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.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we offer details on a recent $1.3 million arbitration win a team from Greenberg Traurig secured for Frost Bank, identify the law firm pursuing litigation in the wake of a fatal helicopter crash in Houston and explain a ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman that will likely change who can build transmission lines in Texas.
During a roughly 80-minute hearing Tuesday, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez set an April 21 trial date in the litigation that will determine whether the U.S. trustee can claw back millions in bankruptcy fees awarded to Jackson Walker in cases handled by former judge David Jones. The court has given the parties until Dec. 2 to file dispositive motions in the case.
The Monday ruling from a three-judge panel undoes a September 2023 order from U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn dismissing the complaint and effectively kicking the case to arbitration. Judge Lynn had concluded that the union failed to show there was “anti-union animus” that would have created an exception and allowed the case to proceed in district court.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail a 9-8 ruling from the Fifth Circuit that wiped out a National Labor Relations Board ruling against Tesla, offer new details on who is defending SpaceX in a fight with a neighboring South Texas landowner, and highlight a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that hits pause on a Fifth Circuit ruling in a case centered on the regulation of horseracing.
The Fifth Circuit has shown a willingness to invalidate agency actions like the FTC rule being challenged here. In recent years, the court has struck down a variety of rules after finding their implementation ran afoul of either the enacting agency’s authority or the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifth Circuit wades into a discovery dispute between X. Corp. and Media Matters, Beck Redden secures a complete defense win for HP in New York, and a jury in California wallops Phillips 66 in a trade secret misappropriation trial.
Mohamed Mokbel was convicted on 15 charges for his role in what prosecutors said was a multipart scheme to defraud the government that involved deceiving doctors and patients, too. Mokbel, former CEO of 4M Pharmacies, argued all he was guilty of was trying to compete with the powerful pharmacy benefit managers, entities that manage prescription drug programs for health plans and control 80 percent of the market. The panel of 12 deliberated for about five hours Tuesday before returning the unanimous verdict.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Big Oil is denied its request to bring an early end to a climate suit in California, Marriott reaches a data breach settlement with all 50 states, and we bring you details of the $2.2 billion settlement GlaxoSmithKline reached to bring an end to thousands of Zantac lawsuits.
Aghorn Operating had argued the government was charging it three times for the same death, while prosecutors argued that each count related to an alleged violation of a different environmental law and that forcing it to narrow the charges would cut against the legislative intent and “undermine the deterrent value of the OSH Act.”
U.S. District Judge David Counts became the first federal judge in history to interpret the contours of a multiplicity challenge — that is, an argument that the Department of Justice is impermissibly spreading a single offense over several counts — related to alleged violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act resulting in an employee’s death.
During a hearing Tuesday, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez gave Jackson Walker and the U.S. trustee’s office until Oct. 15 to provide the court with further briefing on whether the depositions of the current and former U.S. trustee for Region 7 and a current trial attorney in that office should take place. He promised to rule quickly on the matter after the briefing is filed and said that for each day after Oct. 16, if he doesn’t file an order, he will be extending discovery deadlines by one day. Discovery is slated to close Nov. 1.
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