When the Texas Supreme Court considers issues that will have a substantial impact beyond the litigants in the case, companies and interest groups have hired Graves Dougherty to file friend-of-the-court briefs to provide guidance and advocacy on the broader implications of the Court’s decision.

• Graves Dougherty filed an amicus brief on behalf of a land trust in a case considering the validity of state rules regulating the production of groundwater. Guitar Holding Co. v. Hudspeth County. Underground Water Conservation Dist. No. 1, 263 S.W.3d 910 (Tex. 2008).
• On behalf of a workers’ compensation carrier, Graves Dougherty provided guidance to the Texas Supreme Court when deciding whether Texas public policy allows workers’ compensation insurers to indemnify punitive damage awards. Fairfield Ins. Co. v. Stephens Martin Paving, LP, 246 S.W.3d 653 (Tex. 2008).
• Graves Dougherty filed an amicus brief on behalf of several non-profit conservation groups in a case deciding whether a state agency had to hold a hearing to consider the environmental impacts of a proposed amendment to a water rights permit. City of Marshall v. City of Uncertain, 206 S.W.3d 97 (Tex. 2006).