Charles L. "Chip" Babcock has developed a national litigation practice in his career at Jackson Walker. Mr. Babcock has tried some of the most important cases of our time, including his representation of Oprah Winfrey in a suit brought against her by Texas Cattlemen and the successful defense of
The Chicago Tribune in the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois.
Mr. Babcock was born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, and graduated from Brown University, where he was a four-year member of the rowing team (crew) and the sports director for the University radio station, WBRU-FM. His college broadcast partner, Eric Nadel, went on to become the legendary play-by-play voice of the Texas Rangers. For a time after college, Mr. Babcock stayed in the sports business as a writer and columnist for the
Philadelphia Inquirer, but left journalism to attend Boston University School of Law, where he was a member of the law review and served as Executive Editor. He was drawn to Texas by two federal judges, Robert Porter and Robert Hill, both of whom asked for an interview and decided to offer him a job. "They told me that they had flipped a coin," Mr. Babcock recalled, "but they never told me who lost."
In any event, Mr. Babcock spent the next two years with Judge Porter in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas before joining Jackson Walker, where he has fashioned a national litigation practice defending such disparate cases as the Rhode Island nightclub fire litigation in Providence, a defamation suit against Dr. Phil in Los Angeles, and a corporate governance matter in Fort Worth. He has represented Fortune 500 clients on a regular basis, both as Plaintiffs and Defendants, and has tried over 100 cases to a jury.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Mr. Babcock is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the Texas Philosophical Society. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Bar Association Communications Forum as Membership Chair.
PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION
Mr. Babcock is ranked as a top First Amendment attorney and a top Commercial Litigation attorney in the prestigious
Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business directory. Sources quoted in the guide called him "phenomenal at closing arguments and superb on his feet" and "a truly brilliant trial lawyer." [
Chambers USA 2009.] Mr. Babcock is also recognized in
The Best Lawyers in America in the Bet-the-Company, Commercial Litigation, and First Amendment Law categories. He has been a "Texas Super Lawyer" every year since
Texas Monthly magazine instituted the award and has also been listed by
D magazine as one of the "Best Lawyers in Dallas," by
H Texas magazine as one of the "Best Lawyers in Houston," and by
Texas Lawyer as one of Texas' "Go To" lawyers. He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is included in the Commercial Litigation chapter of
Who's Who Legal: Texas. He was named as a "Best in Civil Litigation Defense" attorney by
Super Lawyers: Corporate Counsel Edition.
PRESS COVERAGE
Mr. Babcock has frequently been profiled by the press and in 2007,
the New Republic reported that he had attained the status of a "moderately famous First Amendment attorney." (Credit:
The New Republic.) In a recent
Texas Monthly article profiling him as a "Super Lawyer," one of his clients commented, "Chip was tremendously effective, not only in court but in helping me prepare for court."
Last year, Mr. Babcock tried a closely watched case where Clara Harris (the woman who ran over her husband with her Mercedes) sued her former criminal defense counsel, George Parnham. After the jury found for Mr. Parnham, a blogger following the case wrote, "I believe [the jury] found Parnham's counsel, the affable Chip Babcock, appealing. Babcock was charming, smiled readily and play(ed) ably – to the jury."
Texas Lawyer wrote a lengthy article about one of Mr. Babcock's trials (an unusual non-jury trial before a three-judge panel of justices) and wrote about his opening statement, "When Babcock rose to speak, he told the court he would take more time than opposing counsel. His presentation was lengthy but effective, incorporating a PowerPoint presentation replete with timelines, discovery excerpts, and salient video clips. Babcock didn't just tell the justices what he intended to prove, he used his time and PowerPoint presentation to prove his case. At the end of the opening statement, [Justice] Fitzgerald asked Babcock if the court could have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation for its later use."
In 2007,
Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business noted Mr. Babcock was a "first-rate trial lawyer who can try any commercial case."
Of Counsel: The Legal Practice and Management Report wrote in its April 2006 edition that "In case after victorious case, Babcock has served clients with his vast knowledge of the law, soaring courtroom litigation style, keen insight, close attention to detail, and all with guy-next-door-humility."
JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
Mr. Babcock has frequently been called upon by state and federal judges to advise them on matters affecting the judiciary and the practice of law. For example, he has been a member of the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee for over 15 years, the last nine as its Chair. The Advisory Committee studies and reports to the court on all manner of rules and issues affecting litigation practice in the state courts. Some of the topics the Committee has studied are rules regulating parental notification of minors seeking an abortion, Internet access to judicial records, standards for recusal of judges, an offer of settlement rule, citation of unpublished opinions, rules for complex cases (asbestos), and amendments to the rules of evidence and appellate procedure among many others.
Mr. Babcock was appointed by the court to chair a committee charged with rewriting the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct and chaired a separate committee which considered the effect of the United States Supreme Court decision in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White dealing with judicial speech. In 2001, he was asked to serve on a blue ribbon committee of ten lawyers who were asked to consider major proposals for tort and litigation reform. In 1991, the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas asked him to serve on a committee charged with analyzing the efficiency of the federal courts in north Texas.
PRO BONO AWARDS
In 1988, Mr. Babcock received the Meritorious Pro Bono Service Award. In 1986, he received the Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award.
CATASTROPHIC LITIGATION
Mr. Babcock, drawing on his lifelong work as a journalist and with the media, has developed a response plan to catastrophic litigation when the external communication about the legal problem must be coordinated with, and may be as important as, the litigation strategy. He has frequently written and spoken about this issue, including in his article titled "What to do When the Media Calls."
Attorney Profile: Chip Babcock — Committed to clients
