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Shell USA’s Cisselon Nichols Hurd Is Advancing Diversity While Setting the Standard in Environmental Law

After meeting a lawyer at her elementary school’s career day, Cisselon Nichols Hurd went home and informed her mother she did not want to follow in her footsteps of becoming a teacher. She wanted to become a lawyer instead.

That’d be just fine, her mother replied.

Fast forward to 2009, and Hurd’s mother accompanied her to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Hurd helped steer a groundbreaking environmental case that narrowed seller liability, endorsed apportionment principles and remains a cornerstone to the Superfund practice.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Hurd, Shell USA Senior Counsel, with the Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion award at the May 28 ceremony.

Shell USA Senior Counsel Sara Keith ‘Does It All’

Sara Keith is one of those people who seems to do it all and make it look effortless.

At Shell USA, where she serves as senior legal counsel of global litigation, Keith manages complex legal matters while also devoting significant time to pro bono work, mentoring young lawyers and leading service initiatives across Houston’s legal community — all while raising two daughters.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Keith with the Harry Reasoner Pro Bono Advocacy Award at the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards on May 28.

Premium Subscriber Q&A: Sara Keith

In this Q&A, Sara Keith offers ideas for ways corporate in-house lawyers can give back to the community and talks about how AI is shaping expectations with outside counsel.

Trucking Co. Hit With $49M Jury Verdict in West Texas

The unanimous jury verdict was returned after three days of trial just before 8 p.m. Wednesday. Steffan Robert Mick, a 29-year-old married father of two, was killed in January 2025 when an OPG Logistics 18-wheeler turned in front of him on a farm-to-market road near Midland.

Houston Methodist’s Marissa Marquez’s Best Days are Helping Others

As a child, Marissa Marquez had to navigate an educational system not designed for kids like her.

A native Spanish speaker raised primarily by a grandmother without a high school diploma, Marquez learned English in school and worked her way into the gifted and talented program and eventually graduated 8th in her high school class of about 800 students.

Now labor and employment counsel at Houston Methodist Hospital, her life work and volunteerism “reflect a through line” in her life, “from her earliest experiences as a bilingual student to her current leadership roles, of using her skills and lived experience to uplift others,” said Jackson Walker partner Sang Shin.

Gibson Dunn Guides SpaceX on Potential Record‑Shattering IPO

Elon Musk’s SpaceX filed a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday for a much-anticipated initial public offering of its common stock that will trade on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the symbol “SPCX.”

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is advising SpaceX led by capital markets partners George Sampas in New York and Hillary Holmes, Harrison Tucker and Atma Kabad in Houston. Davis Polk is advising the underwriters.

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