Brewer Firm Starts Newest Voting Rights Legal Battle Against Coppell ISD

By Natalie Posgate – (Sept. 23) - Coppell Independent School District’s election system discriminates against the area’s largest ethnic group by preventing proper representation on the school board, a lawsuit filed Thursday in Dallas federal court alleges. The complaint is the latest in a streak of litigation in North Texas brought by the Brewer Storefront that challenges the legality of how many city councils and school districts have been running their elections. So far, the firm has obtained a favorable outcome for every case.

Texas Employers Should Take Notice of Gun Law Changes

By Jordan Faykus and Jacob Crumrine of Baker & McKenzie – (Sept. 23) - Over the course of the past year, there have been two major gun law developments affecting employers in Texas.

On Aug. 8, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in Swindol v. Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation that Mississippi employees who were fired for storing guns in their cars may bring a wrongful discharge claim against their former employers. Texas employers should take note that local courts could reach the same holding.

Additionally, on Jan. 1, 2016, Texas’ new “open carry” law went into effect. Given these legal developments, employers should review their relevant policies to ensure compliance.

SEC Accuses Cooperman and Omega of Insider Trading on Atlas Pipeline Deal

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 21) – The SEC claims that Leon Cooperman and his $5 billion New York hedge fund used confidential, non-public information when they purchased large quantities of Atlas Pipeline Partners stock in 2010. Atlas is now owned by Houston-based Targa Resources.

When IP Issues Arise on Social Media, try Playing Nice

By Jeff Bounds – (Sept. 21) – No matter how egregious the intellectual property infringement, old fashioned cease-and-desist letters can backfire, leading to online campaigns against a business, a panel of experts said last Tuesday. The lesson: When possible, appearing reasonable can nip problems in the bud.

SEC investigates Exxon Mobil over accounting practices

By James Osbourne of the Houston Chronicle – (Sept. 21) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Exxon Mobil’s accounting practices around climate change and the drastic fall in oil prices since 2014. The company confirmed that the agency requested information and documents from Exxon and its accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in August. At the center of the probe is the question of why the Texas oil giant has not written down the value of its oil and gas assets in light of the crash in crude prices and how the company is managing the growing financial risk climate change poses to its business.

Updated: Texas and U.S. Biz Groups Sue DOL for New Overtime Pay Rule

By Natalie Posgate – (Sept. 20) – A consortium of more than 55 Texas and national business groups on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit in East Texas against the U.S. Department of Labor in an attempt to preemptively stop from taking effect the government’s new overtime rule that would make more than 4 million American workers eligible for OT pay when it goes into effect this fall. It follows a lawsuit filed earlier Tuesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 20 other states.

Survey: Texas Biz Predict More Litigation, but Facts Don’t Support View

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 19) – Corporate general counsel in Texas and across the U.S. predict they will hire more lawyers who specialize in civil litigation and governmental regulatory matters during the next year to help meet increased demand, according to a new survey conducted by Texas-based Norton Rose Fulbright. One big culprit? Businesses suing other businesses over contract disagreements. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive details.

Woodlands Fracking Sand Producer Files for IPO

By Natalie Posgate – (Sept. 19) – Houston lawyers from Latham & Watkins and Vinson & Elkins filed an S-1 late last week for The Woodlands-based Smart Sand, Inc., which provides sand for hydraulic fracturing to exploration & production and oilfield service companies such as EOG Resources and Weatherford.

Texas Jury Orders Apple to Pay $22M for Patent Infringement

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 19) – A federal jury in Tyler ruled Thursday that Apple illegally used source code owned by a Plano-based patent holding company on several models of its iPhones and iPads. Fort Worth IP lawyer Ed Nelson convinced an eight-person jury to award $22.1 million in damages to Cellular Communications Equipment, which the jury said owns a valid patent on unique source code that combines hardware components and specifically designed software instructions to allow advanced buffering technology on smart phones and handheld devices.

Chase bank says employees must arbitrate off-the-clock complaints

By L.M. Sixel of The Houston Chronicle – (Sept. 19) – JP Morgan Chase Bank is trying to stop seven former employees from going forward with a nationwide collective action lawsuit that alleges bank employees are forced to work off the clock. The employees signed arbitration agreements as part of their jobs, which included a promise not to join any collective action lawsuits, according to a petition that JP Morgan Chase filed this week in federal court in Houston.

The employees agreed to settle individual claims through arbitration, a confidential and increasingly common process that keeps employees from spilling corporate secrets in a public courtroom. The employees asked the arbitration service to allow them to participate in the collective action, citing their rights under a federal labor relations law that allows employees to join together to improve their wages and working conditions, according to the bank's petition to the court. The Houston Chronicle has full details.

