Five lawyers from some of Orange County’s biggest public and private companies were honored Thursday at the Business Journal’s inaugural General Counsel Awards in Irvine.
The lawyers were honored for their work on shepherding acquisitions, restructuring debt, refinancing credit lines, handling litigation and helping to foster growth and other corporate goals.
The honorees:
- Mark Peterson, senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary of Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. In the past year or so, Peterson has worked on a restructuring of Conexant that saw the company rework debt due in 2011, sell assets and issue new debt and stock.
- Michael Ray, vice president of corporate law at Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. Ray was lauded for implementing what he calls the Wig program, which stands for wildly important goals. The effort seeks to align Western Digital’s legal department with the company’s business ambitions.
- John Page, corporate vice president and general counsel at Irvine-based food products company Golden State Foods. Page has overseen acquisitions as well as the refinancing of a credit line in the wake of the financial crisis that hit in late 2008.
- Robert Holcombe, executive vice president and general counsel of Lake Forest-based home healthcare provider Apria Healthcare Group Inc. Holcombe received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his 14 years with Apria in which he’s worked on acquisitions, a 2008 buyout that took the company private and other legal matters.
- Kate Duchene, chief legal officer and executive vice president of human resources at Irvine-based Resources Connection Inc, an Irvine provider of accounts, lawyers and others on a contract basis. Duchene has been with the company since its 2000 initial public offering and worked on a pair of recent acquisitions.
About 500 lawyers and others were on hand for the event at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
F. Michael Ball, president of Irvine-based Allergan Inc., served as master of ceremonies and joked that he was picked because the drug maker spends so much on legal expenses.
