Biography

Marcella Burke of Houston, Texas is the founder and partner of Burke Law Group PLLC. Marcella began her legal career as an energy attorney in AmLaw 100 law firms, where she earned an equity partnership. She was appointed in the Trump Administration to serve in the Environmental Protection Agency as Deputy General Counsel, and in the Department of Interior as Deputy Solicitor for Energy and Natural Resources, where she managed the litigation docket and regulatory portfolio of all energy and natural resource permitting and project development on federal lands, including the federal oil and gas, renewables, carbon capture, offshore wind, and hydropower programs.

In 2023, Governor Abbott appointed Burke as one of four members of the School Land Board, which manages the sale and leasing of 13 million acres of state lands, which includes vast properties in West Texas, Gulf Coast beaches and bays and submerged lands, and timberland in East Texas.

Marcella serves in leadership roles with the State Bar of Texas Environmental Division, the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, and the Institute for Energy Law. Additionally, she is the Founder of the Marcella Burke Law Mom Endowment at the University of Houston Law Center, and the Marcella Burke Chickasaw National Family Flourishing Endowment, both of which support women with children in law school. She volunteers as an ambassador for Sky High 4 Kids and has served as a board member for the Federalist Society Houston Lawyers Chapter for over 10 years. She previously participated in numerous judicial clerkships and externships including a clerkship on the Texas Supreme Court for Hon. Don Willett, and internships on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Federal District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and the Texas Court of Appeals. Burke received a Bachelor of Arts from Texas A&M University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston Law Center, as well as two fellowships in Constitutional Law from the Claremont Institute and the James Wilson Institute.

Marcella graduated from Texas A&M University and the University of Houston Law Center, where she served on the Houston Law Review and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.