Hicks Johnson attorney Dave Finkel’s passion for riding horses took him 6,000 miles away from his home in Houston earlier this year. He was among 45 brave souls who participated in the 10-day Mongol Derby, which is the world’s longest equestrian endurance race.
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Brinker’s Cam Turner: Father’s Wrongful Imprisonment Inspires Legal Excellence
Cameasha Turner was in the third grade when her mother told her the story of her father’s wrongful conviction and life-prison sentence. “It was truly a life-altering moment for me. My dad was 18 when he was wrongfully convicted,” Turner told The Texas Lawbook. “Hearing that as a child was heavy. I didn’t know how to process the shame or the hurt, but I did know one thing: It wasn’t right. Wanting justice for my dad is what sparked it, but understanding the power of education is what carried me the rest of the way.”
More than two decades later, Cam Turner is corporate counsel at Dallas-based Brinker where she is making major decisions and achieving significant successes on the operations of the multibillion-dollar hospitality company whose restaurant brands include Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook have named Turner as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year, which is awarded to counsel who have been in-house for three years or less.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Cam Turner
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Cameasha Turner discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
P.S. — The Lawbook’s Plan for Pro Bono, Public Service and Diversity Coverage in 2026
Never before has the role of Texas lawyers been more important when it comes to meeting the legal needs of those in poverty, those who are disenfranchised or disadvantaged, those who are military veterans or single parents and children facing abusive environments. Never has the issue of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession been more important or more newsworthy.
For three years now, The Texas Lawbook has covered the work of Texas lawyers — from law firm partners and associates to in-house counsel — who stepped forward on their own time and at their own expense to help others.
In 2025, Texas Lawbook pro bono, public service and diversity reporter Krista Torralva published 127 articles highlighting the pro bono and public service work of more than 400 Texas lawyers and firms.
As our colleagues on PBS and NPR say, this is only possible with the help of contributions from folks like you.
Corporate Cosmos: Texas Lawyers Navigate Record Billion-Dollar Deals Year
When Johnny Carson used to parody astronomer Carl Sagan on The Tonight Show, he’d stretch out the words “billions and billions” to accentuate the astronomer’s Mid-Atlantic delivery. The line became so famous that many people assumed Sagan said it.
He never did.
Yet Sagan, with some humor about it, leaned into the myth, even later calling one of his books Billions & Billions as a nod to Carson’s cosmic exaggeration.
Now we have to borrow the phrase again. Not to describe galaxies or particles of star stuff, but to capture the sheer scale of billion-dollar-plus deals handled by Texas lawyers last year.
Texas is First to Step Away from ABA Bar Admission Standards
The Texas Supreme Court released an order this week stating it will no longer rely on the American Bar Association accreditation to determine which law schools’ students can sit for the bar exam. Right now, all ABA-accredited law schools are on the list, but non-accredited schools could be added depending on what the justices decide. Law firm leaders and law school deans weighed in on the change.
Introducing Charles Schwab GC Peter Morgan — An Exclusive Q&A with The Texas Lawbook
Charles Schwab’s relocation of its global headquarters, including its 150-member corporate legal department, from San Francisco to a 70-acre campus in Westlake’s Circle T Ranch development is complete, and by all accounts, the transition has been hugely successful. The move required a significant amount of infrastructure work by the legal department for Schwab, a multinational financial services company with more than 32,000 employees, $11 trillion in assets under management and a market cap of $178 billion.
“The move itself was real legal work, including banking charter conversions and building new relationships with Texas regulators and the Dallas Fed, and we found the same constructive, execution-oriented approach throughout,” Schwab General Counsel Peter Morgan told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview.
Morgan said Schwab’s hiring of two Dallas prominent lawyers — Winstead shareholder Michael O’Neal and Jones Day partner and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Regional Director Shamoil Shipchandler — were critical parts of the transition. In the interview, Morgan discusses the Texas legal and business markets and the challenges ahead.
Asked & Answered with A&O Shearman’s Billy Marsh: Five Generations of Practicing Law
In this edition of Asked & Answered, A&O Shearman partner Billy Marsh discusses trends he’s seeing in shareholder, securities and mass tort litigation. He also talks about what it was like as a first-year associate to defend the NFL against fraud claims brought by a group of fans.
Premium Subscriber Q&A: Shamoil Shipchandler
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Shamoil Shipchandler discusses the traits he seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with him and more.
Schwab Chief Counsel Shamoil Shipchandler ‘Wouldn’t Trade Places with Anyone’
Shamoil Shipchandler scored landmark successes as a high-profile white-collar Texas prosecutor and the SEC’s top corporate cop pursuing financial criminals such as self-proclaimed frack master Christopher Faulkner and top executives at AriseBank. Shipchandler is still racking up major achievements as chief counsel at Charles Schwab where he leads a team of 15 lawyers and 11 other legal professionals.
“Most of the successes of my group cannot be publicly celebrated because they are confidential,” Shipchandler told The Texas Lawbook. “For example, closing nonpublic regulatory investigations or securing millions of dollars in FINRA arbitration victories.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook have named Shipchandler and his team at Schwab as a finalist for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for DFW Corporate Legal Department of the Year.