Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Krista Torralva covers pro bono, public service, and diversity matters in the Texas legal market.
Krista Torralva covers pro bono, public service, and diversity for the Texas Lawbook Foundation and The Texas Lawbook. Previously, she covered courts for The Dallas Morning News. Krista has spent the bulk of her decade-plus-long career covering criminal courts in Texas and Florida. Her reporting includes the high profile federal terrorism trial against the Pulse nightclub shooter’s widow in Orlando, which ended in a rare acquittal. Her civil courts coverage has included the long-winding Texas voter ID lawsuit, legal battles over local Covid-19 mandates and school board disputes. Krista's work has been recognized by the State Bar of Texas' Gavel Awards, the Texas Association Press Managing Editors, the National Headliner Awards program and various local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The daughter of a Naval officer, Krista grew up traveling every few years but calls Corpus Christi home and talks about the Texas Gulf Coast every chance she gets. She lives in Dallas’ North Oak Cliff with her husband, Fares Sabawi.
Krista graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Dean Omar Branham Shirley has obtained three jury verdicts this year against Johnson & Johnson over allegations its baby powder contained cancer-causing asbestos. Another trial ended early when the parties settled. Johnson & Johnson has decried the verdicts and maintained its cosmetic talc products did not cause cancer.
Five plaintiffs who were displaced from their Dallas homes after a construction crane toppled onto an apartment complex in 2019 reached a settlement with the real estate developer and the crane rental company mid-trial Thursday. The confidential settlement resolves all remaining lawsuits related to the crane collapse, lawyers told a Dallas judge.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas has accused Dr. Kyle Carter of conspiring with a third-party billing company to collect thousands of dollars for work treating student-athletes he never saw and who were actually treated by university athletic trainers. Carter’s lawyers from Vedder Price told jurors the doctor was merely a supervising physician and didn’t have insight into the company's billing.
Daniella P. Main was a partner in Alston & Bird’s Dallas office. Vartabedian's name partner, Rob Vartabedian, said Tuesday that Main will support the firm’s oil and gas litigation clients while leading its commercial litigation in other industries from its Dallas office.
Victor Vital described his return to Haynes Boone as a “homecoming” to the firm where he first made partner. As global chair of the trials practice group, Vital will lead about 60 lawyers lawyers in three countries.
Attorney Susan C. Norman registered a domestic limited liability partnership under the California-based law firm’s name after discovering the firm’s foreign limited liability partnership registration had lapsed on the Texas secretary of state website, and Bradley B. Beers filed an assumed name certificate. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found the lawyers’ conduct “unbecoming of the profession,” and a U.S. district judge said he wasn’t sure whether he was obligated to refer the lawyers to the Texas State Bar for investigation.
Joseph T. Walsh will work in Duane Morris’ Houston and New York offices and will focus on environmental litigation, products liability, commercial disputes, emergency response and counseling clients on risk management. In between stints at Exxon, Walsh represented Fortune 500 companies at a New Jersey-based law firm where he was a name partner.
At the request of his father, Austin attorney Dov Preminger took on a case a few years ago for a contractor who didn’t get paid about $50,000 for work he performed.
Preminger’s work on the case came to about $13,000 in fees and expenses. While he and his client won a default judgment for the full requested amount, they were only able to garnish a bank account for about $3,000, which was split between the client, the bank’s lawyer and Preminger.
Preminger tells that story to illustrate the potential usefulness artificial intelligence can provide to lawyers and clients as he gradually launches LitLaw, a “legal AI company” that instantly generates first drafts of lawsuits, answers, demand letters, discovery requests and more. LitLaw will eventually be able to draft more complex motions, Preminger said.
Denise Scofield joined O’Melveny’s Houston office Tuesday. Scofield, previously a partner and head of the Houston litigation practice at Winston & Strawn, discussed what attracted her to O’Melveny in an interview with The Texas Lawbook.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday’s settlement is the largest ever obtained by an attorney general in a privacy case. This is the first lawsuit brought and settlement reached under Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier, the AG added.
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