The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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 mark.curriden@texaslawbook.net or 214.232.6783.

Remembering Clarence Brown – General Counsel, Leader, Husband, Father, Friend, Fashion Guru

Clarence and Shonn Brown were married for 21 years and became one of the power couples of corporate law in Texas. He was the GC of Kronos Worldwide. She is the deputy GC of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a multinational personal care products maker. Last Friday, Clarence Brown died from complications from a head injury. He was 52. But the impact he had was immeasurable. The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth report.

State Bar Sued Again Over Mandatory Dues

Three Texas lawyers sued the State Bar of Texas Monday claiming that the organization is still requiring its members to pay annual dues despite a recent federal appeals court ruling that some of its activities violate the First Amendment rights of some of those members. The suit asks a federal court to create a “constructive trust” designed to hold “all monies and assets obtained by the defendants and that wealth should be disgorged” from the state bar and returned to those in the class action.

Tim Durst Jumps to O’Melveny

O’Melveny & Myers, which opened offices in Austin and Dallas in June, added Baker Botts trial law partner Tim Durst on Wednesday. The Los Angeles-based firm’s chair told The Texas Lawbook that he expects “more people to join” O’Melveny soon and that the firm plans “to be materially larger than we are now.”

WDTX & EDTX: Resolving America’s Patent Disputes or ‘Judicial Hellholes’?

Texas has two of the three busiest patent dockets in the U.S. and is building one of the deepest and most experienced intellectual property bars in the world. There were more patent infringement lawsuits during the first half of this year in Texas than in any other two states combined, including Delaware and California. But some criticize Texas courts for being too accommodating to frivolous patent cases from so-called patent trolls. The Texas Lawbook has the inside story.

Dallas Court of Appeals Faces Internal Turmoil, Allegations of Secret Shenanigans

Dallas Appeals Court Justice David Schenck issued an opinion late Friday apparently accusing fellow justices of intentionally delaying the public reporting of a decision by a three-judge panel in order to change the composition of the panel and possibly impact the decision. But Fifth Court Chief Justice Robert Burns said Schenck is mistaken on the facts and the law. The Texas Lawbook has details.

Texas Law Firms Delay Return to Office, Mandate Vaccinations

Citing the growing threat of the Covid-19 Delta variant among people who are unvaccinated, several law firms in Texas – Akin Gump, Haynes and Boone, Norton Rose Fulbright and Vinson & Elkins – have announced they are delaying the date when they will require lawyers and staff to return to the office and that employees working on-site must be vaccinated.

Frost Bank Names New GC

Frost Bank clearly has a thing for lawyers at Haynes and Boone. The Texas bank has named former Haynes and Boone litigator C.E. Rhodes, who also practiced at Akin Gump and Baker Hughes, to be its new general counsel and corporate secretary. The Texas Lawbook has details.

Business Bankruptcies Decline, But Signs of Danger Are Ahead

Corporate bankruptcies in Texas fell significantly during the first six months of 2021 compared to the record numbers that were filed last year as a result of Covid-19 and the recession. But bankruptcy judges are still much busier than they were before the pandemic thanks to Winter Storm Uri. SDTX Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones and legal experts explain why in this report.

The Story Behind the Merger of Thompson & Knight and Holland & Knight

Sunday night’s merger of Thompson & Knight and Holland & Knight appears to have gone seamlessly. The combination meets the needs of each – H&K to thrive in Texas and TK to just survive. The managing partners of the two firms – now partners of the same firm – gave The Texas Lawbook an exclusive interview on how the merger came together and why they both think it will be a huge success.

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