Tom Leatherbury ’73

ALUMNI NEWS

By Shannon Allen

Tom Leatherbury ’73, a Senior Partner at Vinson & Elkin, is a zealous advocate for freedom of the press and has a passion for mentoring attorneys. His goal is to foster confident, compassionate and creative attorneys who make a difference. For his dedication to the First Amendment and his leadership as Director of the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, The American Lawyer honored Leatherbury with the Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award in December 2021. The same month, the Yale Alumni Association presented Leatherbury with its highest honor, the Yale Medal.

Leatherbury is part of an FWCD Founding Family, meaning he was at Country Day when the school opened on September 9, 1963. “I remember starting at CDS [in third grade]. It was a great experience,” Leatherbury said. “The campus was wide open, so much land, and the faculty were top-notch, inspiring students to think for themselves.”

Some of his favorite memories include winning the 1972 Soccer SPC Championship, singing in the Glee Club, traveling to Europe with French Teacher Claire-Lise Knecht H’06, and recycling newspapers in the Recycling Club. “We were a small school, so everyone was involved in a bit of everything,” he said. “As a result, we were a tight-knit group.”

Drawn to English and history, Leatherbury shared that English Teacher Christine Eastus made an impact on his vocabulary. “She stressed the importance of words and choosing them wisely in what we wrote and how we presented ourselves,” Leatherbury said. Ironically, Eastus later taught his older son at Greenhill School. “It was a happy reconnection, and we stay in touch,” he said.

Tad Sanders H’18 ( English and History), Ford Dixon (History), Sharon Foster H’05 (Science), and Colonel Rocky Rosacker H’00 (Athletics) also made impressions.

“They were advocates, mentors, you name it,” he said. “The teachers wanted the best for students and provided them with the tools to succeed.”

Leatherbury carried his Country Day confidence to Yale University. He watched the news and followed the legal issues about schools related to desegregation. “The Civil Rights Movement was fascinating to me, and I knew law would become my career,” Leatherbury noted. He earned a BA in History and a JD at Yale Law School.

For a number of years, Leatherbury co-led Vinson & Elkins’ firmwide Appellate Practice Group. A nationally recognized litigator with a career spanning four decades, he represents traditional and digital publishers and broadcasters in all aspects of media litigation. He teaches Continuing Legal Education courses and is involved in a range of pro bono work, from family to immigration to constitutional law. “The firms I’ve worked for have allowed me great latitude to pursue and share my passion,” he said. “My ultimate goal at SMU is to help students work with clients and cases so they are practice-ready,” Leatherbury said.

One of Leatherbury’s famous cases involved CBS 60 Minutes and correspondent Ed Bradley. The broadcast focused on impoverished communities that housed immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. “These communities had no running water; there was rampant disease and horrible living conditions,” he said. “The 60 Minutes piece unraveled the ownership of some of the worst housing and found that the principal owner of a particular community was a powerful El Paso family, the Kastrins. Deborah Kastrin sat for an interview, and didn’t like how it turned out. She sued, along with other family members, for defamation.”

After a two-week trial, the jury found that the broadcast was not false. “Sometimes the truth hurts,” Leatherbury said. “We were on the side of the angels. It doesn’t get better than that.”

Tom Leatherbury ’73