The Texas legal community has a history of great leaders.
There was Wayne Watts, the now-retired AT&T general counsel who navigated the Dallas-based company through dozens of mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $300 billion that transformed the smallest of the seven Baby Bells into the modern-day global communications giant. There was the great Houston trial lawyer Harry Reasoner, who successfully guided Vinson & Elkins through one of the largest financial scandals of all time — Enron. There was Gary Kennedy, who led American Airlines past the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, through one of the largest and most expensive corporate bankruptcies and one of the most successful mergers in history.
There have been so many exceptional lawyers — Leon Jaworski, Steve Susman, Cathy Lamboley, Harriet Miers, Ron Kirk, William Powers, Jim Coleman, Ron White, Carol Dinkins and David McAtee, to name a few — whose leadership has guided the profession through turbulent times and into a better future.
To identify, celebrate and teach leadership skills, challenges and successes, The Texas Lawbook,with the support of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter, has created the Texas Lawbook Leadership Symposium.
The launch event on April 13 in the auditorium of The Dallas Morning News will feature two panels of extraordinary leaders, including Keurig Dr Pepper Chief Legal Officer Anthony Shoemaker, Jacobs General Counsel Chasity Henry, Sidley Austin Management Committee Chair Yvette Ostolaza, Dallas Morning News Publisher Grant Moise and Toyota Motor North America Managing Counsel Derek Lipscombe.
The first panel starts at 11 a.m. A lunch program will follow.
“The Lawbook Leadership Symposium will focus on issues facing legal industry leaders, provide insight into leadership decision-making and honor corporate general counsel, law firm executives and managing partners who have demonstrated great leadership during an era of disruption,” said Texas Lawbook publisher Brooks Igo.
Igo said the Lawbook Leadership Symposium will feature a series of in-person events, webcasts and articles published in The Lawbook annually.
The Lawbook Leadership Symposium officially launches Monday with a three-part series of articles on leadership by Jacobs General Counsel Chasity Henry.
“The Texas legal community faces extraordinary challenges — from increased competition and the growth of artificial intelligence to political attacks that threaten independence and effectiveness of the legal profession and the judiciary,” said Derek Lipscombe, co-chair of the Texas Lawbook Foundation and managing counsel at Toyota Motor North America. “The importance of leadership today cannot be understated.”
Future Lawbook Leadership Symposium programs will include tackling unpopular pro bono cases, lawyers as business community leaders, managing high-profile colleagues and clients, leading a law firm and corporate legal department through times of crisis and achieving greater diversity and inclusion within the mission of better business and legal results.
“One of the most frequent topics The Lawbook is asked to address, either through articles or CLE programs, is identifying and developing effective leadership,” Igo said. “Through the Lawbook Leadership Symposium, we seek to address the nuts and bolts of true leadership. Part of that is celebrating those in the legal profession who are demonstrating effective leadership every day.”
All funds raised by the Lawbook Leadership Symposium will go to the Texas Lawbook Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that has a sole purpose of reporting on and writing articles about pro bono, public service and diversity in the legal profession in Texas.
For more information about the Texas Lawbook Leadership Symposium, including the April 13 launch event at The Morning News, please contact Brooks Igo at brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net.