Category Archives: Defamation / Disparagement

Lawyers’ Roles

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Two recent opinions provide guidelines for the important roles that attorneys play in our society.

The first, Haynes and Boone LLP v. NFTD, LLC, holds that “attorney immunity applies in all adversarial contexts in which an attorney has a duty to zealously and loyally represent a client, including a business-transactional context, but only when the claim against the attorney is based on the ‘kind’ of conduct attorney immunity protects.” No. 20-0066 (May 21, 2021).

The second, Landry’s, Inc. v. Animal Legal Defense Fund, holds: “An attorney who repeats his client’s allegations to the media or the public for publicity purposes is not acting in the unique, lawyerly capacity to which Texas law affords the strong protection of immunity.” No. 19-0036 (May 21, 2021).

Disparagement? Defamation?

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“[D]isparaging the quality or condition of a business’s product or service is not, standing alone, defamation per se. . . . [B]ecause there is no evidence of an actual injury to reputation and the disparaging remarks are not otherwise capable of a defamatory meaning, the pecuniary loss for which special damages were sought may be cognizable as business disparagement but not as defamation.” Innovative Block v. Valley Builders Supply, No. 18-1211 (Tex. June 26, 2020).