Johnathan Bridges, ’00 J.D.

Johnathan Bridges joined the faculty of UNT Dallas College of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law, having most recently served as a partner in the firm of Susman Godfrey LLP. Professor Bridges will teach Property, Evidence, Legal Writing, and other subjects. Before attending law school, Professor Bridges spent five years teaching English to high school students and also completed a master’s degree in English. He then attended Notre Dame Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Notre Dame Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Thomas M. Reavley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. During 14 years of practicing law at Susman Godfrey, Professor Bridges handled high-stakes commercial litigation, including cases involving real estate, oil and gas interests, coal mining, power plants, zoning, eminent domain, patents, copyrights, and movie theater chains. Respected legal writing expert Brian Garner, in his book The Winning Brief (3rd ed. 2014), features a brief authored by Professor Bridges and introduces it with these comments: “How good is this brief? Let’s just say that many experienced appellate lawyers have told me they consider it to be the best they’ve ever seen: a beautiful marriage of rhetorical skill, thorough research, and humane lawyering.”