In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Elaine Rodriguez discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Texas Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel?
Elaine Rodriguez: Someone who is a subject matter expert in the particular area of concern, be it construction law, employment law, environmental law, cyber security, federal regulatory matters, etc. Also someone who understands the peculiar intricacies of representing a governmental entity. I’m also looking for bench strength so that if the primary attorney is unavailable for whatever reason, someone else can pick up the ball and run with it. And, since the airport is owned by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, I try to use law firms located in the owner cities as much as possible to share the wealth, so to speak, between the cities.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about working with you?
Rodriguez: I’m very hands-on. I want to read all the pleadings before they are filed. I want to be kept apprised of the status of matters.
Lawbook: Have you had any life impacting events that impacted you as a person or your career?
Rodriguez: I’d have to say my divorce in the early 1990s, which left me as the sole caregiver and financial supporter of two preschool-aged children. It caused me to make career decisions that I might otherwise not have made. For example, I found that being in-house counsel gave me greater flexibility than being in a large law firm. Also, when Zoecon merged with a sister company headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois, I knew that I would not be able to move to Illinois and leave my support structure of nannies, preschools and friends here in Dallas. Trying to start over and rebuild that same support would be too difficult, especially while trying to start a new job. But by not moving to Illinois, I ended up going to work for CellStar Corporation, which provided wonderful opportunities for career growth. From a personal perspective, my divorce taught me that I was resilient and self-sufficient.
Lawbook: What have been three or four of your biggest successes since joining DFW Airport as GC?
Rodriguez: My successes are actually the airport’s successes. We are all part of a team that works to ensure that the airport can continue to provide an excellent customer experience to a diverse and ever-growing passenger population. Key to meeting that growth is ensuring that we have the right agreements in place with the airlines that call DFW home — especially American Airlines, which serves over 80 percent of the 87 million passengers that traversed through our terminals last year. In 2023, we were able to negotiate and sign a new 10-year use and lease agreement with the 30 passenger airlines and 14 freight airlines that utilize the airport, that included preapproved capital investments to build a new Terminal F, modernize existing terminals and make much-needed infrastructure improvements at the airport. Then, earlier this year, we developed a new approach to Terminal F that will increase the footprint of that terminal, increasing the total number of gates in that terminal from 15 to 31. As part of that new approach, the airlines approved an increase in the Terminal F budget from $1.6 billion to $4.0 billion, and the airport offered all signatory airlines an option to extend the term of the use agreements for an additional 10 years.
To fund these capital projects, our very talented finance team has come up with innovative approaches to raise capital. During 2025, we issued $2 billion in joint revenue bonds and plan to issue an additional $2 to $3 billion in the upcoming year.
Lawbook: What question am I not asking that I should be asking?
Rodriguez: Something that surprises a lot of people is how the airport’s legal department is structured. As you may know, the airport is owned by the owner cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and governed by a joint board, the members of which are appointed by the owner cities. The board hires the chief executive officer of the airport, and he hires his staff. That doesn’t include the attorneys, however. There are a total of four attorneys in the airport legal department — two of us are employees of the city of Dallas and two are employees of the city of Fort Worth. We are assigned by the respective city attorneys to the airport’s legal department, we office at the airport, and the airport board is our client. The other attorneys report to me, as general counsel. It’s a very unusual structure, but it has worked for the past 50 years.
Click here to read the Lawbook profile of Elaine Rodriguez.