Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In an announcement, the firm said he died following a long illness. In 1982, Godfrey joined his friend, Steve Susman, who launched his own firm two years earlier. Together, the pair built Susman Godfrey into a preeminent, commercial litigation boutique with a reputation for taking big cases on a contingency basis.
Fisher Phillips on Monday announced it has hired Reed Smith labor and employment partner Emily Harbison, who will serve as the firm’s regional managing partner in Houston.
Dykema Gossett has been disqualified from representing a group of plaintiffs suing a dentist and his many practices after a judge in Dallas determined the law firm had previously represented the dentist in other legal matters that are “substantially related” to this case.
An influencer who alleged another influencer’s videos and photos posted to social media amounted to infringement of the “neutral, beige and cream aesthetic" that constitutes her “brand identity” has dropped her federal lawsuit.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the federal government wades into an antitrust lawsuit Texas launched against a trio of asset managers alleging coal market manipulation, and the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas hears oral arguments in a $19.7 million loan dispute between former partners in a real estate firm.
Justice James P. Sullivan wrote the court’s unanimous 8-0 ruling in favor of American Midstream, holding the $6.1 million win for Rainbow Energy Marketing cannot stand. Justice Sullivan explained that when a Harris County trial judge “impermissibly blue-penciled extra words” into the parties’ contract, it caused a “cascade of errors that we now correct.” Justice John P. Devine did not participate in the decision.
McDermott, a key contractor on the multibillion-dollar Freeport LNG facility, faced lawsuits seeking nearly $2 billion in damages. Freeport’s insurers sought over $1.3 billion in subrogation claims, while Freeport LNG itself alleged design defects. Both lawsuits were filed as adversary proceedings in the bankruptcy of McDermott’s joint venture partner, Zachry Construction. The cases involved complex engineering and contract issues among multiple partners. The cases involved complex engineering and contract issues among multiple partners. Ultimately, the insurers’ claims were dismissed as well as the consequential damages portion of the defect suit, though the insurers have appealed the dismissal. For navigating the complexities, McDermott's in-house legal team is one of two finalists for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year. The award will be presented by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook on Thursday at the Four Seasons in Houston.
In a seven-page concurrence, Fifth Circuit Judge James C. Ho accused the U.S. Supreme Court of affording “special treatment” to “favored litigants” in a case involving deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. And he stood up for U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, writing that he had "conducted himself in a reasonable and indeed admirable manner,” calling the U.S. Supreme Court’s criticism of his actions in the underlying case “unwarranted and unfortunate.”
Recently, trial teams from Gibbs & Bruns convinced two Harris County juries to return complete defense wins for two of its clients, one that was facing as much as $13.7 million in liability and another that was fighting claims seeking more than $20 million in damages.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail two recent Texas Supreme Court rulings defining the contours of the Texas Citizens Participation Act, the whole Fifth Circuit unites to overturn a 45-year-old binding precedent in a lawsuit between a Houston plaintiffs firm and a former associate, and in another Fifth Circuit ruling, a panel upholds a $26.5 million award for a man injured in a collision with a letter carrier, writing that it wouldn’t “manufacture inequity, uncertainty, and arbitrariness” by adopting arguments presented by the Department of Justice in that case.
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