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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.

‘I Wanted Him Gone,’ Berg & Androphy Co-Founder Testifies in Suit by Ex-Associate

David Berg says Justin Pfeiffer, who has sued for $32,000 in back pay, was “not trustworthy and an embarrassment” to Berg’s firm. Pfeiffer claims he wasn’t “fully relieved” of his duties at Berg & Androphy until November 2018, two months after he agreed to resign, when he filed a motion to withdraw as counsel in California in cases where he was a lawyer of record, and that motion was granted.

November 8, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Houston Trial Begins Over Wage Claim by ‘Unhinged’ Former Berg & Androphy Lawyer

Plaintiff Justin Pfeiffer says he’s owed $32,000 plus legal fees stemming from his 2018 resignation from the Houston law firm. Berg & Androphy says Pfeiffer is a “vexatious litigant” who “harasses all whom he claims have wronged him.”

November 6, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Pharma Marketer Guilty in $60 Million Fraud and Kickback Scheme

Quintan Cockerell was paid millions to steer doctors to write expensive, often needless, prescriptions to two Fort Worth pharmacies, federal investigators said. After a week of testimony and four days of deliberations, a jury in the court of U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer agreed on Thursday.

October 26, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

‘Marketing’ or ‘Bribery’? Closing Arguments in Federal Pharma Fraud Trial in Dallas

The defense lawyer for Quintan Cockerell says he did nothing illegal by telling doctors they should consider using the costly medications prepared by 2 pharmacies that paid Cockerell millions of dollars. The government says he was taking kickbacks for inducing doctors to send prescriptions to the pharmacies.

October 17, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Ex-Wife of Pharmacy Marketer Testifies She Was Paid Lavishly for Doing Nothing

Kristin Najarian said her former husband, Quintan Cockerell, arranged for her to be put on the payroll of a Fort Worth pharmacy that, according to federal prosecutors, paid Cockerell millions of dollars in kickbacks. In one month alone, she said, she was paid $711,706.47 even though “I wasn’t working there.”

October 12, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Pharmacy Marketer Accused of Taking Kickbacks in Criminal Trial

The co-owner of two Fort Worth pharmacies testified in federal court that Quintan Cockerell made “millions a month” by steering doctors to send in thousands of prescriptions for costly compounded medicines.

October 12, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Fifth Circuit Overturns Dallas Judge’s Order Boosting Former NFL Player’s Disability Benefits

The appellate court praised U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer for casting light on the NFL retirement plan’s “disregard of players’ rights” and its “lopsided system aggressively stacked against disabled players.” But, it said, former running back Michael Cloud was not entitled, under the plan’s rules, to the increase in benefits that Judge Scholer ordered.

October 9, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Texas Securities Board Calls Investment Firm Claiming Ties to Russian Oil Producers a Ponzi Scheme

In a cease-and-desist order, state regulators bar BigWhale.io and two individuals based in the United Arab Emirates from offering unregistered, deceptive securities to Texans.

October 6, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Fifth Circuit Upholds Forest Park Medical Center Convictions

An appellate panel rejects every ground raised by seven convicted defendants in one of the biggest medical fraud cases in Texas history.

October 2, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

‘The Ticket’ Settles with Ex-Hosts McDowell and Kemp

The radio station’s owners sued the two broadcast celebrities, accusing them of violating their noncompete agreements by starting a sports-talk podcast shortly after quitting in July. U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer, presiding over the case, repeatedly encouraged to two sides to resolve their differences.

September 27, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

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Features

  • Texas Lawbook Thanks Keurig Dr Pepper and Shell, Toyota and Vitol, and Many of You - A devoted single mom of three who worked two hourly wage jobs — one as a dishwasher and the other changing oil — because the state of Texas forced her to pay hundreds of dollars each month in child support to her deadbeat baby daddy, who was serving 20 years in prison for raping one of their children. She literally struggled to pay the rent and food for her family. Within hours of The Texas Lawbook writing about the case, lawyers at Reese Marketos stepped forward. Weeks later, a Dallas district judge signed an order reversing the Texas attorney general.

    Three years ago, The Lawbook launched a full-time reporter position to write about pro bono, public service and diversity in the Texas legal profession. During the three years, The Lawbook has published more than 240 articles on Texas lawyers representing military veterans, abused children, asylum seekers, the elderly and those discriminated against because of their religious beliefs. Those 240 stories highlighted the pro bono work, public service initiatives and diversity efforts of more than 400 lawyers, 115 law firms and 60 corporate legal departments in Texas.

    Now, we need your help.
    July 25, 2025Mark Curriden
  • My Five Favorite Books: Jennifer Rodriguez (Head of Legal at Half Price Books) - Pulling this list together was harder than expected. My book choices vary greatly — from chick lit rom-coms to biographies to thrillers. I love a book that doesn’t make me think. I’m a lawyer — I have to think a lot. So it’s sometimes nice to just read something light and mindless. That said, what this exercise taught me is that I am really drawn to books that weave storylines together and pull me in enough that I get to the “just one more chapter” stage. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. And, if you happen to come by Half Price Books’ flagship store in Dallas to grab one of these books, let me know! My office is right upstairs.

    Editor’s note: The Texas Lawbook is pleased to launch this new column in partnership with Texas-based Half Price Books sharing our readers’ favorite reads.
    July 23, 2025Jennifer Rodriguez

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Paul Hastings Continues TX Growth Play with Energy M&A Hire - Peter Hays has had a career-long focus on onshore and offshore energy and a practice spanning both domestic and international markets.
  • Sorrels Law Adds Veteran Houston Litigator
  • Fisher Phillips Adds Houston Litigator
  • Bradley Adds Partner in Dallas
  • Meet the New Head of Litigation at J.D. Silva & Associates
  • Dorsey & Whitney’s New Managing Partner Has Texas Ties and Big Plans
  • Vartabedian Hester & Haynes Hires Richard Roper to Launch New White Collar, Investigations Practice Group
  • Willkie Continues to Expand its Dallas Office with Veteran Dealmakers
  • FBFK Adds Two Lawyers to its Austin Office
  • Beck Redden Bolsters Appellate Group With Hire From Troutman Pepper Locke
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

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