From 1995 to 2001, he worked in private practice, for law firms Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz and Holland & Knight, and the American Trucking Associations. He also provided extensive assistance to Dick Cheney when the latter was chief executive officer of Halliburton Corporation and was in charge of vetting potential Presidential running mates for Texas governor George W. Bush, before he was officially his party's nominee for the White House and surprised many political observers by choosing Cheney himself to be his running mate.