Legal Pioneer and Texas Justice Barbara Culver Clack Died Sunday

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 15) – Barbara Culver Clack, the first woman to practice law in Midland and the second woman to serve full time on the Texas Supreme Court, died Sunday in Midland. She was 90. Born in Dallas and a 1951 graduate of the SMU Dedman School of Law, Clack was appointed to the state’s highest court in 1988 by Gov. Bill Clements.

BNSF Railway GC Jumps to Thompson & Knight

By Natalie Posgate – (Sept. 15) – Thompson & Knight said Thursday that it has snagged BNSF Railway Corp. General Counsel Charles Shewmake as a new partner in the firm’s trial practice. A desire for a change and his familiarity with T&K's lawyers and firm reputation drew Shewmake to join the Dallas-based firm. His first day in his new role was Tuesday.

The Cowboys’ Legal Star: Meet Jason Cohen

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 15) – Dallas Cowboys General Counsel Jason Cohen helped negotiate eight-digit stadium naming rights with AT&T his first week on the job. The second week, he led legal talks for the Jones family on the development of the practice facilities and headquarters in Frisco. He has written contracts for Cowboys' players and coaches, negotiated multimillion-dollar media and sponsorship deals, sued to enforce Cowboys intellectual property and represented the owners in discussions with the NFL over league policies and procedures. Did I mention he's only 36?

'Consequences - They Sure Suck' - Dallas Bar Examines Civility in the Legal Profession

By Mark Curriden – (Sept. 12) – The TV commercial features “criminals” buying and selling drugs, stealing stereo equipment and hiring the services of a prostitute. Each thanks their lawyer for helping them get out of jail and apparently go back to a life of crime. "Consequences, they sure suck, don't they?" the lawyer says. The advertisement was featured in a Dallas Bar Association program Friday about civility and dignity in the legal profession. This article highlights the star-studded panels and showcases one of the craziest lawyer TV commercials ever.

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The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker reports M&A activity and securities offerings handled by lawyers based in Texas, even if those transactions involve non-Texas-based companies. The Corporate Deal Tracker ranks matters by deal/offering count primarily and value secondarily. The data includes the announcement date, the names of the companies involved and the lawyers and their law firms. These charts are up to date as of June 30, 2016.

Please contact us if you see any information that is inaccurate or missing.

Click on each Chart to see a full listing:

Corp. Deal Tracker Exclusive: Top Firms, Lawyers Vie for Work in Tight Deal Market

By Natalie Posgate – (Aug. 8) – The Corporate Deal Tracker rankings for the first half of 2016 are official. The usual law firms and individual lawyers rank in the top 20 for M&A and securities offerings, but there are a few surprises. The numbers show that, despite the oil and gas slow down, Houston transactional lawyers are still busier than their Dallas counterparts. The bottom line is that competition among M&A and capital markets lawyers is fiercer than ever, even as deal activity remains slow.

Corporate Deal Tracker: Door Cracks Open for Capital Markets

By Natalie Posgate – (Aug. 3) – Texas lawyers found that the capital markets remained tight-fisted during the first six months of this year, but new data indicates that the door to the vault might be cracking open ever so slightly for the rest of 2016.

The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker shows that Texas-based lawyers worked on 115 securities offerings valued at $51.5 billion in the first half of the year. That marks a significant decline from the deal flow witnessed in H1 2015 – down 35 percent on count and 45 percent on value – but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the market conditions during the second half of last year, the data shows.

Corporate Deal Tracker: Texas Lawyers Stay Busy Despite Wacky M&A Climate

By Natalie Posgate - The value of M&A transactions in the energy sector plummeted 65 percent during in the first half of 2016. Overall corporate deals worth $500 million or more were down by 13 percent. Billion-dollar plus transactions were down 19 percent. Private deals are up. Deals involving bankruptcy assets are up. The Texas Lawbook's exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker has all the M&A data from H1 2016 and predictions for the rest of the year.

Mergermarket: Texas M&A Dollar Declines Again in Q2

By Natalie Posgate - M&A lawyers in Texas who thought the first quarter was bad should brace for even worse news. Deal count was pathetically low during the second quarter of 2016 and the value of the transactions that were announced plummeted to lows the market has not seen since 2009 and the Great Recession. In addition, an increasing number of large deals being considered fell apart before closing.

Texas Financial Advisers: M&A Activity will Surge in Q4

By Kerry Curry - Merger-and-acquisition activity crawled along during the first half of 2016, but leading financial advisers in Texas predict an acceleration of deal flow and size before the end of year. Financial advisers from KPMG, Tudor Pickering Holt, Grant Thornton and Anderson King Energy say they expect private equity firms and traditional investors in the oil patch to return to the deal market later after sitting on the sidelines for the past 18 months.