Rick Perry Hires High-Profile Legal Team In Texas

The New York Times

David Montgomery

August 19, 2014

It has the makings of a legal dream team.

On the roster in Gov. Rick Perry’s fight against a felony indictment is Ben Ginsberg, a high-powered Washington lawyer who was counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign, represented George W. Bush in the decisive Florida vote recount in 2000 and was co-chairman of President Obama’s committee on election administration. Bobby Burchfield, a partner and trial appellate lawyer in the Washington office of McDermott Will & Emery, has vast experience in complex corporate litigation and twice argued before the Supreme Court. David L. Botsford of Austin is a well-known criminal law specialist. Thomas R. Phillips served as the chief justice on the Texas Supreme Court from 1988 to 2004 and is now a partner in the Baker Botts law firm in Austin.

At the helm of this team is Tony Buzbee, a Houston legal powerhouse who has won hundreds of millions of dollars in awards for his clients and expresses his driving principle with a two-word slogan on his firm’s website: “Just win.”

The indictment, returned by a grand jury on Friday in Travis County, Tex., stemmed from Mr. Perry’s efforts to force the resignation of Rosemary Lehmberg, the county’s district attorney, after her arrest on a drunken-driving charge. Mr. Perry threatened to veto funding to her office unless she quit, a threat that he ultimately carried out by vetoing $7.5 million earmarked for the Public Integrity Unit that was intended to fight official corruption.