Bell Nunnally’s Heath Cheek grew up on a farm in Chillicothe, a city near the Oklahoma border with a population of 549.
From ages eight to 18, Cheek helped out on the farm where they grew wheat, hay and cattle.
“I worked there long enough on the farm to realize that I did not want to be a farmer,” Cheek said. “I started looking for a job, a career that would use my brain instead of my hands.”
In high school, Cheek had the opportunity to shadow Judge Bob Brotherton in Wichita Falls. It was then that he decided he wanted to be a lawyer and hasn’t looked back.
Cheek earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Texas Tech University in 2003. He earned his law degree from Baylor University School of Law in 2006.
He has practiced at Bell Nunnally for over 17 years.
Cheek recently sat down with The Texas Lawbook to discuss his most memorable moments and his role in the Texas Business Court Working Group. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Lawbook: What trends are you seeing in your practice area?
Cheek: I can’t say there’s a particular case or anything type of case that’s going stronger than others. I think it’s cliché to say AI is a big trend. But now I think everybody’s speaking with some confidence about it now. Whereas a year ago, people really weren’t sure what was happening, except that we knew something was happening.
But one of the things that’s on my mind most recently is the rise of non-attorneys using AI to essentially act as their own attorney. I see it all the time: agreements getting drafted and coming across my desk that some client signed, and now they don’t know how to get out of it. It seems like once a week, I’m getting a demand letter that clearly was written by someone using AI. It hits all the right points you’d expect, but you can tell there’s something off about it. So, I’ve kind of become an expert at recognizing what’s AI versus not AI. But that has significantly lowered the bar to entry for a lot of people, where normal disputes that you would never see raised to the demand letter or litigation stage are now almost costing them nothing to send a demand letter because they don’t have to hire an attorney for it. They just use ChatGPT.
We’re using very sophisticated legal AI tools. We use Harvey and several other platforms to help us with our work, but we have to be very careful with it because it’s not all the way there yet, and it still will cause problems if you’re not watching out for it.
Lawbook: What has been a memorable moment or experience in your career?
Cheek: The moments I carry with me the most are the mentoring aspect of my job. One of my jobs at the firm is that, in addition to being an equity partner, I’m also in charge of marketing and business development. One of the things I have to do is meet with every single attorney at the firm every year, go through their business development plan, and help them kickstart their business development process. And we do this from year one all the way to senior equity partners. The things that stand out the most to me are watching some of those people start getting big successes in business development, start bringing in their own casework, and what makes me the proudest is when I see them accomplishing things with their careers.
For my career, I mentioned this case in Jacksboro; we got the largest fraud verdict in Texas in like a five-year period. For that one, I think it’s still ranked in one of the top 100 largest judgments in the state of Texas from five or six years ago. I had one of the largest ever plaintiff’s-side legal malpractice verdicts in the state’s history a couple of years ago against a big law firm here in Dallas. I was on the plaintiff side of that one and handled that, and that was a very proud moment. That was a seven-year-long battle that we went through to finally get that one to judgment.
Lawbook: What was your first trial?
Cheek: My first trial was a few months after arriving at Bell Nunnally. One of our partners and I tried a burnout dispute here in Dallas County. It was 17 years ago: tried the case, and we ended up settling right before the jury got the case because it had gone so badly for the other side. They cried uncle and offered to settle it.
Lawbook: Do you have a pre-trial ritual?
Cheek: I drink a lot of Dr. Pepper, unfortunately. No, I’m to the point now where I don’t get nervous about trials anymore. It used to be such a big event; you had to psych yourself up for it. Now it’s just second nature, and it’s just another day at the office. However, it’s a long day at the office to get ready for it. But no, I don’t think I have a particular ritual. The only thing that changes for me is that I usually listen to podcasts on the way into work or on the way to trials or hearings. And when I’m running trial, it’s more that I listen to music rather than podcasts, or I just turn it off and practice things in my car. I do a lot of dashboard lawyering.
Lawbook: Do you have a post-trial celebration?
Cheek: Oh man! Afterward, you’re just so wiped. I usually go home and collapse. No, not a lot of celebrations. I think everybody is just worn out at that point, and you’re ready to get back to your family. I’ve got two young kids, and so it’s a big break in my habit to not see them as much during trial than it is on a normal day, and so getting home and seeing them and being able to spend time with them — that’s the big reward for me.
Lawbook: You’ve recently been appointed to the Texas Business Court Working Group. Can you tell me a bit about the group and what you’ll be doing?
Cheek: We’re looking at the last cycle. You saw some changes to the business court after the first cycle, and now they’re looking at how we can improve it even further or maybe expand its jurisdiction. And so it’s really looking at statutory changes that can be made to help make this thing work. I think it’s really interesting. My firm and I filed the first-ever case in the Texas Business Court. We filed it on Sept. 1, 2024, which was the first day that you could file it. And so, we always will have that historical record: We were the first to file our civil action number 001 on that pleading. We have been very impressed with the Texas Business Court so far, and I think before they were launched, there was a lot of skepticism about them, and there was a belief that this was not necessary or that it would not do anything. And what you’ve seen with it is this DExit/Texas movement, where more companies are relocating to Texas. The business court is the key that unlocked that door. The door was already there, ready for people. People already wanted to come, and the Texas Business Court gave everybody the permission structure to go ahead and do it because now we have a much more professional court system that can compete with the Delaware Chancery Court.
