Chevron Corporation announced Friday that Austin appellate lawyer and former Texas solicitor general Scott A. Keller will be the Houston energy giant’s new general counsel starting July 1 and will take over as chief legal officer when current chief legal officer, R. Hewitt Pate, retires next year.
Pate has been the chief legal officer at Chevron for 17 years.
“Scott brings exceptional experience and expertise, including a strong record of leading through complex matters and a clear understanding of the issues shaping our business environment,” Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said.
A 2007 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Keller has argued more than 10 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Supreme Court. He is the co-founder of Lehotsky Keller Cohn, which has offices in Austin and Washington, D.C.
In announcing Keller as its next GC, Chevron said he has “expertise in high stakes litigation involving constitutional, administrative and commercial disputes and for advising clients on complex matters with significant business and public policy implications.”
Pate, a former partner at Hunton & Williams in Washington, D.C., led several high-profile legal efforts, including most recently the successful international arbitration outcome related to the Hess Corporation acquisition. Pate also guided Chevron’s successful defense against a decades-long multibillion-dollar lawsuit in Ecuador, leading efforts that uncovered fraud and bribery by an American trial lawyer.