;
Non-GC of the Year for large, mid-sized and small legal departments;
Legal Dept. of the Year for Public Service and Pro Bono;
Legal Dept. of the Year for Diversity;
Corporate M&A Deal of the Year;
Business Litigation of the Year; and
Lifetime Achievement Award.
During the next week, The Lawbook will reveal the finalists for each of these categories.
Today, we announce the finalists for the Non-General Counsel of the Year.
The finalists for small legal departments, which have fewer than five lawyers, are:
- Michelle Brookshire of Sky Chefs;
- Blake Rice of Neuberger Berman Group; and
- Lennie Nicholson of Legacy Texas Bank.
The finalists for mid-sized legal departments, which have six to 20 attorneys working in-house, are:
- Janie Perelman of Michaels Companies;
- Sarah Teachout of Trinity Industries; and
- Brittany Perez of Match.com.
The finalists for large legal departments, which have 21 or more lawyers, are:
- Kimberly Houston of Liberty Mutual Group;
- Chasity Henry of Kimberly-Clark Corporation; and
- Michael Sukenik of Yum! Brands.
In early January, The Texas Lawbook will publish profiles of each of the finalists. The Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 25, at the Bush Institute.
Tomorrow, The Lawbook will announce the finalists for Legal Department of the Year for Public Service & Pro Bono and the Legal Department of the Year for Diversity.