Dallas has hired Jeff Tillotson to defend it in three firearms lawsuits brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, and in one of those cases the city is paying the criminal lawyer $895 an hour — less than half the rate he says he normally charges.
That discount matters because Tillotson, a high-stakes Texas trial lawyer, said he usually bills clients about $2,000 an hour. A contract reviewed by Law shows Dallas is getting him for a reduced rate as the city fights over gun rules that could reach beyond Dallas and shape whether public property leased to private entities can still bar firearms.
Dallas has not said how much it will ultimately spend on the three firearms lawsuits, and it declined to release invoice statements from Tillotson Patton showing its legal fees. The city is directly on the hook for one case, while in the other two it could seek to recover expenses from private organizations whose firearms bans drew the suits. That makes the hourly rate only part of the cost; the final bill will depend on how many hours are spent and whether Dallas can shift any of the expense later.
The legal fight sits inside a larger Texas argument over where guns can be carried. State law 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 argues Dallas must allow guns in public spaces leased by a private entity, a position that has put the city in direct conflict with the bans it is defending.
Tillotson has said he took the cases not because of any political break with Paxton but because he supports limits on guns in public places for safety reasons. He said, “They have many, many fine lawyers in the city’s office so the fact they’d give me the opportunity to work on this is an honor.” Asked about the politics surrounding the fight, he said, “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.”
The most visible test is the State Fair of Texas case, where the fair sits on 277 acres the city leases to a private nonprofit. A trial court dismissed Paxton’s suit last summer and allowed the fair to keep its firearms ban, and a decision is now pending from the statewide appeals court. Two years ago, the Texas Supreme Court said it lacked enough information to resolve the challenge, leaving the dispute unsettled even after repeated rounds in court.
Tillotson’s own politics have also drawn attention. In September, he gave $3,500 to state Rep. James Talarico. But the more immediate issue for Dallas is practical, not political: whether the city can keep paying a lawyer who charges about $2,000 an hour in ordinary work while trying to hold down costs in a case that may help define how far private gun bans can go on public land.
