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The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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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.

Skiplagged CEO Acknowledges Using American Airlines Trademarks Without Permission to Market Tickets

The testimony by Aktarer Zaman came on the first day of AA’s trademark-violation suit against Zaman’s company, which promotes the practice of booking “hidden city” flights that are contrary to the airline’s terms and conditions.

October 7, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Trial in American Airlines’ Suit Against Company Promoting ‘Hidden City’ Fares Begins Monday

The carrier says the practice known as ‘skiplagging’ — booking a flight with a layover, then abandoning the second leg of the flight — violates airline policies and leaves travelers at risk of having their tickets declared invalid.

October 4, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Police Captain Gets $21.35M in Wrongful Termination Trial

A federal jury in Sherman on Thursday awarded $21.35 million in damages to a former Quitman police captain who was fired then arrested for signing an affidavit in 2017 saying he didn't think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County because of an improperly close relationship between the county sheriff, the district attorney and the state district judge assigned to Wood County.

September 19, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

‘How Could This Possibly Happen in the United States?’ Lawyer for Fired Quitman Police Captain Asks 

In closing arguments, Laura Benitez Geisler of Dallas, the lawyer for Terry Bevill, tells a federal jury he deserves at least $33 million because he was wrongfully fired and arrested for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. The jury enters its second day of deliberations Thursday morning.

September 18, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Quitman Police Captain’s Suit Headed to Jury  

After six days of testimony, closing arguments in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination lawsuit are scheduled for Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of Sherman.

September 18, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Ex-Judge Says He Ordered Quitman Police Captain’s Arrest Over ‘Total Pile of Crap’ Affidavit

Jeff Fletcher, Wood County’s former state district judge, joins fellow defendants in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination suit in denying there was any conspiracy to punish Bevill for saying in 2017 that a friend couldn’t get a fair trial in the East Texas county.

September 17, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Jury Could Begin Deliberations in Fired Police Captain’s Case as Early as Midweek

Fired Quitman police captain Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination case in Sherman could go to a federal jury as soon as midweek.

At the conclusion of Friday’s court session before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III, Bevill’s lawyers said they have two witnesses yet to call, and will probably rest on Tuesday.

September 16, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Two Defendants Deny Plot to Fire Quitman Police Captain

The other two defendants in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination suit are listed as potential witnesses in the ongoing jury trial before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III in Sherman.

September 12, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Quitman Police Captain Didn’t Deserve to be Fired, His Former Chief Testifies

Had it been up to him, Ex-Chief Kelly Cole said, his second-in-command “probably would have gotten couple of days off” for violating policy by signing an affidavit stating that he didn’t think his friend could get a fair trial in Wood County.

September 11, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

Fired Quitman Police Captain Was Not the Victim of a Conspiracy, Lawyers for Defendants in His Federal Suit Say

Terry Bevill, the fired officer, testifies that he was nearly ruined in the seven years since he signed an affidavit saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County. Defense counsel say he was terminated not out of retribution, but because he violated Quitman city policies.

September 10, 2024 Bruce Tomaso

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Features

  • My Five Favorite Books: Leigha Simonton (Member at Dykema and Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas) - I have a secret hobby that only my close friends know: I advise high-school seniors (and younger students) about college admissions, including helping them create a list of schools that would be good fits for their interests and aspirations as well as their family’s pocketbooks. This unpaid side-gig started years ago, when my oldest daughter began high school and I decided to try to “hack” the college admissions game. I don’t mean that I plotted to get her into a U.S. News top 10 school — no, I defined “winning” as finding a school that would allow her to flourish in college, set her up for success after college (success as defined by her, not me), and be somewhere our family could afford on what was then two government salaries. Here are my Five Favorite Books: College Application Edition. October 15, 2025Leigha Simonton
  • P.S. — HBA’s Days of Service Mobilizes Houston Legal Community to Support 14,000 Residents, Early Giving Underway in El Paso, and More - In this week’s edition of P.S., the Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas is reviving its in-person Builders of Justice Progressive Dinner and Awards Program in McKinney, honoring local advocates for expanding access to justice. In Houston, the Bar Association’s Days of Service engaged about 300 lawyers and benefitted more than 14,000 people through community service projects. Meanwhile, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is encouraging early donations for El Paso Giving Day to support its wide-ranging civil legal work across 68 counties, and the Association of Corporate Counsel San Antonio makes a donation to the San Antonio Legal Services Association. Rounding out this issue, Bracewell hosted 25 Aldine ISD students for a law career panel in partnership with Momentum Education.  October 10, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Midwest Law Firm with Texas Offices Merges with Northeast Firm - Cincinnati-based Frost Brown Todd, which has operations in Dallas and Houston, announced Wednesday that it is merging with the Newark-headquartered law firm Gibbons. The merged firm will be called FBT Gibbons and will have about 800 lawyers in 25 offices across the country.
  • White & Case Adds Energy M&A Dealmaker in Houston
  • Norton Rose Hires Veteran Finance Partner from Winston & Strawn
  • Invitation Homes Selects Former SEC Associate Director as VP of Litigation and Investigations
  • Houston Trial Firm Boosts Associate Salaries
  • SALSA Names New Executive Director
  • New GE Vernova GC of Wind Energy Dionne Hamilton: ‘We’re Working to Make the World a Better Place’
  • 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
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

