Jackson Walker partner Paul Watler, representing long-time client WFAA-TV (Channel 8) of Dallas, was successful in efforts to vacate a media gag order in a high-profile murder case. The gag order had been issued by State District Judge Deborah Oaks Evans, presiding judge in a case involving the murder of six people at a Texas campsite.
Paul was quoted in a Dallas Morning News editorial about the gag order. The editorial, titled “Media Gag Order in Texas Campsite Massacre Case Denies Justice,” was published on November 30, 2015, by The Dallas Morning News. Citing three prior Supreme Court cases, the editorial was critical of the media gag order on the grounds that such an order is an unconstitutional prior restraint of news media coverage about the trial or the suspect, with the exception of publishing the names of those who testified in court.
“Public justice cannot be administered in private,” Paul said.
Paul focuses his legal practice on complex commercial and media litigation. He has been named by Texas Lawyer magazine as the “Go To” lawyer for media litigation in Texas, placing him among an elite group of the state’s top 29 lawyers across all practice areas. Paul has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1995, has been named one of the 250 Best Lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine; and has been named a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters annually since 2003. Paul received his B.J. degree from the University of Texas and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law where he was a member of the Texas Law Review.
