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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 Dallas Morning News.

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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 Dallas Morning News.

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.

Fogler Leaves Beck Redden to Start New Boutique

Houston commercial trial lawyer Murray Fogler is joined at the new firm by four former Beck Redden associates – two of them are only three years out of law school – who are now named partners at the new boutique, which is called Fogler, Brar, Ford, O’Neil & Gray.

January 20, 2015 Mark Curriden

Strasburger & HayBoo Win Appellate Reversal in $10.7 Million Doctor v. Doctor Business Dispute

The Dallas Court of Appeals tossed a $10.7 million jury verdict in a high-profile civil case in which a North Dallas neurologist accused a fellow physician and a business associate of breaching their fiduciary duties in their joint ownership and operation of two medical imaging centers in Plano. The Dallas appeals court ruled that the trial judge made critics errors during the trial that unfairly and negatively impacted the jury’s decision against them.

January 19, 2015 Mark Curriden

Strasburger & HayBoo Win Appellate Reversal in $10.7 Million Doctor v. Doctor Business Dispute

The Dallas Court of Appeals tossed a $10.7 million jury verdict in a high-profile civil case in which a North Dallas neurologist accused a fellow physician and a business associate of breaching their fiduciary duties in their joint ownership and operation of two medical imaging centers in Plano. The Dallas appeals court ruled that the trial judge made critics errors during the trial that unfairly and negatively impacted the jury’s decision against them.

January 19, 2015 Mark Curriden

10 Quick Tips to Keeping In-House Counsel Happy

McGill was in the corporate legal department at JC Penney and HMS Holdings, where she hired and managed outside counsel. In this article, she shares insights and experiences about the important relationship between in-house and outside counsel.

January 19, 2015 Mark Curriden

Fifth Circuit: Lawyer Avoids Contempt in E-Discovery Dispute

It’s a litigator’s nightmare; Jumping into a fast-paced TRO case about trade secrets, with expedited discovery requests and orders everywhere – with a new client who doesn’t tell the whole story about what he took from his former employer. In a Fifth Circuit case called Waste Management v. Kattler, a lawyer was caught in the crossfire of a situation like this.

January 19, 2015 Mark Curriden

T&K Closes $5.3 Billion Private Equity Fund for NGP

Irving-based NGP Energy Capital Management has hit its hard cap with the final closing of its private equity fund, with $5.3 billion in total commitments.

January 16, 2015 Mark Curriden

T&K Closes $5.3 Billion Private Equity Fund for NGP

Irving-based NGP Energy Capital Management has hit its hard cap with the final closing of its private equity fund, with $5.3 billion in total commitments.

January 16, 2015 Mark Curriden

Large Business Bankruptcies Flee Texas

Dallas Bankruptcy Judge Harold Abramson described himself as a “monkey with a machine gun.” The quote reaffirmed the judge’s unpredictability and caused bankruptcy lawyers representing large companies to file their cases in New York or Delaware. Nearly 20 years later, Abramson is long gone and Texas judges are widely praised for their expertise, but Texas companies continue to snub bankruptcy courts in DFW, Houston and Austin. Why? The Texas Lawbook examines the issue.

January 14, 2015 Mark Curriden

‘Shadow Banking’ Leads to Plunge in Texas Business Bankruptcy Filings

Business bankruptcy restructuring in Texas declined 20 percent in 2014 and plummeted more than 56 percent during the past five years. Experts point to a booming economy, low interest rates, an unprecedented access to cash through the emergence of a shadow banking system and the ballooning cost of litigating a case in bankruptcy court. But the streak may end in 2015 thanks to falling oil prices.

“There is going to be a horrible re-awakening in March when E&P companies are required to reset their borrowing basis based on reserves,” says William Snyder of Deloitte. “We will see massive hemorrhaging in the smaller oil and gas companies. By May and June, we are going to see a lot of pain out there.”

January 13, 2015 Mark Curriden

Houston Lawyer Advocates for Austin Business’s First Amendment Rights

Meredith Parenti is ringing in the New Year by arguing against the constitutionality of the Highway Beautification Act on behalf of an Austin area business owner.

January 13, 2015 Mark Curriden

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Features

  • P.S. — Pro Bono Work Honored at State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting - Advancing access to justice in rural Texas, advocating for domestic violence survivors and ensuring Spanish speakers aren’t left out are among the pro bono initiatives for which lawyers and a judge were honored during the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting in San Antonio.   July 4, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Willkie Adds Blake Winburne to its Houston Office - Winburne was global head of the energy and infrastructure group at Orrick where he worked for more than nine years. He has been named co-chair of Willkie's energy and infrastructure practice.
  • Hines CLO Joins Greenberg Traurig in Houston
  • Thomas Verity Vaults to Norton Rose Fulbright
  • Veteran Houston Partner Jumps from Latham to Simpson
  • Skadden Hires Two M&A Partners from White & Case
  • V&E Adds Three Partners: Two from Kirkland, One from Baker Botts
  • Houston Texans Associate GC Jumps to Munsch Hardt
  • Gray Reed Hires Longtime Houston Exec to Lead Operations and Growth
  • Sorrels Law Adds Trial, Appellate Partner in Dallas
  • Holland & Knight’s Recent Lateral Partner Additions Strengthen RE, Financial Services Offerings
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Lawyers in the News

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Barry Barnett
Wes Bearden
Emily Westridge Black
Michael Burke
Alicia Campbell
John Campbell
Madeleine Carpenter
Alexander Clark
Dawn Pittman Collins
Richard Finneran
Elizabeth Freeman
David Gail
Elizabeth Gibson
David Jones
Frank Lopez
Abbe Lowell
Neal Manne
Billy Marsh
Tom Melsheimer
Tasha Moser
Justin Nelson
Reed O'Connor
Kate Pennartz
John “J.” Pieratt
Danielle Reyes
Christopher Richardson
Randy Sorrels
Harry Susman
Larry Vincent
Victor Vital
Brent Walker
Matt Weybrecht
Melody Wilkinson
Alex Wolens

Firms in the News

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A&O Shearman
Bryan Cave
Cozen O'Connor
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Jackson Walker
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Law Office of Liz Freeman
Paul Hastings
Porter Hedges
Sorrels Law
Susman Godfrey
Toyota
Troutman Pepper Locke
Willkie
Vinson & Elkins
Weil
Winston & Strawn

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