Brooks Igo

Just prior to the shutdowns induced by the pandemic, Katten moved into new digs at Park District’s PwC Tower in Dallas. Later in the fall, the office was named one of the Best Places to Work in North Texas by the Dallas Business Journal. And Dallas health care partner Kenya Woodruff assisted eTrueNorth with a public-private partnership that facilitated the opening of hundreds of drive-through COVID-19 testing sites.

Bell Nunnally highlighted its representation of Dallas-based ISN Software Corporation in a late year funding by the Blackstone Group as one of its most important successes in 2020. Blackstone’s minority investment values the company at more than $2B – adding another “unicorn” to North Texas’ growing stable. In a significant pro bono achievement, senior associate Arianna Goodman led the firm in partnering with the Buried Alive Project to reduce an inmate’s sentence substantially under the First Step Act.

Jackson Walker had a blockbuster year for bankruptcy work in 2020, much of which was led by Houston partner Matt Cavenaugh. But not all of the firm’s successes were tied to Covid-19 and its impact on clients. A team of litigators obtained the largest known recovery in a student speech case in the U.S. Plus, the firm established new partnerships with the Buried Alive Project and the Promise of Justice Initiative.

Akin Gump identified Dallas corporate partner Tom Yang as having a truly standout year. Yang advised on more than 20 transactions for the year, including 7-Eleven’s $21 billion acquisition of Speedway, which was a finalist for M&A Deal of the Year at the 2020 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The firm, in a pro bono matter with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., also helped secure an injunction in federal district court in Texas against a racially discriminatory dress and grooming policy.

A Dallas-led team at Weil, working with the ACLU of Texas, has prosecuted major federal court litigation aimed at freeing hundreds of medically vulnerable immigrant detainees from an ICE civil detention facility in Conroe, Texas. To date, the Weil/ACLU team has obtained release of 15 medically vulnerable detainees through varying forms of individualized relief. The case is still pending and now awaits class certification.