Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The president-elect of the Asian American Bar Association of Houston shares experiences from her life and career that have perpetuated a feeling of "otherness" and how mentors and friends have helped transform her understanding of her story.
Amanda Shaw-Castro was a rising young partner in Jackson Walker's real estate, finance, and energy practices. On her way to becoming a lawyer, she was a dishwasher at a casino, server at a Catfish Kitchen, correctional officer supervising men in a Texas prison and a mother.
We were so impressed with Amanda’s “origin story” that we pressed hard for the firm to hire her. She rewarded our faith a hundred fold.
Mergers and acquisitions that end up in high-stakes litigation are often about two issues: the fine print of the transaction agreement and the intent of the buyers and sellers. No one knows this more than Forterra GC Lori Browne, who spent the past six years battling the German company that sold the water and drainage pipe maker to private equity fund Lone Star for $1.3 billion on Christmas Eve 2014. Browne won the case and the 2020 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
In the middle of Covid and locked down at home, Match Group CLO Jared Sine guided a massively complex $30 billion reverse corporate spin-off, settled a highly contentious IP lawsuit with competitor Bumble and negotiated a $1.7 billion acquisition of South Korea-based Hyperconnect.
Sine made news last month when he told U.S. Senators about anticompetitive practices of Apple and Google regarding their domination of the app platform space.
“And yes, we are fighting the two biggest and most powerful companies in the history of the world,” he said. “All in a day’s work.”
In my first year of law school, we were taught that Lady Justice wears a blindfold to symbolize the premise that all laws, facts and people are judged without considering race, gender or sexual orientation. I soon learned that Lady Justice might symbolically have a blindfold over her face, but she can clearly see.
In 1970, a teacher you’ve probably never heard of left Clinton Park Elementary on the east side of Houston to teach at William B. Travis Elementary on the northwest side. Her name is Carolyn White. I call her mom. She was one of six Black teachers who were called “crossover teachers,” moved from all-Black schools to try to integrate predominantly white schools. Sixteen years later, I was one of only two Black students at the school. Once I decided to become a lawyer, I had no idea that my childhood experiences would prepare me for what I would encounter in the legal profession.
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County lawyer Kylie Loya was born in a refugee camp in Manila. She was still a baby when she was granted asylum and was still in high school when she represented herself in court. Today, Loya is a rising star in the Texas legal community; she is a legal expert on drone usage and helped bring Wi-Fi to public transit customers in Houston. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.
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