Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
President Donald Trump made two nominations for the federal benches in Texas Monday. He nominated Kirkland & Ellis partner Kasdin Mitchell in Dallas and deputy chief of staff to Gov. Greg Abbott, Angela Colmenero, in Houston.
The Supreme Court of North Dakota has directed the trial court to enter a narrow antisuit injunction against Greenpeace International Thursday morning, barring it from proceeding with its action against Dallas-based Energy Transfer in the Netherlands. A North Dakota jury awarded Energy Transfer more than $660 million in damages against Greenpeace in March 2025.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, McKool Smith’s Sam Baxter, who recently retired, reflects on his 56-year career. While he is known for his work trying intellectual property cases in the Eastern District of Texas, he started out as a prosecutor and judge.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett spoke about her book Listening to the Law at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University’s campus Monday evening. From clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia to ruling on a death penalty case, Justice Barrett covered a few topics in her book.
Following a four-week trial, a jury determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association is liable for negligence in a lawsuit brought by the family of a former Southern Methodist University football player who died of chronic traumatic encephalopathy dementia.
Two University of Texas School of Law graduates, who are also veterans, are striking out on their own to start Ryman Clark, a boutique firm focused on tenants’ rights and complex property and construction litigation. Alexander Clark and Kyle Ryman, who were then practicing at Haynes Boone and McKool Smith, respectively, first discussed launching their own firm last year at a gala benefiting the Texas Access to Justice Commission’s Veterans Committee.
Second-generation lawyer and Bracewell partner Steve Benesh went to the University of Texas, following in the footsteps of his brother.
“For my 18-year-old mind, I needed no other reasons, other than having a brother there and Longhorn sports,” Benesh said.
Benesh recently sat down with The Texas Lawbook to discuss his time as state bar president and the issues he’s seeing in the legal practice.
A Starr County jury unanimously awarded $1.6 billion to the families of two men who died in an explosion at a Pecos hazardous-chemicals plant in 2023. The 12-member jury answered the 16-question verdict form late Friday after the two-week trial in Judge Jose Luis Garza’s courtroom.
DENVER — The eight-member jury unanimously found Tellurian founder Charif Souki breached a contract with an investor and awarded $39 million in damages after deliberating just over three hours on a snowy Friday afternoon. While the jurors found Parker prevailed on his breach of contract claim based on a 2019 text message exchange, they rejected his five other claims, including breach of a separate agreement, fraudulent inducement, unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel.
DENVER — Parties rested their cases Thursday afternoon in the breach of contract case between investor Chris Parker and Tellurian founder Charif Souki over an alleged agreement not to sell Tellurian stock. The eight-member jury will decide whether a text message exchange is a binding contract Friday.
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