A Premier Legal Resource Since 1985

Morgan C. Shell

  • Associate

Biography

I'm the rare Austinite who was actually born in Austin, which makes me a unicorn in a city of move-ins. After graduating from nearby Marble Falls High School (Go ‘Stangs!), I attended the University of Denver, where I received a scholarship to play Division I Women's Basketball. When I wasn't polishing my three-point-shot, I was studying to earn my bachelor's degree in International Studies. I was particularly interested in how governmental and nongovernmental institutions cooperate to implement policy solutions to the diplomatic, economic and security challenges brought on by globalization. My work answering these questions always led back to the law, which is the most important tool that exists for equitable conflict resolution, and which soon became my overarching passion.

Summers found me chasing my passion for international relations to Seville, Spain, where I refined my Spanish and widened my cultural lens. After college, I was drawn back to Madrid by the dual opportunity to teach English and shadow a lawyer working in civil litigation. I left Spain with a deeper understanding of how the law can be brought to bear on local, rather than global, disputes.

Back home, I picked up where I left off, interning with the civil litigation firm Richardson & Burgess, where I would later clerk. In law school, I worked as an Articles Editor for Volume 49 of the Texas Tech Law Review. After my second year of law school, I studied at Charles University in Prague, where I competed in daily moot court competitions while studying global issues related to wrongful convictions. There, I learned about the inadequate representation that is afforded to poor defendants in the United States, which motivated me to intern and then accept a job at the Texas Indigent Defense Commission. While I am proud of the work that we did at TIDC securing the 6th Amendment rights of Texas defendants, my interest in advocacy drew me back to civil litigation and I'm proud to work with such a dynamic team of advocates at Wright & Greenhill, PC.

Education

  • Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock, Texas
    • J.D. - 2017
  • University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
    • B.A. - 2012
    • Honors: cum laude
    • Major: International Studies

Professional Associations

  • Austin Young Lawyers Association, Director, 2020 to Present
  • Austin Bar / AYLA Leadership Academy
  • Texas Tech Alumni Association, Austin Chapter
  • Texas Association of Defense Counsel
  • Austin Young Lawyer’s Association, Member, 2017, 2019 to Present

Practice Areas

  • General Civil Litigation
  • Construction Litigation
  • Employment Litigation
  • Personal Injury Litigation
  • Insurance Defense
  • Premises Litigation

Honors

  • Selected as a Top Attorney for Civil Litigation by the Austin Monthly Magazine
  • Author, A Defense Attorney’s Ethical Responsibilities in a Specialty Court
  • Co-author, Public Defense Innovation in Texas

Bar Admissions

  • Texas

Current Employment Position

  • Associate