2018 Magna Stella^® Winners

Toyota Legal One (TL1) is the legal services group for Toyota Motor North America, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.  TL1 oversees legal activities across Toyota’s North American engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution and government affairs operations.  TL1 is led by Sandra Phillips Rogers, Group Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.  Today, its leadership team is 70% women; 30% people of color.  Nearly 60% of TL1’s line lawyers are women; nearly 40%, people of color.   

Toyota’s and TL1’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is borne of the twin pillars of the company’s Guiding Principles, known as the “Toyota Way”:  Respect for People and Continuous Improvement.  The company and its legal team view diversity and inclusion as critical to Toyota’s ability to compete in an evolving automotive industry and to fulfill its commitment to provide mobility for all.   

In 2014, TL1 launched a Partnering Program (PP) which, among other goals, aims to expand Toyota’s own commitment to diversity and inclusion among TL1’s partner law firms.  In addition to setting expectations for PP firms and actively assisting the firms in meeting these expectations, TL1 tracks PP firms’ progress through a variety of metrics – including an e-billing system that tracks the work of the lawyers on Toyota matters who identify as women, people of color, LGBT, veterans and those with disabilities. 

TL1 also proactively helps its partner law firms meet their commitments and advance their own objectives around diversity and inclusion.  TL1 shares resources (in, for example, a series of thought-provoking articles on successes and failures in promoting diversity and inclusion) and works to foster collaboration among its partner firms to spread new ideas, lessons learned and best practices for enhancing diversity and inclusion.   TL1 provides partner firms training on diversity and inclusion through in-person and virtual “best practices” workshops and as part of its biennial Summit.  One recent workshop, for example, focused on implicit bias and its tangible effects on diverse lawyers.   

These actions have produced dramatic results.  Soon after the launch of the Partnering Program, from FY 2015 to FY 2016, TL1’s use of diverse timekeepers jumped 340%.  For FY2018, 51% of Toyota’s legal spend through the Partnering Program comes from diverse timekeepers.   TL1 also engages three minority-owned vendors (one of which is also certified as women-owned).   The Partnering Program includes three certified women-owned law firms. 

James Baldwin

Keurig Dr Pepper | Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel

James “Jim” Baldwin is chief legal officer and general counsel for Keurig Dr Pepper Snapple Inc. (NYSE: KDP).  In this role, Jim oversees all legal issues for the company. 

Jim has played a key strategic role in Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s major acquisitions and restructurings, including the recent $22 billion merger with Keurig Green Mountain that resulted in the new Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.  He was also involved in the 2008 spin-off of the beverages business and creation of DPS as a separate publicly-traded company when the company separated from Cadbury Schweppes plc.  Previously, he played a central role in consolidating Cadbury Schweppes’ North American Snapple and Motts beverage operations into Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, as well as the subsequent acquisition of Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Bottling Group in 2006 and several other bottling and distribution businesses. He also led the acquisition of several of DPS’s leading brands, including the 2017 acquisition of Bai Beverages for $1.7 billion. 

As general counsel, Jim oversees the significant securities, antitrust, litigation, intellectual property, labor & employment and regulatory matters for the company’s operations in the US, Europe, Asia, Mexico, Canada and Caribbean operations. Jim serves as chief compliance officer, oversees the Government Affairs and Asset Protection and Security functions and serves as corporate secretary for the company. 

Jim joined the company in 1997 as assistant general counsel, where he provided support to the Licensing team on strengthening the company’s bottling network and route to market.  The following year, he was promoted to general counsel for Mott’s, Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut.  In June 2002, Jim relocated back to Dallas to lead the legal department as senior vice president and general counsel.  He was promoted to his current role a year later. 

Prior to DPS and Cadbury Schweppes, Jim was a commercial litigation partner with the Dallas office of Houston-based Hutcheson & Grundy, LLP, and was elected partner in 1995.  He began his law career with the firm of Berman, Mitchell, Yeager and Gerber. 

Jim was born and raised in Dallas.  Jim received a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in English from Washington & Lee University and earned his Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University.  In 2015 Jim was elected to the Board of Trustees of W&L and serves on the Board of Advisors and the Dean’s Executive Committee at SMU Law School.   

