Prof. Brian Shannon

In addition to teaching duties, Prof Shannon serves as the University’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative. Shannon is also the Big 12 representative on the national board for the 1A FAR association where he also served three, two-year terms as President of the organization from 2012-2018. Shannon served on the NCAA Division I governing Council from 2015-2019, and is a past Chair of NCAA Division I Legislative Committee.

Shannon was first appointed to the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health in 2018, and he is also a board appointee for StarCare Specialty Health System (formerly known as Lubbock Regional Mental Health & Mental Retardation Center), where he has served for over thirty years and twice served as chair. Shannon is an elected member of the American Law Institute and was the 2008–09 President of the Lubbock Area Bar Association. In past years, he also served on the boards of Advocacy, Inc. (now Disability Rights Texas), the Lubbock Area Bar Association, NAMI-Texas, and the Texas Council of Community Centers. He is also a past chair of the State Bar of Texas Disability Issues Committee and a former Council member of the State Bar ADR Section. Former Governor Rick Perry appointed him to four terms on the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities from 2003-11. In 2000, Shannon filed an amicus curiae brief at the United States Supreme Court in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Casey Martin. He also served through appointment by the Lt. Governor on a task force in 2002-03 that re-wrote the state’s criminal competency statutes.

Prof  Shannon is the author or co-author of six editions of the book, Texas Criminal Procedure and the Offender with Mental Illness. Shannon also co-authored two editions of Rau, Sherman, & Shannon’s Texas ADR & Arbitration Statutes & Commentary.

After serving as the Charles “Tex” Thornton Prof  of Law for 15 years, in 2015 the Texas Tech Board of Regents designated Prof  Shannon as a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Prof , the highest recognition for faculty at the University. In 2019 Shannon was awarded the Barnie Rushing Distinguished Research Award, and in 2013 Shannon was awarded both the Texas Tech Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award and the Texas Tech Faculty Distinguished Leadership Award. He is also a past recipient of both the President’s Academic Achievement Award and the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2020 he was bestowed the Governor’s Trophy by the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities within the Office of the Texas Governor for his “significant contributions to disability rights across the broad spectrum of disability … [and] for his work at the intersection of mental health and the legal system.”