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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.

Premium Subscriber Q&A with METRO GC Cydonii Fairfax

Premium-Only Content: Cydonii Fairfax is a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. The Lawbook’s Mark Curriden had a chance to ask her about what outside counsel need to know if they want her business and her efforts at the University of Houston to increase diversity in the legal industry pipeline.

December 29, 2021 Mark Curriden

METRO GC Cydonii Fairfax is ‘Building a More Equitable Foundation’

Cydonii Fairfax has emerged as a leader of the Houston corporate legal community and one of the most influential role models on diversity and public service in Texas. As general counsel of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), Fairfax is playing a critical role in the implementation of a $7.5 billion transformation of one of the largest public transportation systems in the U.S. She also has implemented internal policies and practices that have led to substantive results. Nearly two-thirds of the lawyers in METRO’s legal department are women or ethnic minorities, including the top two posts. And she aggressively sends work to minority-owned law firms.

December 29, 2021 Mark Curriden

Q&A: David Rassin

Premium Subscriber Q&A SAExploration offered David Rassin the GC job in March 2020. There were a few things they thought he should know: the last GC and CEO had been fired

December 27, 2021 Mark Curriden

Credit: Dylan Aguilar

SAExploration GC David Rassin is a ‘Real Fixer Upper’

SAExploration offered David Rassin the GC job in March 2020. There were a few things they thought he should know: the last GC and CEO had been fired and faced federal criminal charges; the SEC was investigating the company for securities fraud; the company was restating five years of financials and faced being delisted by Nasdaq; and bankruptcy was a possibility. Rassin accepted the challenge and SAE is glad he did.

“It was the most intense year of my life,” said Rassin, who is a finalist for the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards GC of the Year for a Small Legal Department.

December 27, 2021 Mark Curriden

Charlie San Miguel Does Billion-dollar Deals for Enterprise Products, GC of Texas Monthly

Only a year out of college, Charlie San Miguel was hit with a frivolous lawsuit by his former employer because he went to work at a competitor. He made $9 an hour but still had to hire a lawyer. The experience was painful but it also gave him the idea to go to law school. Today, San Miguel is now the VP of legal at Enterprise Products, where he recently completed a $2 billion M&A deal. He’s also the GC of Texas Monthly and a musician who plays for two rock bands. He’s also the recipient of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department.

December 23, 2021 Mark Curriden

Q&A: Charlie San Miguel

Premium-Only Content: Charlie San Miguel is recipient of the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. The Lawbook’s Mark Curriden had a chance to ask him about the current issues facing in-house counsel and what he looks for in any relationship with an outside firm.

December 23, 2021 Mark Curriden

Dallas Lawyer Marc Stanley Takes Oath as Argentina Ambassador

Marc Stanley, a prominent Dallas securities trial lawyer who has handled thousands of civil cases and taken more than 50 disputes to trial, was sworn in Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer as the new ambassador to the Argentine Republic.

December 22, 2021 Mark Curriden

TechnipFMC’s Victoria Lazar Solves Billion-Dollar Problems

Victoria Lazar has designed, negotiated and closed numerous multibillion-dollar, high-profile M&A deals for corporate giants such as Electronic Data Systems and General Electric during her three decades practicing law. She worked on EDS’s separation from General Motors and GE Oil & Gas’s $32 billion purchase of Baker Hughes. She worked in Russia for Baker Botts representing the Azerbaijan International Oil Co. She became an expert on evaluating the risks of offshore, deep-water drilling equipment following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. She guided Bristow Helicopter Group out of a multibillion-dollar bankruptcy. Now TechnipFMC’s chief legal officer, Lazar recently completed a billion-dollar corporate spinoff.

But it was a pro bono divorce case Lazar handled when she was a young corporate transactional associate at Baker Botts in Houston that she considers her first memorable moment practicing law. Meet Victoria Lazar and her lifetime of achievements.

December 20, 2021 Mark Curriden

Q&A: Victoria Lazar

Premium-Only Content: During her three decades practicing law, Victoria Lazar has designed and negotiated multibillion-dollar, high-profile M&A deals for corporate giants like Electronic Data Systems and General Electric. Even as a young lawyer, she worked on the separation of EDS from General Motors in what was at the time the largest IPO in history. Here, Lazar shares her perceptions about the role of corporate counsel.

December 20, 2021 Mark Curriden

Mary Isensee is a ‘One-Woman Army at PROS’

Three years ago, Mary Isensee made some big changes in her career. After six years of practicing corporate law at three different large law firms in Houston, she decided to go in-house. Isensee went from oil and gas to technology and artificial intelligence – during a pandemic when PROS clients, many in the travel industry, were hit hard. “Mary is a young attorney practicing at an experience level beyond her years,” AZA’s Todd Mensing says. Isensee is also the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year.

December 17, 2021 Mark Curriden

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Features

  • P.S. — New State Bar President Launches Campaign to Fund Legal Aid for Low-Income Texans  - When speaking to fellow lawyers, Santos Vargas often asks them a question to illustrate a point. “How many of you could hire yourselves for a protracted legal dispute?” The point is that many people don’t have the financial means to hire a lawyer when faced with a legal problem, which is why the newly minted State Bar of Texas president is on a campaign to raise money for low-income Texans to access legal services. Vargas aims to raise $300,000, with July donations supporting victims of the recent Texas Hill Country flood.  July 11, 2025Krista Torralva

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Beck Redden Bolsters Appellate Group With Hire From Troutman Pepper Locke - Beck Redden announced this week the hiring of Chris Dove, who focuses on commercial litigation in the energy, financial services and maritime sectors. He had spent more than two decades practicing at Troutman Pepper Locke and Locke Lord.
  • McGuireWoods Names Tyler VanHoutan as New Houston Office Managing Partner
  • Reed Smith Beefs Up Global Regulatory Enforcement Group, Hires V&E Partner 
  • Rey Anaya Valencia Begins Deanship at South Texas College of Law Houston
  • Willkie Adds Blake Winburne to its Houston Office
  • 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
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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