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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.

AT&T Names David McAtee II To Lead Global Litigation Efforts

Haynes and Boone partner is new Assistant General Counsel for Litigation and Antitrust Matters for Telecommunications Company.

January 19, 2012 Mark Curriden

AT&T Names David McAtee II To Lead Global Litigation Efforts

Haynes and Boone partner is new Assistant General Counsel for Litigation and Antitrust Matters for Telecommunications Company.

January 19, 2012 Mark Curriden

Johnson & Johnson Settles Texas Medicaid Fraud Suit for $158 million

Texas and whistleblower sued J&J for false marketing of its antipsychotic prescription medication Risperdal.

January 18, 2012 Mark Curriden

Johnson & Johnson Settles Texas Medicaid Fraud Suit for $158 million

Texas and whistleblower sued J&J for false marketing of its antipsychotic prescription medication Risperdal.

January 18, 2012 Mark Curriden

Texas Businesses Again Challenge Texas Supreme Court on Franchise Tax

Nestle says the tax fails to treat businesses equally and uniformly and wants the Legislature to start over.

January 17, 2012 Mark Curriden

Baker Botts Represents Hunt Oil in $1.3 billion Eagle Ford Shale Joint Venture

Pillsbury lawyers in Houston serve Marubeni in Eagle Ford deal.

January 13, 2012 Mark Curriden

John Harper Returns to Haynes and Boone

John Harper is returning to Haynes and Boone as of counsel.

January 13, 2012 Mark Curriden

V&E Leads Westlake Chemical’s Efforts to Buy Georgia Gulf

Houston plastics company makes $1 billion unsolicited offer for competitor.

January 13, 2012 Mark Curriden

V&E Leads Westlake Chemical’s Efforts to Buy Georgia Gulf

Houston plastics company makes $1 billion unsolicited offer for competitor.

January 13, 2012 Mark Curriden

Fulbright Leads $1.4 billion Real Estate Deal For EPN Group

Jane Snoddy Smith of Austin is representing EPN Group, a subsidiary of Elbit Imaging, in its sale of 46 retail shopping centers for $1.4 billion.

January 12, 2012 Mark Curriden

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Features

  • Daria Russell Has Helped Mattress Firm Navigate a Decade of Highs and Lows - Daria Russell has experienced a lot since she joined the legal team at Houston-based Mattress Firm in 2015 — more than a dozen M&A transactions, including a 2016 $3.8 billion merger, a crippling accounting scandal involving the company’s former corporate parent, a subsequent 2018 multibillion-dollar corporate bankruptcy and then a $5 billion merger with Tempur Sealy that closed earlier this year. In May, Mattress Firm rewarded Russell for her decade of extraordinary legal work by promoting her to general counsel, overseeing five in-house lawyers, two health and safety professionals and seven loss-prevention contractors. Russell, like most corporate chief legal officers, is dealing with issues ranging from artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights and data privacy issues to ESG compliance and everything digital. September 7, 2025Mark Curriden
  • P.S. — ‘Dean of the Texas Appellate Bar’ Honored, HBA Launches Days of Service and How to Boost Giving to LANWT   - In this week’s column, renowned appellate attorney Mike Hatchell of Haynes Boone is set to receive the Chief Justice Jack Pope Professionalism Award for his decadeslong contributions to appellate law in Texas. The Houston Bar Association also announced its new Days of Service initiative. And the Texas Indigent Defense Commission approved more than $1.7 million in grants to bolster mental health defense services and public defender capacity across rural counties.  September 5, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Former Energy GC Brock Degeyter Joins Troutman Pepper Locke in Dallas - Degeyter was most recently the general counsel, chief compliance officer, and secretary of Medallion Midstream until its $2.6 billion acquisition by ONEOK, which closed last October. His in-house resume also includes helping lead Summit Midstream's IPO and working on the historic leveraged buyout of TXU Corp.
  • Houston Law Firm Adds Former Texas Supreme Court Justice to Name 
  • Hunton AK Adds New Leader of Appellate Practice
  • Dallas PE Partner Boomerangs Back to Weil
  • Ret. Judge Barbara Lynn Joins Lynn Pinker
  • Holland & Knight Hires Another Longtime King & Spalding Healthcare Veteran
  • Barnes & Thornburg Adds PE Hire in Dallas
  • McKool Smith Hires High-Ranking U.S. Prosecutor in Dallas
  • Hicks Johnson Hires New Leader of its Appellate Practice 
  • Spencer Fane Adds IP Leader from Wick Phillips
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

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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