Dallas hires – Dallas has turned to a prominent Texas trial lawyer, Jeff Tillotson, charging about half his typical $2,000 hourly rate, as the city fights a trio of firearms lawsuits filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over whether guns can be barred from public space
On the question of who gets to decide whether a handgun is allowed, Dallas is making a bet that a legal discount can hold the line.
Jeff Tillotson, an acclaimed Texas trial lawyer and long record of backing Democratic candidates, is charging the city $895 an hour in one of three firearms lawsuits Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed from his office. Tillotson said he typically bills clients about $2,000 per hour.
Dallas has received favorable rulings so far in all three suits, which challenge Paxton’s push for guns in more public spaces.
The fee arrangement reflects how expensive these fights can become. Dallas has declined to release invoice statements from Tillotson’s firm. Tillotson Patton. showing how much the city is spending in legal fees to defend the gun restrictions. Under the city’s setup. Dallas is on the hook directly for one case. while for the other two it could recoup expenses from private organizations whose firearms bans drew the suits.
The stakes extend beyond city hall. The outcome is likely to be felt throughout Texas, a deeply red state where the legislature has passed some of the most firearms-friendly laws in the country.
Texas allows people to carry a handgun openly in libraries, recreation centers, the Texas State Capitol, and government buildings—except when a meeting is happening.
Paxton, a right-wing champion of firearms protections, argues Dallas must also allow guns in public spaces that are leased by a private entity. He says the city cannot give authority to a third party to ban guns when that third party lacks that power.
Tillotson has said he took the cases not because of political differences with Paxton. but because he supports limits on guns in public places for safety reasons. Speaking to Bloomberg Law. he described the dispute in blunt terms: “It could be Ken Paxton. it could be Ken from Barbie.” He added. “This is about the city’s rights and obligations. and I think we’re 100% right on it.”.
A lull in Dallas court victories could not erase the larger tension at the center of the litigation: whether gun rules set by private event operators can stand on property that remains, in legal terms, leased from the government.
In the Paxton filings, the arguments have converged on a particularly high-profile target—the State Fair of Texas—and the dispute over what it means to host a gun ban on land the city leases.
The fair, a nearly month-long annual event held on 277 acres, draws attention partly because it sits on public property leased to a private nonprofit that wants to exclude firearms. Last summer, a trial court dismissed Paxton’s suit, letting the fair enforce the ban.
A decision is pending from the statewide appeals court. The case is likely to wind up at the Texas Supreme Court, which has signaled it is eager to take up broader questions about gun restrictions along with the fair’s specific ban.
Two years ago, the justices said they lacked sufficient information to resolve Paxton’s challenge to the ban. In that earlier decision, Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote that the dispute was a matter where “both law-abiding handgun owners and the operators of the State Fair deserve a clear answer.”
More recently. Justice James Sullivan discussed gun restrictions in a case not directly tied to Paxton’s fight over Dallas venues. In a May 15 concurring opinion involving the gun ownership rights of people subject to an order of protection. Sullivan wrote that Texans “shouldn’t have to endure another hundred years of silence from this court.”.
Paxton also has two other lawsuits involving private gun bans at Dallas performing arts venues. After Tillotson moved back against the state’s bids for pretrial wins this spring, both cases remained pending at the trial court.
Paxton, the three-term attorney general, did not respond to a request for comment about the litigation.
In other complex matters. Paxton has often turned to outside lawyers. reportedly shelling out up to $3. 780 an hour when his team pursues results that could include monetary settlements for the state. In these Dallas cases, however, the attorney general’s office is facing Tillotson with lawyers of its own.
Private plaintiffs who joined Paxton in the State Fair lawsuit have separate counsel: Tony McDonald. He accused the city and the fair of running a “shell game, trying to distract and hide each other’s responsibility for their violation of Texans’ right to carry.”
Tillotson’s name is already attached to major, high-stakes disputes across Texas and beyond. A Texas native who attended high school in Dallas, he has spent four decades practicing law and has been involved in a long list of headline cases.
He sued cyclist Lance Armstrong to claw back millions in performance bonuses for a promotion company after Armstrong was caught doping. He won a defamation case for George Michael against a Beverly Hills police officer who said the singer mocked him in the 1998 hit “Outside.” He brought antitrust claims against Google as counsel for Match Group.
Tillotson also represents Fermi co-founder Toby Neugebauer in an ongoing governance fight over a massive artificial intelligence data center in the Texas Panhandle.
Shortly after Paxton filed the first of the gun lawsuits. Tillotson’s firm secured more work from Dallas in a separate matter involving a $3 billion shortfall in the city’s police and firefighter’s pension fund. The case settled late last year, and records show Tillotson billed the city $950 an hour. The total bill in that pension dispute was $568,000.
Dallas’ legal department declined to comment about the cases or its use of Tillotson as counsel.
One lawyer tied directly to the State Fair fight said Tillotson is the kind of advocate who can translate a technical dispute into something that lands with judges. “He’s a very authentic. believable guy in the courtroom. ” said James Harris. a Holland & Knight lawyer who represents the State Fair in the Paxton suit and who encouraged the city to hire Tillotson. Harris added, “Jeff likes to try cases. He does it all over the country and he’s very good at it.”.
The litigation includes the case titled Texas v. Tolbert, Tex. App., 15th Dist., No. 15-25-00122-cv, and two Dallas cases in Texas district court: Texas v. Dallas, Tex. Dist. Ct., No. D-1-GN-25-002553 and Texas v. Dallas, Tex. Dist. Ct., No. D-1-GN-25-002594.
For Dallas, the immediate fight is legal and procedural. But the price tag—$895 an hour instead of $2,000—underscores how the city is preparing for a courtroom battle that could reshape gun access arguments far beyond one fairground or one set of venue rules.
Dallas Jeff Tillotson Ken Paxton firearms lawsuits Texas State Fair gun bans Texas Supreme Court Dallas legal department