Lawbook: You practice all over the state, and right now the Texas Business Court only covers half the state. Is that something you would like to see change?
Cheek: The whole state would benefit from having business court availability. Now, whether the volume is there in Lubbock or Amarillo or the Eastland division to justify that, I don’t know. There’s probably going to be some legislative wrangling over that because I don’t think that having a judge in each of those jurisdictions would make a lot of sense on a case management thing. But one of the things business courts have done is they do have this equalization where one court gets overloaded; they can transfer things to other courts. But every county in the state should have the option of having a Texas Business Court available to them. I don’t think it should only be the major metropolitan areas.
Lawbook: If there was something you could change about the practice of law, what would it be?
Cheek: It’s odd because I do have a lot of opposing counsel I work with. I have great relationships with them. I have to send discovery requests. I have to object to your question in deposition. I have to file a motion to strike. I have to do all those things. Don’t take it personally. There are some attorneys out there who do take things very personally. I had a case this past year, which is why this is on my mind. Every time we did an objection form in one of his depositions to one of his questions, and we didn’t do it very often, he asked a bad question. He got so mad and upset with us over objecting. “How dare you object to my perfect question?” And so that’s a long way of saying I wish that attorneys would stop taking themselves so seriously and would just have a little bit of empathy towards the situation they’re in because it’s an adversarial contest, and we know that each side is going to be an adversary. Each side is going to do what’s best for your client, but that doesn’t mean you have to be hateful about it. And so, in 99 percent of my cases, I don’t have a lot of stress, but that 1 percent of cases is about 90 percent of my stress. And it’s usually born out of an opposing counsel who doesn’t get that principle.
Lawbook: You’re involved with the State Fair of Texas Board. Tell me about your motivation to get involved.
Cheek: Growing up in a small town, everybody had to do everything, or else nothing got done. So, my dad was on the school board, the volunteer fire department, and on the PTA council. My aunt was in charge of the little girl drill teams and stuff like that, and so everybody had to do everything. That’s the mindset I brought to Dallas. When I got here, I felt like I wasn’t part of the community because I didn’t grow up here, and so I really try to get myself burrowed into the community.
And when you join one thing, you then get asked to do other things, and you get asked to take on different leadership positions. But one of the ones I’ve really, really become heavily involved with is the State Fair of Texas. I grew up on farms. I used to bring animals to the fair every year, and when I graduated from law school and was working at a firm, I got a call from the State Fair, and they said, “Hey, there’s a rumor. There’s a former FFA and 4-H kid that’s working in a big law firm in Dallas. Is that you? Yeah, that’s me.” So, they brought me on at the state fair to help bring more people like me to the fair, and to get involved in leadership. That was 18 years ago. I went from being involved with the Young Professionals Group for the fair to chairing the Youth Livestock Auction and then the Development Cabinet. Now I’m on the board of directors for the fair, so it’s a big part of my life every September and October. People know that there are about three weeks where I’m going to disappear for several hours every day and go out to Fair Park. It’s fun, and it keeps one foot in my upbringing when I’m out there and around all the kids that are bringing their animals to the fair. I don’t get that same exposure living in Highland Park and working in a law firm downtown.
Lawbook: What does that look like being involved with the state fair?
Cheek: I’m in charge of livestock for the fair, and so there’s a full staff that runs everything, but I help supervise them. That means raising money for the youth livestock auction, and there are 5,000-something kids who will bring animals to the fair every year over the 24 days of the fair. It’s everything from the traditional steers, lambs, goats, and pigs to rabbit shows and chicken shows and horse shows, and everything, and so a lot of what I’m doing is just responding to whatever’s happening out there.
Last year, we had some exhibitors get in trouble with each other, and I had to go out there and help sort that out, involving a dispute over a goat, which was not my normal caseload. But mainly, it’s just going to different events. The state fair is 24 days long. It’s a multi-million dollar business that only runs for 24 days and is a nonprofit, and all the money goes to benefit the youth of Texas, and then to keep Fair Park in shape, and so I’m out there all the time just doing that sort of stuff.
If you or someone you know would like to be profiled in a future edition of Asked & Answered, please let us know at tlblitigation@texaslawbook.net. Check out our other Asked & Answered interviews below:
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Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann’s Mary Goodrich Nix looks back on her early years as a trial lawyer. She also shares advice she would give to young lawyers and discusses trends she sees impacting the practice.
FBFK’s Solomon Wisenberg talks about how he got involved in the Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation and what trends he is seeing in his white collar criminal defense practice. While the Texan spent most of his career in Washington, D.C., he returned home to the Lone Star state a few years ago and joined FBFK in December.
Third Court of Appeals Justice Rosa Lopez Theofanis shares how she sees AI impacting the appellate process and dishes on what lawyers practicing before her shouldn’t do. Justice Theofanis, who is the first sitting judge to participate in Asked & Answered, joined the all-female panel in January 2023.