Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Legal Affairs Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Mark Curriden is a lawyer/journalist and founder of The Texas Lawbook. In addition, he is a contributing legal correspondent for The Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Business Journal.
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.
Allen Pusey
Senior Editor and Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Allen Pusey has been a working writer, editor and investigative reporter for more than 50 years.
Pusey retired in December 2016 as the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal, the nation’s largest circulation legal publication. Before his decade with the Journal, Pusey spent 26 years as a reporter and editor at The Dallas Morning News, where he was a special projects editor and covered the Supreme Court of the United States.
A former director at the Center for Public Integrity, Pusey brings extraordinary experience and knowledge of the legal industry to The Texas Lawbook.
“Texas is in the midst of redefining itself in the business universe, and the legal profession is a vital part of that,” he says. “With the steady decline in resources of the more traditional press, a niche has emerged that The Texas Lawbook is ready to fill. TLB is not only covering the legal and regulatory issues being sorted out by Texas lawyers, but, as near as I can tell, it is pretty much defining the competition between them.”
You can reach Allen at allen.pusey@texaslawbook.net or 202.669.4398.
Natalie Posgate
Senior Litigation Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Natalie Posgate has spent nearly a decade covering the Texas business law community. She joined The Texas Lawbook several months after the publication launched in late 2011. Since 2018, she has focused exclusively on covering litigation, and now leads The Lawbook’s litigation beat. Her work has also been republished in the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Business Journal and The Dallas Morning News.
During her career, Natalie has written about numerous high-stakes cases, including gavel-to-gavel coverage of more than a dozen trials. She’s also covered appeals in the Supreme Court of Texas, Fifth Circuit and Texas intermediary appellate courts.
Before joining The Texas Lawbook, Natalie was an award-winning student journalist at Southern Methodist University, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in journalism. She began her reporting career in college as an intern for The Dallas Morning News’ breaking news desk, and before that, interned for Texas Highways magazine.
Natalie lives in East Dallas with her husband David and German Shorthaired Pointer Stella. She is an avid runner, reader, hiker and coffee drinker.
You can reach Natalie at natalie.posgate@texaslawbook.net or 210.383.5405.
Nushin Huq
Contributing Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Nushin is a former business and energy editor and writer with Bloomberg and S&P Global Platts. During her 14-year career, she has written about oil and gas, healthcare, corporate taxes and environmental regulatory matters. She has also covered state legislatures in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Nushin’s email is nushin.huq@texaslawbook.net.
Janet Elliott
Contributing Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Janet Elliott writes about the Texas Supreme Court and litigation for The Texas Lawbook. Janet is a veteran journalist who has covered law and business for publications including the Houston Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal and Texas Lawyer. Janet has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She lives in Austin.
Janet’s email is janet.elliott@texaslawbook.net. Her phone is 512-423-5571.
Tony Mauro
Contributing Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Tony Mauro has covered thousands of court cases during his nearly five decades as a legal journalist – from Tiny Tim’s divorce to Bush v. Gore. He’s dined with Supreme Court justices and authored multiple books on the nation’s highest court. As a contributing writer for The Lawbook, Mauro plans to publish articles about the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Bar that have a specific Texas focus.
Mauro has written for the National Law Journal and USA Today.
Tony’s email is tony.mauro@texaslawbook.net.
Brooks Igo
Publisher for The Texas Lawbook
Brooks graduated from SMU, where he studied business and journalism. Two months after the launch of the Lawbook and the beginning of his last semester at SMU, Brooks interned with Mark, Sally and the Lawbook. After joining the team full-time, he has worked to build relationships in the Texas legal community and help grow the publication’s readership to more than 13,000 subscribers.
Brooks is on the steering committee for the Dallas chapter of the Legal Marketing Association’s Southwest Region; serves on the boards of The Well Community and the Salvation Army Oak Cliff Corps; and is a supporter of Advocates for Community Transformation (Act).
He, his wife Ashley and daughter June live in Oak Cliff with their pack of rescue dogs and pig.
You can reach Brooks at brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net or 214-384-4080.
Sally Selio
Administrative Assistant, CASA Advocate for The Texas Lawbook
Sally Selio is the office manager of The Texas Lawbook. Sally handles subscription payments, subscription databases and personnel matters. She also supervises all Texas Lawbook events, including CLE programs and receptions. Sally can be contacted at 469-999-2426 or sally.selio@texaslawbook.net.
Claire Poole
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Claire Poole is a business writer based in Houston. She previously was a senior writer at The Deal, where she spent 16 years covering mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investing in the energy sector. Before The Deal, she worked as a reporter and staff writer at Forbes, was editor of El Financiero International and Mexico Business and was a contributing editor at LatinTrade. She also contributed articles to Money, Worth, BusinessWeek and Texas Monthly.
Claire’s email is claire.poole@texaslawbook.net.