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Mavericks<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n He even got on ESPN\u2019s SportsCenter as the Texas Rangers\u2019 attorney during the mid-1990s Major League Baseball strike. Fans filed multiple lawsuits, arguing the Rangers\u2019 use of replacement players made them an inferior product.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the third one, they had invited a bunch of TV stations,\u201d Babcock recalls. \u201cWhen I walked out of the courtroom they asked for comment and I said: \u2018Well, they\u2019ve tried three times now. And in baseball, as we know, three strikes and you\u2019re out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Babcock, fellow firm partner Chris Bankler and associate Sarah Starr are representing the Mavericks on behalf of Jackson Walker, Texas\u2019 largest law firm with about 550 attorneys.<\/p>\n Babcock says he doesn\u2019t recall previously facing the Stars\u2019 legal firm, Winstead, or its lead attorney Joshua Sandler, though he has co-counseled on cases with Winstead.<\/p>\n At issue is whether the Stars, as the Mavericks contend, breached their American Airlines Center lease by having their primary headquarters outside Dallas city limits<\/a> during most of the past quarter-century.<\/p>\n The franchises\u2019 legal teams are scheduled for mediation on Friday. If there\u2019s no resolution, summary judgement motions are scheduled to heard on March 6 before Texas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill. If the case survives that and subsequent hearings, a trial is scheduled for May 11.<\/p>\n Chip Babcock walked into the federal courthouse in Texarkana on July 22, 2024. Testimony occurred in Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones\u2019 countersuit against Alexandra Davis, who alleged she is his biological daughter. The suit ended when an agreement was reached between Jones and the Davises for dismissal.<\/p>\n Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor<\/p>\n Attorney to the stars<\/p>\n Local sports teams suing one another is provocative, but not as sensational as those six weeks in 1998, when Babcock successfully defended Winfrey in Amarillo, where cattlemen brought suit after her TV show\u2019s episode about mad cow disease.<\/p>\n Or when Babcock traveled to California and successfully defended Cuban after his 2007 comments on a Bay Area radio show induced a defamation suit from former Mavericks coach Don Nelson.<\/p>\n Or, more recently, when Babcock from 2022-2024 defended Jones in paternity and breach of contract lawsuits<\/a>.<\/p>\n Not to name-drop, but it\u2019s a matter of record that Babcock has represented Warren Buffett, Diane Sawyer, Bill O\u2019Reilly, CNN, George W. Bush (as Rangers owner, before his presidency) and the aforementioned Phil McGraw (multiple times).<\/p>\n Clearly Brooklyn-born Babcock was wise to pivot from sports writing. He\u2019d worked for the Miami Herald in high school and college summer breaks from Brown University before his 1971 graduation. He\u2019d also been sports director of Brown\u2019s campus radio station.<\/p>\n While covering high school and college sports at The Inquirer, he fortuitously took law courses part time \u201cbecause of a girl.\u201d His epiphany occurred in June 1973, when The Inquirer\u2019s Eagles writer was on vacation and Babcock got dispatched to a news conference at Veterans Stadium.<\/p>\n The Eagles had traded for 32-year-old Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel. Babcock, 23, found himself among a semicircle of reporters in their 40s who were hanging on Gabriel\u2019s every syllable.<\/p>\n \u201cI sort of had one of these out-of-body experiences,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018Maybe I should look into something else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Upon his 1976 graduation from Boston University law school, Babcock applied for judicial clerkships in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which at the time covered his home state of Florida and Texas.<\/p>\n A former BU classmate recommended a pair of federal judges in Dallas who were unusually young (40s) and \u201csports fanatics, so you would love these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Both judges interviewed Babcock in Dallas. Judge Robert W. Porter later told Babcock he and the other judge flipped a coin to determine who would hire him. Porter prevailed. Or did he?<\/p>\n \u201cThey never told me who lost the flip,\u201d Babcock said.<\/p>\n In September 1978 he joined Jackson Walker, which at the time represented the Dallas Times Herald and KDFW-TV (Channel 4).<\/p>\n \u201cSo I walked into a ready-made media practice,\u201d he said. \u201cThe partner at the firm who was doing that work didn\u2019t really care for it. The minute I came in, he walked down with a bunch of files and said, \u2018Here, I understand you want to do media work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He soon collected clients of his own. One of them, California\u2019s Transamerican Press, had a reporter who in 1980 was ordered by a Texas judge to reveal a confidential source in a libel case.<\/p>\n Second-year associate Babcock won the appeal, a landmark ruling that established qualified First Amendment privilege for reporters in civil libel cases.<\/p>\n Full disclosure: Among his numerous media cases, Babcock successfully represented The Dallas Morning News in a 2004 defamation suit brought by restaurant chain owner Phil Romano.<\/p>\n \u2018Oprah\u2019s attorney\u2019<\/p>\n Case by case, Babcock has forged a career that in 2010 compelled the magazine Texas Lawyer to count him among the state\u2019s greatest attorneys of the past quarter-century.<\/p>\n But of course he\u2019s primarily known as \u201cOprah\u2019s attorney.\u201d Funny thing is, Babcock was in the middle of a contentious eight-week trial and had no interest in Winfrey\u2019s case when her general counsel first reached out in late 1997.<\/p>\n Talk show host Oprah Winfrey showed her joy after a jury ruled in her favor in Amarillo on Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998. Winfrey had been sued by Texas cattlemen for allegedly defaming the beef industry in one of her shows. Lawyer Chip Babcock is to the left of Winfrey.<\/p>\n LM OTERO \/ AP<\/p>\n \u201cI came back from court and there was this letter on my desk, attaching a lawsuit,\u201d he said. \u201cIt said, \u2018We\u2019d like you to represent us in this case that\u2019s been filed in Amarillo.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMy initial reaction was, \u2018This is the stupidest lawsuit I\u2019ve ever read about in my life.\u2019 So I padded around the corner to one of my partners\u2019 office and said, \u2018Hey, would you like to work on this Oprah Winfrey case?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Eighteen months later, Babcock found himself sharing an Amarillo bed and breakfast with Winfrey; her dog walker; her chef; the president of her company; her executive producer; and \u201cDr. Phil, when he was just plain ol\u2019 Phil.\u201d<\/p>\n For nearly two months, Babcock watched Winfrey go for daily 6 a.m. runs; return for trial prep; go to the courthouse; then tape her show at Amarillo\u2019s Little Theater; then go back to the bed and breakfast at 8 p.m. for more trial prep.<\/p>\n \u201cIncredible drive,\u201d he said of Winfrey. \u201cAnd delightful. Funny. Smart. Intuitive. Exactly in private as she appears in public.\u201d<\/p>\n More than a quarter-century later they remain friends. He\u2019s represented her in multiple cases and smaller legal matters. And he\u2019s represented McGraw numerous times, most recently in a 2025 bankruptcy case involving his media company.<\/p>\n Babcock shows no signs, or inclination, of slowing. He says he billed 2,300 hours last year. That\u2019s the equivalent of 287\u00bd eight-hour days.<\/p>\n Mavericks-Stars, if it makes it to May 11, won\u2019t be the trial of the century or Oprah-in-Amarillo level, but it\u2019s no accident the Mavericks have a sports writer-turned-titan in their legal corner.<\/p>\n Twitter\/X: @townbrad<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Chip](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3RKEWEYQHRGAFIRGIA6FHWXS3U.jpg\")
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