Features Region: Southwest

The volatile nature of the oil and gas industry means lucrative growth periods can be followed by plummeting prices and long periods of contraction. This impacts not just the companies drilling for oil, but those providing services to them, such as Weatherford International. Since 1941, the company has been providing equipment and services—drilling, exploration, evaluation, […]

When many of its 1,100 loan officers asked for a new mortgage refinancing product for customers, the executives at PrimeLending listened. After all, with interest rates and inflation on the rise, homebuying was on the decline. In 2022, the leading national retail mortgage lender and refinancer introduced Rate Redo for customers purchasing a loan between […]

Piece of cake? Well, it won’t be quite that easy to grow this franchisor of specialty retail bakeries, but the right ingredients and people are in place.  So assures Camille Penniman, who’s soon to celebrate her first anniversary as general counsel and the only in-house lawyer at Nothing Bundt Cakes. The Dallas, Texas-based company, which […]

In 1973, JCPenney was operating more than 2,000 locations throughout the U.S. Its catalogs—often novel-length and featuring thousands of products from furniture to formalwear—were a fixture on many a living-room coffee table. Since its founding in 1902, the department store giant had become a bona fide icon of American commerce. But in 1974, a massive […]

If baseball, as its more philosophical followers say, is a metaphor for life, could officiating hockey be the same for practicing law? Given that few people have done both, it’s worth hearing Chad Wiener’s take. “All the traits I developed while officiating hockey have been applicable in my legal career,” says Tenet Healthcare’s new vice […]

In 1983, a businessman moved from France to Dallas, Texas, where he dreamed of recreating the perfect baguette in a region defined by barbecue and tortillas. In pursuit of his vision, la Madeleine, a bakery and cafe in Dallas, was born. A cult-like following throughout the city developed for fast French fare, blossoming into a […]

It almost never happens, but for Chelsea Wardrop it did: She made the University of Utah’s women’s basketball team as a walk-on. Nothing was guaranteed save for hard work, summer camps, endless drills and doing whatever was needed for the team—even if it meant riding the bench during her freshman year and exuding a positive […]

If Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will the Bakersfield Commons. But from the get-go, the incremental redevelopment of 260 acres in the northwest corner of this iconic city, 90 miles north of Los Angeles, figured to be done in stages over 20 years. For the last three, Christopher M. Norton has been painstakingly […]

Cut your legal teeth at a law firm before going in-house. Prove you can rack up those 2,000 billable hours annually and comfortably juggle cases to the satisfaction of a diverse clientele. So young lawyers are advised. While Chi Lam won’t disagree with the need for new attorneys to secure a strong foundation, he learned […]

Building a cohesive in-house legal team takes the dynamism to lead and the patience to listen and learn from the team members and the business units the team serves. Building that team in a highly regulated industry such as gas or oil can be especially challenging. The legal professionals need to intimately understand growth opportunities […]