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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.

Two Tapped by President Trump for Bench in WDTX

Andrew Davis, an Austin litigator who had served as a staffer on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and Judge Chris Wolfe, a Tarrant County trial judge since 2018, have been named to federal bench vacancies in Austin and Waco.

Adapt or Be Replaced — The Future of In‑House Law in the Age of AI

When AI is embedded into daily workflows, processes such as contract review, compliance monitoring, risk analysis and knowledge management stop being bottlenecks and become sources of strategic leverage. That shift frees our teams to spend time where human judgment matters most. This article offers a practical roadmap for GCs: how to adopt AI safely, how to train people effectively and how to redesign processes with AI at the core — so the legal team can be a force multiplier for the business, not a brake.

My Five Favorite Books: Conrad Hester

Whether it’s the psychological depth of Dostoyevsky or the lyrical observations of Annie Dillard, I’m drawn to stories that linger long after the final page. These books aren’t just entertaining; they are challenging but ultimately reward the time investment with illuminations on what it means to exist in our world. They’re the kind of books that make you think harder, feel deeper, and read slower.

Atlas Unplugged: In Houston Lawyer’s Collection, the Past Unfolds

In his corner office in downtown Houston, history hangs from every wall.

You don’t just see the maps. Centuries call out, empires rise (and fall) with each step you take in Joseph Ahmad’s office, where the past is still very much alive.

The collection of maps bleeds out into the hallways of the skyscraper floors that the law firm Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing occupies, jockeying for wall space alongside other works of art.

CSW Industrials GC Luke Alverson: ‘A Business Leader that Brings Legal Skills to the Table’

Luke Alverson was a second-year associate at a large corporate firm with a nine-month-old daughter when his 23-year-old brother died in a car accident. “It hit me very hard. Losing Lance didn’t change my world view or values, but it certainly brought them into sharp focus,” Alverson told The Texas Lawbook. “It was my ‘What do I want to be in my obituary?’ moment.”

Alverson reevaluated his career and is now the GC at CSW, where he has worked on 17 M&A transactions during the past decade valued at more than $1 billion, including the October 2025 acquisition of heating and air-conditioning parts supplier Motors & Armatures Parts for $650 million. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook named Alverson as one of three finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

Litigation Roundup: Lawyer Who Leaked Accused Priest’s Name to Reporter Can’t Shake $400K Sanction

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a divided Fifth Circuit panel revives an excessive force lawsuit against a Lake Worth officer stemming from a 2021 fatal shooting, with the judges sharply criticizing each other in their opinions, and a husband and wife in Fort Worth admit guilt in a custom home building scam that defrauded 40 victims out of about $4.8 million. 

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