Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle of the Northern District of Texas announced Thursday that she is taking senior status effective Oct. 1. Judge Boyle, a former state and federal prosecutor who has served on the federal bench for more than 21 years, is the second federal judge in Dallas to take senior status this month.
HOUSTON – Fourteen years ago, on Feb. 16, 2009, lawyers for the SEC stood on the front lawn of a federal judge seeking an emergency order to freeze all assets of R. Allen Stanford and his investment firm, accusing the Houston financier of perpetrating a massive $8 billion fraud. Next Monday, exactly 14 years and 10 days later, a Houston jury will be chosen to decide whether three banks aided and abetted Stanford in the fraud.
The court-appointed receiver is expected to ask the jury to order Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank), HSBC Bank and Independent Bank (formerly Bank of Houston) to pay $4 billion to $10 billion to the thousands of victims of Stanford's Ponzi scheme. The Texas Lawbook examines the 14-year journey this case took to get to trial.
As the first Chapter 11 filing by a utility co-op in the wake of Winter Storm Uri rolls on, the billable hours by lawyers for both sides are piling up – with no end in immediate sight. More than 30 lawyers in the bankruptcy case are billing at more than $1,000 an hour.
The Biden administration has taken no public steps to fill any of the four U.S. attorney positions in Texas, but the list of prominent lawyers wanting those high-profile jobs is growing. They include partners from Winston & Strawn, Gibson Dunn, Gerger Hennessy and Jackson Walker. Two sitting U.S. Attorneys and the son of an East Texas federal judge are also on the short list. The Texas Lawbook has details.
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