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The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

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Top Stories

Courts to Remain Open, Staff Sees Furloughs as Funding Halts During Shutdown - Despite the federal government shutdown, which took effect Oct. 1 due to congress’ failure to pass a spending bill, federal courts are still in operation. But after three weeks, and with no funding agreement in sight, the judiciary is beginning to feel the pressure as staff members are furloughed and funding dries up. October 17, 2025Alexa Shrake
CMC Acquires Foley Products for $1.84B - Commercial Metals Co. said Thursday that it agreed to acquire Foley Products Co. for $1.84 billion in cash. Based outside Atlanta, Foley provides precast concrete and pipe products primarily in the Southeast, operating 18 facilities in nine states. The company’s products are used in drainage, water management, dry utility, and road construction across residential, non-residential and infrastructure sectors.  October 16, 2025Jason Philyaw
BlackRock-Led AI Group Strikes Deal for Aligned Data Centers - The Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership — the consortium founded about a year ago by BlackRock, Abu Dhabi-based MGX, Microsoft and NVIDIA to expand capacity of AI infrastructure — announced on Oct. 15 the acquisition of Aligned Data Centers from funds managed by Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management.

The companies said the deal, which values Plano-based Aligned Data Centers at $40 billion, will fuel the expansion of next-generation cloud and AI infrastructure.

Sterlington, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis advised on the deal.
October 15, 2025Jason Philyaw
Alex Jones Expected to Pay $1.4B to Sandy Hook Families, SCOTUS Rejects Appeal - Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay $1.4 billion for defamation to the Sandy Hook shooting victims’ family members a decade after the shooting. His second attempt to avoid paying has been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. October 14, 2025Alexa Shrake
Mikal Watts: ‘No Jury in America Will Hold Camp Mystic Responsible’ - Prominent Texas plaintiff’s trial lawyer Mikal Watts, who has successfully sued some of the biggest companies in the world, is taking on his first defense client: Camp Mystic and its owners. Watts said Monday that he is officially representing pro bono the Eastland family and the Christian girls summer camp in any potential litigation resulting from the July flooding tragedy that caused more than 115 deaths, including 27 children at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.

“I’ve spent three months conducting a thorough investigation, and I believe that facts matter,” Watts told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview Monday.
October 13, 2025Mark Curriden
Litigation Roundup: Fort Worth Panel Says 15-Year Delay in Requesting Reporter’s Record Unexcused - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas Supreme Court requests responses in a $15.4 million personal injury appeal involving CenterPoint in a fight over public records involving Highland Park Independent School District and Ken Paxton takes an alleged “political takeover” attempt in Loving County to the courthouse.  October 13, 2025Michelle Casady

Centerpiece

Forty Years in the Making, Harris County Finally Gets More Civil District Courts - Lawmakers this session did something that hadn’t been done in more than 40 years: approved the creation of new civil district courts in Harris County. The five new courts will come online next year and in 2027, and officials have said the additions will improve docket efficiency, enhance access to justice and strengthen the court system’s ability to serve Harris County. October 17, 2025Michelle Casady
Q&A: South Texas College of Law Dean Rey Valencia on SCOTX’s Tentative Move Away from ABA Oversight and Other Changes Facing Law School Leaders - In June, before officially taking over as president and dean of South Texas College of Law, Reynaldo “Rey” Anaya Valencia joined seven other Texas law school leaders in urging the Texas Supreme Court to continue the American Bar Association’s role as the accrediting body. The son of former migrant farm workers, Valencia, a Harvard Law graduate, is the school’s first Hispanic and person of color president and dean.  October 16, 2025Krista Torralva

Expert Voices

How an Unconventional Path Can Lead to a Perfect Fit in Practice - When I arrived at the office, my inbox was teeming with notifications for a new commercial real estate deal. Walking to the employee lounge, I ran into a corporate partner who placed me on a management buyout closing within the next two weeks. An hour later, a real estate partner approached me, asking about the tax consequences of a non-liquidating property distribution. As I finally settled in at my desk, I paused, asking myself a question that has guided my career path all along: How did my past, with all its unexpected turns, lead me to this exact moment? I concluded my successful clerkship convinced of the power of three guiding career principles. October 15, 2025Travis McInroe

