Main Content
Outline
OCI’s Janet Jamieson is Navigating Sweeping Legal and Commercial Changes in Renewable Energy - As the world exited the isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic, Janet Jamieson and her husband “were ready for an adventure.” Jamieson had been a GC and senior counsel at three conventional-fired power plants over two decades. Then, she received a call from a legal recruiter with an opportunity at OCI Enterprise. OCI's emphasis on renewable energy and related manufacturing attracted Jamieson right away.
Two years into her job at OCI, the new administration and Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which introduced sweeping changes that directly affected OCI’s businesses. These changes came at a time when energy companies were already contending with global trade restrictions and supply chain pressures.
Lawyers that have worked with Jamieson say she has not only ably navigated these challenges, but she has enabled OCI to position itself as a leader in clean energy. For her contributions, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Lawbook are honoring Jamieson with the 2025 General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department Award. November 5, 2025
Top Stories
Top Stories
Reid Collins’ Complaint in GWG Bankruptcy was Roadmap for Heppner’s Indictment - Lawyers who spoke to The Texas Lawbook this week said that the complaint filed in February by the Reid Collins & Tsai-represented bankruptcy trustee for GWG Holdings was the Department of Justice’s roadmap to bring criminal proceedings against Bradley Heppner, the former chief executive officer of Beneficient. November 6, 2025
Boeing Won’t Face Criminal Charges Over 737 Max Crashes - At a hearing in Fort Worth in early September, Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor heard testimony from some of the wives, parents, brothers and daughters of the 346 people killed in two Boeing 737 Max plane crashes who pleaded with him to reject the government’s request to dismiss the criminal case against the manufacturer. In Thursday’s order dismissing the case, the judge ruled that the government “has not acted with bad faith, has given more than mere conclusory reasons for its dismissal, and has satisfied its obligations under the [Crime Victim’s Rights Act].” November 6, 2025
Freeman Resigns, Isgur Recused in GWG Holdings Bankruptcy - The flurry of activity in the GWG bankruptcy case comes just days after the former chief executive officer of the company’s subsidiary, Beneficient, Brad Heppner, was indicted by federal authorities in New York on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, falsification of records and making false statements to auditors. The bankruptcy case will be assigned to a different judge in the Southern District of Texas, Chief Judge Alia Moses has determined. November 6, 2025
Asked & Answered with Kirkland & Ellis’s Kasdin Mitchell: From the White House to the U.S. Supreme Court - In this edition of Asked & Answered, Kirkland & Ellis partner Kasdin Mitchell talks about getting to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court, where she once clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as her time before law school, working in the White House for First Lady Laura Bush. Her mother’s pursuit of a law degree inspired her own path. November 5, 2025
Coauthors Celebrate Second Edition of Jury Trial Book with Signing - A new edition of On the Jury Trial aims to provide guidance to lawyers in a post-Covid pandemic world. Coauthors Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer and Fifth Court of Appeals Justice Craig Smith celebrated the second edition of the book with a signing event in Dallas Tuesday evening. November 5, 2025Ex-FBI Special Agent Wants $5M Defamation Suit Tossed - Two defamation lawsuits filed against critics of FBI Director Kash Patel are unfolding in federal court in Texas. In the Western District of Texas, Patel’s girlfriend has sued a former FBI special agent for allegedly defamatory statements made on a podcast, while in the Southern District of Texas, Patel himself has sued the former assistant director of counterintelligence for the FBI for comments he made during an MSNBC appearance. The defendants have enlisted Dorsey & Whitney, Dykema, Jackson Walker, Fletcher Held and First Amendment pros from SMU to fight the litigation. Binnall Law Group in Alexandria, Virginia, is representing the plaintiffs. November 5, 2025
Sonida Senior Living to Acquire CNL Healthcare Properties for $1.8B - The combined companies will operate under Sonida, which will continue to be traded on the NYSE. Acquisition of the non-traded REIT and its more than 7,500 senior living units, creates the eighth largest owner of senior living assets in the nation. Outside legal counsel included Fried Frank, Sidley Austin and Arnold & Porter. November 5, 2025
Ovintiv Acquires Canada’s NuVista Energy for $2.7B - Gibson Dunn, Paul Weiss and Vinson & Elkins were among the firms advising on the deal that complements Ovintiv's assets on both sides of the border; in the Permian as well as Canada's Montney Basin in northwestern Alberta and beyond. November 4, 2025
Centerpiece
Zachry Legal Team ‘Gets to Yes Without Compromising Legal Integrity’ - San Antonio trial lawyer Jay Old scored major courtroom successes in his 38-year career but the biggest hits have come in 2024 and 2025 when he and his legal team helped guide Zachry through a turbulent period of extraordinary challenge, including leading the energy services company to a transformational corporate restructuring. In addition, Old and his team of six attorneys and 17 other professionals this year negotiated an historic engineering, procurement and construction contract with Duke Energy for a natural gas power plant in North Carolina and separately signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Engineering and Construction that created a partnership focused on nuclear power construction.
Citing the Zachry legal team’s achievements in 2024 and 2025, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Lawbook are awarding the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for Corporate Legal Department of the Year. November 5, 2025
VSP Visions’ Two Lisas and Their Historic Constitutional Fifth Circuit Win - Lisa Fields and Lisa Hill, top corporate counsel at VSP Vision, faced a critical legal and business decision in 2023 that would have a monumental impact on the future of their companies. A new Texas law posed an existential threat to their business. Fields and Hill recognized that suing the state of Texas to block the law would be extremely expensive. "We knew we had to take a direct attack, and we knew it would be a bold move to sue the state. And we knew we had to make a statement that we would not have our constitutional rights trampled,” Fields told The Texas Lawbook.
On May 23, Hill and Fields received an email at 10:43 a.m. from Dykema partner Christopher Kratovil. The subject line: “Good news from New Orleans.” A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit had unanimously awarded Visionworks a complete victory. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Antonio Chapter and The Lawbook are honoring Fields, Hill and the litigation team at Dykema with the 2025 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year. November 4, 2025
Expert Voices
Competing Bills Governing College Sports Draw Unlikely Backers and Familiar Battle Lines - The ever-changing landscape of college sports left many yearning for stability. To get it, some have turned to Congress. Federal legislation could provide uniformity and finality, ending the patchwork of state regulations and settling college athletics on a fixed framework. And, depending on who you ask, it could provide an antitrust waiver — removing the gavel that has struck down a litany of NCAA rules (and empowered student athletes in the process).
But, as with all things involving Congress, there is disagreement on what that legislation should entail. The debate has pitted institutional NCAA interests against athletes’ rights groups, created unlikely bed fellows, and tested the influence of a prominent West Texas billionaire with the ear of the President. November 3, 2025
But, as with all things involving Congress, there is disagreement on what that legislation should entail. The debate has pitted institutional NCAA interests against athletes’ rights groups, created unlikely bed fellows, and tested the influence of a prominent West Texas billionaire with the ear of the President. November 3, 2025
