Supreme Court of Texas/Photo by Noah Dawson
The legal team who has advised the City of Amarillo throughout the Civic Center improvement funding lawsuit has filed a motion to withdraw from the suit.
The city’s legal team had comprised of Paul Denton Trahan, Warren S. Huang, and Emily Wolf of Norton Rose Fulbright USS LLP. The motion did not state a reason for withdrawing from the lawsuit, though the motion does note that the City of Amarillo’s City Attorney, Brian McWilliams, will take over. According to the filing posted on the state’s courts website, the motion was filed at 12:10 pm on Friday, November 17th.
The city lost the lawsuit brought by businessman Alex Fairly last year and was unsuccessful in persuading the Seventh District Court of Appeals to reverse the decision last year. Both courts ruled that the city failed to provide sufficient notice of their intent to issue tax notes and ordered that the city pay Fairly attorneys’ fees. Earlier this month, the city petitioned the Supreme Court of Texas to review the portion ordering the city to pay attorneys’ fees.