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Natalie Posgate

Natalie Posgate covers pro bono work, public service and diversity within the Texas legal community.

Natalie Posgate

Natalie Posgate covers pro bono work, public service and diversity within the Texas legal community.

Natalie joined The Texas Lawbook in 2012 as a founding staff member shortly after receiving her Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Southern Methodist University. While at SMU, Natalie and SMU-classmate-turned-Lawbook-colleague Brooks Igo published “Sweeping Rape Under the Rug,” an award-winning investigative piece about SMU’s handling of on-campus sexual assaults. Later that year, Natalie and Brooks published a follow-up piece that broke the news of the first grand jury indictment in decades of an SMU student involving an alleged on-campus sexual assault. She began her reporting career in college as an intern for The Dallas Morning News’ breaking news desk, and before that, interned for Texas Highways magazine.

In the early days of The Lawbook, Natalie served as a general assignment reporter and covered everything from lawsuits to Texas law schools to mergers and acquisitions to legal industry trends. Before launching The Lawbook’s pro bono, public service and diversity beat, Natalie served as senior litigation writer. She has covered numerous high-profile trials gavel-to-gavel, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2013 insider trading case against Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban and a 2018 products liability trial that rendered a $242 million jury verdict against Toyota Motor Corp.

In 2021, Natalie profiled former East Texas federal prosecutor Joshua Russ, who went on the record for the first time with Posgate about resigning and filing a whistleblower complaint against the Department of Justice for its alleged political interference in a civil case Russ was leading against Walmart for its role in the opioid crisis. The piece is cited in a chapter of “Servants of the Damned,” a book released in September 2022 by New York Times journalist and bestselling author David Enrich.

Through The Lawbook’s content partnerships, Natalie’s work has regularly reappeared in the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Business Journal and The Dallas Morning News.

Natalie lives in East Dallas with her husband David and German Shorthaired Pointer rescue Stella. She is an avid runner, reader, hiker and coffee drinker.

A Conversation with a Mother of 4 About Practicing Law on Her Own Terms 

Many female litigators believe an “all or nothing” narrative they’ve been fed: They cannot raise a family while also advancing in their careers. But Reese Marketos’ Kendal Simpson is here to challenge that narrative with an alternative way of practicing law. After taking six years off to be a stay-at-home mom, Simpson recently returned to her firm with the goal of growing a team of high-achieving women who want more flexibility without having to leave their practice. In a Q&A with The Lawbook, Simpson discusses her part-time arrangement at her firm, how it’s added value and how others can pursue these types of opportunities.

“When we are the sex expected to do it all — that is unsustainable,” Simpson said. “This model is about women being able to sustain a skillset that they worked so hard to develop while also not neglecting other parts of life.”

Natalie Posgate

P.S. — A Renamed Fellowship, A Barefoot Sanders Scholarship, A Congressional Request

This edition of P.S. features a firmwide volunteer day that yielded thousands of meals for Texas families in need, a five-day program hosted at a Dallas law school that educated high school students on the law school experience and life as a lawyer, a recent letter to Congress by law firm managing partners that expresses their grave concern for the underfunding of civil legal aid, a scholarship that a Dallas trial boutique recently awarded to two Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet high school students, and the story behind a renamed diversity fellowship at a large Houston-based firm and the names of this year’s fellows.

Firms and corporate in-house departments mentioned in this week's column include AT&T, American Airlines, Gray Reed, Lynn Pinker, Baker Botts, Bracewell, Haynes Boone and Vinson & Elkins.

Pictured: The 2024 class of SMU Dedman School of Law's Rising Scholars Program.

Natalie Posgate

P.S. — A Brunch (and Q&A) for Dads, A 5K Sponsorship, A New NAMWOLF Firm

This week’s edition of P.S. features a spotlight on Houston-based, fatherhood-focused nonprofit CoolxDad and a Q&A with the lawyer who recently handled the lease negotiations for its new headquarters pro bono, details of a recent 5K benefiting those affected by sickle cell disease that was sponsored by a Dallas law firm, another firm operating in Dallas that just became NAMWOLF certified and June dates for the Dallas Bar Association’s LegalLine E-Line Clinic.

Other firms and organizations mentioned this week include Pillsbury, Hilgers Graben, Witherite Law/1-800-TruckWreck, The Alta Arts, Midway, Kier’s Hope, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Trinity Groves, Carter Blood Bank, Smile Time Dentistry and D. Herbs.

