Baker Botts associate Teresa Jones was new to Houston, new to Texas and new to the legal profession in the fall 2023 when she was invited to Thanksgiving dinner by Chevron Phillips Chemical Company Assistant General Counsel Cheryl-Lynne Davis to help acclimate the first-year lawyer to the community.
The pair had met earlier when Jones was a summer associate and now reconnected over a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings.
The Thanksgiving feast at Davis’ home in Humble was a welcoming gesture that resulted in Davis and Jones — both women of color and lawyers who specialize in environmental law — identifying professional struggles they faced and figuring out a solution that now benefits some of the largest corporations in Texas, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, Halliburton, Calpine and even Major League Soccer.
“We shared our experiences as environmental law practitioners and discovered we had quite a few similarities in our journeys,” Davis told The Texas Lawbook. “For many years, I had noticed that women, and women of color in particular, were either leaving or not advancing in the field of energy and environmental law. I believed deeply that this loss of talent stemmed from a lack of support or an unawareness of the support that was available. However, I did not know quite how to tackle the issue.”
Then Davis met Jones.
“Environmental law is such a niche field, and — while I was excited — I also felt uncertain about how I would find my footing in this space and whether I could build community with others who shared my background and experiences,” Jones said. “I confided in [Cheryl-Lynne] about my journey to this legal field, and she shared that there were actually several other Black women practicing in environmental and energy law. Most of us hadn’t had the opportunity to connect formally.”
“What started as a casual conversation quickly became a shared mission: to create space for people like us to build community, exchange knowledge and uplift one another,” Jones said.
Davis and Jones kept the discussion going over the next two months.
“We started brainstorming ideas on ways to connect with other Black women who practice energy and environmental law,” Davis said. “We wanted to provide an avenue for our fellow lawyers to engage, be supported and continue to develop professionally.”
“Unaware of whether this idea would generate any interest among other lawyers, we stepped out on faith and created BWEL,” she said. “[BWEL] signifies both our professional purpose as lawyers and personal mission to support and ensure the wellness of black women engaged in this area of law.”
In only 16 months, the Black Women in Energy and Environmental Law group has witnessed tremendous success. Its membership grows monthly and now has several dozen active participants.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Davis, Jones and the members of BWEL with the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Creative Partnership.
ACC Houston and The Lawbook will celebrate the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award finalists and winners on May 22 at the Four Seasons Hotel.
“BWEL has been instrumental in creating a community dedicated to increasing Black women’s representation in environmental and energy law,” Baker Botts partners Russell Lewis and Scott Janoe wrote in nominating BWEL for the award. “Through collaboration, initiatives and education, BWEL has successfully built a network that fosters inclusion, professional development and problem-solving in this highly specialized legal field.”
“BWEL was established to address a critical gap in the legal profession: the underrepresentation of Black women in energy and environmental law,” Janoe and Lewis wrote. “Recognizing both the complexity and the immense opportunities in these legal sectors, BWEL seeks to create a pipeline for Black women at all stages of their legal careers. BWEL’s founding members understood that mentorship, networking, and targeted educational opportunities were essential to ensuring long-term success for Black women attorneys in these fields.”
Shell Senior Litigation Counsel Cisselon Nichols Hurd, one of the founding members of BWEL, said Jones and Davis deserve the credit.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Cheryl-Lynne Davis and Teresa Jones elaborate on Black Women in Energy and Environmental Law’s big successes and opportunities for growth.
“I tell them all the time how grateful we are that they not only had a vision for BWEL but were able to implement it without missing a beat,” Hurd said. “When you think about Teresa having just started at Baker Botts, it really is a big deal that she had the courage to make the ask and that Baker Botts had the firm culture to be supportive.”
Hurd, who has been in-house at Shell for 22 years and is a former federal prosecutor handling environmental cases, said Jones sent her an Outlook invite about “a gathering of Black women who practiced environmental law.”
“There were quite a few invitees, and I remember thinking, “Wow. Are there that many of us here in Houston?” Hurd said. “Having met Teresa for the first time at a conference in Memphis the prior year, I knew if she was organizing it then it was worthy of attending, not to mention that I have worked with the environmental group at Baker Botts for a long time. So, for me it was an easy yes to attend and immediately join the group.”
