Dunnam's legal career has been marked by his handling of prominent litigation nationally and in Texas. Less than 5 years after being licensed as a lawyer in Texas, Dunnam sued the Waco newspaper, television station KWTX, and an ambulance company on behalf of Special Agent John Risenhoover and the families of deceased ATF agents for their wrongful deaths arising out of the media's role in tipping off David Koresh to the raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco. The case was reportedly settled for $15 million, after Dunnam and counsel for other injured and deceased agents successfully argued that despite the First Amendment press protections, "if you're going to write a story, you cannot run a stop sign to get a story."