Happy R. Perkins

Last updated

Happy Ray Perkins (born October 4, 1955) is an American lawyer and past vice-president of the General Electric Company and GE Energy.

Contents

Early life and education

Perkins was born on October 4, 1955, in Jessamine County, Kentucky, to Cecil and Louise Perkins. [1] Happy earned his undergraduate degree (B.A., political science, with highest honors; Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Kentucky, [2] and graduated at the top of his class (Order of the Coif) from the Duke Law School where he was an editor of the Duke Law Journal.

Career

Following his admission to the Kentucky Bar Association, he served as a judicial law clerk to the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He practiced corporate, tax, and business law at Frost Brown Todd (formerly Brown Todd & Heyburn) in Louisville and was an equity partner. [3]

Perkins became an officer (vice president) of the General Electric Company in 1997, while serving as General Counsel of GE Appliances. [4] He later joined GE Energy as its Vice President and General Counsel in 2002. [5] He retired from the General Electric Company in 2012.

Perkins was a member of the Atlanta Pro Bono Partnership for seven years and the recipient of the 2011 Founders award. [6] [7] The organization later created the "Happy Perkins Award" in his honor in 2013. [8] [9]

Perkins currently serves on the Duke Law Board of Visitors as a senior member. [10] He and his wife have established the Happy R. and Cheri W. Perkins scholarship at the Duke Law School. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davis Polk</span> International law firm headquartered in New York City

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, commonly known as Davis Polk, is a white-shoe, international law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, London, Madrid, Brussels, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, and São Paulo. The firm maintains an all-equity partnership, with profits per partner of over $7 million. It is the third most profitable law firm in the world.

Wiley William Manuel was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1977 to 1981 and the first African American to serve on the high court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borden Ladner Gervais</span> Full-service law firm

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it now has offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. With almost 900 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals are associated with the firm. BLG is governed by a national council composed of partners from across Canada. Sean Weir served as the firm's first National Managing Partner until 2018, and was succeeded in the position by John Murphy of the Montreal office.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,200 legal professionals in 31 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mergers with other law firms stimulated global growth and led to a ranking of eighth on The American Lawyer's 2018 top 100 firms by gross revenue list. It is also the largest law firm chaired by a woman and represents "three-quarters of the Fortune 100 companies."

Jeffrey B. Kindler is an American healthcare executive and private investor. He served as chairman and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer from 2006 to 2010. Kindler has later served as CEO of Centrexion Inc., and chairman of the GLG Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Jimenez</span>

Frank Ruben Jimenez became the 21st General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy on September 25, 2006, following his nomination by George W. Bush and confirmation by the United States Senate. Jimenez served at the Navy after the change in administrations on January 20, 2009 until April 30, 2009 when he resigned to become Vice President and General Counsel at ITT Corporation.

Francis Stanton Blake is an American businessman and lawyer, who was the chairman and CEO of The Home Depot from January 2007 to May 2014. Prior to this he worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric. He was a longtime protégé of Robert Nardelli.

Perkins Coie is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm. It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 20 offices across the United States and Asia. The firm provides corporate, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and regulatory legal advice to a broad range of clients, including prominent technology companies like Google, Twitter, Intel, Facebook, and Amazon. In addition to its corporate representation, the firm has represented political clients. The firm is known for its pro bono work.

Debra Todd is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Prior to her election to the Supreme Court in 2007, she served as a judge on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania from 2000 through 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis A. Aguilar</span> American lawyer

Luis Alberto Aguilar is an American lawyer and former U.S. government official.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. Cameron Findlay</span> American attorney

Donald Cameron Findlay is an American attorney who is the senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Archer Daniels Midland Company, the global agriculture business giant ranked 28th on the Fortune 500 list of largest American companies. He joined ADM in 2013. Prior to that, he served from 2009 to 2013 as senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Medtronic, Inc., the world's largest medical device company. Before his time at Medtronic, he was executive vice president and general counsel for Aon Corporation for six years. Previously he served as Deputy Secretary of Labor from 2001 to 2003 in the administration of George W. Bush and as a member of the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Prior to that, he was a partner in the law firm of Sidley Austin, where his practice focused on complex litigation and regulatory matters for companies in heavily regulated industries like telecommunications and energy. Before his time at Sidley, he served in the White House as a senior aide to President George H.W. Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin J. Silverstein</span> American lawyer

Martin J. Silverstein is an American attorney and diplomat. He served as the United States Ambassador to Uruguay under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke University School of Law</span> The law school and a constituent academic unit of Duke University

Duke University School of Law is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit that began in 1868 as the Trinity College School of Law. In 1924, following the renaming of Trinity College to Duke University, the school was renamed Duke University School of Law.

The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City.

James Eugene Rogers Jr. was an American businessman and author. He was president and CEO of Duke Energy, the largest electrical utility in the U.S., from April, 2006 until July 1, 2013. He stayed on as Chairman of the Board until retiring the following December. His book, Lighting the World, which explores the issues involved in bringing electricity to over 1.2 billion people on earth who lack it, was published August 25, 2015, by St. Martin's Press. The book asserts that access to electricity should be recognized as a basic human right.

Jane C. Sherburne is an American lawyer who currently servesas Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel to The Bank of New York Mellon and as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Sherburne is known primarily for her experience in crisis management, her work in civil rights, and her counseling to corporate boards and major financial institutions. Sherburne was Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton and managed the White House response to ethics investigations by the Independent Counsel, most notably during the Whitewater controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karan Bhatia</span>

Karan Krishna Bhatia is an American attorney and former senior official in the Bush administration. He currently leads public policy and government relations for Google. He served as the deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2005 to 2007, credited with leading the negotiation of the United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement. Additional appointments include Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs where he served from 2003 to 2005 and deputy under secretary of commerce for industry and security from 2001 to 2003. He served a total of six years in the Bush Administration before returning to the private sector in 2008 to lead government affairs for General Electric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Smith (American lawyer)</span> American lawyer (born 1959)

Bradford Lee Smith is an American attorney and business executive who became Vice Chairman of Microsoft in 2021, and President in 2015. He previously served as a senior vice president and general counsel from 2002 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael T. Liburdi</span> American judge (born 1977)

Michael Thomas Liburdi is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Benjamin W. Heineman Jr. is an American journalist, lawyer, government official, business executive, academic and author. He is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession as well as Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He is also a lecturer at Yale Law School. He frequently speaks to professional groups and at universities around the globe.

References

  1. "Jessamine County Kentucky Families". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
  2. "Voices of Alumni: Happy Perkins - College of Arts & Sciences". University of Kentucky.
  3. "ESQ Symposium 2006: Panelists" (PDF). 2006. p. 7.
  4. General Electric. "GE Names Four New Vice Presidents". PR Newswire.
  5. "In the Beginning: The Alumni" (PDF). Corporate Counsel. ALM Properties Inc. April 2006. p. 6.
  6. "2011 Attorney Awards". Atlanta Pro Bono Partnership. 11 February 2012.
  7. "Roundtable: How GE Does It - The Outside Counsel Perspective". The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel.
  8. "2013 Attorney Awards". Atlanta Pro Bono Partnership. 24 February 2014.
  9. Powell, Anne Randolph (18 February 2014). "Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta Honors Volunteers and Donors at Appreciation Reception". East Atlanta Patch. Patch Network.
  10. "Leadership Boards". Duke University School of Law.
  11. "Supporting Students" (PDF). Duke Law Advocate. Duke University School of Law. Spring 2012. p. 6.