Natalie Posgate

P.S. — Lynn Pinker Leads Pledge for Hispanic Law Scholarships & More Fundraising News

This week’s P.S. column features background information on two fundraising events on June 13: a luncheon event that raises scholarship funds for Texas Hispanic students interested in a career in the law and an evening event to celebrate Pride Month and raise scholarship funds for LGBTQ+ law students. 

Firms featured in this week’s P.S. include Reed Smith, Lynn Pinker, Dykema, Paul Hastings, Sidley, Baker McKenzie, V&E, Gibson Dunn, Holland & Knight, Baker Botts, Greenberg Traurig, Jackson Walker, Kirkland, Bell Nunnally, Weil, Haynes Boone, Foley, O’Melveny, Law Office of Domingo Garcia, Norton Rose Fulbright, McKool Smith, K&L Gates, Alston & Bird, Linebarger, Jackson Lewis, Ogletree Deakins, Akin, Barnes & Thornburg, Lira Bravo Law.

Natalie Posgate

For V&E Associate Jas Sethi, New UT Social Work Scholarship Stems from Personal Loss

Vinson & Elkins associate Jas Sethi was a second-year law student at Northwestern University when his 19-year-old sister lost her life to suicide after a yearslong battle with depression and addiction. While at first the tragedy eliminated his reason for attending law school, it helped him begin his legal career with a new sense of purpose. This upcoming school year, the University of Texas’ Steve Hicks School of Social Work will begin offering a scholarship Sethi started for students pursuing social work careers that specialize in substance misuse and recovery. Beyond honoring his sister, Sethi hopes the scholarship helps bring more social workers into the space who are energized to pursue reforms to the system he says failed her.

“I want to make it so that nobody ever has to feel like Simran did,” Sethi said. “I can’t do that all in one day, and I don’t know if I can do that at all, but the scholarship is what I can do now.”

Pictured: Jas Sethi (right) with his sister, Simran Sethi (left), and their parents, Tarminder and Jigyasa Sethi (center).

Natalie Posgate

P.S. — Severe Storm Outreach, DVAP June Dates, HBA’s New Prez

Public service news for this week includes info on the HBA’s newest president, board of directors and award honorees; June dates for Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s legal clinics; two lawyers appointed by the governor to the state’s OneStar Foundation; and how those in Texas affected by the recent severe storms can receive legal and recovery assistance. 

Firms mentioned this week include Locke Lord, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Abaham Watkins, Womble Bond Dickinson, Bracewell, Gibson Dunn, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Baker Botts, Norton Rose Fulbright, O’Neil Wysocki, Blank Rome, Painter Law Firm, Beck Redden, Daly & Black, Okin Adams Bartlett, Parker PLLC, Wright.law, Bradley, DLA Piper, Alson & Bird, Haynes Boone, Foley, Dorsey & Whitney, Frost Brown Todd, Carrington Coleman, Gray Reed and Weil.

Natalie Posgate

P.S. — A Black Tie Affair, A Safe Space for Mothers, A Grant Deadline

This week’s P.S. features a grant deadline (today) for any Dallas-area organizations pursuing projects that support women; lawyers from Yetter Coleman, Shipley Snell, and Hunton Andrews Kurth receiving pro bono/community service-related awards; a trivia event that raised funds for Children’s Health; an upcoming gala that supports the Dallas LGBTQ+ community that’s in need of more sponsors; and a recent ribbon-cutting event at Houston’s civil courthouse to celebrate the recent installation of the first of several planned lactation pods. 

Pictured: a group of Munck Wilson Mandala lawyers at the 2023 Black Tie Dinner that supports the LGBTQ+ community.

Natalie Posgate

Shell’s Hector Pineda: A ‘Change Agent’ for DEI

Hector Pineda is kind of a big deal at Shell. Throughout his nearly three-decade career at one of the world’s largest oil companies, he’s gone from battling a snake wrangler in a West Texas courtroom to handling major projects and commercial transactions to providing strategic advice to top executives and managers leading Shell’s downstream and renewables businesses in the Americas. But no matter how high he climbs in the company, it is his ability to advance others and be a microphone for diverse voices that he is most proud of.

Pineda is one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Diversity and Inclusion, and the winner will be revealed Wednesday at an awards ceremony hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.

Natalie Posgate

Q&A: Hector Pineda

Shell’s Hector Pineda discusses what he considers when hiring outside counsel, diversity and inclusion efforts and more.

Natalie Posgate

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