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Mark Curriden

Mark Curriden is a lawyer/journalist and founder of The Texas Lawbook. In addition, he is a contributing legal correspondent for The Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Business Journal.

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Mark Curriden

Mark Curriden is a lawyer/journalist and founder of The Texas Lawbook. In addition, he is a contributing legal correspondent for The Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Business Journal.

Mark is the author of the best selling book Contempt of Court: A Turn-of-the-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism. The book received the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award and numerous other honors. He also is a frequent lecturer at bar associations, law firm retreats, judicial conferences and other events. His CLE presentations have been approved for ethics credit in nearly every state.

From 1988 to 1994, Mark was the legal affairs writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he covered the Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He authored a three-part series of articles that exposed rampant use of drug dealers and criminals turned paid informants by local and federal law enforcement authorities, which led to Congressional oversight hearings. A related series of articles by Mark contributed to a wrongly convicted death row inmate being freed.

The Dallas Morning News made Mark its national legal affairs writer in 1996. For more than six years, Mark wrote extensively about the tobacco litigation, alleged price-fixing in the pharmaceutical industry, the Exxon Valdez litigation, and more than 25 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Mark also authored a highly-acclaimed 16-part series on the future of the American jury system. As part of his extensive coverage of the tobacco litigation, Mark unearthed confidential documents and evidence showing that the then Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, had made a secret deal with a long-time lawyer and friend in which the friend would have profited hundreds of millions of dollars from the tobacco settlement. As a direct result of Mark’s articles, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation, which led to the indictment and conviction of Mr. Morales.

For the past 25 years, Mark has been a senior contributing writer for the ABA Journal, which is the nation’s largest legal publication. His articles have been on the cover of the magazine more than a dozen times. He has received scores of honors for his legal writing, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the American Judicature Society’s Toni House Award, the American Trial Lawyer’s Amicus Award, and the Chicago Press Club’s Headliner Award. Twice, in 2001 and 2005, the American Board of Trial Advocates named Mark its “Journalist of the Year.”

From 2002 to 2010, Mark was the senior communications counsel at Vinson & Elkins, a 750-lawyer global law firm.

Mark’s book, Contempt of Court, tells the story of Ed Johnson, a young black man from Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1906. Johnson was falsely accused of rape, railroaded through the criminal justice system, found guilty and sentenced to death – all in three weeks. Two African-American lawyers stepped forward to represent Johnson on appeal. In doing so, they filed one of the first federal habeas petitions ever attempted in a state criminal case. The lawyers convinced the Supreme Court of the United States to stay Johnson’s execution. But before they could have him released, a lynch mob, aided by the sheriff and his deputies, lynched Johnson. Angered, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the sheriff and leaders of the mob, charging them with contempt of the Supreme Court. It is the only time in U.S. history that the Supreme Court conducted a criminal trial.

You can reach Mark at [email protected] or 214.232.6783.

Pioneer Natural Resources Beats $9M Winter Storm Uri Contract Breach Claim

A Dallas federal judge granted summary judgment on Wednesday to Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources which had been sued by a California energy trader for breach of contract for failing to supply natural gas during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

February 16, 2023 Mark Curriden

Winter Storm Uri Litigation Heating Up at Two Year Mark

The massive legal battle pitting thousands of Texas residents and small business owners against hundreds of energy companies, such as NRG Power, Calpine, Oncor Electric and ExxonMobil, over damages incurred during Winter Storm Uri two years ago is finally heating up. This week’s two-year anniversary of the crippling winter storm also means that the statute of limitations for most Uri-related lawsuits takes effect this week.

Lawyers representing more than 1,500 Texans and businesses have filed more than 80 new wrongful death, personal injury and property damage lawsuits against more than 360 energy companies and ERCOT since last Thursday. Dozens more lawsuits are expected to be filed in Texas courts Wednesday and Thursday.

The Texas Lawbook wrongly reported earlier that CPS Energy had filed for Chapter 11.

February 15, 2023 Mark Curriden

Avaya Hires Kirkland, Jackson Walker to Lead Bankruptcy Restructuring in Houston

Cloud communications company Avaya Holdings and a dozen of its affiliated businesses filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in the Southern District of Texas seeking to shave billions of dollars of debt from its balance sheet.

