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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.

SCOTX Clarifies What Damages Are Recoverable in ‘Wrongful Pregnancy’ Cases

Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, writing for a unanimous court, explained in a 21-page ruling that in so-called “wrongful pregnancy” cases only a narrow category of damages is available: those costs incurred during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. But in this case, Grissel Velasco was seeking to recover a much broader category of damages — including the costs of rearing her daughter, mental anguish, and physical pain and suffering.

Michelle Casady

First Reserve Litigation Team Notched Win for Entire PE Industry with TPC Victory

Erica Radcliffe and First Reserve teamed up with Vinson & Elkins in a landmark case to convince the courts that investors should not be held liable for the damages under state law. They prevailed and the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling provides a roadmap for other investors on how they can protect themselves from liability. 

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Radcliffe, First Reserve and its outside counsel at Vinson & Elkins as one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Michelle Casady

Lewis Brisbois Mourns Associate Fatally Shot in Houston

Jeffrey Limmer, 46, an associate at Lewis Brisbois, died May 4 after being shot multiple times after trying to intervene in a dispute between a customer and an employee at McDonald’s. The firm has said it will establish a memorial scholarship at his alma mater, South Texas College of Law.

Michelle Casady

Financial Advisor Says Fidelity Fired Him for Reporting Securities Violations

Michael Maeker had been a registered financial advisor for 26 years when he was fired by Fidelity Investments. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday, Maeker alleges Fidelity fired him after he raised concerns that the company was violating securities laws by pressuring advisors to invest client funds in a way that was more beneficial to the company’s bottom line than it was to the clients’.

Michelle Casady

Forum Energy’s ‘No-ego GC’ John Ivascu has ‘Banner Year’ in 2023

Forum Energy Technologies General Counsel John Ivascu remembers the moment outside counsel from Yetter Coleman, whom he had hired to defend against patent infringement claims, let him know they had found something that would likely change the outcome of the case.

“It was fairly early in the case that we discovered it … and it really kind of changed the path of the case,” he told The Texas Lawbook.

The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook have named Ivascu and outside counsel Yetter Coleman as one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Michelle Casady

Fifth Circuit Undoes $1.6B Judgment Against IBM

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller got it wrong when he handed down a massive $1.6 billion judgment against International Business Machines for breach and fraud in a lawsuit against Houston-based BMC Software.

Michelle Casady

Litigation Roundup: SEC Sued Over Trading Surveillance

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a man who alleges he was shorted two ounces of beer by Cinemark files a class action lawsuit against the movie chain, an East Texas jury hits Samsung with a $142 million patent infringement verdict in a damages redo trial, and a new SEC trading surveillance initiative draws a constitutional challenge.

Michelle Casady

SCOTUS Revives Texas Landowners’ Takings Suit Against State

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously revived the lawsuit that the U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals had dismissed with a one-paragraph ruling. Daniel Charest of Burns Charest, who is the lead trial attorney for the landowners, was confident about the outcome of the case when he was present for oral arguments in January and heard what he viewed as an important admission from Texas Solicitor General Aaron L. Nielson, who was arguing for the state.

Michelle Casady

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