Rachel Ekery

Rachel Ekery is Co-Chair of the firm’s Texas Supreme Court and State Appellate Practice. She has been a partner at ADJ since 2013 and has handled a wide variety of appellate matters, including dozens of cases before the Supreme Court of Texas.  Before joining the firm, Rachel worked at the Supreme Court of Texas for eleven years.  She was hired as the Supreme Court’s staff attorney for extraordinary writs, more commonly known as the mandamus attorney.  She then served for more than a decade as lead staff attorney to Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson.

Recognized by Chambers USA, Chambers and Partners (2020-2024), as a leading Texas appellate lawyer, Rachel has been Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2007 and served for six years on the board’s appellate exam commission.  She has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, teaching a seminar on “Writing for the Courts.”

Rachel has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for appellate practice since 2020 and has been a Texas Super Lawyer in appellate law since 2016.  She is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute, and a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Rachel’s practice includes a significant pro bono component.  She was part of a pro bono team that won compensation from the State of Texas on behalf of Alfred Dewayne Brown, who was wrongfully convicted of capital murder and spent more than twelve years in prison, nine of them on death row. In 2022, Rachel received the Pro Bono Attorney Award from the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association.  Since 2017, she has chaired the State Bar Appellate Section’s pro bono committee, which helps match parties seeking appellate assistance with volunteer attorneys. She has also authored a book chapter explaining how courts can facilitate pro se representation in Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (Cambridge University Press 2016).