February 15, 2023 Mark Curriden

‘Call Your First Witness’ – Fifth Circuit to Lawyers in Final Stanford Ponzi Scheme Trial

A three-judge panel of a federal appellate court has rejected a last-ditch effort by three banks to postpone an upcoming trial in which victims in the R. Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme are seeking billions of dollars in damages. The four most powerful words from the lips of a United States district judge are simply, ‘Call your first witness,’ and the veteran presiding judge will so state in a few short days,” the Fifth Circuit stated in the three-page decision.

February 14, 2023 Mark Curriden

Tuesday Morning Selects Munsch Hardt to Lead Second Bankruptcy

In the world of corporate bankruptcy, Dallas-based Tuesday Morning Corp. has entered what is known as Chapter 22. For the second time in three years, the discount retailer Tuesday Morning filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday in the Fort Worth Division of the Northern District of Texas citing liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.

February 14, 2023 Mark Curriden

Power Companies: Winter Storm Uri Lawsuits ‘Ruinous’ to Industry if Not Dismissed

Scores of Texas electric generators and distributors — CenterPoint, Luminant and NRG, to name a few — asked a Houston appeals court Friday to dismiss more than 230 lawsuits brought against them by more than 1,500 plaintiffs stemming from Winter Storm Uri two years ago because the cases are without legal merit and “upend the state’s electricity markets.”

In two separate mandamus petitions filed with the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston, lawyers for the power generators and electricity transmission and distribution utilities argue that Harris County District Judge Sylvia Matthews “clearly abused [her] discretion in allowing the cases to proceed.”

February 10, 2023 Mark Curriden

Q&A: Sarah Decker of McAfee

For Premium Subscribers In this Q&A with McAfee CLO Sarah Decker, she dishes on what she seeks in hiring outside counsel, $2,000 hourly rates, the role of GCs in promoting

February 9, 2023 Mark Curriden

McAfee ‘Fortunate Beyond Words’ to Have Sarah Decker In-House

In the four years since Sarah Decker joined computer security giant McAfee, she has had a few items on her plate, including an $8.6 billion IPO amid the Covid pandemic, which meant doing all the legal work necessary for listing on the NASDAQ; a $4 billion sale of its enterprise business; a $450 million securities offering; and a $14 billion take-private transaction in 2022.

Citing numerous successes last year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Decker as the 2022 DFW General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department (21 attorneys or more).

February 9, 2023 Mark Curriden

Banks Seek to Postpone Multibillion-Dollar Trial in Final Stanford Civil Case

One of the banks being sued for billions of dollars for allegedly aiding and abetting Houston financier R. Allen Stanford and his investment firm in a massive Ponzi scheme has asked a federal appeals court to stop the 13-year-old case from going to trial later this month. Lawyers for the four banks want the trial set for Feb. 27 in Houston to be postponed because they say the judge in the case has issued orders that are “rife with clear and indisputable errors.”

February 9, 2023 Mark Curriden

Senior Exxon Mobil Counsel’s Move to Gibson Dunn is ‘Very Personal’

Exxon Mobil assistant general counsel David Woodcock has departed the energy giant to join the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as the firm’s SEC enforcement practice co-head. The move surprised many within the legal department at Exxon Mobil because Woodcock, who was a past regional director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office, was viewed as a likely candidate to be the company’s next chief legal officer.

February 6, 2023 Mark Curriden

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Features

  • Range Resources GC David Poole Retires after 15 Years, Joins Wick Phillips - David Poole, who worked on an oil rig out of high school and rose to become the top legal officer at two major energy companies in Texas, retired as the GC of Range Resources Friday. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook on Sunday, Poole discusses his passion for oil and gas law, his challenges and successes as a GC for two decades, his best day on the job and his plans for the future at Wick Phillips. March 20, 2023Mark Curriden

