(March 28, 2012, Weil News)
Yvette Ostolaza, a partner in Weil’s Dallas office, has been named a 2012 Most Powerful & Influential Woman by the Texas Diversity Council. The award will be presented to Ms. Ostolaza and other statewide honorees on April 5, 2012, at the 8th Annual Texas Diversity and Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas.
The award recognizes Texas women who provide leadership excellence in the public and/or private sectors; demonstrate a commitment to community well-being and the highest ethical standards and professional excellence; sustain a record of accomplishments and/or contributions to their field of work; and hold positions in their organizations that have an impact on revenues, profitability and/or the direction of the organization.
This marks the third consecutive year that a Weil attorney has been honored with the Most Powerful & Influential Woman Award. In 2011, the Texas Diversity Council recognized Sylvia Mayer, a Business Finance & Restructuring partner in Weil’s Houston office, and in 2010, Melanie Gray, a Complex Commercial Litigation partner in Weil’s Houston office, earned the same recognition.
Ms. Ostolaza is a member of Weil’s 18-member Management Committee, which oversees the firm’s operations worldwide. She also serves as co-head of the firm’s 190-lawyer Complex Commercial Litigation practice, an integral part of Weil’s internationally recognized Litigation department, which was named by
The American Lawyer magazine in 2010 as a finalist for Litigation Department of the Year.
Ms. Ostolaza’s practice is concentrated in the trial and supervision of civil litigation in state and federal courts throughout the United States and arbitrations. Fluent in Spanish, she regularly manages litigation and arbitration matters with ties to Latin America and has represented companies, board committees and individual board members in internal investigations and reviews, including whistleblower, accounting and executive issues. In addition, Ms. Ostolaza has counseled clients on reducing risks from consumer and advertising-related claims and negotiated with state agencies on such claims. She has been selected to serve in the Roster of Neutral Arbitrators for AAA.
Ms. Ostolaza has received numerous accolades from her peers and from the media in recognition of her professional accomplishments. She was recently honored by the
Dallas Business Journal as a 2012 Minority Business Leader of the Year. Yvette has been recognized publicly by
Benchmark Litigation’s 2010, 2011 and 2012 publications, which designated her as a national General Commercial Litigation “star,” and by Chambers USA, which selected her as one of the Leading Lawyers in Litigation for 2009-2011. In 2011,
Texas Lawyer honored her as one of the publication’s Winning Women, recognizing 20 outstanding female attorneys who have had a major impact on law and lawyering in Texas, and in 2010, she was named one of 25 Women to Watch in the
Dallas Business Journal’s Women in Business Awards competition. Ms. Ostolaza was also featured in the April 2010 issue of
HispanicBusiness as one of only 20 Women of Excellence honored nationwide and as a finalist for the 2010
HispanicBusiness Woman of the Year Award.
Ms. Ostolaza was also named the winner of the 2009 Louise B. Raggio Award by the Dallas Women Lawyers Association (DWLA) for her significant contributions to the advancement of women attorneys, and she has consistently been recognized by her peers as a Texas Super Lawyer in Business Civil Litigation from 2005-2011. Ms. Ostolaza has also been spotlighted by
D Magazine as one of the 2010 Best Women Lawyers in Dallas and by the
Dallas Business Journal, which named her to the 2008 class of Defenders, honoring the top 15 business litigators in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Ms. Ostolaza currently serves on the State Bar of Texas board of directors and as the State Bar’s liaison to the Texas Bar Foundation board of trustees, in addition to serving as chair of the State Bar’s Benefit Committee. She has served on numerous community organization boards, including those of the Baylor Health Care Foundation and The Concilio (formerly The Dallas Concilio of Hispanic Service Organizations). She is also a frequent speaker and author on class actions, arbitrations and internal investigations.
Ms. Ostolaza is an honors graduate from the University of Miami and received her JD,
magna cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law.