Biography

Bethany Pickett Shah is a litigation and government investigations partner in the Houston office Jackson Walker. As a former federal prosecutor who served in senior roles at the White House and Department of Justice, she now represents corporations and executives in high-stakes business disputes and sensitive government investigations. She has represented Fortune 100 companies across several industries, including media and entertainment, energy and natural resources, healthcare, financial services, retail, and tech.

An experienced trial and appellate advocate, Bethany has tried multiple federal jury trials to verdict and presented oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Her courtroom experience informs her strategic counsel to clients facing significant litigation exposure or parallel civil, criminal, and regulatory risks.

Earlier in her career, Bethany held several senior legal positions in the federal government during the Trump Administration. She served in the White House as Deputy Associate Counsel to the President and at the Department of Justice as Counsel in both the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Legal Policy. In these roles, she advised on significant legal and constitutional issues of national importance that regularly made headlines, cultivating the strategic judgment and substantive expertise that now shape her counsel to clients encountering multifaceted legal, political, and reputational risks.

While at the White House, Bethany was part of the legal team that successfully represented the President during his first impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. She also played a key role in the federal judicial nominations process, working on the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as more than 100 federal judges nationwide. Her work frequently required coordinating complex legal strategy across the White House, the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies on matters of substantial public consequence, allowing her to develop a deep rolodex of contacts throughout the government.

Bethany also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas, where she represented the United States in criminal prosecutions and complex civil matters.

After law school, Bethany served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Education

B.A., magna cum laude, The King’s College

J.D., cum laude, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

• Northwestern University Law Review, Notes Editor
• Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Editor

Bar Admissions

Texas