Jack E. McGehee, Jr.

1952 to 2026

Jack E. McGehee, Jr. died on October 23, 2026. He was 74.

In life, Jack was a legal LEGEND in so many ways and for so many people. For me, he was so much more: my Dad, my Mentor, my Hero. I learned most of what I know in law and in life from Jack. His legacy and teachings live on through the Firm, and through the lives of everyone he helped.

Jack began his career defending government doctors and hospitals for the Pentagon where he was ultimately put in charge of a billion-dollar docket. As he grew in stature, so did his awareness of injustice for the most vulnerable among us. With that awareness came change. He switched sides. He started fighting for people who were hurt, their families, and, most of all, for children with brain damage. He fought for them as if they were his own, because to him they were.

In the court room, Jack tried 314 cases to verdict. He was board certified in personal injury trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, and a Civil Trial Specialist of the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He served as president of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and of the Houston Trial Lawyers’ Foundation and Association. He taught Civil Trial Advocacy at the University of Houston Law Center and as a visiting professor at Emory’s Trial Techniques Institute. He wrote The Plaintiff’s Case: From Voir Dire to Verdict and gave more than three hundred speeches and publications, teaching other lawyers how to do what he did. He never kept a thing he knew to himself.

His generosity also extended beyond the courtroom. With his wife Diane, he founded Together in Hope, which builds schools and feeds families in places most people never think about. He measured his life by what he gave away. Never by what he made.

Jack’s legacy is this Firm. He built it, and he built us. Every case we take, every deposition, every trial, we do the way he taught us, and we hear him while we do it. His rule was simple. “If it is wrong, fight it. If it is right, fight for it.” That is still the rule here, and it always will be. Nothing changes for our clients.

McGehee ★ Chang, Feiler will continue under the leadership of Jack’s law partners Ben Feiler and H.C. Chang. Our clients’ cases continue without interruption, with the same lawyers, the same resources, and the same standards. Jack expected the best from us. He will get it. As will our clients.

Sincerely,

Benjamin C. Feiler