• 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
  • Corp. Deal Tracker/M&A
  • 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.

Longtime Colleagues Form Heard Merman, a Houston Plaintiffs’ Firm

Denman Heard and Derek Merman have worked side by side on cases across the country. Their new firm, they say, will specialize in catastrophic personal-injury claims.

February 4, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Paralyzed Airport Worker’s Family Accepts Houston Judge’s Suggested Reduction of $352.7M Judgment

Randy Sorrels, the lawyer for Ulysses Cruz, his wife, and their 2 children, said they’ll consent to the $117.5 million remittitur – but will seek the full jury verdict if the other side appeals.

February 3, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

$15M Investment Fraud Lands Dallas Con Man 17½ Years in Prison

In sentencing 69-year-old Rudy Avila, Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn read the names of his 417 victims and the amount each lost to him.

February 3, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Ex-Client Sues Slack Davis Sanger for ‘Grossly Inadequate Representation’ in Deadly Air Crash

The longtime girlfriend of a rich Houstonian who died with 4 others when his helicopter crashed claims she doesn’t owe her former lawyers any part of a multimillion-dollar settlement.

January 31, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

‘I Will Be Putting Someone in Jail,’ Dallas Judge Warns Bickering Lawyers in Volatile Civil Suit

Judge Ashley Wysocki defers ruling on sanctions motion in assault case against former NFL player, but cautions lawyers on both sides that personal attacks must cease.

January 27, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

McKool Smith Snags Noted Houston Patent Litigator

Ryan McBeth, lawyer, inventor and former IBM engineer, joins McKool Smith as a principal from Bracewell, where he specialized in patent, trade- secret and trademark disputes in the energy and tech sectors.

January 17, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Longtime ERCOT Lawyer Joins Austin Office of Baker Botts

Juliana Morehead Sersen, who spent 12 years with the entity that manages the Texas electric grid, says she’s still sorting out what role, if any, she will play in Baker Bott’s cases stemming from last February’s deadly winter storm.

January 12, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Paul Coggins’ Client, Alone, Acquitted in $28M Medicare Fraud

A federal jury in Texarkana found Dr. Ray W. Ng, a podiatrist with clinics in Allen and Terrell, not guilty of taking part in a multi-state bribery and kickback scam involving referrals to genetic-testing labs.

December 23, 2021 Bruce Tomaso

Dismissal of Winter-Storm Claim Against ERCOT Sidesteps Immunity Question

A state appellate court rejected San Antonio’s claim of exorbitant pricing by ERCOT during Winter Storm Uri, but did not address the key question of whether the operator of the Texas power grid has sovereign immunity from lawsuits.

December 17, 2021 Bruce Tomaso

Monsour Law Firm Wins Record $22.5M in 3M Earplug Litigation

The verdict by a federal jury in Florida is the largest to date in an ongoing wave of suits alleging that 3M sold the U.S. government faulty protective equipment, resulting in hearing damage to thousands of military personnel.

December 16, 2021 Bruce Tomaso

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 12
  • Go to page 13
  • Go to page 14
  • Go to page 15
  • Go to page 16
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 20
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Features

  • P.S. — From Corporate Counsel to Clemency Crusader: Brittany K. Barnett’s Journey to Criminal Justice Reform - Last week, I had the honor of interviewing Brittany K. Barnett at the Texas General Counsel Forum Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter breakfast about her impressive legal career. Barnett’s start was in accounting. From there, she went to work as a corporate finance attorney and in-house M&A counsel. By night, she dedicated herself to pro bono efforts, working on President Barack Obama’s historic Clemency Project 2014. Barnett ultimately left her job and founded The Buried Alive Project, a powerful initiative to represent individuals sentenced to life without parole for nonviolent drug offenses. Her work has led to clemency for nearly two dozen clients across three presidential administrations. She’s also the author of a best-selling memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom, and she is working on a second book. I was so inspired by her story that I wanted to share our interview with a wider audience in this week's P.S. Column.  May 30, 2025Krista Torralva
  • 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Celebration - More than 225 leaders of the corporate legal profession in Houston celebrated the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards, which recognized general counsel and senior managing counsel from companies ranging from Phillips 66 and Shell to Enbridge, Baker Hughes and Transocean. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook hosted 20 corporate in-house counsel who had been nominated for awards in 14 categories, from Rookie of the Year and Lifetime Achievement to M&A Transaction and Business Litigation of the Year. May 27, 2025Mark Curriden

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Fisher Phillips Hires Reed Smith Partner to be Regional Managing Partner in Houston - Fisher Phillips on Monday announced it has hired Reed Smith labor and employment partner Emily Harbison, who will serve as the firm’s regional managing partner in Houston.
  • President Names Career Prosecutor as NDTX U.S. Attorney
  • Megan Knell Joins Steptoe & Johnson
  • Kim Bueno Among Kirkland’s Litigation Haul from King & Spalding
  • O’Melveny Adds Experienced Trial Lawyer in Houston
  • Simpson Thacher Hires Project Finance Veteran
  • Womble Adds Veteran Biz Litigator in its Houston Office
  • Barnes & Thornburg Lands Veteran Louisiana Litigator for its Dallas Office
  • Condon Tobin Hires Team from Libby Sparks
  • Sorrels Law Launches Beaumont Office with Veteran Maritime Litigator David James
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

Hover right to see full list

Reem Abdelrazik
Doug Bacon
Harry Beaudry
Jonathan Benloulou
Gene Besen
Doug Bland
Jacqui Bogucki
Vera De Brito de Gyarfas
David Buck
Nora Burke
T.J. Campbell
Wayne Chan
Michael Considine
Mogan Copher
James Cowen
Kevin Crews
Samantha Crispin
Dawud Crooms
Shamus Crosby
Clint Culpepper
Brock Degeyter
Nick Dhesi
William Eiland
Austin Elam
Miles Emery
Bill Finnegan
David Gail
Adam Garmezy
Sami Ghubril
Breen Haire
Kim Hicks
J. Dean Hinderliter
Nicole Islinger
James Johnston
Atma Kabad
John Kaercher
Erin Kaufman
Paul Kukish
Thomas Laughlin
Oscar Fernando Leija
Emily Lichtenheld
Rob Little
Ryan Logan
Bryan Loocke
Katy Lukaszewski
Ryan Lynch
Ryan Maierson
Benjamin J. Martin
Madeline McCune
Sean McFarlane
Richard McGee
Sarah McLean
Sameer Mohan
Andrew Monk
Charlie Ofner
Stephen Olson
Joe Orien
Zach Parker
John Pitts
Benjamin Potter
Brendan Quigley
Kevin Richardson
Alex Robertson
Jason Rocha
Julian Seiguer
Mark Sloan
Chad Smith
Lande Spottswood
John Stribling
Vanessa Sutherland
Tanner Sykes
Martha Todd
Michael Vardanian
Thomas Verity
Douglas Warner
Kyle Watson
Luke Weedon
John Wetwiska
Sean Wheeler
Debbie Yee

Firms in the News

Hover right to show full list

Akin
Baker Botts
Bracewell
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Morgan Lewis
Pillsbury
Porter Hedges
Sheppard Mullin
Sidley
Simpson Thacher
V&E
Weil
White & Case
Willkie

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.