On September 4, the Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear a public-records dispute after Highland Park Independent School District refused to release an accounting firm’s report about the Seay Tennis Center.
The center operates on the Highland Park High School campus. HPISD says it serves school teams, physical education classes, junior programs and adult players.
Justices will hear oral arguments in Texas Public Policy Foundation v. Highland Park Independent School District at 9 a.m. October 8 at SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas. The court allotted each side 20 minutes.
Fight over attorney-client privilege
HPISD hired outside counsel in 2019 to investigate allegations involving employees’ handling of the center’s financial operations and advise the district, according to a July 2025 opinion from the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. The law firm hired accounting and consulting firm Whitley-Penn to assist.
Whitley-Penn sent its report to attorney Bryan Neal, who used it to advise the district. The appellate opinion says the law firm did not show the report to anyone at HPISD while providing that advice, and no one has released it to third parties outside this litigation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation requested the report under the Texas Public Information Act in August 2022. HPISD asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office whether it could withhold the document. The office concluded that attorney-client privilege covered the entire report.
TPPF then asked a court to order HPISD to release the report. A Dallas County trial court reviewed the report privately and sided with HPISD. The Fifth Court of Appeals upheld that ruling. It concluded that Whitley-Penn acted as Neal’s representative and sent him the report confidentially to help him provide legal services.
Public statement at issue
TPPF also argues HPISD waived any privilege through a March 2021 email from Michael White, then assistant superintendent for business services. White wrote that “there is no mismanagement occurring, there is no malfeasance occurring, and there are no funds being misdirected or mismanaged.”
The appeals court ruled that the email revealed neither the report’s contents nor Neal’s legal advice. In its brief, HPISD argued that White described conditions at the time, not the report’s findings.
TPPF’s petition asks the Supreme Court to decide whether government entities may withhold completed factual investigations when attorneys conduct them and whether officials can waive privilege through public statements.
Justice Jessica Lewis agreed with the appeals court’s result but wrote separately. “It comes down to this: should the results of a general, factual investigation conducted by a client’s attorney be shielded from disclosure where an identical investigation conducted directly by the client would not be?” she wrote.
Lewis urged the Supreme Court to review the case. On September 4, the justices granted review without deciding the merits.
Provided by Dallas Express
