South Texas College of Law Houston (STCL Houston) recently hired five new professors, adding to its 50-strong, full-time faculty.
Beginning in fall 2022, Dru Brenner-Beck, Frank Fagan, Rachel Koehn, Michael Whitmire and The Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod joined the STCL Houston faculty.
Professor Dru Brenner-Beck joined the South Texas College of Law Houston faculty as an assistant professor of law. She has nearly 30 years of practice experience and has worked with STCL Houston’s Actual Innocence Clinic as a pro-bono adjunct professor since 2019. A retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and judge advocate, she began her military career as an intelligence officer in 1984.
While serving in the Army, Prof. Brenner-Beck held various legal roles in the U.S. and abroad, including prosecutor, litigation attorney and chief legal advisor. Before her retirement, she served as deputy legal advisor for the Army Inspector General in Washington, D.C. In addition to a successful military career, Prof. Brenner-Beck spent three years serving as a law clerk for The Honorable Carlos F. Lucero of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also has a decade of experience as an independent international law consultant for corporate and governmental clients.
Professor Frank Fagan joined the South Texas College of Law Houston faculty as an associate professor of law in fall 2022. His teaching and writing consider the interplay of artificial intelligence and corporate law. His empirical work uses natural language processing techniques to examine corporate law doctrine. Prof. Fagan’s theoretical work considers the impact of AI on law and society broadly. Works in progress include empirical analysis of the complete corpus of U.S. corporate agency case law and theoretical analysis of the strengths and limitations of algorithms in law. He is a research associate of the EDHEC Augmented Law Institute in France.
Visiting Assistant Professors
Professor Rachel Koehn joined the faculty at South Texas College of Law Houston as a visiting assistant professor of law. Prior to teaching at South Texas, she practiced complex commercial litigation at Winston & Strawn LLP in Dallas, where her work focused on trade secrets and unfair competition, contract disputes, and appeals. Prof. Koehn also clerked for the Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston.
Prof. Koehn received her J.D. summa cum laude from Baylor Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Baylor Law Review. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Missouri, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies.
Professor Michael Whitmire joined the faculty at South Texas College of Law Houston as a visiting assistant professor of law. His career encompasses almost three decades of legal experience consulting and representing clients in the field of business — including issues of contractual relationships, employment matters, and general commercial litigation for trials and appeals (both in state court and federal court). Prof. Whitmore’s private practice started as an associate at Coats, Rose, et al., before becoming a name partner in the small firm of Ashby & Whitmire. He created a solo practice that has been ongoing since the fall of 2004, while also serving STCL Houston since 2016 as an adjunct professor — and now as a visiting assistant professor. In the meantime, Prof. Whitmire has frequently consulted on matters related to employment law and human resources for Worner Velasco Suarez, PC and N. Darlene Walker & Associates.
Jurist in Residence
The Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod joined South Texas College of Law Houston as the jurist in residence in fall 2022. She serves as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, with chambers in Houston. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Elrod was appointed and twice elected judge of the 190th District Court of Harris County, where she spent six years presiding over more than 200 jury and non-jury trials. Judge Elrod is an elected member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Texas State Bar Committee on Pattern Jury Charges and the Board of Directors of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism.
Judge Elrod is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Baylor University, which recently recognized her as an Outstanding Young Alumna. She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was an Ames Moot Court finalist and senior editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable Sim Lake of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Before taking the bench, Judge Elrod was in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, antitrust, and employment matters.
