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‘What Could Be Better?’: The Scratch-Golfer PGA Deputy GC Who Turned Passion into Profession - Ted Koehler has his dream job. And maybe yours.
He's a near-scratch golfer (a 0.90 handicap at the moment), a game he learned from his father. He makes his living advising the Professional Golfers' Association of America, the premier organization for more than 30,000 PGA professionals nationwide.
He gets to attend events like the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. And because he's involved in their planning, it could be regarded as a job requirement. He gets to play some of the best golf courses in the world.
If dream jobs were golf balls, Koehler's has the feel of a 375-yard tee shot airmailed from a titanium driver, fairway-flush on the Par Five of Life.
As deputy general counsel in the PGA's three-attorney legal department, Koehler has been nominated by The Texas Lawbook and the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel as 2026 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Practice. January 13, 2026
Another Billion-Dollar Win for Keurig Dr Pepper, Another Nomination for Business Litigation of the Year - Two years ago, Stephen Cole reflected on his career as the vice president and assistant general counsel of Keurig Dr Pepper and was confident his best day at the company came after a summary judgment ruling resulted in a $925 million win against competitors Coca-Cola and BodyArmor.
But Cole, now a five-year veteran of KDP, has stayed busy ever since.
In July, the company’s legal team, along with outside counsel at Kirkland & Ellis, defeated a lawsuit from Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling that had been seeking more than $1 billion in damages over the ending of an agreement that had allowed Reyes to distribute Dr Pepper/Seven Up in California and Nevada.
Because of this work, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Cole a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year. January 12, 2026
Expert Voices
Adapt or Be Replaced — The Future of In‑House Law in the Age of AI - When AI is embedded into daily workflows, processes such as contract review, compliance monitoring, risk analysis and knowledge management stop being bottlenecks and become sources of strategic leverage. That shift frees our teams to spend time where human judgment matters most. This article offers a practical roadmap for GCs: how to adopt AI safely, how to train people effectively and how to redesign processes with AI at the core — so the legal team can be a force multiplier for the business, not a brake. January 7, 2026
My Five Favorite Books: Conrad Hester - Whether it’s the psychological depth of Dostoyevsky or the lyrical observations of Annie Dillard, I’m drawn to stories that linger long after the final page. These books aren’t just entertaining; they are challenging but ultimately reward the time investment with illuminations on what it means to exist in our world. They’re the kind of books that make you think harder, feel deeper, and read slower. January 7, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
The Legacy of Pennzoil v. Texaco 40 Years Later — The Civil Jury Trial of the Century - Pennzoil v. Texaco's legacy remains significant, as it changed how companies handle mergers and acquisitions, caused the Chamber of Commerce to designate Texas as a judicial hellhole in 1986 and directly led to two decades of massive tort reform efforts that dramatically limited the rights of Texans to sue businesses, doctors and insurance companies for wrongdoing. It also launched Texas trial lawyer Joe Jamail to national stardom and made him the richest trial lawyer in American history.
In this in-depth article, The Texas Lawbook provides a detailed timeline of the events involved in the historic litigation, as well as comments from more than a dozen lawyers about the legal strategies employed. November 18, 2025
