BTI Consulting Group named Haynes Boone Partner Brian Barnard and Counsel Emmie Gooch to its Client Service All-Stars for 2018.
BTI said the All-Stars “stand out in the sea of legal services providers” but share key characteristics, including superior client focus, exceptional legal skills, unmatched business understanding and the ability to deliver outsized value.
“In the eyes of clients, these attorneys are unsurpassed in their delivery of client service,” BTI said.
The All-Stars list is based on nominations from general counsels and other legal decision-makers at billion-dollar companies, gleaned through 350 in-depth telephone interviews by BTI researchers from Feb. 20-July 3, 2017.
Barnard, a corporate partner in Haynes Boone’s Fort Worth office, was nominated for the BTI honor by a leading IT solutions firm. He has long experience providing legal advice and business counsel to senior management teams, boards of directors and in-house lawyers at large and small companies and family offices on general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance and governance. Best Lawyers, published by Woodward/White, Inc., named him “2017 Lawyer of the Year” in North Texas for corporate governance law.
“I never lose sight of the fact that I’m in the service business,” Barnard said. “There is always another 10-digit phone number clients can call if they are not happy with my work.”
His deep understanding of business and management issues clients face is enhanced by leadership roles he has held in the community, including as current board chair for the Cook Children’s Health Plan and a member of the Cook Children’s Health System Executive Committee. He also is a past chair of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and has actively promoted North Texas entrepreneurship, particularly new technology and life sciences projects.
Gooch, a litigator in the Houston office, was nominated by a large specialized manufacturer. She handles complex commercial litigation including contractual disputes, business torts and corporate trustee issues, with an emphasis on representing clients in the oil and gas industries. A former medical and technical editor and elementary school teacher, she has particular strengths in focusing on details and in distilling key takeaways for the judge or jury in a case.
"My prior work as a teacher and editor helped me learn how to be attentive to the needs of others,” Gooch said. “I'm also fortunate to work at a firm that has a client-focused culture and supports what I do naturally.”