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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.

Irving-Based Mining Co. Can’t Recover $48M Mexican Judgment

The ruling is the latest — but surely not the last — in an 11-year litigation war over the operation of a gold mine in Sinaloa, Mexico.

May 9, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Dallas Jury Awards $860M in Wrongful Death Case Involving Crane Collapse

A Dallas County jury on Wednesday awarded more than $860 million to the parents of a woman killed in 2019 when a 200-foot steel crane toppled onto her apartment building from an adjacent construction site. The verdict exceeded the $700 million sought by plaintiff’s lawyers from Arnold & Itkin.

April 26, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Texas Orders Cayman Islands Crypto Firm to Pay $424,000 and Cease Doing Business

The consent order is part of a nationwide investigation in which Nexo Capital Inc. agreed to pay $22.5 million in fines related to the sale of unregistered securities.

April 17, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Multimillion-Dollar Trial Underway in Fatal 2019 Dallas Crane Collapse

In opening statements, defense lawyers for two huge construction-related companies blamed one another for the accident, which killed a 29-year-old woman in her apartment and injured others.

April 13, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance!’

At a Texas Lawbook-SMU Forum, white-collar defense lawyers David Gerger and Tom Melsheimer reveal how they overcame big problems to win big cases.

March 24, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Veteran Dallas Prosecutor Tapped as EDTX U.S. Attorney

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as expected, Damien Diggs would be the first Black U.S. attorney in the 166-year-old Eastern District.

February 2, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Royal Furgeson, DBA’s 2023 MLK Justice Award Recipient: ‘As Lawyers, Equal Justice Is Central to Our Very Being’

On Monday, Royal Furgeson, retired federal judge and founding dean of the UNT Dallas College of Law, received the Dallas Bar Association's 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Award. In his acceptance speech, Judge Furgeson talked about the special duty of lawyers to carry on King's work. Read the full text exclusively here.

January 17, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

‘Medical Emergency’ Forces Mistrial in Oft-Delayed $158M Pharmacy Fraud Case

After eight aborted settings since 2017, the trial on bribery and kickback charges was under way in Dallas when a defense lawyer needed surgery. Rather than resuming after a monthlong delay — and making jurors work through the holidays — U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay rescheduled the trial for next September.

December 29, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Dallas Jury Rules for Defendants in Wrongful Death Suit by Family of Electrocuted Worker

On their second day of deliberation, jurors in the court of state District Judge Monica McCoy Purdy awarded damages of $3.94 million to the family of electrician Gabriel Vela, who was killed in 2019 while working at a West Texas midstream energy plant. However, because the jury found Vela 51 percent responsible for his death, the defendants will not be liable. Bruce Tomaso reports.

November 15, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Wrongful Death Suit Over Worker’s Electrocution is a Grab for a ‘Champagne and Caviar Lifestyle,’ Defense Lawyer Says

In closing arguments, attorneys for a West Texas midstream gas facility say electrician Gabriel Vela died because of his own negligence. A plaintiff’s attorney counters that the gas plant’s conduct was ‘the grossest of gross negligence’ he’s seen in 34 years of practice.

November 14, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

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Features

  • My Five Favorite Books: Alvin Benton (Vice President, Compliance Officer at Capital One) - Themes of self-determination, grit, speaking truth, and building self-esteem are prominent in my favorite reads, which starts with a landmark autobiography and ends with a children's book.

    Publisher’s note: The Texas Lawbook is pleased to offer this new column in partnership with Texas-based Half Price Books sharing our readers’ favorite reads.
    September 3, 2025Alvin Benton
  • P.S. — Houston Lawyers Win National Awards, Dallas Initiatives Receive Major Support - In this week’s edition of P.S., we highlight the Houston Lawyers Association and its members who earned several national honors at the National Bar Association Convention. Meanwhile, the Dallas Bar Foundation awarded a $20,000 grant to the SMU Dedman School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic, bolstered by a $40,000 matching gift from the Stanton Foundation. Finally, an auction of memorabilia from retired U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn raised over $8,000 for the Dallas Women Lawyers Association Foundation, supporting grants for female legal professionals and women in need across North Texas.  August 29, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Hunton AK Adds New Leader of Appellate Practice - Longtime appellate practitioner joins Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Austin office to lead the firm’s state appellate practice. Ryan Clinton brings experience from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and private practice.
  • Dallas PE Partner Boomerangs Back to Weil
  • Holland & Knight Hires Another Longtime King & Spalding Healthcare Veteran
  • Barnes & Thornburg Adds PE Hire in Dallas
  • McKool Smith Hires High-Ranking U.S. Prosecutor in Dallas
  • Hicks Johnson Hires New Leader of its Appellate Practice 
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  • DOJ Environmental Lawyer Joins Phelps Dunbar in Austin
  • Gray Reed Continues C-Suite Expansion
  • Fortune 150 E-Commerce Company Taps Lynn Pinker Partner to Lead Litigation
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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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