Andrew Strong competed in the Hawaii Iron Man triathlon, swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 and then running 26. After completing the first two legs, he finished the marathon in less than 31/2 hours.
He has another tough road ahead of him after the 42-year-old lawyer was unanimously selected Friday for the powerful general counsel position for the Texas A&M University System, about five months after Jay Kimbrough left the post to work in the governor's office.
"Andrew is a Renaissance man -- he has a far-flung range of experiences," said Jerry Ross, Strong's boss at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, which specializes in energy. "There are a lot of people who are attracted to the practice of law for the wrong reasons. ... Andrew just enjoys helping people."
The general counsel manages all of the system's lawyers, is responsible for all legal matters that affect the system and gives legal counsel to the chancellor, presidents of the nine universities within the system and the board of regents. The counsel also serves as the liaison to the attorney general.
Regents met in closed session for more than four hours Friday morning about the decision. It came down to two candidates whom Chancellor Mike McKinney had recommended to regents from an initial pool of more than 40, said Bill Jones, chairman of the board.
"Both candidates brought a wealth of legal knowledge, practical experience and a demeanor that is consistent with the A&M System and how we do business in the system," Jones said. "We are looking forward to [Strong's] seasoned legal mind to guide our lawyers."
Strong, who graduated with a civil engineering degree from Texas A&M University in 1988, is a partner in the Houston office of Pillsbury and is the local section leader of the firm's environmental, land use and natural resources section. He serves on several legal boards and committees, including Crime Stoppers of Houston, the Texas Access to Justice Commission, the State Bar of Texas' Legal Services to the Poor in Civil Matters Committee and the Houston Bar Association's Environmental Law Section.
Law didn't strike him as a career until he was an engineer in manufacturing plants on the Mexican side of the border, he said. He witnessed companies legally dumping waste into the Rio Grande, an act that wouldn't be allowed on the U.S. side.
"Just the fact that I could walk 10 steps [to the U.S. side] and be in a completely different legal jurisdiction where a whole new set of laws applied," he said. "A light bulb went off. It really made me think about the laws and the regulations, the jurisprudence under which we live. I wanted to investigate that further."
Strong said the details of when he starts as general counsel were still being worked out.
The other candidate was Caren Burbach, an attorney in the business law section of the office of general counsel for the University of Texas System. Burbach was formerly vice president of business affairs, general counsel and secretary of two technology companies, where she was responsible for all legal affairs, according to the UT System Web site. She graduated with a bachelor's in business administration from Texas A&M University.
"I don't even know how to say it, I was so impressed with, especially these two, but the whole pool of applicants," McKinney said while driving back from Austin, where he had testified before the House Appropriations Committee at the Legislature. "We wanted someone with a wide range of experience dealing with government, with litigation obviously, and someone who was personable and able to concisely express what we needed to hear. ... And someone who could be a good leader and manager of other lawyers; that's the hardest part."
Kimbrough, who was hired as deputy general counsel in 2006, left in October to become the governor's chief of staff, a position that McKinney had once held.
Kimbrough also served as deputy chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. When he left, McKinney said that he would work with regents to fill the general counsel position but that he and others would absorb the duties of deputy chancellor.
Kimbrough earned $300,000 in both capacities. McKinney said a salary hadn't yet been set for Strong but might be in the next week.
"Let him celebrate for a while, and then he and I will negotiate," McKinney said. He added that it would be in the range of $250,000, which he said is typical for general counsels.
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