• Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Sign up for email updates
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

  • Appellate
  • Bankruptcy
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Corporate Deal Tracker
  • GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.
  • Firm Management
  • White-Collar/Regulatory
  • Pro Bono/Public Service/D&I

Bruce Tomaso

Bruce Tomaso spent more than 30 years as a writer and editor at The Dallas Morning News. When asked what positions he held there, he usually says it’s easier to list those he didn’t.

As enterprise editor on The News’s breaking news desk in the summer of 2016, he played a key role in covering the downtown shooting spree that left five police officers dead. For its coverage, The News was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting.

He spent most of 1997 in Denver covering the federal criminal trials of Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Four years later, he covered McVeigh’s execution.

His first major reporting assignment for The Texas Lawbook was a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the $119.6 million verdict for 10 young men who’d been molested as children by Rudy Kos, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. The stories earned Bruce and his Lawbook editor, Allen Pusey, the Dallas Bar Association’s 2018 Stephen Philbin Award for Feature Writing.

In 2019, he covered the seven-week medical fraud trial of nine physicians, healthcare executives and others associated with Forest Park Medical Center, a now-defunct Dallas surgical hospital.

He’s a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He and his wife, Dallas attorney Patricia A. Nolan, have one grown son, who is smarter than either of them.

He will drop everything, including preposterous sums of money, to see Lady Gaga, Notre Dame football, or the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

You can reach Bruce at bruce.tomaso@texaslawbook.net.

Newly Retired U.S. Judge Lynn Will Mediate Huge Boy Scouts Insurance Dispute

Barbara M.G. Lynn, the recently retired judge for the Northern District of Texas, has been appointed as mediator in an insurance dispute involving the Boy Scouts of America that the presiding judge in the matter called “the mother of all coverage cases.”

August 29, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

McKool Smith Hires High-Ranking U.S. Prosecutor in Dallas

Rachael Jones, most recently deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas, joins McKool Smith’s white-collar and complex commercial litigation team.

August 27, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Federal Judge, Quoting Game of Thrones Author, Pours Out Posttrial Motions in Wrongful Firing Case of East Texas Police Captain

U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III, in a scathing, 98-page order, effectively upheld a $21.3 million jury verdict in favor of Terry Bevill, a career police officer who was fired and arrested after saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County.

August 19, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Pandemic Loan Consultant Pleads Guilty in $300M Scam

Nathan Reis entered his guilty plea on the day his trial was to begin before U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth. Reis’s wife, former Phoenix TV news anchor Stephanie Hockridge, was convicted by a jury in Judge O’Connor’s court in June.

August 12, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Dykema in Dallas Snags Two More Veteran U.S. Prosecutors

Tiffany H. Eggers, a former criminal chief in the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas, and Sarah R. Douglas, a former prosecutor in the fraud section, are reuniting with Leigha Simonton, the immediate former U.S. attorney, and Scott Hogan, Simonton’s former first assistant, who joined Dykema in April.

August 12, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Former TV News Anchor Guilty in $300M Pandemic Loan Scam

Stephanie Hockridge and her husband, Nathan Reis, were indicted on federal fraud charges in connection with their efforts to help small businesses obtain forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. Tried before U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Hockridge was convicted of conspiracy Friday. Reis is scheduled for trial in August.

June 20, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Trucking Company Wins $9.5M Verdict in Suit Against El Rancho Supermercado

A Dallas County jury on Thursday awarded almost $9.5 million to a trucking business that claimed it was forced aside when a private equity firm acquired its principal client, the El Rancho Supermercado grocery chain.

May 22, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Grocery Deliverer Claims Private Equity Firm Cost It Millions in Longstanding Contracts with El Rancho Chain

Skyward Transportation’s lawsuit claims all was well until El Rancho was acquired in 2023 by an arm of Apollo Global Management.

May 14, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Houston Trial Underway in Battle Over Lost Construction Bid on $18B Mexican Oil Refinery

A Mexican company, Constructora Hostotipaquillo, sued Kellogg Brown & Root, contending that an ill-fated partnering with the Houston-based construction, engineering and consulting giant cost it more than $186 million in lost revenue.

