Managing partner, Fred Raschke, assumed the office of President of the TADC at its Fall Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September 2007. The Texas Association of Defense Counsel is one of the largest professional associations of Commercial Litigation, Business Defense and Personal Injury Defense Attorneys in the United States.

Carla Cotropia in the Houston office, and Jack Brock and John Eckel in the Galveston office, have been named 2007 Texas Super Lawyers. Carla was selected in the employment litigation area, while Jack was named in the General Litigation area and John was selected in the Civil Litigation Defense area. Super Lawyers names Texas' top lawyers as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics. The list of Texas Super Lawyers is based on surveys of more than 65,000 attorneys across the state, and the top 5 percent of Texas attorneys in more than 60 practice areas are selected.

The Galveston Chamber of Commerce recently announced that Fred Raschke had received its 2007 Business Leader Award in July 2007. The qualities that are sought for this honor are: honesty; integrity; compassion; ethical treatment of co-workers, customers and business associates; and a commitment to community service.

Fred Raschke recently was installed at the Methodist Retirement Communities (MRC) Board meeting in July 2007 as a member of MRC's Executive Committee, serving as Immediate Past Chair and member of its Board of Directors. He continues to serve as Chair of MRC's Governance Committee. Fred was also reinstalled as Chair of the Methodist Retirement Trust, Chair of the Aldersgate Trust, a Director of the United Methodist Senior Services Foundation, and Director of the NFP Assurance Group (Cayman) Ltd.

Fred Raschke was elected as Area President of Area 2 of the Southern Region of the Boy Scouts of America in May 2007 at the Boy Scout of America's annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Partners of Mills Shirley were selected as Top Lawyers in 2006 by H Texas Magazine. The firm’s appearance in the June 2006 issue of H Texas reflected a celebration of the firm’s 160th year and its status as the oldest continuous law firm in Texas. http://htexas.com/photos/features/0606Shirley.jpg

H Texas selected its Top Lawyers by submitting more than 12,000 ballots to attorneys in Harris County and surrounding areas. Following peer nomination and voting, H Texas researched attorney backgrounds from such sources as the State Bar of Texas, Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings, law schools ratings provided by U.S. News & World Report, board certifications, and membership associations. After the research was completed, various points were assigned and scores tabulated, resulting in the Top Lawyer list for those with the highest scores.