Mike Tankersley Receives Burton Legal Writing Award; Firm Honored for Third Year
May 5, 2006
DALLAS (May 5, 2006) — Bracewell & Giuliani LLP is pleased to announce that Michael W. Tankersley, a corporate governance expert and partner in its Dallas office, has received a 2006 Burton Award for Legal Achievement. Tankersley and co-author Suzanne Hopgood received the award for Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis, a handbook for public company directors published by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Bracewell has also received a Record of Distinction Award for 2006 in recognition of its attorneys earning three Burton Awards in the seven years since the program's inception.
"The Burton Awards recognize outstanding writing on legal subjects from submissions by the top 1000 law firms in the United States," said Patrick Oxford, Bracewell & Giuliani managing partner. "We congratulate Mike, Suzanne and our past award recipients on receiving this national honor, which I believe exemplifies the quality and depth of expertise that we bring to our clients."
In 2002, Bracewell partner Scott Segal, co-leader of the firm's government relations practice in Washington, garnered the writing honor. Kevin Ewing, Jason Hutt and Erik Petersen, environmental attorneys in the firm's Washington office received a Burton Award in 2005.
Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis guides corporate directors through the business, financial, legal and communications issues they must consider when their companies prepare for or respond to crisis situations such as natural disasters, investigations by government agencies, financial collapse and bankruptcy, or the loss of significant assets or key executives. "It was surprising to us that there was so little guidance for corporate directors in the area of crisis planning and response," said Tankersley, who has more than two decades of experience advising officers and boards of public and private companies in responding to crisis situations and governance issues. "Recent events have shown that some companies were well prepared for crisis, while others have floundered, at great cost to the company, its shareholders, employees and other key stakeholders."
Tankersley and other recipients of Burton Awards for 2006 will be honored at a dinner June 12 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Attorney William C. Burton (author of Burton's Legal Thesaurus) founded the Burton Awards program in 2000 "to eliminate archaic legal writing" and "reward talented legal writers from across America and, therefore, set an example for all others to follow."
Tankersley counsels corporate boards and committees regarding fiduciary duty issues, conflicts of interest, disclosure and securities law compliance issues, including special committee investigations of alleged fraudulent activity. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Accounting degrees from Rice University. He graduated from The University of Texas School of Law with high honors in 1980. He is a past chair of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and was a founding director and is past chair of the Texas Business Law Foundation. He is a frequent writer and speaker on corporate governance and securities law issues, and he is a member of the teaching faculty of the National Association of Corporate Directors, speaking at their national institutes and providing certified educational programs for public company boards.
Suzanne Hopgood is president and CEO of the The Hopgood Group LLC, a business and workout consulting firm she founded in 1985. During the past 10 years she has assisted public and private companies in facing difficult business, financial and legal challenges and crises, serving at various times as a turnaround CEO, chairman of the board of directors of two troubled public companies and as chair of public company audit, nominating and governance committees. Hopgood is a member of the teaching faculty of the National Association of Corporate Directors and is an active member, educator, facilitator and mediator for public and private company boards.