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Asked & Answered with King & Spalding’s Bruce Hurley: AI & Civility in the Practice - In this edition of Asked & Answered, King & Spalding partner Bruce Hurley reflected on his career and recently being named trial lawyer of the year by the Texas chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Hearing the stories from family who were trial lawyers pushed him toward becoming a trial lawyer himself. May 20, 2026Alexa Shrake
Judge Gilstrap Won’t Permanently Enjoin Samsung After Jury’s Infringement Finding  - U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap has determined Collision Communications, a patent holder that secured a $445.5 million infringement verdict against Samsung Electronics last year, failed to show it was also entitled to a permanent injunction to prohibit ongoing infringement.  May 19, 2026Michelle Casady
Tech Companies Make Their Case for Dismissing Ukrainian Tort Lawsuits - Tom Melsheimer and lawyers for Texas Instruments, Intel and two other tech companies told U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater Tuesday that he should dismiss a potential precedent-setting case in which five Ukrainians injured or killed in Russian missile and drone attacks have sued for allegedly providing the microchips that guide the Russian weapons. Melsheimer told the judge that the plaintiffs’ lawsuits are fatally flawed because they fail to directly link the technology companies’ products to horrific attacks on Ukrainians, fail to show misconduct by the chip makers and failed to have filed their lawsuits in a timely manner. May 19, 2026Mark Curriden
Bitcoin Depot Hires V&E to Lead Bankruptcy - One of the largest bitcoin ATM operators filed Monday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas, but company executives say they plan to use the bankruptcy process for “an orderly wind-down of operations and a sale of the company’s assets” because the company’s “current business model is unsustainable.” May 19, 2026Mark Curriden
Litigation Roundup: ActBlue Taps Lynn Pinker to Defend AG Suit - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Justice Evan Young, in a concurrence, says the services of a pro bono lawyer sure would help a pro se litigant trying to amend her son’s inaccurate death certificate and American Airlines will have to face some claims arising from a 14-year-old’s in-flight death after the Fifth Circuit partially reversed a summary judgment win.  May 18, 2026Michelle Casady
Dallas Judge: Mask Mandate Protects Her ‘Personal Health Condition’ - Dallas County Court at Law Judge D’Metria Benson said the mandatory mask mandate that she ordered for all participants in her courtroom is necessary to protect a personal health condition that makes her “highly susceptible to infection.”

But the lawyer who originally made the allegations said he has recently witnessed Judge Benson at campaign fundraisers and events where neither the judge nor anyone was wearing a mask. May 18, 2026Mark Curriden
TI, Tech Firms Want Ukrainian Lawsuit Dismissed - Texas Instruments, Intel and two other semiconductor and technology companies are asking a Dallas federal judge to dismiss lawsuits brought by five Ukrainian citizens who claim that microchips, processors and programmable devices made by the four companies are being used by the Russian military in its war against Ukraine. A star-studded crew of trial lawyers on both sides of the litigation will present arguments Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater. May 18, 2026Mark Curriden
NextEra, Dominion Energy Merge in Stock Swap Valued at $66.8B - NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced Monday an agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction valued at $66.8 billion. Kirkland & Ellis advised NextEra with a team led by Zach Savrick and Andy Calder in Houston with David Feirstein, who works from Houston and New York, and Brooksany Barrowes in Washington, D.C. Dominion Energy is being advised by McGuireWoods. May 18, 2026Jason Philyaw

Centerpiece

Helen Xiang’s Unconventional Path to Castleton Commodities - The Rookie of the Year Award is intended to recognize lawyers who, in a short time, demonstrate outsized influence and leadership. Castleton Commodities International Counsel Helen Xiang has done precisely that. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Xiang with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year, which recognizes lawyers who have been in-house counsel for two years or less. This is the story of her path to Castleton. May 20, 2026Mark Curriden
Enerflex Senior Counsel Melanie Benefield is ‘a One Woman Army’ - Melanie Benefield was a “landman” long before Billy Bob Thornton made being a landman cool — except it involved offshore assets. Fifteen years later, Benefield is a Houston-based senior counsel at Calgary-headquartered Enerflex Ltd., a global energy firm that specializes in natural gas processing, power generation and water solutions.

“What makes Melanie's nomination compelling is not just the breadth of that mandate, but what she delivered within it during 2025 — a year that tested Enerflex's business and legal team in extraordinary ways,” AZA partner Jason McManis said.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 19 attorneys) to Benefield. May 19, 2026Mark Curriden

Expert Voices

Less Disclosure, More Questions: Evaluating the SEC’s Semiannual Reporting Proposal - Even if the Securities and Exchange Commission gives public companies permission to report less often, will investors, analysts and lenders actually let them? That is the central question raised by the Commission’s May 5 proposal to allow U.S. public companies to replace quarterly Form 10-Q filings with semiannual reports on a new Form 10-S — the most significant proposed change to the periodic reporting framework since quarterly reporting became mandatory in 1970. May 20, 2026Hillary H. Holmes & Cynthia M. Mabry
The Rise of ‘DEXIT’: Why Corporations are Swapping Delaware for Texas - The corporate landscape in the United States is shifting as a growing number of companies are making the choice to “DEXIT.” This article looks at reasons shareholders are citing in SEC filings for making the decision to redomicile in Texas. May 14, 2026Byron F. Egan

More Stories

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Dallas Jury Clears ExxonMobil in Securities Fraud Case
Courts in Texas, California, Separately Reject Houston Lawyer’s Claim to Stake in Napa Winery
More Stories

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Stories You Might’ve Missed

  • ‘The Golden Age for Corporate Law in Texas is Now’ (Updated) - Never in history have Texas corporate lawyers worked so many hours, charged such enormous rates and raked in more revenue and profits than they are right now. The Texas offices of more than three dozen law firms scored record-high revenues in 2025 — and many of them surpassed their old records by tens of millions of dollars, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.

    Citing increased demand for legal services and healthy hourly rate increases, 48 of the Lawbook 50 law firms generated more revenue and more profits in their Texas operations in 2025 than they did in 2024.     April 30, 2026Mark Curriden

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