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David Coale

Partner

Widely recognized as one of the top appellate lawyers in Texas, David Coale’s diverse experience ranges from sophisticated constitutional issues in the United States Supreme Court to defense of a payphone operator before a Tarrant County Justice of the Peace. He is among the few lawyers to have handled a matter in all fifteen of the Texas intermediate courts of appeal, and is the only known Texas appellate lawyer who has been fictionalized in a romance-novel series as the lawyer for an outlaw motorcycle gang.

A frequent commentator on legal issues, David publishes 600camp.com, a popular blog about business cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and 600commerce.com, a similar blog about the Dallas Court of Appeals and Texas Supreme Court. His recent articles have appeared in Slate, Salon, the Times of Israel, and the Cornell Law Review Online.

HONORS & AWARDS
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  • Elected President of the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, 2025-2026
  • Inaugural Recipient, Dallas Bar Association’s annual “Lawyers’ Lawyer” award, 2024
  • Recognized as a “Top Lawyer in DFW” by Chambers & Partners, 2022-2025
  • Recognized as “Best Lawyers” (Appellate and Commercial Litigation) by D Magazine in 2008-2011, 2014-2026
  • Named to the "Hall of Fame ", D Magazine in 2025
  • Named as one of “500 Leading Litigators in America,” by Lawdragon, 2022, 2024-2026
  • Named “Leading Appellate Attorney of the Year in Texas” by Acquisition International, 2022
  • Honored as a “Leader in His Field” by Chambers & Partners USA Guide to Leading Lawyers – Appellate Litigation (Texas) Lawyers, 2022
  • Named “Lawyer of the Year” in DFW appellate law by Best Lawyers, 2021
  • Awarded “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation, 2021-2026
  • Received the “Legal Innovator” award by Texas Lawyer, 2020
  • Senior Fellow, Litigation Council of America, 2020-2024
  • Named “Best Lawyers in America” (Appellate and Commercial Litigation) by Best Lawyers, 2012-2026
  • Selected as “Texas Super Lawyer,” by Super Lawyers, 2003-2026 (Top 100 in DFW, 2014-2019, 2023-2024 and Top 100 in Texas, 2015, 2017, 2019)
  • Recognized as “Best Lawyers” (Appellate and Commercial Litigation) by D Magazine in 2008-2011, 2014-2020, 2022
  • Received the “Texas Trailblazers” award by Texas Lawyer, 2019
  • Profiled as a "Defender," one of 15 leading defense lawyers, by the Dallas Business Journal, 2009
EDUCATION
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  • University of Texas School of Law, J.D., with honors, 1993
    • Chief Articles Editor, Texas Law Review
    • Order of the Coif
  • Harvard University, B.A., cum laude, 1990
    • National Policy Debate Champion, 1990
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIPS
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  • Law Clerk, Hon. Patrick Higginbotham, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
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  • Reversal of a $24 million judgment in a contract dispute about refurbishment of railroad tank cars. Sunoco Partners v. Trinity Industries, 2026 WL 2572827 (Tex. App..—Dallas Aug. 31, 2026, no pet. h.)
  • Affirmance of the dismissal of a city's attempt to unwind a $17.4 million loan transaction. River Creek Dev. Corp. v. Preston Hollow Capital, LLC, 739 S.W.3d 825 (Tex. 2026).
  • Reversal of a $2 million judgment against a commercial landlord arising from a rat infestation. JM-RB Properties v. Harris Ventures, 2026 WL 826631 (Tex. App.—Dallas March 25, 2026, pet. filed).
  • Affirmance of the right of Southwest Airlines pilots union to sue Boeing about the impact of the 737 Max. Boeing v.  Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, 716 S.W.3d 140 (Tex. 2025), cert. denied, 146 S. Ct. 1616 (2026).
  • Affirmance of a temporary injunction, based on the Texas Constitution's guarantees of economic liberty, against Dallas’s ban on 95% of short-term rentals (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.). City of Dallas v. Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance, 2025 WL 2022063 (Tex. App.—Dallas July 18, 2025, pet. filed).
  • Affirmance of a defense judgment in a multi-million-dollar claim about an outage in processing payments for the federal food stamp program. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Xerox State & Local Solutions, Inc., 663 S.W.3d 569 (Tex. 2023), on remand, 2024 WL 5087116 (Tex. App.— Dallas Dec. 12, 2024, no pet.).
  • Affirmance of the denial of a TCPA motion to dismiss in a high-profile business defamation case. Marble Ridge Capital LP v. Neiman Marcus Group, Inc., 611 S.W.3d 113 (Tex. App.–Dallas 2020, pet. dism'd).
  • Affirmance of a take-nothing judgment in a multi-million dollar dispute about development of an “energy tea." Jacked Up, LLC v. Sara Lee Corp., 807 Fed. Appx. 344 (5th Cir. 2020).
  • Reversal of a “bet the business” case for a short-line railroad in the Texas Panhandle. BNSF Railway v. Panhandle Northern R.R., 946 F.3d 705 (5th Cir. 2020)

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