Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Jackson Walker, which represented JCPenney during its 2020 bankruptcy proceedings, has agreed to pay the estate of the department store $1.4 million as a result of a romantic relationship between a former partner and a former Houston bankruptcy judge. This latest settlement proposal requires the court’s approval, but the U.S. Trustee’s Office remains opposed to individual settlements.
Signal Peak, a new Houston-based litigation financing firm, is being sued by its founders' former place of employment, Siltstone Capital, which has attempted to get a temporary restraining order. Texas Business Court Presiding Judge Grant Dorfman denied the request.
A former Texas Christian University student filed a lawsuit Wednesday with the Eastern District of Virginia claiming discrimination and gross malfeasance for how university officials handled her rape complaint. The anonymous student, going by Emily Doe, claims the university violated Title IX policies in how it handled her complaint.
Asked & Answered is a standing feature The Texas Lawbook will bring readers every other week, highlighting the work of leading Texas lawyers and offering insight into their lives outside the courtroom. In this edition, Jackson Walker partner Juan Alcala discusses representing Chevron and arguing before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Alcala recently joined Jackson Walker from Holland & Knight.
A former shipyard worker in Portland, Oregon, developed mesothelioma after working with John Crane gaskets and packing for over a decade. A jury last Friday found the company liable for the fatal cancer. The case was first tried earlier this summer but ended in a mistrial after four days of jury deliberations.
A New York jury found Vanderbilt Mining knew about asbestos contamination in its mines but failed to protect its neighbors. The plaintiff's lawyer, Sam Iola of the Dallas asbestos litigation boutique Iola Gross & Forbes-King, called the case unique due to the allegations that environmental exposure harmed his client rather than the use of a specific product.
For Part II of a set of stories examining how the first year went for Texas’ newest court, The Texas Lawbook spoke to lawyers who have practiced in the Texas Business Court about their experiences litigating complex disputes in the venue. Some of those lawyers have also practiced in the Delaware Chancery Court and drew distinctions about what differentiates the specialty courts.
Two years ago, lawmakers created a new court, in part as a signal to the business community that Texas is a good place to incorporate and that jurists here could deliver quick, consistent results in complex business disputes.
In its first year of operation, the 10 judges appointed to the five divisions of the court have seen more than 180 cases filed. That figure is higher than some of the judges who spoke to The Texas Lawbook expected to see. We asked them to look back on the first year of operations.
Emotional testimony was heard Wednesday morning from the families of victims of two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. The families, some of whom traveled all the way from Kenya, Ireland and Toronto, stood in front of Chief Judge Reed O’Connor Wednesday to voice their opposition to the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the criminal case it brought against Boeing for the two 737 Max plane crashes.
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman joined the Houston law firm of Wright Close & Barger in 2022 as a partner. Now, the firm is adding her name to the shingle.
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