Will
Thompson

Partner | Austin

 
 
 

Will Thompson handles clients’ most sensitive and complicated matters. He specializes in complex litigation and solving time-sensitive problems.

Mr. Thompson has represented clients at every stage of complex litigation. He has first-chaired trials in state and federal court and led trial teams through multiple, high-profile evidentiary hearings on preliminary injunctions. He has handled complicated commercial matters, including antitrust, class-action, and constitutional issues. For example, Mr. Thompson represented major construction firms in a multi-billion-dollar construction dispute that resulted in no liability for his clients. He also has argued an expedited appeal in the Fifth Circuit and successfully obtained multiple emergency stays of lower-court orders.

Before joining Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP, Mr. Thompson served as Acting Chief of the Special Litigation Unit at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where he gained extensive trial litigation experience. He secured multiple injunctions against federal agency action and successfully challenged local regulations as preempted by state law in both federal and state courts. Mr. Thompson also successfully defended Texas’s redistricting maps against constitutional challenges in both federal and state courts.

Mr. Thompson also previously served as an Assistant General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In that role, he provided in-house counsel to the Governor on numerous regulatory matters, including writing and submitting comments on proposed federal regulatory actions and monitoring state regulatory agencies. He also oversaw outside litigation teams representing the Governor in court.

Mr. Thompson was formerly a litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He was a law clerk for Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit and Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

 

Court Admissions

  • Texas Bar

  • Supreme Court of the United States

  • U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and District of Columbia Circuits

  • U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas

Representative Experience

Federal and State Regulatory

  • Obtained injunctions against enforcement of Dallas and San Antonio ordinances regulating private employers’ provision of sick leave as preempted by state law. ESI/Emp. Sols., L.P. v. City of Dallas, 531 F. Supp. 3d 1181 (E.D. Tex. 2021); Associated Builders & Contractors of South Texas, Inc. v. City of San Antonio, No. 2019CI13921 (408th Dist. Ct., Bexar County, Tex. Dec. 12, 2019).

  • Challenged constitutionality of a municipal contract with a public-sector union. Pulliam v. City of Austin, No. D-1-GN-16-004307 (419th Dist. Ct., Travis County, Tex. Mar. 24, 2021).

  • Obtained injunctions against agency actions on immigration. Texas v. United States, No. 6:21-CV-00016, ECF 79 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 19, 2021); Texas v. Biden, No. 2:21-CV-00067-Z, ECF 94 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 13, 2021); Texas v. United States, No. 1:18-CV-00068, 2021 WL 3022434 (S.D. Tex. July 16, 2021); Texas v. United States, No. 6:21-CV-00003, ECF 94 (S.D. Tex. Feb. 23, 2021); Texas v. United States, No. 6:21-CV-00003, ECF 16 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 26, 2021).

  • Successfully petitioned for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals order. Sealed Petitioner v. Sealed Respondent, 829 F.3d 379 (5th Cir. 2016).

  • Represented charter school association challenging the constitutionality of Texas’s school-finance system. Morath v. The Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coal., 490 S.W.3d 826 (Tex. 2016).

Commercial Litigation

  • Obtained dismissal of Sherman Act and Clayton Act claims brought by would-be competitor to the leading company operating golf entertainment centers. SureShot Golf Ventures, Inc. v. Topgolf Int’l, Inc., No. CV H-17-127, 2017 WL 3658948 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 24, 2017).

  • Represented manufacturer in successful defense of a putative class action over alleged product defects. St. Clair County, Illinois v. Trinity Indus., Inc., No. 14-1320-DRH, 2017 WL 11681411 (S.D. Ill. Jan. 10, 2017).

  • Represented major construction companies in successful defense of a multi-billion-dollar arbitration regarding alleged fraud and breaches of fiduciary duties in the construction of an oil refinery. Motiva Enterprises, Inc. v. Bechtel Corporation, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (Jan. 2, 2017).

  • Obtained favorable appellate opinion and settlement on behalf of electrical wholesaler that sued wind farms for breach of contract. TXU Portfolio Mgmt. Co., L.P. v. FPL Energy, LLC, 529 S.W.3d 472 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2016, no pet.).

  • Represented major airline in successful motion for a preliminary injunction regarding access to gates as Dallas’s Love Field Airport. City of Dallas v. Delta Airlines, Inc., No. 3:15-CV-2069-K, 2016 WL 98604 (N.D. Tex. Jan. 8, 2016).

Government Operations

  • Successfully defended the Texas Comptroller against a lawsuit related to review of Harris County’s budget. Harris County v. Hegar, No. D-1-GN-22-004157 (126th Dist. Ct., Travis County, Tex. Oct. 3, 2022).

  • Successfully defended against lawsuit seeking to force the Secretary of State to produce confidential information about voters. Campaign Legal Center v. Scott, No. 1:22-CV-00092-LY, ECF 71 (W.D. Tex. Nov. 1, 2022).

  • Successfully defended constitutional lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Texas, No. 1:21-cv-00796-RP, ECF 98 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 29, 2022).

  • Successfully defended against free-speech challenges to rules governing conduct in a public park. Moore v. Brown, 868 F.3d 398 (5th Cir. 2017) (per curiam); Moore v. City of Dallas, No. 3:16-CV-01501-N, 2016 WL 9663360 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 25, 2016).

Redistricting and Elections

  • Successfully opposed motion for preliminary injunction brought by plaintiffs challenging Texas’s 2021 senate map under the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. LULAC v. Abbott, No. 3:21-CV-00259-DCG-JES-JVB, ECF 176 (W.D. Tex. Feb. 1, 2022) (order); LULAC v. Abbott, No. 3:21-CV-00259-DCG-JES-JVB, ECF 258 (W.D. Tex. May 4, 2022) (opinion).

  • Successfully opposed motions for temporary injunctions brought by two separate sets of plaintiffs challenging Texas’s 2021 redistricting maps under the state constitution. Mexican American Legislative Caucus v. Abbott, No. D-1-GN-21-006515 (250th Dist. Ct., Travis County, Tex. Dec. 22, 2021).

  • Obtained dismissal of all redistricting claims brought by multiple plaintiffs, including a putative class action. LULAC v. Abbott, No. 1:21-CV-00943-RP-JES-JVB, 2022 WL 423438 (W.D. Tex. Feb. 8, 2022); Morris v. Texas, No. 4:21-CV-3456, 2022 WL 2067825 (S.D. Tex. June 8, 2022), aff'd, No. 22-20348, 2023 WL 1775658 (5th Cir. Feb. 6, 2023).

  • Successfully defended more than a dozen lawsuits challenging Texas’s procedures for the 2020 and 2022 elections. Defeated claims under the U.S. Constitution, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, Rehabilitation Act, and Americans with Disabilities Act. E.g., Longoria v. Paxton, No. 5:21-cv-1233, ECF 64 (W.D. Tex. June 28, 2022); Mi Familia Vota v. Abbott, No. 5:20-CV-00830-JKP, ECF 89 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 5, 2021); Miller v. Hughs, 471 F. Supp. 3d 768 (W.D. Tex. 2020).

 
 

Education

J.D., The University of Chicago Law School, 2013, high honors

  • The University of Chicago Law Review, Comments Editor

  • Hinton Moot Court Semi-Finalist

  • Kirkland & Ellis Scholar

  • Sidley Austin Prize, for Excellence in Brief Writing in the Bigelow Moot Court Competition

  • Federalist Society, V.P. for Events

A.B., Georgetown University, 2010, magna cum laude