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Beau Carter
Beau Carter
Beau Carter
Senior Associate
[email protected]
DETAILS
Practices
Appellate and Supreme Court
Environmental Appeals Federal and State Judicial and Administrative
Litigation
Details
Overview
Overview Admissions & Affiliations Experience News Awards and Community
Practices
Appellate and Supreme Court
Environmental Appeals Federal and State Judicial and Administrative
Litigation

Overview

Beau Carter is a Senior Associate in Baker Botts' Appellate and Supreme Court practice group in Houston. Beau represents clients in high-stakes appeals and dispositive motions across a broad range of substantive areas—including constitutional litigation, significant challenges to federal agency rulemakings, complex environmental and energy matters, statutory interpretation, and complex commercial appeals. Clients and colleagues turn to Beau for novel, consequential questions that will shape the law well beyond the parties before the court.

Beau handles appeals and critical motions in courts across the country, appearing most often in the Fifth Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court of Texas, as well as other federal courts of appeals nationwide. His matters routinely involve bet-the-company stakes and cutting-edge legal questions—from constitutional challenges and high-profile disputes over the scope of federal agency authority to complex environmental, energy, and commercial appeals. Because so many of these matters cannot wait, clients also rely on Beau when time is of the essence: he has briefed and obtained extraordinary relief in fast-moving appellate proceedings, including stays of agency rules and petitions for writs of mandamus. At the trial-court level, Beau briefs and argues dispositive motions on complex legal issues, building the record and framing the arguments that position a case to prevail on appeal. Sophisticated parties—including States and industry leaders—have also entrusted Beau to author amicus curiae briefs on important constitutional and statutory questions in the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Texas, and the federal courts of appeals.

Before joining Baker Botts, Beau served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to the Honorable Jeffrey S. Boyd of the Supreme Court of Texas. Between those clerkships, Beau served as a Gregory S. Coleman Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of Texas.

Admissions & Affiliations

  • State Bar of Texas
  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits
  • Federalist Society, Houston Lawyers Chapter
  • Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation
  • Columnist, Houston Bar Association's Appellate Lawyer

Education

  • J.D., Pepperdine University School of Law 2019
    magna cum laude
    Order of the Coif
    Lead Articles Editor, Pepperdine Law Review
    Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic
    President, Federalist Society
  • B.A., Political Science, Abilene Christian University 2016
    President, Students' Association

Experience

Federal Appeals

  • Successfully defended a technology company’s $210 million damages award in trade-secret misappropriation case under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Computer Sciences Corp. v. Tata Consultancy Servs. Ltd., 159 F.4th 429 (5th Cir. 2025), cert. denied, __ S. Ct. __ (June 15, 2026).
  • Successfully defended air permit for LNG facility after securing favorable interpretation of the Texas Clean Air Act on certified question to the Supreme Court of Texas. Port Arthur Community Action Network v. TCEQ, 147 F.4th 560 (5th Cir. 2025) (dismissing petition); Port Arthur Community Action Network v. TCEQ, 707 S.W.3d 102 (Tex. 2025) (certified question).
  • Argued appeal securing affirmance in First Amendment retaliation case about scope of public-employee speech protection. Harrison v. Lilly, 854 F. App’x 554 (5th Cir. Mar. 25, 2021).
  • Briefed and assisted in en banc argument securing reversal of injunction preventing enforcement of Texas law.  Whole Women’s Health v. Paxton, 10 F.4th 430 (5th Cir. 2021) (en banc).
  • Successfully secured emergency stay of an injunction preventing enforcement of Texas law on the eve of an election.  LULAC v. Hughs, 978 F.3d 136 (5th Cir. 2020).
  • Assisted in oral argument in original-jurisdiction dispute over water rights under interstate compacts.  Texas v. New Mexico, No. 65, Orig. (U.S. Oct. 5, 2020).
  • Drafted amicus brief for industry trade association supporting vacatur of EPA's disapproval of Texas's state implementation plan, ultimately resulting in voluntary dismissal with vacatur before oral argument. Texas v. EPA, No. 23-60616 (5th Cir. Aug. 22, 2024).

State Appeals

  • Secured dismissal of challenges to Public Utility Commission orders preserving reliability of electric grid during Winter Storm Uri. Pub. Util. Comm’n of Tex. v. Luminant Energy Co. LLC, 691 S.W.3d 448 (Tex. 2024).
  • Secured reversal on the merits preventing Harris County election official from taking ultra vires actions. State of Texas v. Hollins, 620 S.W.3d 400 (Tex. 2020); In re State of Texas, No. 20-0715 (Tex. Sept. 15, 2020) (securing emergency stay).
  • Secured emergency stay and reversal on the merits in challenge to legality of Governor’s proclamations under the Texas Disaster Act. Abbott v. Anti-Defamation League Austin, Sw. & Texoma Regions, 610 S.W.3d 911 (Tex. 2020).
  • Argued on behalf of State of Texas in challenge to constitutionality of state law. Brazos River Auth. v. City of Houston, No. 03-20-00076-CV (Tex. App.—Austin Dec. 2, 2020).

Trial Matters

  • Successfully briefed and argued in opposition to summary judgment in Title VII religious-accommodation case against the U.S. Postal Service on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court. Groff v. DeJoy, No. 19-CV-1879 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 30, 2025), on remand from, 600 U.S. 447 (2023).

Amicus Curiae Briefs

  • Drafted amicus brief for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute supporting LDEQ’s issuance of an air permit for an LNG facility. La. Bucket Brigade v. LDEQ, No. 25-60455 (5th Cir. May 26, 2026).
  • Drafted amicus brief on behalf of anonymous donors detailing First Amendment associational harms from subpoenas seeking to compel the donors’ identities. First Choice Women's Res. Ctrs., Inc. v. Davenport, No. 24-781 (U.S. Aug. 28, 2025).
  • Drafted amicus briefs for religious scholar regarding proper application of First Amendment ministerial-exception and church-autonomy doctrines. O’Connell v. U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops, No. 25-849 (U.S. Feb. 20, 2026), No. 23-7173 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 13, 2024); Garrick v. Moody Bible Institute, No. 21-2683 (7th Cir. Apr. 26, 2024).
  • Drafted amicus brief for State of Texas supporting successful petitioner in challenge to affirmative-action policies as violating the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, No. 20-1199 (U.S. Mar. 30, 2021).
  • Drafted amicus brief for State of Texas and District of Columbia, joined by fifteen additional states, supporting successful petitioner in upholding constitutionality of elected board’s censure of its member under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Houston Cmty. Coll. Sys. v. Wilson, No. 20-804 (U.S. July 21, 2021).

Awards and Community

Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America - Appellate Practice, 2027