Credit Dallas Express
Colleyville Law Firm Home of Radical-Left PAC Trying to Bankrupt Local ISD
The Colleyville branch office of a Houston-based law firm Nistico, Crouch and Kessler serves as the headquarters for a radical left political entity, the Texas Public Education Defense Fund (TPEDF).
Dallas Express has obtained thousands of emails and FOIA requests from TPEDF’s Senior Legal Director, Rachel Elizabeth Wall, a Grapevine resident who works as an attorney and is listed as a Partner at Nistico, Crouch and Kessler in her LinkedIn profile and other professional sources.
Wall has sent over 6,000 emails to the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD (GCISD) Board of Trustees and district administrators in recent years from her Nistico, Crouch and Kessler email address during business hours. District officials say the handling to Ms. Wall’s emails and FOIA requests (which they are legally obligated to do) has cost the district over $3 million dollars to date.
GCISD, along with neighboring Tarrant County districts Southlake-Carroll ISD and Keller ISD, have been targets statewide and nationally by radical-left groups since Republicans assumed majority political control of those districts’ Trustee Boards whom have rooted out critical race theory curriculums, and implemented financial and other reforms.
Among others, TPEDF is a rebrand of a prior leftist group, the Texas Bipartisan Alliance. The groups operate as 501(c)(4) organizations, according to public records. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors leading to accusations of “dark money” politics.
TPEDF also frequently collaborates with another radical-left Grapevine political activist, Danee Mastagni, a Partner in Fort Worth-based AMM Political Strategies, a voter contact firm that offers phone services for Democratic political campaigns and progressive grassroots advocacy.
Collectively these groups organized to support the successful campaign of GCISD Trustee, Matt Faust, who was elected this past May specifically to roll-back conservative reforms made in GCISD in recent years.
Un-Woke ISD Buried with Avalanche of Emails at Taxpayer Expense
Since then, Wall has sent over 6,500 emails and Public Information Act requests to GCISD. District officials told DX that the average cost to review Ms. Wall’s inquiries is $173.75 per email and requires three staff members on average to handle a single Wall email. Responses to Ms. Wall’s emails often also include the school district attorneys’ time and cost to formulate a response.
Ms. Wall has also been a prominent fixture at GCISD board of trustee meetings including protesting the removal of former Colleyville Heritage High School Principal, James Whitfield, a vocal critical race theory proponent who was placed on administrative leave from the district in 2020 and ultimately terminated after encouraging on-campus BLM protests student walkouts, and sending an email to parents encouraging them to evaluate their white privilege. Whitfield faced criticism from parents and school officials for his purported concerning communication with teachers and staff, which included sending a contentious email to all families, faculty, and staff regarding the “recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor,” as noted in earlier stories by Dallas Express.
Whitfield filed a lawsuit against the school district and one of its conservative trustees. Following a hearing Wall allegedly attended, a state judge dismissed his case and ordered Whitfield to pay the school district’s attorney’s fees in full. After appealing his loss, Whitfield’s lawyers withdrew from representing him and he is now representing himself on appeal.
Whitfield is currently under investigation by the Texas Education Agency and embroiled in another controversy at Euless-based charter school Treetops School International after being accused of “mismanagement and misdeeds” by school parents as reported in the Fort Worth StarTelegram.
GCISD district officials allege that Wall is purposefully sowing discord and distrust within the district for political purposes with her promotion of Whitfield and email harassment campaign often citing the legal expenses the district has incurred to make curriculum and financial reforms that her radical left organizations oppose.
A DX investigation into Ms. Wall’s firm Nistico, Crouch and Kessler suggests the firm may be a “captive” alternative legal service provider (ALSP) to insurer State Farm. A captive legal firm is a law firm owned and operated by an entity other than a traditional partnership of lawyers, often an insurance company or a corporation. These firms raise ethical concerns because the lawyers within them may face conflicts of interest, potentially prioritizing the needs of their parent company over those of their clients.
DX made multiple inquiries to State Farm to confirm and to ask if State Farm had knowledge TPEDF operating out of Nistico, Crouch and Kessler’s Colleyville branch. State Farm did not acknowledge of any DX’s inquires.
Editor notes: Dallas Express’ Publisher owns property in Henderson County in Representative Harris’ district. DX’s Chief Executive Officer attended college in overlapping years as Mr. Bass at Texas Christian University.
