Texas 2025
Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel
General counsel and corporate secretary | Virtuoso
Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary | Key Energy Services
Executive Vice President & General Counsel | Cenergy International Services
Head of Legal, Region Americas | DNV Group
Ruth Colvin is the Head of Group Legal, Region Americas for the DNV Group. Known for her proactive approach and business-oriented solutions, Ruth leads a team of legal professionals providing...
Chief Legal Counsel, Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary | PetroTal
Chief legal officer and corporate secretary | The Container Store
Executive Vice President, Secretary, and Chief Legal Officer | Halliburton
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary | Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts
Mr. Rose is Ashford’s executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, and he serves in the same roles for Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts. Mr. Rose brings...
Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Secretary | OW OceanWinds
Managing Director, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | Texas Capital Bank
Chief legal officer and general counsel | Keurig Dr Pepper
Anthony Shoemaker serves as chief legal officer, general counsel and corporate secretary for Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP). Prior to his appointment in 2021, he had been with the company for...
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Ecopetrol USA
Audrey Guaqueta joined Ecopetrol USA’s leadership team as general counsel and corporate secretary, in October 2024. Audrey has over 19 years of legal experience, with ten years in management, holding...
Executive Vice President, Performance and Essential Materials, General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer | Westlake
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | LTK
Brittany DeGan is a seasoned general counsel and corporate secretary with a passion for managing and building legal and business teams, scaling high-growth technology companies, creating process improvements, and driving...
Senior vice president, chief risk officer and chief compliance officer | Sempra Infrastructure
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary | Contango Resources
EVP, General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Compliance Officer & Corporate Secretary | Orion Group Holdings
SVP, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Corporate Secretary | Select Water Solutions
Executive vice president, chief legal officer and secretary | TechnipFMC
Formerly senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel | Texas Instruments
Executive Vice President,General Counsel and Secrey | Huntsman
Vice President - Corporate Counsel; General Counsel of Prudential Asset Resources, Inc. | Prudential Asset Resources
Executive vice president and general counsel | Quanta Services
General Counsel | Vice President of Compliance | Corporate Secretary | Bluebell Creameries
He is a native Texan, having grown up in Arlington where his parents still live. He graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University in College Station, spending four years as...
Executive vice president and general counsel | Crown Castle
SVP, General Counsel, Head of Government Affairs, and Corporate Secretary | Bristow Group
Elizabeth Matthews is a C-suite executive and global business leader with over twenty-five years of board-level experience, functional experience, and reporting lines that included government affairs, insurance/risk management, regulatory, technology,...
Senior Vice President - Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Sysco
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary | Wingstop
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | Group 1 Automotive
Executive vice president, business affairs and general counsel | Houston Texans
Director, Executive Vice President, General counsel and secretary | Enterprise Products
Group general counsel, chief compliance officer | Infosys
Inderpreet is the group general counsel and the chief compliance officer of Infosys. In this role, she leads the legal and compliance function of the company. She is a strategic...
Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer | Energy Transfer
Vice President and General Counsel | Active Cyber
I started my career in the Dallas office of Weil in the Private Equity Mergers and Acquisitions Group before moving to Sidley Austin. I left Sidley Austin to become in-house...
Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer | Carnelian Energy Capital
Executive vice president & chief legal and administrative officer | Hewlett Packard Enterprise
General Counsel and corporate secretary | Talen Energy
John Wander joined Talen Energy in June 2023 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In this position, he leads the Company’s Legal and Regulatory and External Affairs functions, oversees corporate...
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel | Advanced Diagnostics Healthcare System
Vice president and general counsel | Arca Continental/Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages
Joseph serves as Vice President and General Counsel of Arca Continental/Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages. He is a graduate of The McCallie School and received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and...
Executive vice president and general counsel | Pioneer Natural Resources Company
Senior Vice President - Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Kodiak Gas Services
enior vice president, Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | ConocoPhillips
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Acme Brick Company
General Counsel | Crow Holdings
Kevin Bryant is general counsel of Crow Holdings and is responsible for all legal matters and tax planning. He also is responsible for the structuring and formation of the Crow...
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary | Fluor Corporation
Executive Director, General Counsel | Kubota Tractor Corporation
General counsel, PepsiCo Foods North America | PepsiCo
Leanne Oliver serves as the senior vice president and general counsel for PepsiCo Foods North America, a combined $USD30bn business which includes Frito-Lay North America and Quaker Foods North America....
General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer | Sterling Infrastructure
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer | Southwest Airlines Company
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary | Eagle Materials
SVP, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer | Trillium Flow Technologies
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary | Cinemark Holdings
SVP, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer | Nabors Industries
Executive vice president and general counsel | CenterPoint Energy
Monica Karuturi is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of CenterPoint Energy. In this role, she oversees the company’s legal department and risk management functions, including claims, environmental, insurance, enterprise...
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary | Lennox
Monica Brown was appointed executive vice president and chief legal officer in January 2025. She joined Lennox in 2012 and has served in various leadership roles, including vice president and...
VP of Land & General Counsel | Santo Petroleum
Nicole Singer is the Vice President of Land and General Counsel of Santo Petroleum and its affiliated companies. Santo is a privately-owned independent minerals, royalties, exploration and production company with...
Chief legal officer, Executive Vice President | Universal weather & Aviation
Omar J. Fahel is a seasoned corporate executive and legal professional with extensive experience in strategic planning, corporate governance, risk management, and international business law. With a proven track record...
