Haynes and Boone, LLP Partners Gavin George and Michelle Jacobs are among a select group of lawyers to receive Texas Lawyer’s 2019 Professional Excellence Awards.
In September, the colleagues will receive “On the Rise” Awards, which recognize lawyers under the age of 40 who have made their mark on the legal profession in the Lone Star State and beyond. Michelle and Gavin will be honored at the Belo Mansion in Dallas, and their profiles will be published in the September issue of Texas Lawyer.
In selecting the 2019 “On the Rise” honorees, Texas Lawyer targeted lawyers who have wielded influence in their practice areas and have proven to be “innovators, developing unique practice niches, amassing robust books of business, demonstrating strong leadership qualities, showing expertise in litigation, in-house or transactional work and committing themselves to pro bono, charitable and professional volunteer work.”
Below, learn why Gavin and Michelle, who are based in Dallas, are rising stars in the legal industry.
About Gavin George
Gavin is a founding member of Haynes and Boone’s Privacy and Data Breach Group and an integral member of the firm’s Technology Transactions practice. He is an up-and-coming partner with a unique client base and one of the leading practitioners in Texas on data-driven transactions and cutting-edge privacy issues, including the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, California Consumer Privacy Act, and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
Gavin’s clients call on him for assistance with drafting privacy policies, negotiating data processing agreements, creating new global privacy programs, investigating potential data breach incidents, deploying mobile tracking technology, and complying with industry-specific data privacy and security rules, such as HIPAA and the Children's Online Privacy Protections Act.
Gavin leads the firm’s privacy compliance team to guide clients through emerging privacy laws, novel agreements involving data transfers, and cross-border data issues, counseling dozens of companies across the nation to help ensure adherence to new privacy regulations and privacy best practices. He helps organizations identify and manage risks of handling large amounts of consumer personal data, payment card data, sensitive types of data, and proprietary or confidential business information.
While confidentiality often prevents disclosing specifics, Gavin is frequently the person clients turn to first when there has been a potential hack of loss of information from their systems. For example, an software company specializing in online video editing recently turned to Gavin for advice and a for a remediation plan when its database of customer data and geolocation information was compromised by hackers.
Gavin is listed among Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, 2014-2019.
About Michelle Jacobs
An experienced trial lawyer in Haynes and Boone’s Litigation Practice Group, Michelle plays a leading role in complex commercial, intellectual property, and products liability litigation in state and federal courts. Her experience includes class action defense and disputes involving copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, contracts, fraud, business disparagement, and products liability, among others.
Michelle is a co-founder and co-chair of the firm’s products liability litigation practice group. She currently manages products liability lawsuits for a large manufacturer nationwide.
Michelle’s recent successes include defeating a class action bid for AT&T involving claims of alleged environmental contamination and abandonment of property rights and obtaining a unanimous ruling from an arbitration panel in favor of Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. denying the opposing party’s claims that Halliburton had misappropriated trade secrets and breached a non-disclosure agreement.
Michelle enjoys dedicating her time to community service and pro bono work. She currently serves on the board of Genesis Young Leaders, an auxiliary of Genesis Women’s Shelter, and she leads the firm’s initiative to provide pro bono services to clients of the shelter. She also recently served as first chair in a trial seeking asylum on behalf of a mother and her four children who faced imminent physical harm and persecution if forced to return to Sudan. At the conclusion of the trial, the woman and her four children were all granted asylum. Because of her work on this case, she was awarded the 2015 Outstanding Associate Award for the Asylum Program of Human Rights Initiative of North Texas.
Last year, Michelle was selected for the first class of young lawyers in the Dallas Bar Association’s new leadership development program WE LEAD: Women Empowered to Lead in the Legal Profession.