A Letter From The Editor
My Heroes Have Always
Been Lawyers
W
elcome to our very first “Legal
Eagles” themed issue, with a focus
on law and lawyers. We plan to do this
each September. I’ve wanted to do one
of these for a very long time. Why? Two
reasons.
First, people are moving to Parker
County like miners to California in the
1849 Gold Rush. Everyone needs a good
lawyer these days. Just living constitutes a
legal issue. If you’re living or doing busi-
ness in Parker County, you need to have
a relationship with a good Parker County
lawyer, meaning one that knows the way
around the Parker County legal system.
The second reason is simply because
some of the most interesting and colorful
characters I’ve met during my career have
been attorneys (of course so have some
of the biggest “pills,” but I’m not going
there) and I love to write about lawyers
— even the pills.
One of the most interesting was
Leonard “Cowboy” Schilling. He avoided
meeting me, can’t say I blame him.
I was working on a big story and in
way over my head (not the first time). It
was a whistleblower case and his client
was the whistleblower that involved the
Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff
was new, the county’s first Republican
sheriff since Reconstruction, and he’d
given me an exclusive interview.
I believe that the sheriff gave me that
interview because I simply had no dog in
the fight, no axe to grind, I was a-political
and I wasn’t trying to burn him. I just
wanted to write an accurate article that
presented the facts. But, Schilling, the
lawyer for the whistleblowing deputy,
wouldn’t return my calls. I desperately
needed an interview with “the other
side.”
Rumor had it that the lawyer worked
late on Mondays, and would answer his
own phone after 4:30, after his paralegal
went home.
I called at 4:45 p.m. Guess what? He
answered.
I told him my name and why I was
calling. Schilling said, “Marsha Brown,
the sheriff’s P.R. agent? That Marsha
Brown.” He sounded like Tommy Lee
Jones. I could actually hear