Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Michelle Casady is based in Houston and covers litigation and appeals — including trials, breaking news and industry trends — for The Texas Lawbook.
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.
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.
After 28 years as an appellate justice on the Twelfth Court of Appeals, Chief Justice James “Jim” Worthen heard oral arguments in his final case Tuesday morning.
The Texas 12th Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in hedge fund executive Kyle Bass’ effort to revive an ultra vires lawsuit against the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District over halted water well permits, which the district argues is barred by a prior settlement.
The U.S. Trustee’s office has told the court it is unnecessary to expand the claw-back litigation against Jackson Walker beyond the 33 bankruptcy cases already proceeding that involve former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones and former Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner Elizabeth Freeman.
After hearing nearly four hours of closing arguments Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said he should have a decision within about a week on a proposal to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee over the Camp Mystic bankruptcy.
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.
So many people showed up to the Camp Mystic bankruptcy hearing Friday morning that extra chairs were brought in and the courtroom doors were propped open to let the overflow hear. Opening statements, and much of the testimony, focused on the acrimony and distrust the creditor families say has infected the case.
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.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a lawyer who filed an AI-generated brief "littered with errors” is sanctioned by the Dallas Court of Appeals, a Stephenville businessman agrees to forfeit more than 90 exotic cars after admitting to running a scam loan program and Vinson & Elkins and Hunton Andrews Kurth gear up to defend data center clients against an environmental suit in San Antonio.
Jackson Walker is facing potential sanctions for failing to disclose the romantic relationship between its former partner Elizabeth Freeman and former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in another corporate bankruptcy case. This case is not one of the 33 where the U.S. Trustee is seeking to claw back millions in fees.
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