Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Hundreds of Texas lawyers have called for McDougal to resign as Texas Bar president because he said in 2015 that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group. Scores are defending him. But many lawyers are asking, “Who is Larry McDougal?” The Texas Lawbook examines the career of the former police officer and prosecutor turned Fort Bend County criminal defense attorney who was sworn in last month as the 92nd president of the state bar.
The Texas Bar Association's governing board has scheduled an emergency meeting for July 27 to discuss 2015 Facebook posts by the organization’s president calling Black Lives Matter a terrorist group. Some demand his ouster. Others are adamant defenders. The power of the board to take action, however, is in question. The Lawbook has details.
The leaders of the Texas Bar Association’s African American Law Section say that state bar president Larry McDougal needs to take a series of steps showing that he is truly sorry for his Facebook comments that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group or he needs to resign. McDougal met with the AALS this weekend and said he would not resign but believed he could be a “change agent” for more diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. The Texas Lawbook has complete details.
A couple thousand lawyers, including leaders of the State Bar of Texas, used Facebook and other social media outlets this weekend to blast comments made by recently installed bar president Larry McDougal Sr. in a 2015 Facebook post calling the group Black Lives Matter “a terrorist group.” Scores of Texas lawyers demanded his resignation. But dozens and dozens of attorneys from across the state either applauded or defended McDougal’s comments about Black Lives Matter. McDougal has apologized. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
The State Bar of Texas reported its formal actions for June, including 3 disbarments, 11 lawyers suspended and 2 public reprimands. There were no judicial actions reported.
It’s been five years since Texas AG Ken Paxton has been indicted for securities fraud, but the case is back to where it first began.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that that this case would be going five years later,” one of Paxton’s lawyers, Bill Mateja, told The Texas Lawbook. “Let alone that there would be two trips to the Court of Criminal Appeals, that we’d have the SEC case dismissed years before the criminal trial was even scheduled and that the case would be transferred to Harris County and back to Collin County.”
For 52 years, Ed Tomko was a mainstay in the white-collar criminal practice. He served as a state and federal prosecutor. He was the head of the Houston office of the SEC when it closed 30 years ago. His last big trial was last year when he defended a former administrators of the Forest Park Medical Center. Tomko died last Wednesday. He was 76.
An Austin lawyer stole a client's 401(K) funds. A lawyer from Tyler bounced checks from his IOLTA settlement account. A Waxahachie lawyer failed to fully account for funds from a family's estate. In all, 13 lawyers were disciplined. Here are the details.
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