Otness is a corporate partner in the Houston office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom whose practice focuses on representing public and private companies, private equity firms and investment funds, as well as investment banks and financing sources in a variety of U.S. and international transactions, primarily in the energy sector.

In 2018, Otness represented longtime Skadden client ExxonMobil in connection with its joint venture with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) for their Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project, which includes the construction of a 1.8 million tonne ethane cracker and a monoethylene glycol unit and two polyethylene units in San Patricio County. The joint venture is valued at approximately $10 billion and is the biggest development of its kind in the world. Otness worked closely with ExxonMobil's in-house team on the deal, which included highly technical transaction agreements with intensive timelines and deadlines, as well as cross-border challenges and significant media and political attention.

What is the top quality that you've used to succeed in the profession?

The ability to understand the goals and motivations of clients and turn that into pragmatic advice as their counsel, has allowed me to reach successful outcomes and build lasting relationships. I have been fortunate over the years to work with lots of different types of clients, and lots of different personalities, and enjoy the challenge of working with teams with varying styles, and determining how to best approach our role as outside counsel to that particular person or group. You have to be a bit of a chameleon in this profession, and I focus on adapting to each situation so that our clients receive the type of advice and counsel that meets their goals and objectives.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone that you wish you had starting out?  

Be relentlessly organized and persistent about building relationships with everyone you encounter professionally, no matter their position or seniority. I now prioritize time to do this, but there have been occasions when I read about someone who I worked with on a deal a dozen years ago when they were just starting out, who is now the CEO of a company. It's difficult to create meaningful relationships with every single person you run into, but I feel like this is something I can always improve on. Creating meaningful relationships not only provides career and business development opportunities, but also simply makes working in the industry more enjoyable.

What is one of your proudest achievements in the law, and what challenge did you have to overcome to achieve it?  

I have been involved in hiring for our office for over a dozen years, and the hiring partner for the past five, and one of my proudest achievements is to have helped build an amazing team made up of incredibly intelligent and diverse people. At the end of the day, I do what I do and come to work every day because I love the people I work with—both clients and colleagues—and at this point I have many in both categories that I first met during interviews on law school campuses!  Hiring is so competitive and challenging these days, that I am proud that we have been successful year after year in convincing a few select amazing people to join our team.  And the challenge begins anew every year, and you have to convince law students on what sets you apart from and makes you special from the other firms they are considering.

An awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 18 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. The Attorney of the Year award winner will be announced at the ceremony.

Click here for booking information. For information about sponsoring the event, contact Andre Sutton at 757-721-9020 or email [email protected].