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The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — Juror #2 (2024, Dir. Clint Eastwood)

A man is picked for jury duty. He seems like a solid enough fellow, maybe a little melancholy, and more handsome than most, because he’s played by Nicholas Hoult, whose eyes are an almost impossibly bright shade of blue. He shows up the first day of the trial and a look of panic plays out across his face. It seems he might have done something in his past that could have direct bearing on whether or not the defendant is found guilty. If he comes forward, he might end up behind bars himself.

January 1, 2025 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — Liar Liar (1997, Dir. Tom Shadyac)

Liar Liar, the 1997 Jim Carrey comedy about a dishonest man whose son makes a birthday wish condemning his dad to tell the truth for 24 hours, could have been about a doctor. Or a sanitation worker. Or a restaurateur. But what fun would any of that be? No, Carrey’s Fletcher Reede had to be a lawyer, because in the public imagination lawyers lie — constantly, for a living, without shame.

December 31, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — 12 Angry Men (1957, Dir. Sidney Lumet)

One is an unrepentant racist. Another is filled with rage for his grown son. There’s the guy who has Yankees tickets burning a hole in his pocket. There’s an ad man, a stockbroker, a proud immigrant and a blue collar working man. And there’s the stoic architect — the one who actually wants to hear everyone out, who takes his responsibility as a juror with the seriousness appropriate when a defendant’s life is at stake. Sixty-seven years after its release, 12 Angry Men remains an explosive drama of small-scale democracy, bottled up in a jury room where individual prejudices and passions gradually coalesce into a collective voice.

December 26, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — Young Mr. Lincoln  (1939, Dir. John Ford) 

A tall, folksy man in a stovepipe hat rides into town on a mule, looking to get his law practice off the ground. He quickly ingratiates himself to the community, making fast friends and even judging a pie contest at the county fair (where he also wins a rail-splitting contest, naturally). Like a good lawyer, or perhaps just a hungry lawyer, he weighs his pie duties carefully, going back and forth between the peach and the apple, steadily gobbling down both. He’s a man of the people, and soon he’ll become a rather impromptu defense attorney in a murder trial.

December 24, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — Dark Waters (2019, Dir. Todd Haynes)

Todd Haynes has made an homage to ‘50s melodrama (Far From Heaven), a lesbian love story based on a Patricia Highsmith novel (Carol) and a boldly prismatic study of Bob Dylan (I’m Not There), among other movies. Regardless of subject, there’s always something a little unstable at the core of his films, something bordering on horror without actually crossing into that realm. Haynes is a poet of isolation and distance, an acute conveyor of loneliness that threatens to bleed into something more tragic.

This quality permeates Dark Waters, Haynes’ 2019 legal drama based on the true story of Rob Bilott, an environmental lawyer who made it his mission to hold DuPont accountable for poisoning the people of West Virginia with chemical waste in the local water supply.

September 27, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law — And Justice for All (1979, Dir. Norman Jewison)

The overstuffed but strangely compelling 1979 legal drama starring Al Pacino begins with the voice of a child reading the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a sardonic start to a barbed, furious, free-swinging indictment of a legal system that, the movie suggests, has gone off the rails. Up is down, black is white, left is right. 

A lone Baltimore defense attorney, Pacino’s Arthur Kirkland, is among the only people upset by what he sees. And make no mistake, he’s plenty upset.

August 30, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An occasional series on movies, TV and other stories about lawyers and the law —The Verdict (1982, Dir. Sidney Lumet)

Frank Galvin is a mess. A drunken has-been of a lawyer, disillusioned by past failures and the corruption that plagues the justice system, he whiles away his time drinking whiskey and playing pinball at his favorite Boston bar. When Frank takes a case all but guaranteed to yield a fat settlement — a Catholic hospital gave a pregnant woman the wrong anesthetic, rendering her a vegetative state, and the diocese wants the whole thing to go away — he sees dollar signs spinning before his eyes. But then something happens.

July 19, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Quiz Show — An Occasional Series on Movies, TV and Other Stories About Lawyers and the Law

In this installment of Lawyers, Guns and Money, veteran entertainment writer Chris Vognar reviews Quiz Show, the 1994 movie directed by Robert Redford starring Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes and John Turturro.

May 20, 2024 Chris Vognar

Movie Review: Clemente is a Fitting Tribute to Baseball’s ‘Great One’

When Roberto Clemente made it to “the show” in 1955, sportswriters and baseball card manufacturers took to calling him “Bob” — not out of informality but because they felt the need to deracinate his name and his appeal. Baseball was still decades away from the days when every big league roster became stocked with Latin players, and the Puerto Rican phenom posed some sort of threat to the established (white American) order. Those same writers would quote Clemente by denoting his thick accent — for example, “heet” instead of “hit.” If Clemente sometimes seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, it’s not difficult to see why. The man bluntly and accurately nicknamed The Great One is now the subject of an affectionate and thorough documentary, simply called Clemente, that premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. (Photo credit: Les Banos)

April 19, 2024 Chris Vognar

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Roman J. Israel, Esq — An Occasional Series on Movies, TV and Other Stories About Lawyers and the Law 

The title character of Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a sort of walking anachronism, a man out of time in more ways than one. A civil rights lawyer who never entered the modern era, he rarely leaves his cluttered Los Angeles office, preferring to let his much smoother partner operate as the firm’s public face. His boxy suits and unkempt hair suggest a man who doesn’t care a lot about what others think. Then his partner dies suddenly, leaving his cases to a well-coiffed (and white) pragmatist. Roman decides he might just want a piece of the pie. And he’s willing to make some very bad decisions to get it.

March 15, 2024 Chris Vognar

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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
  • McDermott Legal Department is ‘More than the Sum of its Parts’ - McDermott, a key contractor on the multibillion-dollar Freeport LNG facility, faced lawsuits seeking nearly $2 billion in damages. Freeport’s insurers sought over $1.3 billion in subrogation claims, while Freeport LNG itself alleged design defects. Both lawsuits were filed as adversary proceedings in the bankruptcy of McDermott’s joint venture partner, Zachry Construction. The cases involved complex engineering and contract issues among multiple partners. The cases involved complex engineering and contract issues among multiple partners. Ultimately, the insurers’ claims were dismissed as well as the consequential damages portion of the defect suit, though the insurers have appealed the dismissal. For navigating the complexities, McDermott's in-house legal team is one of two finalists for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year. The award will be presented by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook on Thursday at the Four Seasons in Houston.  May 21, 2025Michelle Casady

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Megan Knell Joins Steptoe & Johnson - The hiring of the former Dykema member, a board-certified oil, gas and minerals lawyer, brings the Steptoe & Johnson headcount in Dallas to 31.
  • 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
  • Sidley Strengthens Dallas Office by Hiring David Monteiro
  • SBSB Eastham Adds Veteran Trial Lawyer In Corpus Christi
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

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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

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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

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