Jim has been active in Dallas charitable and civic matters and has served as President of the Board of the Dallas Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that raises funds to find a cure for Type-1 diabetes. Jim is also active in United Way and leads a regional team in the DPS annual United Way campaign. 

Burton Brillhart

Varsity Brands | Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel & Chief of Staff

Burton Brillhart is the Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Chief of Staff of Varsity Brands and each of its operating and affiliated entities, including BSN Sports, Varsity Spirit and Herff Jones. He is responsible for all legal affairs of the company including corporate and governance, compliance, mergers and acquisitions, government affairs, and significant litigation. Additionally, Mr. Brillhart serves as Corporate Secretary to the Board of Directors.

Varsity Brands, headquartered in Dallas,Texas, is the leading organization that empowers young people by encouraging participation, recognizing achievement and building community and school spirit. This mission is fulfilled through three unique but interrelated businesses: BSN SPORTS (Dallas), a Varsity Sport Brand; Varsity Spirit (Memphis); and Herff Jones (Indianapolis), A Varsity Achievement Brand. Together, through its more than 9,000 dedicated employees and independent representatives, these assets promote personal, school and community pride through their customizable products and programs to elementary and middle schools, high schools, and colleges and universities, as well as church organizations, professional teams and corporations.

Prior to joining Varsity Brands in 2015, Mr. Brillhart was an equity partner in the national law firm of McGlinchey Stafford. Additionally, Mr. Brillhart served as Chief Legal Officer of MGC Mortgage/Beal Bank and General Counsel of Drive Financial Services/Santander Consumer USA.

Mr. Brillhart earned his law degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and his Bachelor’s in Political Science from Baylor University.

Mr. Brillhart received the 2017 Best Corporate Counsel Award by DCEO for General Counsel-Bottom Line Impact and honored as the 2006 Recipient of the Dallas Business Journal’s Best Corporate Counsel of the Year Award – Good Samaritan Award for Service to the Community and Charitable Causes.

Mr. Brillhart has served on numerous boards and currently sits on the following:

• Executive Board Member of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star
• Board Member and Programs Chair of The Texas General Counsel Forum
• Advisory Board Member, Trinity Oaks Foundation benefitting children and wounded veterans

Thomas Hartman

Hanger, Inc. | Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary

Tom Hartman is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Hanger, Inc.  Hanger, Inc. (NYSE: HNGR) delivers orthotic and prosthetic (O&P) patient care, and distributes O&P products and rehabilitative solutions to the broader market. Hanger’s Patient Care segment is the largest owner and operator of O&P patient care clinics with approximately 800 patient care locations nationwide. Through its Products & Services segment, Hanger distributes branded and private label O&P devices, products and components, and provides rehabilitative solutions.

Tom joined Hanger in 2009 from Foley & Lardner, LLP where he was a partner in Foley’s Business Law Department. His practice at Foley was focused on securities transactions, securities law compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. While at Foley, he worked out of the firms Milwaukee, Washington, DC and Detroit offices, and served as chair of the Washington, DC and Detroit offices’ Business Law Department.  Prior to joining Foley, Tom was a business law associate in Jones Day’s Chicago office.

Tom received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Wisconsin in 1991, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Industrial and Operations Engineering) from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1984.  He attended Michigan on a Navy ROTC scholarship, and served as an officer aboard the USS Paul F Foster (DD-964), a destroyer homeported in Long Beach, California, from 1984 to 1988, prior to attending law school.

Kerstin Arnold

Texas State Board of Pharmacy | General Counsel

Kerstin Arnold currently serves as General Counsel of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy and has been in that role since 1999. Ms. Arnold graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1985 with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Mathematics and worked as a computer programmer for seven years before attending law school. In 1995, she earned her law degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.  

Ms. Arnold’s legal career has been focused on public service since graduating from law school.  She developed a keen interest in public health issues when she began working at the Texas Medical Board as a staff attorney and later as Assistant General Counsel. She handled numerous cases involving disciplinary actions against physicians for practice deficiencies and unprofessional conduct.

