Tarrant County to hire Keller trustees’ lawyer in second lawsuit against clerk
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday will consider hiring a lawyer at the center of a controversy in Keller ISD to represent District Clerk Tom Wilder in a second petition calling for his removal.
Attorney Tim Davis of the Fort Worth law firm Jackson Walker will represent Wilder in a lawsuit that cites a statute of the Texas Local Government Code in calling for his removal from office.
The move comes just two weeks after the court voted to hire Davis to represent Wilder in a separate petition calling for his removal that was filed in May.
Commissioners court documentation regarding Davis’ hiring cites a statute in the Texas Local Government Code that entitles a county employee who has been sued to outside legal counsel if additional counsel is necessary or if the claims in the suit could be the basis of a criminal complaint.
A county spokesperson said the county does not comment on pending litigation. Anna Tinsley Williams, a spokesperson for the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, said that office “played no role” in the decision to hire Davis.
Filed by Southlake resident Conghua Yan on Aug. 4, the second suit accuses Wilder of purging documents in an ongoing family court case.
Reached by telephone, Wilder used an expletive to describe this story and called Yan and others who have petitioned for his removal “a group of disgruntled court litigants.”
In a subsequent email, Wilder accused Yan of “refusing to pay child support and/or legislatively mandated fees.”
“There is no merit to these claims, and we will vigorously defend against them,” he said.
Davis declined to comment.
The commissioners court will consider earmarking up to $30,000 for Davis’ services in this case. He will be paid an hourly rate of $400.
Reached by telephone, Yan expressed confidence in his case, adding that he thinks $30,000 will not cover the full extent of the services needed to represent Wilder.
Yan said he has “legitimate ground” to sue Wilder, because “he has deleted my record.”
Yan, who is representing himself, claims Wilder deleted dozens of docket entries in a case he has in a Tarrant County family court during a transfer of the case to a different court and judge.
He questioned why the electronic filing system the courts use would even have the ability to delete entries.
“Who has the delete function?” Why did records disappear from my case?” he said, adding that he is “not worried” about his chances against Davis. “Let them approve [Davis’ hiring]. They can face me. I’m not worried about that.”
Davis has come under scrutiny for his work with the Keller school board and others in North Texas who have taken up culture war issues such as book bans and pronoun policies.
Court filings for a case seeking the removal of three Keller school board trustees under the same Local Government Code statute put Davis at the center of closed-door discussions last year on the legal process for splitting the district. That suit alleges that some trustees on the Keller school board violated the Texas Open Meetings Act while Davis served as legal counsel to the board.
An invoice for legal services rendered by Davis and other Jackson Walker attorneys for work performed from January to May was for just under $172,000. The district appealed to the Texas Attorney General’s Office to ask that it withhold the release of subsequent invoices from the firm.
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM.
