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Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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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.

Rackspace GC is Tired of 'Giving Money to a Protection Racket'

Alan Schoenbaum is fed up with patent trolls and he’s not going to take it any more. The San Antonio tech GC vows to fight the patent assertion entities.

June 13, 2013 Mark Curriden

EPA Counsel Jonathan Bull Rejoins Gardere

After serving two years as an enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Jonathan Bull has returned as a senior attorney to Gardere’s Dallas office. With the EPA,

June 13, 2013 Mark Curriden

Gardere’s Fred Sultan Receives Outstanding Director Award

The Austin Bar Association honored Gardere partner Fred Sultan with the Outstanding Director Award for the 2012-2013 bar year at the group’s Annual Board Reception. The award recognizes Sultan’s leadership

June 13, 2013 Mark Curriden

Federal Civil Jury Trials Decline to New Lows

Federal Appeals Judge Pat Higginbotham warned lawyers and federal judges in 1997 that civil jury trials were headed to extinction. Most lawyers and judges scoffed. After all, no state in the country trusted citizen juries to resolve personal and business disputes more than Texas. During the 16 years since Judge Higginbotham’s warning, civil jury trials have plummeted to historic 40 year lows.

“The reduction in jury trials isn’t about the empty courthouse,” Judge Higginbotham says. “it is about the alienation of the people from the process. The jury system is about governance.”

June 12, 2013 Mark Curriden

Winners and More Winners at DFW GC Forum Golf Tourney

It was a hot day, but a cool event, for participants in the annual golf tournament of the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the General Counsel Forum. One stroke separated the first place team of GCs from Charles River Associates and Bell Helicopter and the second place team sponsored by Precision Discovery. FlexJet’s Amanda Willis took the prize for the longest drive. Although no one hit a hole-in-one and won the Model S Tesla, a good time was had by all.

June 12, 2013 Mark Curriden

American Airlines Names Post Merger VP Over Legal and Regulatory Affairs

Long-time AA General Counsel Gary Kennedy is leaving after nearly three decades working in the airlines’ corporate legal department. AA CEO-in-waiting Doug Parker announced that his current executive vice president for corporate and government affairs at US Airways Group, Steve Johnson, will oversee the company’s legal and regulatory affairs.

June 10, 2013 Mark Curriden

Girl Scouts of NE Texas Names T&K’s Elizabeth Schartz Secretary of Board of Directors

Elizabeth Schartz, partner in Thompson & Knight’s Dallas office and chair of the firm’s employment and labor practice group, has been named secretary of the board of directors for the

June 7, 2013 Mark Curriden

Girl Scouts of NE Texas Names T&K’s Elizabeth Schartz Secretary of Board of Directors

Elizabeth Schartz, partner in Thompson & Knight’s Dallas office and chair of the firm’s employment and labor practice group, has been named secretary of the board of directors for the

June 7, 2013 Mark Curriden

HayBoo Receives Approval for Shanghai Office

China’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has granted official approval to Haynes and Boone to establish a representative office in Shanghai. The move would make sense as the firm already represents

June 7, 2013 Mark Curriden

Gardere Adds Public Law Partners Michael Stafford and Katharine David

Michael Stafford and Katharine David have jumped from Haynes and Boone to Gardere, joining the government affairs and condemnation/eminent domain practices respectively in the trial practice group as partners in

June 7, 2013 Mark Curriden

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Lawyers in the News

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Barry Barnett
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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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