When she started at the Pharmacy Board, there were two attorneys and one legal assistant.  Since that time, she has expanded the Legal Division to a staff of seventeen attorneys and legal assistants primarily in response to the growing health care crisis involving opioid abuse and overdose. She is passionate about protecting the public health and safety of the citizens of Texas. Over the past decade, she has spearheaded the agency’s regulatory response to the ever-changing landscape involving the proliferation of non-therapeutic dispensing of controlled substances and has worked to implement a robust enforcement program to face the ongoing challenges associated with the regulation of pharmacy practice.   

Her professional associations have included the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Travis County Bar Association, where she served on the Medical/Legal Committee, the American Society of Pharmacy Law, the Austin Health Lawyers Group, the Travis County Women Lawyers Association, and the Robert C. Calvert Inn of the American Inns of Court. She also participates in the Texas Law Mentoring Program for first-year law students on an annual basis. 

Ms. Arnold lives in southwest Austin and has a son starting his sophomore year at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall.

Andrew Gratz

LyondellBasell Industries | Associate General Counsel 

Andrew Gratz serves as the Associate General Counsel for Commercial and Strategic Transactions of LyondellBasell (LYB), a $40+ billion publicly traded company with over 13,000 employees located across 32 countries. In this role, Gratz is responsible for managing the law department’s support of LYB’s commercial activities in the Americas, and its strategic transactions globally, including its recently completed $2.25 billion acquisition of A. Schulman Inc.  Before assuming his current position, Gratz held numerous roles at LYB, including Lead Compliance Counsel, where he managed LYB’s global anti-corruption, antitrust, and data privacy compliance programs 

Gratz has made numerous contributions to LYB over the past year.  To help prepare LYB’s business development team for potential strategic initiatives, Gratz developed and made available numerous forms that could be used in facilitating and negotiating acquisitions and divestures.  Gratz also developed and presented in-depth training on M&A fundamentals for the company’s business development team, legal department, and other important stakeholders.  With regards to LYB’s commercial activities, Gratz developed and promulgated processes to address antidumping investigations and force majeure events. 

Gratz is very active in the legal and business community and regularly shares his insights at national and local forums. In the past year, Gratz spoke on improving the outcome of strategic transactions at the 2018 Boardroom Summit in New York, the Transaction Advisors 2018 Mergers & Acquisitions Conference at the University of Chicago, and at numerous conferences in Houston.  Gratz was recently recognized by Modern Counsel magazine for his management skills and collaborative approach to providing cost-efficient and effective legal support.     

Prior to joining LYB, Gratz was in private law practice where he focused primarily on securities, mergers & acquisitions, corporate governance, and litigation matters.  Prior to practicing law, Gratz held numerous roles in government relations, including serving on a congressional staff, administering a political action committee, working at numerous trade associations, and managing political campaigns.   

Gratz received his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center, magna cum laude, where he served on the Houston Law Review, and received his Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas.  He is the former Chair of the Corporate Counsel Section of the Houston Bar Association.

Eric Hildenbrand

McLane Company, Inc. | Vice President & General Counsel

Eric Hildenbrand is Vice President and General Counsel of McLane Grocery, a $30 billion wholesale grocery and logistics division of McLane Company.  As General Counsel, Eric provides strategic legal advice on transactional, litigation, and operational matters. He focuses on providing legal services that reduce overall legal, regulatory and compliance risk while growing revenue and income through flexible and innovative business arrangements and ventures. 

Eric was previously a Senior Counsel and Compliance Officer for General Electric Capital’s Equipment Finance Business.  In that role, Eric provided comprehensive compliance support to Equipment Finance and led the annual risk assessment and compliance planning efforts for the business. Prior to joining GE, Eric was a lawyer with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, specializing in defending companies and individuals in Securities and Exchange Commission, Attorney General, US Department of Justice, and Congressional investigations, as well as conducting internal investigations for public companies.  Eric also has experience in SEC reporting matters. 

Eric currently serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, which advocates on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its members for the fair treatment of business in the courts and before regulatory agencies.  He has published articles on accounting and tax compliance.  He has also guest-lectured on compliance and ethics at the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas. 

