Johnson

J.R. is both an experienced courtroom lawyer and a former state agency head. He returned to private practice and joined Butler Snow in 2025, where he helps clients navigate complex problems, often involving litigation, government investigations, and public policy challenges.

• Commercial Litigation
• Governmental Litigation
• Government Relations
• Election & Campaign Finance
• White Collar, Compliance & Government Investigations
• Intellectual Property Litigation

In the private sector, J.R. has represented plaintiffs and defendants in disputes involving intellectual property, contracts, fiduciary duties, securities, and regulatory matters. His clients have included financial institutions, hardware and software designers, industrial manufacturers, and energy companies. He has practiced in federal and state courts across the country, often focused on the development and admissibility of expert testimony in cases involving complex financial or technical matters.

In the public sector, J.R. was the executive director and general counsel of the Texas Ethics Commission (“TEC”), a state agency that enforces Texas’ campaign finance, lobby, and other anti-corruption laws. While there, J.R. also led the TEC’s legislative affairs and served as chief counsel to the TEC’s appointed governing board.

J.R.’s practice now focuses on the intersection of litigation and public policy, representing businesses and individuals as well as government officials and entities. He offers prospective advice to private sector clients seeking to navigate the complex legal and regulatory environment encountered when interacting with the government. And he uses his extensive private and public sector experience to identify solutions to difficult problems in the courts, the legislature, and the executive branch.

• Commercial Litigation
  • Excluded plaintiffs’ expert testimony in a nine-figure securities fraud suit against a Fortune 500 telecommunications company, resulting in a take-nothing verdict.
  • Represented more than 80 independent oil and gas producers in lawsuits related to the bankruptcy of a midstream company.
  • Helped secure nine-figure summary judgment for a children’s hospital and its co-plaintiff in a breach-of-contract suit for unpaid pharmaceutical royalties.
• Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Assisted early-web inventor and patent holder in multiple venues, including against Microsoft in the Northern District of Illinois.
  • Represented the pioneer of cellphone trade-in programs in an arbitration proceeding asserting trade secret misappropriation.
  • Excluded defendant’s expert testimony in patent infringement suit related to cellphone software, ultimately resulting in an eight-figure jury verdict.
  • Served as local patent defense counsel for Apple in the Western District of Texas.
• Texas Ethics Commission
  • Directed the operations of the TEC, a state agency with statewide enforcement jurisdiction of campaign finance and political ethics laws.
  • Secured bipartisan support for significant reforms to the TEC’s interpretation and application of state ethics laws through advisory opinions and rulemaking.
  • Advised the TEC’s appointed governing board on the resolution of hundreds of enforcement matters.
  • Developed and executed the TEC’s legislative strategy for the 87th, 88th, and 89th Regular Sessions.

• Texas, 2009
• U.S. District Courts
  • Texas: Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western
• U.S. Courts of Appeals
  • Federal Circuit

• University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 2009
• University of Chicago, B.A., with honors, 2006

• Fellow, Texas Bar Association

• Speaker, “TEC Update,” Professional Advocacy Association of Texas, December 4, 2024.
• Speaker, “They Did What? New court cases instantly impact political compliance law,” Professional Advocacy Association of Texas, September 18, 2024.
• Speaker, “Legislative and Campaign Law,” State Bar of Texas, December 14, 2023.
• Speaker, “TEC Update,” Professional Advocacy Association of Texas, December 2023.
• Speaker, “TEC Update,” Professional Advocacy Association of Texas, December 2022.

• Long Center for the Performing Arts
  • Member of the Board of Trustees, 2021-present