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Michelle Casady

Michelle Casady is based in Houston and covers litigation and appeals — including trials, breaking news and industry trends — for The Texas Lawbook.

Michelle Casady

Michelle Casady has been a reporter in Texas since January 2009. She's covered crime at The Bryan-College Station Eagle, courts at the San Antonio Express-News and civil litigation for Law360. In July 2022, she joined The Texas Lawbook.

Her reporting has included covering arrests, trials, plea deals and settlements, executions, natural and manmade disasters, colorful characters and various oddities.

She lives in Houston with her husband Matt, a sweet dog Hurricane Harvey brought into their lives, and a confident cat who keeps everyone in line. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Tech University and was a 2018 fellow of the Loyola Marymount University Journalist Law School.

You can reach Michelle at michelle.casady@texaslawbook.net or (713) 614-7929.

Bankruptcy Judge Mulls Potential Action after Jackson Walker Show-Cause Hearing

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez took under advisement Thursday whether to sanction Jackson Walker, expand the universe of cases subject to fee disgorgement or even appoint a special master if needed after an hourlong show-cause hearing in Houston. The hearing was prompted by the court’s discovery of more undisclosed cases in which former judge David Jones presided while romantically involved with former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman.

Michelle Casady

Camp Mystic Bankruptcy Judge: Debtors Get a Chance to Cure Conflicts, No Trustee Appointment for Now 

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied without prejudice competing motions to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee or to approve independent fiduciaries in the Camp Mystic bankruptcy, giving the debtors until Oct. 28 to file an amended plan to give independent fiduciaries control over the potential settlement of wrongful death lawsuits. The proposed plan the camp filed, he said, failed to provide the kind of independence necessary “to move these cases forward.”

Michelle Casady

Westlake Chemical Gets Win in East Texas Pipeline Easement Dispute 

The lead lawyer for Westlake Chemical said defeating the motion for a permanent injunction seeking to shut down a section of ethylene pipeline can be viewed as a win for Texas’ midstream energy industry. Express H20 Pipeline and ROW had argued a 3.5-mile portion of the Westlake pipeline violated its exclusive, blanket easement.

Michelle Casady

Litigation Roundup: Pioneer Sees Uri-Related ‘Force Majeure’ Win Affirmed

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office closes out a case involving an alleged $91 million Ponzi scheme, a Dallas jury sides with Jani-King in a franchisee dispute, ExxonMobil investors are granted class certification in a securities suit and a Fifth Circuit panel affirms Pioneer Natural Resources’ force majeure win in a Winter Storm Uri dispute.

Michelle Casady

In Camp Mystic Bankruptcy Hearing Friday, Judge Lopez Will Hear Arguments for Chapter 7 Conversion, Trustee Appointment

In the Camp Mystic Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which involves 725 acres along the Guadalupe River that represent a family’s longtime ministry and its generational wealth, things have gotten, perhaps predictably, personal. Words such as “intense acrimony,” “distrust,” “incompetence and gross mismanagement,” “self-dealing” and “lack of candor,” dot the pleading filed by the official committee of unsecured creditors (13 families whose daughters died in the flood) who have asked the court to appoint a trustee to oversee the proceedings.

Michelle Casady

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