Eric focuses his chartable work on helping children in his community. He serves on the board of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Central Texas, which provides comprehensive services to protect, promote healing, and enhance the quality of life for abused and neglected children. Eric is also an active Rotarian, with a focus on providing scholarships and educational opportunities to students in Texas. From 2001 to 2008, Eric served as President of Jump For The Kids, a District of Columbia-based non-profit that assisted students from low-income families achieve a higher education.  

Eric received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Muhlenberg College, where he currently serves on the President’s Advisory Committee.  

Eric, his wife, and three children live in Temple, Texas.

Tonja De Sloover

Energy Transfer Partners | Head of Litigation

Tonja D. De Sloover is Associate General Counsel, Head of Litigation for Energy Transfer. She manages and is responsible for all disputes and litigation for Energy Transfer and the subsidiaries and affiliates in the Energy Transfer family of companies, as well as certain of its joint ventures.

Tonja began her current role in January 2013. Previously, she was a litigation partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) with a practice consisting of complex litigation and domestic and international arbitrations, with an emphasis on construction matters. Tonja represented a broad range of clients from Fortune 500 companies to small individual business owners and represented plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court. Tonja first-chaired multiple cases before a judge and a jury. From 2008-2009, Tonja was seconded to Fulbright’s London location, where she worked on UK litigation matters, FCPA investigations, bankruptcy proceedings, internal investigations, international arbitration, and insurance issues, among others. While working in the UK, Tonja also earned her UK solicitor’s license.

Tonja is also active in the community, including serving on the Board of Directors of Bo’s Place, a Houston non-profit bereavement center that provides free care and support to individuals who have lost loved ones.

Victoria Lazar

General Electric Company | Executive Counsel – Mergers & Acquisitions

Victoria Lazar is Executive Counsel – Mergers & Acquisitions for GE, helping the company reposition its portfolio in this pivotal time in its history. Previously, Victoria spent a decade at GE Oil & Gas, as General Counsel for Surface, Drilling & Production and Americas. She was responsible for the legal, compliance and corporate secretarial functions for the most acquisitive division in the business, and several of its most prolific regions, selling highly engineered products and service solutions to oil & gas and industrial companies, in some of the world’s most challenging socio-political and geographic environments. She led the integration, alignment and set up of the legal function for newly public Baker Hughes, a GE company, during the recent combination of Baker Hughes and GE Oil & Gas in the largest combination in GE history, before moving to GE Corporate.

Victoria came to GE from Electronic Data Systems Corporation (now DXC), a former IT outsourcing Fortune 100 company, where she led key global M&A transactions. She was promoted in 2006 to become chief legal officer and secretary of ExcellerateHRO, a global business process outsourcing joint venture offering HR and pension solutions to over 33m customer employees. She also advised the EDS Board of Directors and officers on key governance topics.

She began her legal career at BakerBotts LLP, specializing in capital markets, global commercial and M&A transactions, supporting clients in energy, oil & gas, financial, healthcare, retail and other industries. She initially spent two years as an associate in litigation, focusing on antitrust and commercial disputes.

Victoria is passionate about furthering excellence in the profession, and mentoring others. She has been Executive Champion for the GE Women’s Network – Houston hub and led GE’s Houston 2009 United Way campaign. She organized a highly-acclaimed summer internship program at GE Oil & Gas for first year law students. She is on the Board of Directors of the Texas General Counsel Forum and recently served on the Advisory Board of the Women’s Energy Network. She routinely speaks on general counsel, M&A and compliance topics. She has been active in the Houston Bar, the Massachusetts legal community and the American Bar Association.

She received her B.A. from Cornell University, graduating with honors, and her J.D. from The Law School at The University of Chicago. Victoria lives in Houston with her husband, Alex, and their two children. She has a working knowledge of Romanian and Spanish and has studied Russian and French. She is an off-Broadway play producer [Drama Desk award nominee] and Board Director for Stages Theater, immediate past president of AJC – Houston chapter and spends time volunteering at the Awty International School.