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Two Years in, Texas Business Court Wins Praise, But Dedicated Courtrooms, Extended Terms Are Needed - By all accounts, the Texas Business Court has met or exceeded expectations. Business court judges have moved their growing dockets quickly and efficiently, and they have not been as unfriendly to plaintiffs as many lawyers feared. Yet some practitioners see specific areas that have room for improvement.
Just Wednesday morning, all 10 judges were reappointed for their second two-year terms, which most lawyers applauded. July 29, 2026
Just Wednesday morning, all 10 judges were reappointed for their second two-year terms, which most lawyers applauded. July 29, 2026
Biz Court Gets Continuity: Gov. Abbott Reappoints All 10 Jurists - A lingering question was answered Wednesday when Gov. Greg Abbott announced in a news release that he is reappointing all 10 sitting Texas Business Court judges to two-year terms. The announcement comes about a month before the current terms are set to expire Sept. 1. July 29, 2026
We Requested SCOTX Financial Disclosure Forms. Here’s What They Show - Conferences, real estate investments and stock in ExxonMobil are among the financial interests the Texas Supreme Court justices’ financial disclosure forms detail for the past year. The Texas Lawbook made an open records request for the forms of the nine sitting justices in May. Four of the justices requested extensions. The Lawbook obtained the rest of the forms in July. July 28, 2026BlackRock, Meta Team Up on $14B El Paso Data Center - BlackRock and Meta announced on Tuesday a deal to build a 1 gigawatt data center in El Paso. Latham & Watkins advised Meta on the transaction, and BlackRock used Kirkland & Ellis as outside legal counsel. July 28, 2026
$1.25B Bet: Texas Natural Gas Company Acquires Houston’s Twin Eagle - Spring-based Expand Energy has acquired Houston wholesale energy marketing company Twin Eagle Holdings for $1.25 billion from private equity firm Five Point Infrastructure. July 28, 2026
Litigation Roundup: Winter Storm Uri Gas Case Spawns 2 Certified Questions to SCOTX - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Dallas court of appeals agrees a trial court got it wrong by forcing the parties in a breach of contract case into a bench trial when one requested trial by jury, and an automotive equipment manufacturer sued by Tesla tells the court the company named the wrong defendant. July 27, 2026
CDT Roundup: Every Week is a Power Up - As in most weeks of late, the deals reflect the ongoing data center scramble for power at every level, from upstream to downstream generation to renewables and storage and to the mining of metals that move or store it all.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup. July 26, 2026
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup. July 26, 2026
Bankruptcy Judge: No Deadline Extension in Jackson Walker Fee Fight Case - Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez this week rejected a joint request from Jackson Walker and the U.S. Trustee to extend deadlines in the cases where the bankruptcy watchdog is attempting to claw back millions in fees awarded to the law firm. July 24, 2026
Centerpiece
Tom Luce Helped Reshape Texas. He Also Remembered Your Name - Public servant. Legal giant. Texas titan. People who knew Tom Luce reached for big words to describe him, but in interview after interview, one word rose above the rest: kind.
As his colleagues, peers and friends talked to The Texas Lawbook about his hand in reshaping Texas public education and mental health, building a successful law firm and founding a data‑driven think tank, they kept circling back to the same picture.
He was the man who listened more than he spoke, made time for everyone and never made anyone feel small. July 27, 2026
Exclusive: Legendary Houston Trial Lawyer Retires After Nearly Six Decades of Unprecedented Victories - Robin Gibbs' first jury trial was in the fall of 1971 representing an insurance company in a $278 car accident case. He charged $35 an hour. Fifty-five years later, Gibbs is a giant in the legal profession. He has won jury and bench trials in six different decades. His hourly rate has gone up a bit: $1,700 per hour. He pioneered the concept of litigation boutiques in the mid-1970s.
In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Gibbs said he is officially retiring from the practice of law Dec. 31. July 23, 2026Expert Voices
Texas Drew the Line on AI. Here’s How Employers Are Walking It. - The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act is reshaping how businesses hire, evaluate and schedule workers, shifting AI in the workplace from an abstraction to an immediate operational risk. With the Texas attorney general launching an online enforcement portal Sept. 1, this article gives practical advice for mapping TRAIGA across key workforce use cases and establishing a defensible AI governance framework. July 27, 2026
How to Prepare Your Client for Mediation (So it Actually Works): A Former Judge’s Perspective - Many attorneys and clients simply show up and hope the mediator magically makes a deal for them. That’s a mistake. Here’s a closer look at why diligently laying the groundwork with clients improves your chance of success at mediation and ideas for executing this. July 20, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
The Real Harry Potter’s ‘Magic Wand — Loyalty to the Law’ - “Your boss is a crook!” Arthur Golden, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a lawyer for Big Tobacco, screamed into the telephone in the fall of 1998. “A crook!”
On the other end of the line, Harry Potter, then a special assistant attorney general in Texas running the tobacco litigation, who was appointed three decades ago by then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to lead the historic lawsuit brought by the state of Texas against Big Tobacco. Potter and Golden had negotiated the details of the historic $15.3 billion settlement agreement between the state of Texas and large cigarette makers.
“Arthur was extremely angry — livid,” Potter said. “He talked about secret lawyer contracts. I didn’t know anything about it, but it sent chills throughout my body."
In Part II of The Texas Lawbook's series on the tobacco litigation, learn the story of the real Harry Potter, a Houston lawyer whose secret power was his ethics and commitment to the law. July 16, 2026