April 25, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

Update: X Hit With $105M Verdict in Dallas Patent Infringement Case

VidStream Inc., the successor to a bankrupt tech company, said the social media behemoth formerly known as Twitter infringed two patents to streamline the transfer of user-generated videos to online platforms and TV.

April 16, 2025 Bruce Tomaso

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 20
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Features

  • My Five Favorite Books: Melanie Koltermann (General Counsel at Five Star Management) - My reading habits have changed dramatically over the years. Where I once lingered over actual hard copy books late at night, these days I “read” mostly on the move. I now listen to my books, filling the hours I spend driving to/from work and after dropping of the kids for their many events. What might once have felt like idle time has become some of my most rewarding reading time, and I’ve grown to love how stories accompany me in the car. Much like my taste in music, my reading choices are eclectic and all over the place. I rarely stick to one genre or style, preferring instead to explore whatever captures my curiosity at the moment. September 17, 2025Melanie Koltermann
  • P.S. — House Moves to Slash Legal Aid Funding as Senate Proposes Increase, SALSA Makes Plea for Giving, Texas Tech Tops ABA Competition and More - In this week’s P.S. Column, we cover the House Appropriations Committee’s vote to cut Legal Services Corporation funding by 46 percent, a move that could leave millions without access to legal aid. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Legal Services Association makes a plea for donations to support core operations. September 12, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • SALSA Names New Executive Director - The San Antonio Legal Services Association announced it has hired nonprofit executive and fundraising strategist James Martinez to lead the organization as executive director. After experiencing a funding shortfall earlier this year, SALSA touted Martinez’s more than two decades of experience fundraising and leading nonprofit organizations.
  • Ross & Smith Announces Partnership with Full-Service Maryland Firm
  • Martin Sosland, Candice Carson Join Vartabedian Hester
  • Banks Brings Decades of Experience to Husch Blackwell’s New Biz Dev Leadership Role
  • Former Energy GC Brock Degeyter Joins Troutman Pepper Locke in Dallas
  • Houston Law Firm Adds Former Texas Supreme Court Justice to Name 
  • Hunton AK Adds New Leader of Appellate Practice
  • Dallas PE Partner Boomerangs Back to Weil
  • Ret. Judge Barbara Lynn Joins Lynn Pinker
  • Holland & Knight Hires Another Longtime King & Spalding Healthcare Veteran
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

Hover right to see full list

Barry Barnett
Wes Bearden
Emily Westridge Black
Michael Burke
Alicia Campbell
John Campbell
Madeleine Carpenter
Alexander Clark
Dawn Pittman Collins
Richard Finneran
Elizabeth Freeman
David Gail
Elizabeth Gibson
David Jones
Frank Lopez
Abbe Lowell
Neal Manne
Billy Marsh
Tom Melsheimer
Tasha Moser
Justin Nelson
Reed O'Connor
Kate Pennartz
John “J.” Pieratt
Danielle Reyes
Christopher Richardson
Randy Sorrels
Harry Susman
Larry Vincent
Victor Vital
Brent Walker
Matt Weybrecht
Melody Wilkinson
Alex Wolens

Firms in the News

Hover right to show full list

A&O Shearman
Bryan Cave
Cozen O'Connor
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Jackson Walker
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Law Office of Liz Freeman
Paul Hastings
Porter Hedges
Sorrels Law
Susman Godfrey
Toyota
Troutman Pepper Locke
Willkie
Vinson & Elkins
Weil
Winston & Strawn

Footer

Who We Are

  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Submit a News Tip

Stay Connected

  • Sign up for email updates
  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Premium Subscriber Editorial Calendar

Our Partners

  • The Dallas Morning News
The Texas Lawbook logo

1409 Botham Jean Blvd.
Unit 811
Dallas, TX 75215

214.232.6783

© Copyright 2025 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.