The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Avatar photo

Osler McCarthy

Osler McCarthy is an editor-at-large for The Texas Lawbook.

Osler McCarthy

Osler McCarthy is an editor-at-large for The Texas Lawbook. McCarthy retired in August 2021 after 21 years as staff attorney for public information for the Texas Supreme Court. High on his to-do list is developing appellate coverage tailored for Texas business lawyers.

He is a graduate of Austin College and holds a law degree from Gonzaga Law School, where he did not play basketball even though he had four years’ college eligibility left. After his mid-career law-school venture he clerked for the chief justice at the Washington State Supreme Court. After law school he practiced appellate criminal defense in Spokane. He has published academic articles on defamation and privacy and wrote the defamation chapter for the initial torts volume of West’s Washington Practice series.

As a journalist before and after law school, McCarthy worked mostly as an editor for newspapers in Sherman, Temple, Spokane, Kansas City, San Bernardino and Austin.

He is a licensed private pilot and would be flying again if he could get his 1968 Cessna Cardinal restored. His wife, Diana Dawson, is a University of Texas journalism professor. They have two children: a son who is a Navy pilot and a daughter who is editor of The Northern Light in Blaine, Washington.

Former Houston Appellate Justice Takes Aim and Fires at Fort Worth Court’s ‘Unethical’ Opinion

“In almost five decades as a lawyer,” former Houston appellate justice Murry Cohen concluded in an amicus brief this week to the Texas Supreme Court, “I’ve read plenty of bad opinions. In almost two decades as an appellate judge, I surely wrote some. None was near this offensive.” Rather than press a position in the case before the Supreme Court, Cohen argued the Fort Worth Court of Appeals justices who decided the case should be admonished for unethical commentary that had nothing to do with the decision.

Osler McCarthy

Texas Lawbook New Managing Editor Osler McCarthy: ‘Let Me Hear From You’

Osler McCarthy has long been top of mind here at The Texas Lawbook. His sage summaries of cases while working alongside the Texas Supreme Court helped cull newsworthy wheat from legal chaff. And now on this, his first day as Managing Editor of The Texas Lawbook, Osler explains what this has done to his plans for retirement, and why he needs your help.

Osler McCarthy

© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.