Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In a trans-border tiff over a gold mine in Mexico, two companies — one American and one Canadian — have managed to unearth a motherlode of litigation. Experts say their grueling court battles across several international venues point up the shortcomings of binding arbitration agreements and their limited ability to compel business partners not to be jerks. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso explains.
Foster Johnson was only a high school freshman in Houston when his father, a workaholic corporate lawyer at a silk-stocking firm, died of a stroke. Resolved not to follow in his footsteps, Johnson and his brother Alec took the equal-and-opposite path: they formed a rock band called Vegas DeMilo.
For a decade, Johnson made a go of the rock life — with better success than most. But in the end, he found himself back on his father's path — as a top-notch trial attorney at Houston's AZA litigation boutique. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso chronicles his transition, and the ways that being a serious rock musician and a trial attorney may not be as different as you'd expect.A jury in Midland on Friday returned a $5.9 million verdict against an oil field company from Glen Rose and an employee who killed four people while speeding to work in a rainstorm. The verdict is believed to be the largest ever in a personal injury case in Midland County.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Wirmani has never spoken publicly about the unprecedented federal criminal charges he brought against 21 Forest Park Medical Center officials, including nine surgeons and doctors.
Until now. In an exclusive in-depth interview with Texas Lawbook reporter Bruce Tomaso, Wirmani discusses the tips that launched the investigation, the innovative legal strategy he and his team employed, and how the Forest Park prosecution success is being replicated in other jurisdictions.A Houston bankruptcy lawyer has sued his former employer, Polsinelli, alleging that he was fired because he’s gay. The plaintiff is being represented by Bill Brewer III and Bill Brewer IV.
For a year, Bankruptcy Court in Houston has been the setting for A Tale of Two Calamities. A raging disease and a crippled economy tugged the court in two directions. Wave after wave of businesses sought haven from creditors. Covid-19 rendered the court uninhabitable, but also made it indispensable. A flood of cases and no courtrooms in which to try them. Along came two trial lawyers from the two most competitive law firms in the corporate bankruptcy space. This is their story.
The CEO of a onetime thriving North Texas hospice-care agency has pleaded guilty to his role in a $60 million Medicare and Medicaid fraud – and he’s not alone.
The civil False Claims Act complaint alleges the Dallas dermatopathologist and his clinic falsely billed the government for medically unnecessary tests through TRICARE.
The sentencing of 14 defendants convicted in the Forest Park Medical Center bribery scam have finally been sentenced to a combined 74+ years in federal prison. The last to be sentenced was Alan Beauchamp, the architect, builder and marketer of the fraud. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso was there for the end of a three day marathon of reckoning in one of the most substantial and prominent medical frauds in Dallas history.
“Crime does not pay, even when millions are involved.” With those words, U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary sentenced Douglas Won, once a wealthy, preeminent spinal surgeon, to five years in federal prison for his role in a massive bribery and kickback scheme involving Forest Park Medical Center, a now-defunct physician-owned hospital in North Dallas. The judge also sent Won’s onetime business partner, surgeon Michael Rimlawi, to prison.
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