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Dentistry Dreams to Megadeals: Dallas Native Powers AI Infrastructure Gold Rush - Melissa Kalka once imagined herself in a white dentist’s coat, peering into mouths across bicuspids and middle molars.
Instead, now she examines balance and term sheets, drilling into multibillion‑dollar deals for hidden risk and opportunity. A transactional partner at the richest law firm in the world, she has become one of the firm’s go‑to architects for complex, capital‑intensive energy and infrastructure deals.
The Texas Lawbook caught up with her about her upbringing and career and the deals she's leading now. May 31, 2026
ConocoPhillips’ Scott Kelly: 2025 was ‘Most Challenging and Rewarding Year Ever’ - Scott Kelly accomplished more in his first year at ConocoPhillips than many in-house counsel accomplish in decades of service. Kelly joined the ConocoPhillips legal department in December 2024 but has already won three major trials, defeating $250 million in claims against ConocoPhillips and recovering $12 million in damages. And he settled a fourth case that involved multiple fatalities.
Citing these huge courtroom victories, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year Award for a Large Legal Department to Kelly. May 28, 2026
Expert Voices
Excerpt from The Outperformers: Lessons from Top Law Firm Leaders - This selection courtesy of Globe Law and Business describes eight key markers of the rapidly changing competitive landscape for top corporate law firms. June 1, 2026
Business Court: May 2026 Decisions - May was the Texas Business Court’s busiest month yet. Even with a record-setting number of decisions across the court’s divisions, the Court maintained its principled and stalwart deference to the text of the contract. The month also continued a familiar stream of jurisdictional disputes testing the Business Court’s $5 million amount-in-controversy threshold, among other jurisdictional questions. June 1, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
‘The Golden Age for Corporate Law in Texas is Now’ (Updated) - Never in history have Texas corporate lawyers worked so many hours, charged such enormous rates and raked in more revenue and profits than they are right now. The Texas offices of more than three dozen law firms scored record-high revenues in 2025 — and many of them surpassed their old records by tens of millions of dollars, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.
Citing increased demand for legal services and healthy hourly rate increases, 48 of the Lawbook 50 law firms generated more revenue and more profits in their Texas operations in 2025 than they did in 2024. April 30, 2026
