Niles Illich

Niles Illich practices criminal appellate law with Illich & Shin, PLLC, in Dallas. Before he and Grace E. Shin became colleagues, they spent nearly a decade opposing one another in appeals from Dallas County criminal convictions. They established the firm in 2026, bringing together his defense-side experience and her years representing the state.

Much of Illich’s early appellate training came at the First Court of Appeals. Assigned his chambers’ criminal cases, he prepared opinions that passed first to his judge and then to a three-judge panel for review and revision. Brief writing remains his day-to-day work; his firm biography expressly excludes trial work. He holds Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in criminal appellate law and helps write and grade the examination for that specialty.

Illich earned his law degree at the University of Houston Law Center in 2009, following a 2007 doctorate from Texas A&M University. His Texas license dates to November 2009, and the State Bar lists him as eligible to practice.

In a January 2024 Texas Bar Journal interview, he discussed a broader range of unpaid appellate assignments: defendants’ appeals and writs, family-law matters, and amicus work for organizations. He had also chaired the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association Amicus Curiae Brief Committee. All of that committee’s work, he explained, was pro bono. For his own caseload, he rejected a sharp distinction between paying and nonpaying matters, describing pro bono representation as ordinary case work.