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Simpson Thacher’s Houston Office Advised on KKR/T-Mobile Metronet Deal - Corporate partners Breen Haire and Shamus Crosby advised on the creation of a joint venture with T-Mobile to secure Metronet, along with its two million broadband customers across 17 states. July 26, 2024Allen Pusey
Helmerich & Payne Buys KCA Deutag for $1.97B - A mostly Houston team from Kirkland & Ellis advised Tulsa-based buyer and A&O Shearman assisted the Scottish target, which would establish H&P as a global leader in onshore drilling. July 25, 2024Claire Poole & Allen Pusey
Conn’s Taps Sidley to Lead Bankruptcy - The Texas discount furniture and appliance retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in the Southern District of Texas citing more than $1 billion in debts. July 24, 2024Mark Curriden
Recidivist Acquiror IDEX Buys Mott for $1B - Sidley, led out of Dallas, advised the publicly traded IDEX. Cooley assisted the employee-owned Mott, which fits the buyer's "sweet spot" of highly engineered, configurable mission-critical components. July 23, 2024Claire Poole
CDT Roundup: 15 Deals, 14 Firms, 184 Lawyers, $16B - The CDT Roundup occasionally spotlights a lawyer whose pops up in connection with one of our larger deals. Mitch Tiras has popped up lots of times over the years, this last week in connection with the $1.54 billion Quanta Services acquisition of Cupertino Electric. We take a quick look at his recent work, along with the usual list of deals reported last week and the lawyers behind them. July 23, 2024Claire Poole
Litigation Roundup: Fifth Circuit Revives Pioneer, MIECO Gas Delivery Fight - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Whistleblower who sued Kellogg, Brown and Root sees his $1.1 million recovery wiped out on appeal, another class action lawsuit over a data breach is filed against AT&T and a Uri-related gas delivery fight against Pioneer Natural Resources is revived. July 22, 2024Michelle Casady
Woodside Purchases Tellurian for $1.2B - A mostly Texas team from Akin Gump advised Tellurian while Norton Rose Fulbright advised Woodside, which the Australian company claims positions it to be a global LNG powerhouse. July 22, 2024Claire Poole
Centerpiece
Fifth Circuit’s FCC Ruling Ripe for SCOTUS Review - The Fifth Circuit majority zeroed in on the “double-layered delegation” of the authority to set the tax rate for the universal service fund, which is used to subsidize phone and internet services for rural and low-income areas, as well as schools, hospitals and libraries, across the country. With the holding, the conservative Fifth Circuit did what the Sixth, Eleventh and D.C. circuits had declined to do in cases brought by the conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research against the FCC raising this same issue. July 26, 2024Michelle Casady
The First Half of 2024: The Role of Billion-Dollar Deals - Nothing says Texas M&A better than a billion-dollar deal. And in the first half of 2024, there were plenty of them. July 24, 2024Allen Pusey
Expert Voices
Texas Law: New Business Courts Should Reject Prior Pending Cases - There have been reports of some confusion regarding whether cases pending in Texas state courts on Aug. 31 that otherwise satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of the Texas business court can be removed to the business court after it opens its doors on Sept. 1. The answer is clear. Attempts to remove these cases should be rejected by the business court.
The clear intent of HB19’s authors was that pending cases in Texas state courts should not be pulled and sent to the business court Sept. 1. With the small number of judges initially serving the business court, the limited history, precedent and resources of the business court when it opens, and the potential for constitutional challenge, it was recognized that the business court would not have the resources to respond to a possible avalanche of hundreds if not thousands of pending cases. July 24, 2024Michael W. Tankersley & Eugene Zilberman
The clear intent of HB19’s authors was that pending cases in Texas state courts should not be pulled and sent to the business court Sept. 1. With the small number of judges initially serving the business court, the limited history, precedent and resources of the business court when it opens, and the potential for constitutional challenge, it was recognized that the business court would not have the resources to respond to a possible avalanche of hundreds if not thousands of pending cases. July 24, 2024Michael W. Tankersley & Eugene Zilberman
Proposed Anti-Money Laundering Rules and Other Requirements: Has the SEC Exceeded Its Authority in Regulating Private Funds? - In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network initiated rulemaking to enhance anti-money laundering compliance for certain SEC-Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers. The proposed rule was expected, following FinCEN's February 2024 related notice that would add certain RIAs and ERAs as financial institutions subject to the Bank Secrecy Act. Taken in aggregate, these changes represent a new and more formalized regulatory wrapper for small funds, making compliance more prescriptive and resource-intensive. Recent decisions at the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court complicate matters further. July 23, 2024John Willding & Donta Dismuke
Stories You Might’ve Missed
- Business Court Applicants Pick Favorite Judges, Disliked Decisions - Answers to the governor’s questionnaire shed some light on the judicial philosophies of some 30 who have applied for the coming business trial and appellate courts. Generally, they like conservatives like Scalia and Thomas and shun SCOTUS decisions on Obamacare and the Chevron deference.
Editor’s note: This article was written in advance of the governor’s announcements Wednesday. June 11, 2024Janet Elliott