More than a dozen journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and the Associated Press were in the courtroom in 2013 for the insider trading trial of former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
During breaks in the testimony, the reporters all sought comments from Cuban on how the trial was going.
Cuban walked past them without making comments and made a direct line for Texas Lawbook litigation reporter Natalie Posgate, whose articles about the case were also being published in The Dallas Morning News.
While the articles of the other media outlets predicted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had the upper hand in the trial, Posgate’s coverage repeatedly exposed the government’s case and its flaws.
The three-week complex trial ended when the jury ruled unanimously for Cuban after only four hours of deliberations.
“Natalie’s articles provided the best insight into what was actually happening in the courtroom and showing the actual evidence that was being introduced,” Cuban told me after the trial was over. “She’s a really good reporter.”
The Cuban case was the first gavel-to-gavel jury trial of Posgate’s career.
After more than 12 years as a reporter for The Texas Lawbook, Posgate is sadly stepping away from journalism to become the chief marketing officer at Reese Marketos, a litigation boutique in Dallas.
The Lawbook hired Posgate in June 2012 following her graduation from Southern Methodist University, where then-professor Craig Flournoy called her “the best journalism student I have ever taught.”
Posgate and then-SMU student Brooks Igo had reported and written an article for The Daily Campus, SMU’s student newspaper, showing that the university’s campus police had under-reported and under-prosecuted allegations of rape and sexual assault. The article raised the ire of university leaders.
“You need to hire Natalie today,” Flournoy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with The Dallas Morning News, told me in 2012. “She will be the best hire you have ever made.”
And I did so immediately. And he was right. In fact, I hired both Posgate and Igo, who is now the Lawbook’s publisher.
“It’s a personal and professional highlight of mine to have worked alongside Natalie for the past 13 years, from our senior year at SMU to helping build The Texas Lawbook into the publication of record for the Texas legal community,” said Igo. “Natalie’s humility, kindness, and faithful presence at The Lawbook will be missed, but thankfully the legal community will still benefit.”
Posgate’s first article was published June 7, 2012, and it featured a longtime Bracewell employment litigation partner moving his practice to then Fulbright & Jaworski — now Norton Rose Fulbright. Three weeks later, she authored a groundbreaking article on an upcoming concern for corporate law firms — cybersecurity threats.
In the dozen years since joining The Lawbook, Posgate has authored more than 900 articles covering all aspects of business law in Texas.
Some of the highlights of Posgate’s time with The Lawbook include:
- Created in 2014 the Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker database, which documents mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and capital markets transactions by lawyers in Texas.
- Co-lead reporter covering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on law firms and the wave of business bankruptcies. Posgate was the first reporter to highlight the partnership of Kirkland & Ellis and Jackson Walker in corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the Southern District of Texas.
- In 2021, Posgate published an in-depth article featuring former assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Russ, who was leading the federal investigation into Walmart’s role in the opioid crisis.
“Natalie is a great reporter because she studies the background of cases and then asks lawyers like me questions and gets us to talk — often saying things that we would never have told other reporters,” Mike Lynn, named partner at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, recently said in an interview.
Posgate’s lasting legacy came in October 2022 when she became the first full-time reporter covering pro bono, public service and diversity in the legal profession in Texas. She was the first — and so far, the only — writer on the staff of the Texas Lawbook Foundation, a non-profit organization created to support the pro bono and diversity position through charitable donations.
“Natalie set the gold standard for reporting on pro bono, community service, and diversity in the legal profession,” said Chris Luna, who is CEO of SPCA of Texas and co-chair of the Texas Lawbook Foundation board. “Her passion for these issues was apparent in the 150 or so articles and stories that she wrote. She leaves big shoes to fill.”
Texas Lawbook editor Jeff Schnick said Posgate “leaves an indelible mark on the world of legal reporting as she embarks on this new chapter in her career.”
“Our subscribers benefited each day from Natalie’s contributions, which went far beyond her tenacity as a reporter,” said Schnick. “She’s one of the best young executives in the industry — and in Texas overall. She brings such a remarkable approach to finding solutions. Natalie sees opportunities others don’t even realize they should consider.”
Posgate’s last day will be Aug. 16.