L. Henry Gissel, Jr., graduated from Rice Institute in 1958, with honors, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn his LL.B., magna cum laude, in 1961 from Southern Methodist University School of Law where he was selected to the Order of the Woolsack (now Order of the Coif). He began his legal career at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. in Houston, Texas, where he practiced law for 43 years before retiring as Senior Partner. During his tenure there he also served as chairman (or co-chairman) of the Trusts and Estates Department from 1977 to 1997. Mr. Gissel is a board-certified attorney in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He now serves as a consultant to Wilmington Trust Company of Wilmington, Delaware.

Throughout his distinguished legal career, Mr. Gissel has been a member and leader of the Houston Bar, Texas Bar, and American Bar Associations having served as chairman of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) and such Section's Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates from 1994-1997. He also served as a member of the Tax Section of the ABA and as chairman of the Probate and Trust Law Committee of the Houston Bar Association. He was also a fellow, past president, and regent emeritus of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) where he served on their executive committee. Mr. Gissel has been an active member, leader, and supporter of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC) by serving as its national president during 1975-76 and as president of the Houston Estate and Financial Forum, an affiliated local estate planning council.

Mr. Gissel continues to be an author and frequent lecturer on probate, trust, estate planning and tax law subjects at the local, state and national level having presented at programs sponsored by, among others, the ABA, ACTEC, AICPA, ALI-ABA, the American Institute on Federal Taxation, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, the UCLA-CEB Tax Institute, the Southwestern Legal Foundation, the Texas Tax Institute, the Tulane Tax Institute, the SMU School of Law and the University of Miami Estate Planning Institute. He is one of a very small number of lawyers who have been listed in each of the first 25 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the Trusts and Estates category and currently listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Law. He is a recipient of the 1999 Rice Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2004 he was honored as the recipient of the Houston Bar Association Probate, Trusts and Estate Section Distinguished Service Award.