More Stories

CDT Roundup: A Bank Merger Leads the Way
Samsung Hit with $445.5M Verdict in EDTX Infringement Trial 
Whataburger CLO, Norton Rose Fulbright Partner Honored with San Antonio Lee Cusenbary Award
More Stories

Appellate

  • SCOTX Hears Arguments in Nicotine Pouch Tax Appeal
  • Texas Panel Says State Law Bars El Paso Conspiracy Suit in Cross-Border Dispute
  • Justice Boyd Leaves a Legacy of Judicial Restraint

Bankruptcy

  • GWG Bankruptcy Litigation Trustee Strikes Proposed Deal with Beneficient 
  • Jackson Walker, GWG Bankruptcy Trustee Reach $405,000 Settlement
  • GWG Bondholders Slam Dismissal Bids in RICO Suit

Commercial Litigation

  • Court Stays Susman’s Challenge to President’s EO During Gov’t Shutdown; Trustee Seeks Same Against Jackson Walker
  • Dallas-Based DOBS Gets Whopping $966M Verdict Against J&J in California 
  • All-Texan Team Gets $296M Jury Verdict in Arizona

Corp. Deal Tracker/M&A

  • CDT Roundup: From Solar to Chemicals to LNG, Energy Powers $20.8B Week
  • Fermi America’s $683M IPO Debuts in U.S. and London (Almost) Simultaneously
  • CDT Roundup: A Week of Power Plants, Energy Infrastructure and Another Crypto CapM Deal

GCs/Corp. Legal Depts.

  • Whataburger CLO, Norton Rose Fulbright Partner Honored with San Antonio Lee Cusenbary Award
  • UTSA, USAA, BioBridge, VSP Vision — More San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award Recipients Announced
  • Inaugural San Antonio Corporate Counsel Awards Winners Announced

White-Collar/Regulatory

  • Litigation Roundup: Fifth Circuit Revives Securities Fraud Suit
  • ‘Third Time Is a Charm’: After Two Hung Juries, Credit Card Execs Take Plea Deal
  • Litigation Roundup: Proxy Advisory Firms Get Texas’ ESG Disclosure Rule Paused

Firm Management

  • Houston Trial Firm Boosts Associate Salaries
  • Barbara Lynn’s Fourth Act: The Role of Sage and Admired Advisor
  • 15 Firms in Texas Achieve Lawbook 50 Elite Status

Stories You Might’ve Missed

  • Toyota’s Derek Lipscombe Named Texas Lawbook Foundation Co-Chair - The Texas Lawbook Foundation has named Derek Lipscombe, managing counsel at Toyota North America, as the new co-chair of the nonprofit’s board of directors. Lipscombe, a former newspaper reporter who is past president of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter, has served on The Lawbook Foundation board since it was founded in 2023. The Lawbook Foundation’s sole mission is to provide support for The Texas Lawbook’s news coverage of pro bono, public service and diversity in the Texas legal community. October 8, 2025Mark Curriden

Primary Sidebar

Features

  • P.S. –  Texas Lawyers Expand Access to Courtrooms and Playgrounds - In this week’s edition of P.S., we spotlight legal initiatives to expand access to justice, as well as one firm’s community service work expanding kids’ access to playgrounds.  October 17, 2025Krista Torralva
  • My Five Favorite Books: Leigha Simonton (Member at Dykema and Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas) - I have a secret hobby that only my close friends know: I advise high-school seniors (and younger students) about college admissions, including helping them create a list of schools that would be good fits for their interests and aspirations as well as their family’s pocketbooks. This unpaid side-gig started years ago, when my oldest daughter began high school and I decided to try to “hack” the college admissions game. I don’t mean that I plotted to get her into a U.S. News top 10 school — no, I defined “winning” as finding a school that would allow her to flourish in college, set her up for success after college (success as defined by her, not me), and be somewhere our family could afford on what was then two government salaries. Here are my Five Favorite Books: College Application Edition. October 15, 2025Leigha Simonton

