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Steffen Horlacher — American Airlines’ Lawyer for ‘Head-hurting, Complicated Commercial Matters’

Steffen Horlacher has been instrumental at American Airlines during his 26-year career, helping the airline navigate significant challenges like 9/11, the 2011 bankruptcy, the merger with US Airways and the pandemic. He has managed various business initiatives and partnerships that support daily operations.

Recently, Horlacher led negotiations with motorcoach carrier Landline, making American the first airline to offer service in all 50 states. He also advised on a new alliance with Alaska Airlines that created international routes from Seattle and Los Angeles.

In recognition of his contributions, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named him the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year for Large Legal Departments. This is his story.

Texas Capital Bank GC Anna Alvarado ‘Knows What Hard Work Really Is’

Anna Alvarado has an extraordinary life story. And she has experienced extraordinary success. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Alvarado grew up in government-subsidized housing at a work camp in Central California, picking grapes and selling cassette tapes. Neither of her parents spoke English. Her dad was an addict and felon who served prison time.

“Had it not been for all of those things and having to deal with all of those things, I would not be sitting here today,” Alvarado said in a 2022 interview. Today, she is a finalist for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.

P.S. — SPCA and Jones Day: 2024 DFW Creative Partnership of the Year

Jones Day construction litigation partner Joseph Van Asten, the dad to two rescue dogs, was looking for a pro bono project earlier this year. Chris Luna, former T-Mobile chief counsel-turned-CEO of SPCA needed a large corporate law firm with experience in several different practice areas. The result: The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring SPCA’s Luna and Jones Day with the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Creative Partnership. During the past year, Jones Day has had 10 different lawyers work more than 200 pro bono hours on seven different matters for the SPCA, including drafting and negotiating construction agreements for the SPCA expansion project, providing advice on SPCA’s corporate bylaws and corporate governance issues and advising the nonprofit on its trademark portfolio. This is how the partnership came together.

Keurig Dr Pepper, Taxwell Finalists for 2024 DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have created a new award category for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year honor recognizes in-house working as a team to achieve extraordinary success. This year, two corporate legal departments stood out from all the rest.

“We’ve honored GCs of the Year, Senior Counsels of the Year, Business Litigation and M&A Deal of the Year, but we realized that there are situations where corporate legal departments may have major initiatives on multiple fronts or facing a significant crisis while also dealing with major transitions within their companies,” said Texas Lawbook publisher Brooks Igo. “We needed an award that looked at the bigger picture by examining all the different challenges.”

P.S. — Dallas Cowboys’ Kaleisha Stuart, SPCA’s Chris Luna Win DFW Corporate Counsel Awards

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Diversity and Inclusion to Dallas Cowboys Deputy General Counsel Kaleisha Stuart and the Creative Partnership Award to SPCA of Texas CEO Chris Luna and Jones Day partner Joseph Van Asten. Also in this P.S. column, Munsch Hardt and Paul Hastings share the holiday spirit with those less fortunate.

DFW Business Litigation, M&A Deal and Creative Partnership of the Year Announced

The corporate legal departments at Arcosa, Helmerich & Payne, Jacobs Solutions, SPCA of Texas and Texas Pacific Land and their outside law firms are finalists in three key categories at the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced the finalists for the 2024 DFW awards for Business Litigation of the Year, M&A Deal of the Year and Creative Partnership. These three awards are unique because they celebrate the in-house corporate legal departments and their outside lawyers.

2024 DFW Senior Counsel, Rookie of the Year Finalists Unveiled

Corporate in-house lawyers at American Airlines, Texas Capital Bank and Workrise are on the short list for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel of the Year Awards for Senior Counsel of the Year. And attorneys from ECI Software Solutions and Matador Resources are the finalists for DFW Rookie of the Year.

ACC-DFW and Texas Lawbook Select DFW GCs of the Year

The general counsel at Toyota North America, Sandra Phillips, and the GC at the North Texas Tollway Authority, Dena Stroh, have been selected by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook to receive the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department and a Governmental/Nonprofit Legal Department respectively.

In addition, ACC-DFW and The Lawbook have named Texas Capital GC Anna Alvarado and FirstService Residential GC LaToyia Pierce Frink as the two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for GC of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Caris Life Sciences GC Russ Denton and Momentum GC Robin Everly as finalists for GC of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

ACC-DFW & Texas Lawbook Name Lifetime Achievers: Bridgett Zeterberg, Marita Covarrubias, Derek Lipscombe

Bridgett Zeterberg has been a GC for nearly three decades guiding companies such as Total Wine, Tuesday Morning and now Torrid Holdings “through periods of significant transformation.” For more than 25 years, Marita Covarrubias has been an in-house lawyer and leader at Tenet Healthcare “managing some of the largest employment and general business litigation matters throughout the country.” Derek Lipscombe has been an in-house lawyer focused on labor and employment litigation for 20 years at AAA Texas, JC Penney and Toyota North America.

Zeterberg, Covarrubias and Lipscombe have a new common attribute: the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring them with the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Texas GC Forum Honors Corporate Legal Leaders of 2024

The Texas General Counsel Forum held its annual Magna Stella Awards dinner in San Antonio Thursday night recognizing nine chief legal officers and senior in-house counsel for their extraordinary achievements and leadership successes. The GC Forum provided The Texas Lawbook exclusive access to its annual meeting and the awards ceremony. More than 350 lawyers from corporate legal departments and law firms attended the event. The recipients included lawyers from Air Liquide, LyondellBasell, PlayPower, Schwab, Sumitomo, Texas Children’s Hospital and XRI Holdings.

Correction: David Starr’s name was mistakenly printed Carr in several references. The Lawbook apologizes for the error.

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