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary | Copart
Executive Vice President Sustainability and Governance and Chief Legal Officer | Mcdermott International
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary | Academy Sports + Outdoors
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary | Plains All American Pipeline
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel | American Airlines
Senior vice president & chief administrative officer | Enerflex
Regional General Counsel - North America | Fortescue Future Industries
Group Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | Toyota North America
Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer | Trinity Industries
Mr. Ewing joined Trinity in 2015 as Associate General Counsel and was named Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer in 2023. Prior to joining Trinity, he was a lawyer...
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary | Cheniere Energy
Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer | Austin Industries
Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary | AZZ
Tara Mackey has served as AZZ Inc.’s Chief Legal Officer & Secretary since 2014, where she manages all legal matters for the company, Corporate Governance, M&A, SEC Reporting, the AZZ...
Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer | The Neiman Marcus Group
EVP Government Affairs, GC & Corporate Secretary | Phillips 66
General counsel and corporate secretary | NextDecade Corporation
Vera de Gyarfas joined NextDecade as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in July 2021 and is responsible for all legal and contractual matters affecting NextDecade. De Gyarfas is a skilled corporate...
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Battalion Oil Corporation
Chief Compliance Officer, SVP - Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary | Antero Resources
Legal 500 is back again with yet another maiden edition; GC Powerlist Texas. While this is our first dedicated focus on the great state of Texas, it’s far from our first foray into the US, and we are excited to introduce another title to the ever-growing GC Powerlist series. With its vast and diverse legal landscape, Texas presented a unique challenge in identifying the top in-house counsel, but it has been a rewarding process. From Dallas and Austin to San Antonio, Houston, and beyond, we are proud to highlight the outstanding legal professionals who are leading the charge in this dynamic state.
As we engaged with senior in-house counsel across Texas, we heard insightful reflections on the trends shaping their work. As one counsel shared, “Politically, anticipating changes which may occur in a new administration and ‘future proofing’ our agreements, to the extent possible, has been a focus for our team.” Another noted the shift in federal regulatory actions, “federal regulatory initiatives initiated during the current administration that place significant burdens on companies (i.e. FTC non-compete rules, EPA emissions targeting, Corporate Transparency Act, and other attempts by federal agencies to appropriate state regulatory functions) will likely be pulled back by the new administration…” And reflecting on broader global trends, one senior in-house counsel pointed out, “first, the current geopolitical uncertainty will continue to add complexity and unpredictability for businesses, especially the ones with large global operations.”
We are grateful for the opportunity to engage with such a high calibre of in-house counsel from across this vast state, and we look forward to continuing to track the legal landscape in Texas in the years ahead.
A special thank you to Weil, Gotshal & Manges for their generous support in making this edition possible. We are excited to unveil these profiles and recognize the incredible talent in Texas!
On October 2, Legal 500 returned to Copenhagen to host the highly anticipated GC Summit: Denmark 2025 at the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel. The event brought together prominent voices from the legal and business communities to explore the evolving role of in-house counsel in a rapidly shifting global landscape.
The day began with opening remarks from Legal 500’s editorial lead, Francisco Castro, who welcomed attendees and set the tone for the summit. He emphasised the importance of convening the corporate counsel community to engage in meaningful dialogue around the pressing challenges – and emerging opportunities – facing legal teams today.
The first panel delved into crisis management strategies for legal departments. Hanne Marthine Frederiksen, partner at Poul Schmith, and Søren Søndergaard, director at Rud Pedersen, shared practical insights on early risk detection, cross-functional coordination, and post-crisis recovery planning. The discussion underscored the growing expectation for legal teams to lead during periods of uncertainty and equipped attendees with actionable tools to enhance organisational resilience.
The second panel focused on regulatory reform, specifically the EU’s Digital Omnibus proposal and anticipated changes to the GDPR and NIS 2 Directive. Marlene Winther Plas and Christian Wiese Svanberg from DLA Piper Denmark, joined by Heidi Warm from the firm’s Brussels office and Tina Dorthe Nielsen, senior legal counsel at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, offered a practitioner’s perspective on navigating evolving data protection and cybersecurity legislation. The panel highlighted areas where simplification could benefit businesses and improve compliance outcomes.
After a short coffee break, the conversation turned to the insurance industry’s response to emerging global risks. Medea Solevad Plesner, legal director at Kennedys, Anja Deleuran, senior insurance manager at Carlsberg, Thomas Brenøe, director at Insurance and Pension Denmark, Lars Søhøj, financial lines underwriter at Zurich, and Jonas Spangsberg Svensson, attorney at The RiskPoint Group, explored how climate change, geopolitical instability, and the rise of consumer-led class actions are reshaping corporate risk profiles. The panel examined implications for claims handling and the future of insurance solutions across cyber, product liability, property, and D&O.
The final panel of the day addressed how legal teams can position themselves as strategic business partners. Moderated by Francisco Castro, the session featured John F. Kuckleman, group general counsel at Novo Nordisk, and Pia Ullum, legal vice president at Dell Technologies. Both speakers shared compelling examples of how in-house counsel can align more closely with business objectives, demonstrate measurable value, and build influence across the C-suite. The discussion highlighted the shift from reactive legal support to proactive leadership and commercial insight.
To close the event, Francisco Castro thanked all speakers and attendees for their contributions and engagement throughout the day. He reaffirmed Legal 500’s commitment to supporting the in-house legal community through high-impact events and thought leadership. Guests were then invited to enjoy refreshments and informal networking, providing a relaxed setting to continue conversations and forge new connections.
