Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Natalie Posgate covers pro bono work, public service and diversity within the Texas legal community.
Natalie Posgate covers pro bono work, public service and diversity within the Texas legal community.
Natalie joined The Texas Lawbook in 2012 as a founding staff member shortly after receiving her Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Southern Methodist University. While at SMU, Natalie and SMU-classmate-turned-Lawbook-colleague Brooks Igo published “Sweeping Rape Under the Rug,” an award-winning investigative piece about SMU’s handling of on-campus sexual assaults. Later that year, Natalie and Brooks published a follow-up piece that broke the news of the first grand jury indictment in decades of an SMU student involving an alleged on-campus sexual assault. She began her reporting career in college as an intern for The Dallas Morning News’ breaking news desk, and before that, interned for Texas Highways magazine.
In the early days of The Lawbook, Natalie served as a general assignment reporter and covered everything from lawsuits to Texas law schools to mergers and acquisitions to legal industry trends. Before launching The Lawbook’s pro bono, public service and diversity beat, Natalie served as senior litigation writer. She has covered numerous high-profile trials gavel-to-gavel, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2013 insider trading case against Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban and a 2018 products liability trial that rendered a $242 million jury verdict against Toyota Motor Corp.
In 2021, Natalie profiled former East Texas federal prosecutor Joshua Russ, who went on the record for the first time with Posgate about resigning and filing a whistleblower complaint against the Department of Justice for its alleged political interference in a civil case Russ was leading against Walmart for its role in the opioid crisis. The piece is cited in a chapter of “Servants of the Damned,” a book released in September 2022 by New York Times journalist and bestselling author David Enrich.
Through The Lawbook’s content partnerships, Natalie’s work has regularly reappeared in the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Business Journal and The Dallas Morning News.
Natalie lives in East Dallas with her husband David and German Shorthaired Pointer rescue Stella. She is an avid runner, reader, hiker and coffee drinker.
As early voting in Texas comes to a close this week, Houstonians might undergo a sense of déjà vu as they select their preferred judicial candidate for the 61st District Court: Their choices are the same as they were during the 2016 general election.
Michael Minns was on the last day of a virtual bench trial before a Kansas judge when he found out he prevailed in the Texas Supreme Court against global law firm K&L Gates. Now the Kansas proceeding will prove to be invaluable as the Texas case returns to a Hays County trial court. This article explains the connections.
Houston state District Judge Larry Weiman, in what may be his final major corporate trial before he leaves the bench, has awarded Vitol Americas $147 million in a contract dispute with Targa Channelview. The five-week trial, which pitted two elite litigation boutiques against each other, is believed to be the longest bench trial conducted via Zoom in Texas legal history.
After the Democratic primary wiped out the incumbent of Harris County's 334th district court, the seat is being pursued by two challengers: primary winner Dawn Rogers and Republican Dan Lemkuil.
Incumbent R.K. Sandill, a 12-year veteran of the bench, faces challenger Nile Copeland, a civil litigator and serial public office runner.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said there are no “Obama” or “Bush” judges, but the Texas Constitution mandates that all judges here be elected, making Texas one of only seven states where these positions are political and partisan. There are clear and definitive differences between the Democratic and Republican judicial candidates that impact cases large and small. But if lawyers even have difficulty figuring it out, what chance does the general public have?
The judicial race pits incumbent Terry Adams, a recent Abbott appointee, against challenger Amparo Guerra, a commercial and employment litigation partner at Shackelford. (Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a Q&A with Adams.
Justice Russell Lloyd, the Republican incumbent, is defending his seat on the First Court of Appeals against Jones Walker special counsel Veronica Rivas-Molloy. This article includes candidate Q&As and results from the Houston Bar Association judicial preference poll.
Two women are running to replace Chief Justice Kem Thompson Frost for the top position of Houston's Fourteenth Court of Appeals after Frost decided against seeking reelection. The race features Republican Tracy Christopher, who currently sits on Place 9 of the court, and Democrat Jane Robinson of the AZA law firm. This article includes a candidate Q&A and insights from the Houston Bar Association's 2020 judicial preference poll.
Wise, the Republican incumbent, is a seven-year veteran of the court while Craft seeks to become the first African American justice elected to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. This article includes a candidate Q&A and insights from the Houston Bar Association's 2020 judicial preference poll.
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