Hover right to see full list

Chip Babcock
Chris Bankler
Jamie B. Beaber
David J. Beck
Bill Benitez
Jessica Berkowitz
Brent Bernell
Tyler Bexley
Shawn Blackburn
Michael Blankenship
Jeffrey Brill
Anita Brown
Ian Brown
Stuart Campbell
Jack Chadderdon
Paul Clement
Erin Nealy Cox
Scott Craig
Kevin Crews
Shamus Crosby
Hannah M. Crowe
Geoffrey Culbertson
Sean Cunningham
John Daywalt
Rajiv Dharnidharka
James Ducayet
Brian K. Erickson
Scott Everett
Weiru Fang
Elizabeth Freeman
Tad Freese
Melanie Fry
Geoff Gannaway
Paul Genender
John J. Gilluly III
Rodney Gilstrap
Andrew Gorham
John Greer
Joseph Grinstein
Matthew Haddad
Colleen Haile
Breen Haire
Shahmeer Halepota
Dionne Hamilton
Troy Harder
Rusty Hardin
Michael Hawes
Nathan Hecht
Stephen Hessler
Hillary Holmes
Marc Jaffe
Lauren Jenkins
David Jones
Atma Kabad
Susan Kennedy
David Kinder
Justin King
Allan Kirk
Melanie Koltermann
Doug Kubehl
Joe Laurel
Sang Lee
Steven Lockhart
Arthur Lotz
Barbara Lynn
Mike Lynn
Nora McGuffey
Stephanie McPhail
Mark Melton
Jeri Leigh Miller
Kimberly A. Moore
Mark Moore
Shelby Morgan
Alia Moses
Davis Mosmeyer III
Darren Nicholson
Eamon Nolan
Ivy Nowinski
Holland O’Neil
George Padis
Ian Peck
Jonathan Platt
Chase Proctor
Doug Rayburn
Joel Reese
Kevin Richardson
Andrew Rodheim
Seth Rubinson
Mazin Sbaiti
Ana Sanchez
Vincenzo Santini
Jeffrey Scharfstein
Robert Schroeder III
Scott Seidel
Steven Sexton
Ahmed Sidik
Robert Slovak
Emily Smith
Melissa R. Smith
Jonathon Soler
Robert Soza
Lande Spottswood
Craig Stanfield
Justin Stolte
Josh Teahen
Kelly Tidwell
Linda Tieh
Rafael B. de Toledo
Monica Uddin
Rhett Van Syoc
Rahul Vashi
Gabe Vazquez
Patrick Venter
Sarah Walden
Kandace Walter
Kyle Watson
Mikell Alan West
Noël Wise
Meng Xi

Firms in the News

Hover right to show full list

AZA
Baker Botts
The Bandas Law Firm
Beck Redden
Boies Schiller Flexner
Bracewell
Bradley Arant
Burns Charest
Clement & Murphy
Condon & Forsyth
DLA Piper
Dykema
Foley & Lardner
Gibson Dunn
Gillam & Smith
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Jackson Walker
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Lynn Pinker
Mayer Brown
MoloLamken
Pamela Welch PLLC
Patton Tidwell Culbertson
Paul Hastings
Porter Hedges
The Probus Law Firm
Reese Marketos
Rusty Hardin & Associates
Sbaiti & Company
Sidley Austin
Simpson Thacher
Skadden
Squire Patton Boggs
Sullivan & Cromwell
Susman Godfrey
Troutman Pepper Locke
Vinson & Elkins
Weil
Willkie
Winston & Strawn

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