© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(May 16) – The TV commercial starts by showing an alien monster wreaking havoc in a downtown. People are running for their lives and yelling out for their superhero to come save them.
Miles away, the masked superhero is sitting in his Batmobile-like vehicle inside a secret lair ready to rush to the scene. Except, his battery is dead.
“When you need to be there, you need Interstate Batteries.”
When Dallas-based Interstate Batteries needs legal help, it turns to Chris Willis and Kelvin Sellers.
Last year, Interstate promoted Willis to be the company’s chief legal officer and Sellers to be its general counsel. The moves weren’t the result of any corporate crisis or devastating courtroom loss.
Willis and Sellers are widely respected as thought leaders throughout the corporate law community.
“Chris and Kelvin are great lawyers, true leaders in the Dallas community and really good guys,” says Texas General Counsel Forum CEO Lynn Bozalis.
Bozalis and other prominent lawyers say that Willis and Sellers are role models for how to manage a corporate legal department that truly serves as an integral part of the business.
“The legal department has an actual role in the operation of the business,” says Willis, who also oversees internal auditing and compliance, human resources and internal communications. “The legal department has always had a seat at the executive table at Interstate.”
The duo handles all legal and corporate compliance matters for Interstate and its partnerships with more than 200 retail stores in the U.S. and its agreements to distribute to more than 200,000 dealers worldwide.
They oversaw the company’s contracts related to the sponsorship of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch and the Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Two years ago, Interstate Batteries expanded into China, and Willis and Sellers are key players.
“From the time we were told [Interstate] wanted to move into China, we were able to create a business structure, obtain the needed licenses and permits and set up offices and be up and running within six weeks,” says Willis, who is a 1997 graduate of the SMU Dedman School of Law. “We were told that it normally takes six months or more.”
During the past year, Sellers engineered Interstate’s decision to purchase 19 percent of California-based Aqua Metals for $10 million. The investment paves the way for the two companies to create the world’s first Aqua Refinery, which will develop the means to recycle lead acid batteries.
“To know that we, as lawyers, play a critical role in the company’s efforts to grow and succeed is something our team takes pride in,” says Sellers, who joined Interstate in 2008 in the tax department.
“The job calls upon a lot of different areas of expertise, and it is quite a challenge every day to work on strategic matters with our leaders,” he says. “Probably 60 percent of what we do is offering advice on the business that goes beyond the normal legal advice. It is so much fun to use my background and my experience to be a problem-solver for the company.”
The son of a career Army officer, Sellers was born in North Carolina and lived many of his childhood years in Germany. He received advanced degrees in accounting and taxation from the University of Texas at Arlington and immediately joined the tax department at Deloitte in 1998, where he handled corporate compliance matters.
“I worked with a lot of lawyers, and it ignited a fire to take the LSAT and go to law school,” he says.
After graduating with a law degree from Columbia University in 2005, Sellers practiced at was then called Bickel & Brewer for 17 months and then Jones Day for nearly two years.
“I put my name and resume out on Monster and got a hit from Interstate’s tax department,” he says. “I loved the law and the experience working with administrative agencies. It was clear right away that Interstate was a place I could pave my own path.”
Willis says Sellers grabbed their attention right away. In 2010, the company made him deputy general counsel.
“Kelvin wanted to join our legal department, but we did not have a position at first with our tax group,” Willis says. “Kelvin has been amazing. He was critical in our success in China and with the Aqua Metals partnership.”
At age 42, Sellers knows that he is a role model for many younger African-Americans looking at the legal profession. But he also realizes they will face obstacles simply because of the color of their skin.
“Being a person of color, it is important and an obligation that I, as a general counsel, speak out,” he says. “We should expect our profession to reflect the demographics of our communities.
“It is not about quotas. It is about opening doors for minority lawyers already in the profession,” Sellers says. “It is a moral obligation and a prudent business investment to look for diversity of thought – and race and gender are the key components in that.”
To which Willis says, “Amen.”
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