Mailing address:
P.O. Box 224626
Dallas, Texas 75222
Physical address:
2223 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75208
214.946.8000 phone
214.946.8433 fax
Shelby J. White, Of Counsel
Biography
Shelby White joined Durham, Pittard & Spalding, LLP in 2022. Prior to joining the firm, she attended Baylor University for both her undergraduate and law degrees. In law school, she was an articles editor for the Baylor Law Review, and competed on one of Baylor’s moot court teams. As an undergraduate, she was a four-year letter winner for Baylor’s varsity Equestrian Team.
After law school, Shelby worked in the appellate and litigation section of Harris, Finley & Bogle, PC in Fort Worth. While there, Shelby worked on commercial cases at the state and federal level in Texas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, and briefed appeals to the Texas Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and numerous intermediate appellate courts. In 2018, she moved to the appellate section of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, where she served as lead attorney in over 50 appeals. She has argued before numerous intermediate Texas appellate courts, as well as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She is admitted to practice in all Texas Courts, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western District of Texas.
Shelby is a past board member of the Tarrant County Young Lawyers Association, and a past president of the Tarrant County Bar Association’s Appellate Section, where she still serves on the section committee. She has been named a top attorney by Fort Worth Magazine since 2015. In 2017, she was awarded a National Collegiate Equestrian Association Distinguished Alumni Award.
= read publication
Publications & Presentations
Dr. Death: Exploring the Intersection of Civil and Criminal Law
Tarrant County Appellate Section Brown Bag CLE (January 2019)
= read opinion
Significant Cases
Olivares v. Chevron Phillips Chem. Co. LP, No. 05-22-00057-CV, 2023 WL 2494533 (Tex. App.—Dallas Mar. 14, 2023, no pet. h.) (mem. op.)
Successfully reversed trial court’s order granting a plea to the jurisdiction in suit to recover personal injury damages against Chevron, holding that Chevron was not entitled to the worker’s compensation exclusive remedy defense because the injured worker, who was an employee of a subsidiary company, was not a deemed employee under Chevron’s OCIP policy.
One World Bank v. Miller, No. 05-21-00705-CV, 2023 WL 333712 (Tex. App.—Dallas Jan. 20, 2023, no pet. h.) (mem. op.)
Successfully defended grant of traditional and no evidence summary judgment in favor of buyer and award of attorney’s fees to buyer in the bank’s suit to sequester a vehicle dealership sold to a buyer in good faith after dealership defaulted on its inventory loan. The court found that a purchase by a buyer in good faith cuts off the bank’s security interest in the vehicle. In a matter of first impression, the court also found that the buyer was entitled to recover his attorney’s fees under Texas Property Code Section 70.008 because the suit was one for possession of a motor vehicle.
Byrd v. Cornelius, 52 F.4th 265 (5th Cir. 2022)
Successfully convinced court of appeals to dismiss officers’ qualified immunity appeal for lack of jurisdiction in light of material factual disputes regarding the officers’ use of force. The Fifth Circuit determined that video of the incident did not conclusively establish reasonable force, and that the law clearly established that officers’ use of force was excessive force in circumstances consistent with the Plaintiff’s version of events.
Crane v. City of Arlington, Tex., 50 F.4th 453 (5th Cir. 2022), cert. denied sub nom. City of Arlington v. Crane, 144 S. Ct. 342 (2023)and cert. denied sub nom. Roper v. Crane, 144 S. Ct. 342 (2023)
Successfully reversed trial court’s grant of summary judgment to police officer, holding that the officer was not entitled to summary judgment on his qualified immunity defense when he shot and killed an unarmed driver during a pretextual traffic stop.
Hallman v. State, 620 S.W.3d 931 (Tex. Crim. App. 2021)
Successfully obtained reversal and remand of Court of Appeals’ decision that the State had failed to timely disclose evidence.
Wheeler v. State, 616 S.W.3d 858 (Tex. Crim. App. 2021)
Obtained petition for review of Court of Appeals’ decision that affidavit was not properly sworn.
Maxion v. State, No. 02-18-00176-CR, 2019 WL 3269324 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth July 18, 2019, pet. ref’d) (en banc)
Obtained reversal on en banc reconsideration holding that issue previously decided on appeal was not properly raised.
Texas Dept. of Public Safety v. Randolph, No. 02–13–00025–CV, 2014 WL 1875826 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth May 8, 2014, pet. denied) (mem. op.)
Successfully defended against petition for discretionary review in the Texas Supreme Court finding that the trial court correctly interpreted the State’s statutory conceal-carry requirements.
ASM Global LLC, v. Weaver., No. 08-24-00044-CV, — S.W.3d —, 2024 WL 4416005 (Tex. App.—El Paso Oct. 4, 2024, no pet. h.)
Succeeded in obtaining the dismissal of an appeal for lack of jurisdiction over ASM’s interlocutory appeal of a plea to the jurisdiction because ASM could not establish that it was an “organ of government” entitled to appeal under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Sec. 51.014(a)(8).