Statistics show that incumbent judges across Texas enjoy an advantage when they run for reelection. Nearly 70% of the incumbent judges running for reelection this year sailed to another term with absolutely no contest in their primaries or the general election. This year in Texas, 145 of 341 total judicial candidates, or 43%, had no opponent …
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Bribery, Coercion, Abuse: Look Inside the Allegations Against Ken Paxton
The whistleblowers who have accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of crimes in office have raised serious allegations, but any prosecution based on their complaint is likely to face an uphill battle, according to criminal law experts. Pages and pages of details of the criminal allegations became public last week when four of the seven …
I Now Pronounce You Sued: Wedding Industry Becomes Target for Growing COVID-19 Refund Litigation
Brides and grooms whose festivities were sidelined by the coronavirus are mad about not getting refunds from their wedding venues, and they’re not going to take it. Across Texas and other states, the unhappy couples or their parents have been filing lawsuits against wedding venues, seeking refunds of their deposits. This wedding litigation is a …
COVID-19 has hit lawyers in the pocketbook
Using Google Forms, I designed a survey that asked questions about how the pandemic had impacted attorneys’ ability to attract clients, file new cases, and earn money. We sent the survey out nationally and received over 300 responses. I used a spreadsheet, pivot tables and pie chart graphics to analyze the results. Here is the …
Judicial election coverage in 2020
I created a system using Google Forms to email out an online questionnaire to all of the candidates who were running in contested races in the Texas primary in March, primary runoffs in July and in November’s general election. Texas Lawyer published hundreds of Q&A articles with the candidates, organized them into voter guides, and …
Racism and discrimination in the Texas legal profession
During the summer of 2020, Texas attorneys became enraged over comments that State Bar of Texas President Larry McDougal made on Facebook about Black Lives Matter and other topics. The fiasco launched a wide discussion about ongoing issues of racism, sexism and discrimination in the legal profession. Lawyers pushed for reform, and the Texas Bar …
Going Nameless and Faceless
By Angela Morris (Editor & Publisher, January 2019) There’s mounting evidence of a contagion effect in media coverage of mass shootings and school shootings, but experts say that most journalists know nothing about the research. Victims’ advocates and academic scholars who urge media reform have said the media is doing better at reporting more about …
Lawyers Contribute Pro Bono Hours After Sutherland Springs Shooting
by Angela Morris (Texas Lawyer, November 2018) “I was processing the totality of it. I saw right then and there we were going to have family law issues, probate issues,” Wilson County Attorney Tom Caldwell recalled. “When I came home that night, I was so shook up by it, I told my wife I would …
For Breast-Pumping Lawyer Moms, Accommodations Often Fall Short
by Angela Morris (Law.com, Oct. 31, 2018, Link or download PDF) The old saying, “Don’t crying over spilled milk,” doesn’t apply when you’re a nursing lawyer-mom, using a toilet as a table while pumping your breast milk during your practice group’s annual retreat. Utilizing the bathroom as a makeshift baby-food kitchen wasn’t labor and employment litigator …
Women-Owned Law Firms Surge Amid Gender Disparity in the Profession
Work-life balance is often pegged as the reason women leave traditional law firms. But for the growing number of women establishing their own firms, their departure is often rooted more deeply in gender inequality in the profession than in raising children or having more free time. “If women were feeling valued, were getting properly rewarded …