Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A jury in the Third Division of the new Texas Business Court in Austin late Tuesday returned a verdict of at least $50 million in favor of ES3 Minerals, and in support of its claim that several former employees conspired to steal proprietary information and software to start their own competing businesses.
David Nemecek, one of the nation's pre-eminent pre-eminent strategic advisers to distressed companies, is leaving Kirkland & Ellis for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, according to a news release from his new firm late Wednesday. Simpson Thacher also said it plans to open a Dallas office.
Latham and Kirkland advised on the deal, which helps pay down Ovintiv's debt from two recent purchases in Canada's Montney Shale, as well as their considerable holdings in the Permian Basin.
The acquisitions include one natural gas powered plant and two wind-driven generation facilities. The company said it signed contracts with data centers in late 2025 and early 2026 for 430MW of generated power. Latham & Watkins and Simpson Thacher advised the parties.
It didn't feel like it at the time, but 2025 turned out to be a blockbuster year for M&A lawyers in Texas. The Lone Star State may no longer be matching national trends in M&A; it could be surpassing them. A good year elsewhere was a great year in Texas, regardless of the small print. Put simply, there were more deals made for more money (lots more) than we anticipated, and The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker has the exclusive details.
Under the deal, Clear Channel, the world's largest out-of-home advertising company would stay in San Antonio, led by former TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis. Kirkland and Freshfields advised.
A private jet registered to Houston plaintiff's firm Arnold & Itkin crashed upon take-off at Bangor International Airport late Sunday killing all six aboard. By Tuesday evening, officials had yet to release the names of those killed in the fiery crash, but the victims reportedly included Tara Arnold, 46, an attorney at the firm and the wife of one of its founders.
Veteran corporate lawyers and dealmakers Wilson Chu and Joanna Lin have left McDermott to launch Dechert’s new Dallas office, following their high-profile work advising Tesla on Elon Musk’s $1 trillion employment contract. Their move was quietly noted in Dechert’s announcement of 20 partner hires for new offices in Dallas and Chicago, and existing ones in key U.S. markets, marking another shift amid McDermott’s ongoing post-merger reshuffling.
Andrew Davis, an Austin litigator who had served as a staffer on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and Judge Chris Wolfe, a Tarrant County trial judge since 2018, have been named to federal bench vacancies in Austin and Waco.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday that it is recommending a fine of more than $9.6 million against a Houston-based company for a November 2023 deepwater oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. The penalty is the result of an investigation by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safe Administration and the recommended levy of $9,622,054 is described as the "largest civil penalty ever proposed" by the agency.
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