Pilar Hastings, senior counsel at Fervo Energy, said she “knew right away” that she wanted to be part of BWEL.
“It’s not often you find a community that really gets the unique experiences we have in this field, and I was excited to support it and to grow with it,” Hastings said. “BWEL is important to me because it provides a space for authentic connection, mentorship and professional development that is tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities we face. Having a network of peers and mentors who understand the nuances of navigating the environmental legal field has been invaluable.”
“BWEL helps me in my profession by offering trusted relationships, opportunities to collaborate and strategic advice that supports both my personal and professional growth,” Hastings said.
Hastings, Hurd and other BWEL members said Davis and Jones are the perfect founders.
Davis earned her master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and worked as an environmental engineer at Brown-Forman while she was in law school at the University of Louisville.
“As an environmental engineer, understanding and applying regulations are key skills, in addition to being able to design the necessary equipment and develop the required procedures to maintain compliance with those regulations,” Davis said. “I realized that I was more excited and intrigued by the regulations themselves — how they were developed, why they were developed, what problem or issue were they intended to address, who participates in establishing the regulatory requirements.”
“While I believed I was capable of reading and interpreting regulations as an engineer, I admired the assessment and regulatory dissection that the lawyers performed,” she said. “I marveled at the lawyer’s ability to adeptly argue opposing positions on the same regulatory language. I wanted to expand my capabilities in the environmental field, to couple my technical aptitude with legal skills.”
Jones, who was born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi Delta, earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Mississippi. Between college and law school, she managed political campaigns.
“I ended up working for a small, minority-owned environmental services firm that specialized in air quality monitoring, water testing and remediation,” Jones said. “It was my first real exposure to environmental issues, environmental justice and the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding them. That experience sparked something in me. I knew almost immediately that this was the work I wanted to dedicate my life to. What began as a temporary job turned into a defining moment that shaped my decision to pursue a career in environmental law.”
During her third-year of law school, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of General Counsel.
Davis and Jones admit they faced early challenges.
“Though I have served in many different professional and community-based organizations, I have never launched one,” Davis said. “A multitude of questions swirled around in my head: Is anyone else interested in this mission? How will it be organized? Will we need funding? Should we incorporate?”
“I took a breath and reminded myself to focus forward,” she continued. “The most important step is the first one. So just start and then lean on the energy and expertise of the other women to help form what BWEL is and will be.”
Jones said the “biggest challenge in the beginning was simply finding people.”
“We didn’t know if others would care or if they’d even want to participate in something like this,” she said. “It felt like we were pitching a vision we hadn’t fully sketched out yet. So we leaned into relationship-building. Cheryl-Lynne tapped into her networks, and we even made cold introductions. The response was overwhelmingly positive.”
BWEL held its first meeting in a private area of a downtown restaurant with about 20 initial members. Baker Botts managing partner Danny David provided opening remarks.
“It was informal — no agenda, no script,” Jones said. “We invited about 20 women, and 18 showed up. The energy in the room was electric. It was loud, it was joyful, and it felt like we had uncovered something special. Many of us didn’t even realize how many other Black women were practicing in these fields in Houston. We talked about the need for mentorship, the challenges of practicing in niche spaces and how we could be more intentional about uplifting each other.”
“That night, BWEL became real,” Jones said.
Davis said the group discussed BWEL’s mission, meeting cadence and content and membership.
“We engaged in a lively discussion on the importance of diversity in the legal profession and the need for organizations like BWEL to foster and promote energy and environmental law as a practice area,” Davis said.
BWEL has more than doubled its membership and includes seasoned lawyers, newer lawyers and even law students.
Davis said that BWEL provides a “supportive atmosphere for Black women who practice” environmental law and gives members a “safe place for women to share their experiences and expertise.”
“We also focus on professional knowledge-sharing where we bring emerging issues or key aspects of energy and environmental law practice,” she said. “Professionally, I have experienced a renewed vigor for the practice of energy and environmental law.”
“We have created our own community where we laugh together, share our successes and challenges and celebrate each other,” Davis said. “Our time together provides an injection of joy that fuels me from meeting to meeting.”
