The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Mass/Toxic Torts

The Real Harry Potter’s ‘Magic Wand — Loyalty to the Law’

“Your boss is a crook!” Arthur Golden, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a lawyer for Big Tobacco, screamed into the telephone in the fall of 1998. “A crook!”

On the other end of the line, Harry Potter, then a special assistant attorney general in Texas running the tobacco litigation, who was appointed three decades ago by then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to lead the historic lawsuit brought by the state of Texas against Big Tobacco. Potter and Golden had negotiated the details of the historic $15.3 billion settlement agreement between the state of Texas and large cigarette makers.

“Arthur was extremely angry — livid,” Potter said. “He talked about secret lawyer contracts. I didn’t know anything about it, but it sent chills throughout my body."

In Part II of The Texas Lawbook's series on the tobacco litigation, learn the story of the real Harry Potter, a Houston lawyer whose secret power was his ethics and commitment to the law.

Mark Curriden

It ‘Far Exceeded Our Wildest Imaginations’

Then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales sued Big Tobacco for racketeering and fraud in 1996. Thirty years later, the litigation against the cigarette makers has proven to be an annual financial bonanza for the state of Texas — more than $15.8 billion so far and another $450 million payment expected any day now. And while less than one-tenth of one percent of the payments have gone to antismoking efforts, youth cigarette use overall has plummeted. In a two-part series, Mark Curriden, the former Dallas Morning News legal affairs writer who covered the tobacco litigation full-time for three years, looks back at the historic litigation and its impact three decades later.

Mark Curriden

Judge: Ukrainian Plaintiffs Failed to Plead Causation Against TI, Tech Firms

Lawyers for five Ukrainian citizens who were injured or killed in Russian drone and missile attacks that allegedly used semiconductors and other technology made by American tech companies, including Texas Instruments, failed to state a legal cause of action in their federal lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The judge is allowing the lawyers for the Ukrainians 28 days to refile their complaint to address his concerns about causation.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater issued a 21-page decision that the Ukrainians’ claims are not preempted by federal law but that their case is dismissed because the lawsuit failed to show that the “defendant’s conduct is the cause in fact of a plaintiff’s injury” and that the defendant’s “act or omission was a substantial factor in bringing about the injuries, and without it, the harm would not have occurred.”

Mark Curriden

DOBS Gets $32M Win in California J&J Case

A Los Angeles jury hit Johnson & Johnson with a $32 million verdict in favor of the family of a woman who used the company’s baby powder for years and died of mesothelioma. Johnson & Johnson has vowed to "immediately appeal."

Michelle Casady

Tech Companies Make Their Case for Dismissing Ukrainian Tort Lawsuits

Tom Melsheimer and lawyers for Texas Instruments, Intel and two other tech companies told U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater Tuesday that he should dismiss a potential precedent-setting case in which five Ukrainians injured or killed in Russian missile and drone attacks have sued for allegedly providing the microchips that guide the Russian weapons. Melsheimer told the judge that the plaintiffs’ lawsuits are fatally flawed because they fail to directly link the technology companies’ products to horrific attacks on Ukrainians, fail to show misconduct by the chip makers and failed to have filed their lawsuits in a timely manner.

Mark Curriden

TI, Tech Firms Want Ukrainian Lawsuit Dismissed

Texas Instruments, Intel and two other semiconductor and technology companies are asking a Dallas federal judge to dismiss lawsuits brought by five Ukrainian citizens who claim that microchips, processors and programmable devices made by the four companies are being used by the Russian military in its war against Ukraine. A star-studded crew of trial lawyers on both sides of the litigation will present arguments Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater.

Mark Curriden

Auto Insurers Hit with Putative Class Action Alleging Scheme to Deny Coverage

Two auto insurance companies operating in Texas are facing a putative class action lawsuit accusing them of targeting low-income residents, collecting premiums and then “disappearing” when insureds make a claim. Houston personal injury law firm Kherkher Garcia filed the lawsuit in Harris County District Court Tuesday evening on behalf of “hundreds and possibly thousands of Texas insureds” who have policies with AmTex Auto Insurance and Redpoint County Mutual Insurance Company.

Michelle Casady

DOBS’ Washington Mesothelioma Case Against J&J Settles

A daughter’s lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, alleging its product contained asbestos that caused her mother’s life-ending mesothelioma cancer, has concluded in a settlement. The settlement reached during the first week of trial was “unexpected.”

Alexa Shrake

Judge Rejects $950M Punitive Damages Award Against J&J

A California judge has rejected a jury’s $950 million award of punitive damages against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. The jury awarded $16 million in compensatory damages in October 2025.

This is just one of many cases Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley is involved with against J&J at the moment.

Alexa Shrake

Jury Trial Begins in Mesothelioma Case Against J&J

Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley, which has brought several cases against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson across the country, commenced its jury trial in Spokane, Washington, Monday morning. Jurors heard from the parties over whether the alleged asbestos in J&J’s baby powder caused Verna Richards’ life-ending mesothelioma cancer.

Alexa Shrake

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