GCs, Lawyers & Firms

  • Midwest Law Firm with Texas Offices Merges with Northeast Firm - Cincinnati-based Frost Brown Todd, which has operations in Dallas and Houston, announced Wednesday that it is merging with the Newark-headquartered law firm Gibbons. The merged firm will be called FBT Gibbons and will have about 800 lawyers in 25 offices across the country.
  • White & Case Adds Energy M&A Dealmaker in Houston
  • Norton Rose Hires Veteran Finance Partner from Winston & Strawn
  • Invitation Homes Selects Former SEC Associate Director as VP of Litigation and Investigations
  • Houston Trial Firm Boosts Associate Salaries
  • SALSA Names New Executive Director
  • New GE Vernova GC of Wind Energy Dionne Hamilton: ‘We’re Working to Make the World a Better Place’
  • Ross & Smith Announces Partnership with Full-Service Maryland Firm
  • Martin Sosland, Candice Carson Join Vartabedian Hester
  • Banks Brings Decades of Experience to Husch Blackwell’s New Biz Dev Leadership Role
More GCs, Lawyers & Firms

Lawyers in the News

Hover right to see full list

Chip Babcock
Chris Bankler
Jamie B. Beaber
David J. Beck
Bill Benitez
Jessica Berkowitz
Brent Bernell
Tyler Bexley
Shawn Blackburn
Michael Blankenship
Jeffrey Brill
Anita Brown
Ian Brown
Stuart Campbell
Jack Chadderdon
Paul Clement
Erin Nealy Cox
Scott Craig
Kevin Crews
Shamus Crosby
Hannah M. Crowe
Geoffrey Culbertson
Sean Cunningham
John Daywalt
Rajiv Dharnidharka
James Ducayet
Brian K. Erickson
Scott Everett
Weiru Fang
Elizabeth Freeman
Tad Freese
Melanie Fry
Geoff Gannaway
Paul Genender
John J. Gilluly III
Rodney Gilstrap
Andrew Gorham
John Greer
Joseph Grinstein
Matthew Haddad
Colleen Haile
Breen Haire
Shahmeer Halepota
Dionne Hamilton
Troy Harder
Rusty Hardin
Michael Hawes
Nathan Hecht
Stephen Hessler
Hillary Holmes
Marc Jaffe
Lauren Jenkins
David Jones
Atma Kabad
Susan Kennedy
David Kinder
Justin King
Allan Kirk
Melanie Koltermann
Doug Kubehl
Joe Laurel
Sang Lee
Steven Lockhart
Arthur Lotz
Barbara Lynn
Mike Lynn
Nora McGuffey
Stephanie McPhail
Mark Melton
Jeri Leigh Miller
Kimberly A. Moore
Mark Moore
Shelby Morgan
Alia Moses
Davis Mosmeyer III
Darren Nicholson
Eamon Nolan
Ivy Nowinski
Holland O’Neil
George Padis
Ian Peck
Jonathan Platt
Chase Proctor
Doug Rayburn
Joel Reese
Kevin Richardson
Andrew Rodheim
Seth Rubinson
Mazin Sbaiti
Ana Sanchez
Vincenzo Santini
Jeffrey Scharfstein
Robert Schroeder III
Scott Seidel
Steven Sexton
Ahmed Sidik
Robert Slovak
Emily Smith
Melissa R. Smith
Jonathon Soler
Robert Soza
Lande Spottswood
Craig Stanfield
Justin Stolte
Josh Teahen
Kelly Tidwell
Linda Tieh
Rafael B. de Toledo
Monica Uddin
Rhett Van Syoc
Rahul Vashi
Gabe Vazquez
Patrick Venter
Sarah Walden
Kandace Walter
Kyle Watson
Mikell Alan West
Noël Wise
Meng Xi

Firms in the News

Hover right to show full list

AZA
Baker Botts
The Bandas Law Firm
Beck Redden
Boies Schiller Flexner
Bracewell
Bradley Arant
Burns Charest
Clement & Murphy
Condon & Forsyth
DLA Piper
Dykema
Foley & Lardner
Gibson Dunn
Gillam & Smith
Haynes Boone
Holland & Knight
Jackson Walker
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Lynn Pinker
Mayer Brown
MoloLamken
Pamela Welch PLLC
Patton Tidwell Culbertson
Paul Hastings
Porter Hedges
The Probus Law Firm
Reese Marketos
Rusty Hardin & Associates
Sbaiti & Company
Sidley Austin
Simpson Thacher
Skadden
Squire Patton Boggs
Sullivan & Cromwell
Susman Godfrey
Troutman Pepper Locke
Vinson & Elkins
Weil
Willkie
Winston & Strawn

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