Jones said that BWEL has given her “a sense of belonging I didn’t even know I needed.”
“In under two years, I’ve built friendships, found mentors and embraced the fact that I belong in this space,” she said. “Professionally, BWEL has connected me to opportunities, introduced me to leaders in the environmental and energy fields from all walks of life.”
BWEL members say the organization has presented them the opportunity to meet and mentor younger lawyers who are new to the practice area and in many cases new to Houston.
“When I started practicing environmental law 30-plus years ago, I was very often one of very few women in the room and almost always the only Black person — man or woman,” said Shell’s Hurd. “I started my practice in the Honors Program at U.S. Department of Justice and worked on large Superfund cases, so it was really striking. Of course, I was fine with it, but sometimes it was frustrating when other lawyers assumed I was the court reporter or paralegal — instead of the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division.”
Taylor Moore, a colleague of Hurd’s in the Shell legal department, said BWEL is an organization that all lawyers should support.
“BWEL impacts the broader legal profession by creating opportunities for connection and growth amongst Black women environmental and energy attorneys across the county,” Moore said. “The entire legal community will be enhanced with a proliferating network of qualified, diverse, subject matter experts who can be called upon for any environmental or energy law need.”
Halliburton Assistant General Counsel Tramaine Singleton agrees.
“In an industry and profession that does not have a lot of people who look like me, BWEL members are familiar with the struggles and challenges that Black women experience that others may not face,” Singleton said. “BWEL provides me an opportunity to network with the ladies that have come before me and allows me the opportunity to pass on the things that I have gained to the Black women who follow.”
Fervo Energy’s Hastings said BWEL isn’t just about supporting each other today.
“It’s about opening doors for the next generation,” she said. “We’re really focused on making sure that Black women coming into environmental law have an even stronger network to lean on. It’s exciting to think about the impact we can have long term.”
Fun Facts: Cheryl-Lynne Davis
- Favorite book: A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines or The Help by Kathryn Stockett, both because of the demonstration of strength and community.
- Favorite movie or TV show: Imitation of Life because of the demonstration of the unstoppable resilience of a mother’s love for her child.
- Favorite musician or band: Earth, Wind & Fire
- Favorite restaurant: Valencia Luncheria in Norwalk, Connecticut, for the arepas.
- Hero in life: I I have two. My mom faced impossible, seemingly insurmountable obstacles and managed to create a wonderful life for her children. She taught me how to celebrate myself and not to allow negative forces to deter me from achieving my personal best. She instilled in me the importance of caring for others and treating everyone fairly, with dignity and respect. She was the truest example of “it doesn’t take a lot to make a difference.” It just takes desire and determination. She made sure I understood and appreciated the value of community and that my success was not fully materialized until it had a positive impact on someone else.
The second is Ben Wilson. Somehow, he finds a way to pour into the legal community to provide tireless support for those who are privileged enough to be mentored by him. He is the quintessential example of what a servant-leader is. He is a master of his chosen areas of law and uses that knowledge as a gateway for others to walk through to achieve their professional goals. He connects with his colleagues, protégés and students in a way that is personal, genuine and inspiring. He is one of the reasons I wanted to start BWEL — I asked myself, “Who is going to be the Ben Wilson for this next generation of lawyers?” My hope is the answer is BWEL.
Fun Facts: Teresa Jones
- Favorite book: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It’s a powerful reminder what courage, conviction and compassion can accomplish. It deeply shaped the way I think about law and purpose.
- Favorite movie or TV show: I love Marvel movies, sci-fi TV shows and anything in the fantasy realm. These “other worlds” and alternate futures sparks my creativity, stretches my imagination and reminds me that anything is possible.
- Favorite musician or band: Beyoncé, of course. Creative, disciplined, visionary — and she makes you feel every word. Plus, she’s from Houston, so it’s only right.
- Favorite restaurant: I’m still exploring! Houston has an incredible food scene, and I love trying different spots across the city. I haven’t settled on just one favorite yet — but discovering new places has definitely become a hobby.
- Hero in life: My parents are my heroes. My dad is a veteran, and my mom is an educator. They both gave so much of themselves in service to others, and all that I am today is a result of the sacrifices they made for our family.