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • ‘Such a Privilege’: New HK Partner Reflects on Career as a Nonprofit Lawyer - Jonathan Blum has a multitude of skills as a corporate lawyer, but he's one of the few who represents nonprofits instead of for-profits. The Lawbook recently spoke with Blum about his career path to practicing nonprofit law, trends in the charity and nonprofit world and why he recently moved his practice to Holland & Knight.
  • Baylor Law Dean to Step Down After 31 Years
  • Senior Exxon Mobil Counsel’s Move to Gibson Dunn is ‘Very Personal’
  • Veteran Dallas Prosecutor Tapped as EDTX U.S. Attorney
  • Former Texas Appellate Judge Rejoins Dykema
  • Haynes and Boone Opens Virginia Outpost
  • White & Case Hires Three Bracewell Litigators in Houston
  • Remembering Fort Worth Federal Judge John McBryde
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

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Alan Albright
Alan Alexander
William Aronin
Victoria Bahrami-Negad
Gina M. Benavides
Bill Benitez
Anya Bidwell
Will Bos
Jamila Brinson
Robert Burford
Ian Bushner
Zachary Carlson
David Castro
Jack Chadderdon
Nathan Chapman
Michelle Chiu
Jason T. Contreras
Cody Conwell
C. Celeste Creswell
Cassandra Cuellar
Matthew C. Daly 
Chad Davis
Lowell Denton
Jeff Diamant
Becky Diffen
Michael Dorf
Stuart Kyle Duncan
Mark Dundon
Kurt D. Engelhardt
Yong Eoh
Patrick M. Jaicomo
Scott C. Faciane
Archie Fallon
Analisa Figueroa
Murray Fogler
Tyler Frankel
Gabriela Garcia
Sameer Ghaznavi
Shayna M. Goldblatt
Michelle Gray
Steven Haas
Kendall Hayden
Alia Heintz
Benjamin Hershkowitz
Patrick E. Higginbotham
Tara Higgins
Allyson Ho
James Ho
Kenneth Hoyt
Robert Hughes
Martin S. Hyman
Andrew Ingram
Ralph Janvey
Geetika Jerath
Shawn Johnson
Cyril Jones
David Keltner
Jim Kennedy
Elizabeth Kiernan
Dan Komarek
Kenneth J. Lambert
Sang Lee
Andrew LeGrand
David Levy
Alec Manzer
Peter Marshall
Amos Mazzant III
Levi McCathern
Daniel McEntee
Robert McNamara
Tom Melsheimer
Andres Mena
Katherine Montoya
Veronica Moyé
Robert J. Myers 
Jason Nasra
Brennon Nelson
Stephen Noh
Pete O'Brien
Stephen Pate
Sam Peca
Lionel Aron Peña Jr.
Brent Perry
Connie Pfeiffer
Ravi Purohit
Clint Rancher
Brian Rosenthal
Kevin Sadler
David Salmons
Jody Sanders
Akash Sethi
Gregory Shamoun
John J. Shaw
Barry Shelton
Lande Spottswood
Amy M. Stewart
Tim Taylor
Mike Telle
Jaime E. Tijerina
Scott Tschirhart
Jon Waldrop
Camille Walker
Sean Wheeler
Debbie Yee

Firms in the News

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AEP
Amyris
Baker Botts
Baytex Energy
Bernhard Capital Partners
Bison Oil & Gas
Burford Perry
CenterPoint Energy
Clark Hill
Copenhagen Infrastructure
Cozen O'Connor
Dell
Denton Navarro Rocha
Fogler Brar O’Neil 
Gibson Dunn
Golenbock Eiseman
HBS
Hedrick Kring
HSBC
Hunton AK
Independent Bank
Institute for Justice
International Entertainment
Invenergy
IRG
Jackson Walker
JP Morgan
Kabat Chapman & Ozmer
Kasowitz
Kelly Hart
Kirkland
Landry's
Latham
Lemoine
Lotus Infrastructure 
Marriott
Mastercard
McCathern
McGuireWoods
Morgan Lewis
Myers & Shaw
NeuVentus
Norton Rose Fulbright
Paymentech
PBF Energy
Providence Equity Partners
Quantum Energy Partners
Ranger Oil
Shamoun & Norman
Shearman & Sterling
Sidley
Stewart Law Group
TD Bank
UTRGV
V&E
Visa
VMware
Wafra
Weil
Wildcat Capital
Willkie
Winston & Strawn
WSOU Investments 
Yetter Coleman

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