This week’s edition of P.S. includes information on a Munck Wilson Mandala shareholder who has been elected to the alumni board of TSU’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law, February dates for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s pro bono clinics, 2024 officers of the Asian American Bar Association of Houston and how to donate during the final days of a campaign that supports civil pro bono legal services in Dallas.
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Skadden Nabs ‘Go-To’ Energy Litigator Michelle Scheffler
Michelle Scheffler, formerly of Haynes Boone, joins Skadden as a litigation partner in its Houston office. Scheffler has led high-profile energy litigation across the country.
Q&A: Rachel Morgan of Nexstar
For Premium Subscribers She’s handled pro bono cases for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program for 20 years. She sits on the board of a very large foundation. She’s led a
Rachel Morgan: Pro Bono ‘Should Be the Highest Priority Work that We Do’
She’s handled pro bono cases for the Dallas Volunteer Attorneys Program for 20 years. She sits on the board of a very large foundation. She’s led a series of successful fundraisers, her most recent a record-breaking $1.3 million. She’s helping kids afford college at her alma mater. She saved a rescue dog named Ricky Bobby who does not have chemical burns, but does have bad skin.
Oh yeah, and her day job is general counsel of the country’s largest television station owner. But Nexstar Media Group’s Rachel Morgan has traveled down a long path to get to where she is today, hustling every step of the way.
For all of her achievements, The Texas Lawbook and the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter have named Morgan the recipient of the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service.
Here is her full story.
Judge Higginbotham Drills Down on ‘Impermissible Gloss’ of Court’s ‘Moment of Threat Doctrine’ in Qualified Immunity Case
Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham authored the panel opinion and a concurrence, saying the court was bound to follow its own precedent in this case while also calling on the Fifth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court to “revisit the doctrine” that is “deployed daily across this country” in police shooting cases. The case involves the shooting death of Ashtian Barnes, who was stopped for having outstanding toll violations — a non-arrestable offense — and was killed by Officer Roberto Felix Jr. when he attempted to drive away.
Pioneer’s Akshar Patel Counseling the Board on the Biggest M&A Deal of 2023
Akshar Patel has always been a prodigy, graduating summa cum laude at 19 and law school at 21, where he was an editor at SMU Dedman School of Law’s International Law Journal. He had four years of corporate law practice on his resume and was associate general counsel at Flowserve Corporation at 26. Now a ripe old 38, Patel is the corporate secretary and vice president of legal at Pioneer Natural Resources, where he played a critical role in the October 2023 $64.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer by Exxon Mobil.
“He played an instrumental role in orchestrating the largest deal signed in the entire world in 2023,” said Gibson Dunn partner Jeff Chapman. “To quote the great sage Adam Sandler, ‘Not too shabby.’”
Citing his extraordinary work on the Exxon Mobil deal, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Patel with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Corporate Secretary/Legal Counselor of the Year.
Q&A: Akshar Patel of Pioneer Natural Resources
Akshar Patel has always been a prodigy, graduating summa cum laude at 19 and law school at 21, where he was an editor at SMU Dedman School of Law’s International
CDT Roundup: 14 Deals, 12 Firms, 109 Lawyers, $4B
Professional sports, once the domain of rich guys who made their money in steel or automobile dealerships, has become its own source of cross-industry partnerships, once-verboten relationships and even M&A. The CDT Roundup looks at how a couple of Texas billionaires and a South Texas bankruptcy are accelerating those changes — along with the lineup of last week’s deals.
Fifth Circuit: Police Immune for Arresting Journalist Just for Asking Questions
Laredo officials who arrested a citizen-journalist in 2017 for asking for information deemed nonpublic cannot be sued for violating the First Amendment rights of the reporter because the officers have qualified immunity because they believed they were following a Texas law — even though the law had never been successfully used in a prosecution and has been declared unconstitutional, a hotly divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled late Tuesday. The en banc court of the Fifth Circuit ruled 9-7 that police and prosecutors should not be required to know whether a state law is constitutional or not when enforcing laws.
But seven Fifth Circuit judges in four different dissents blasted the majority’s decision because it turns routine questioning by news reporters into probable cause for committing criminal activity and shows how screwed up the Fifth Circuit is when it comes to granting immunity to government officials who abuse their power.
(Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article states that the en banc vote was 10-7 instead of 9-7. The Lawbook regrets the error.)
Kirkland’s Adam Arikat Leaves for Simpson Thacher
The veteran energy tax attorney was involved with several billion-dollar deals in the last few months. He cites STB’s “preeminent tax practice and collegial culture” as the reasons behind his move.