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Phillips 66: Taking Two Deals to Take a Midstream Private - When Jenarae Garland arrived as a new managing counsel at Phillips 66, she could be excused for not being fully prepared for the part she would come to play in the $3.8 billion take-private purchase of DCP Midstream LP. She was the junior member of a three-attorney team leading the deal, ranking behind Deputy General Counsel Rob Task and Managing Counsel Maine Goodfellow. Along with their outside counsel Bracewell, the deal has also resulted in their nomination as finalists for 2024 M&A Transaction of the Year by the Association of Corporate Counsel's Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook. May 11, 2024Allen Pusey
Top Stories
Top Stories
Houston Not Liable for Cop Car Crash with Bicyclist - Justices decided the first of three cases that test cities’ immunity when officers were involved in vehicle crashes while responding to calls for service. The court dismissed a
wrongful-death case filed by the family of a Houston bicyclist killed by a cop car speeding at night without emergency lights and sirens. The court found that the officer acted in good faith while responding to a suicide in progress call. May 10, 2024Janet Elliott
Texas Supreme Court Reverses $12M Verdict Due to Racially Biased Closing Argument - The Texas Supreme Court reversed a $12 million jury verdict on Friday because the plaintiffs’ lawyer during closing arguments injected the idea of racial and gender bias as a possible reason that the defendants wanted reduced amounts awarded to the plaintiffs, one of whom is an African American woman. The justices said the plaintiffs’ lawyer injected “inflammatory argument that was uninvited and unprovoked” in his final comments to the jury that essentially accused opposing counsel of race and gender discrimination when no evidence of either existed in the trial record. May 10, 2024Mark Curriden
SCOTX Clarifies What Damages Are Recoverable in ‘Wrongful Pregnancy’ Cases - Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, writing for a unanimous court, explained in a 21-page ruling that in so-called “wrongful pregnancy” cases only a narrow category of damages is available: those costs incurred during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. But in this case, Grissel Velasco was seeking to recover a much broader category of damages — including the costs of rearing her daughter, mental anguish, and physical pain and suffering. May 10, 2024Michelle Casady
Lawyers Discuss Perceived Surge of So-Called ‘Nuclear Verdicts’ - A Dallas County district judge and top civil lawyers shared their observations about what leads to large jury verdicts and discussed changes in jury attitudes during a recent CLE hosted by The Texas Lawbook. May 9, 2024Krista Torralva
Lewis Brisbois Mourns Associate Fatally Shot in Houston - Jeffrey Limmer, 46, an associate at Lewis Brisbois, died May 4 after being shot multiple times after trying to intervene in a dispute between a customer and an employee at McDonald’s. The firm has said it will establish a memorial scholarship at his alma mater, South Texas College of Law. May 8, 2024Michelle Casady
Financial Advisor Says Fidelity Fired Him for Reporting Securities Violations - Michael Maeker had been a registered financial advisor for 26 years when he was fired by Fidelity Investments. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday, Maeker alleges Fidelity fired him after he raised concerns that the company was violating securities laws by pressuring advisors to invest client funds in a way that was more beneficial to the company’s bottom line than it was to the clients’. May 8, 2024Michelle Casady
Yetter Coleman Boosts IP Practice with Natalie Alfaro Gonzales - Natalie Alfaro Gonzales joins the Houston boutique from Baker Botts, where she was a partner and co-leader of the firm’s energy tech sector. Her hiring is part of a “critical initiative” for Yetter Coleman, its leaders said. May 8, 2024Krista Torralva
Centerpiece
Spire’s Sean Jamieson Diversifies Voices in the Natural Gas Industry - When you hear the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion, your mind probably goes to the boilerplate topics that are the subject of so many panel discussions in Corporate America — diverse candidate pool, hiring and retention practices, mentorship versus sponsorship, to name a few. But for Spire General Counsel Sean Jamieson, DEI became a life-or-death matter in the summer of 2021 as a whopper regulatory battle put an existential threat to the existence of one of Spire’s natural gas pipelines. Critics thought Spire only designed its STL Pipeline project to line its own pockets. Jamieson and Spire viewed the pipeline as a means to diversify the natural gas source in eastern Missouri to lower the cost of delivering reliable energy to the people who need it the most: a widely vulnerable, underrepresented customer base.
“This would have been bad for our business. But it would have been terrible for people,” Jamieson said. “I had spent the months before working with the technical analysts and modeling what it would mean if we didn’t have this pipeline, the number of customers we would potentially lose. I learned and internalized all the mechanics associated with what would actually happen.”
Jamieson’s sleepless, behind-the-scenes work to bring together diverse viewpoints to solve complex problems is why Spire’s STL Pipeline is still running. It’s also why he’s a finalist for the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook’s 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. May 11, 2024Natalie Posgate
“This would have been bad for our business. But it would have been terrible for people,” Jamieson said. “I had spent the months before working with the technical analysts and modeling what it would mean if we didn’t have this pipeline, the number of customers we would potentially lose. I learned and internalized all the mechanics associated with what would actually happen.”
Jamieson’s sleepless, behind-the-scenes work to bring together diverse viewpoints to solve complex problems is why Spire’s STL Pipeline is still running. It’s also why he’s a finalist for the Association of Corporate Counsel and The Texas Lawbook’s 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. May 11, 2024Natalie Posgate
PURIS GC Thomas Gottsegen Gets Into the Weeds and Solves Problems - During his five years as general counsel at PURIS, Thomas Gottsegen has helped lead an acquisition of an equal-sized competitor that transformed the company in 2022 and 2023 and undertook a complicated streamlining of the organization that included eliminating corporate entities that were no longer necessary due to the merger. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Gottsegen as one of two finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Solo Legal Department.
But Gottsegen's journey to PURIS was initiated by a Category Five hurricane that destroyed his house and caused his family to flee New Orleans. This is his story. May 10, 2024Mark Curriden
But Gottsegen's journey to PURIS was initiated by a Category Five hurricane that destroyed his house and caused his family to flee New Orleans. This is his story. May 10, 2024Mark Curriden
Expert Voices
Mother’s Day: Shared Experiences and Support - In honor of Mother’s Day, Sidley Austin associate Tayler Bragg discusses why the holiday hits differently for her this year as someone expecting and how she feels supported by colleagues. May 11, 2024Tayler Bragg
Texas Business Courts Are Almost Here, And Other Texas Entity Governance Legislation Has Already Arrived - On Sept. 1, the Texas business court will commence accepting the filing of new cases within its jurisdiction. Certain other bills passed in the 2023 Texas Legislature have already gone into effect are summarized in this article and will affect the governance of entities in Texas. May 8, 2024Daryl Robertson
Stories You Might’ve Missed
- Brister, Gunn, Matthews Among Applicants for TX Business Court and 15th Court of Appeals - Twenty lawyers, including several former Texas appellate and trial court judges, have applied for appointment to the newly created business courts and intermediate appellate court. They include prominent figures such as former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister, appellate specialist David Gunn and Houston MDL Judge Sylvia Matthews. Five candidates from the Texas AG’s office also are seeking positions. Gov. Abbott will appoint the judges and justices, who begin hearing cases in September. The Texas Lawbook obtained the applications through a public information request. February 1, 2024Janet Elliott