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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.

Takings Fight Between Texas, Landowners Now in SCOTUS’ Hands

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case where a group of about 75 Texas landowners are fighting to revive their lawsuit against the state seeking compensation for the repeated flooding of their property that they say is the result of a public highway project. The case came to the high court after a Fifth Circuit panel sided with the state and the court declined to rehear the case en banc over the dissent of five judges. The question the justices are tasked with answering in this case is: “May a person whose property is taken without compensation seek redress under the self-executing Takings Clause even if the legislature has not affirmatively provided them with a cause of action?”

Michelle Casady

Eversheds Energy Litigation Team Jumps to Baker McKenzie

David Baay, Jack Massey, Kelsey Machado, Ian Shelton and Matthew Rawlinson were announced as the newest members of the firm’s Houston office Wednesday. Colin Murray, the firm’s North America CEO, said in a statement that the additions were part of strategic growth plans based on the potential of the Houston market.

Michelle Casady

Steptoe Acquires Smyser Kaplan & Veselka ‘Lock, Stock and Barrel’

Craig Smyser, who cofounded SKV in 1995, said his firm had been approached several times over the years by national and international firms looking to expand into Texas. There’s one reason in particular why the negotiations with Steptoe, which began in May, ended with this merger: Steptoe was willing to take on every member of the SKV team.

“It’s an amazing law firm with a lot of magic,” Gwen Renigar, Steptoe's chair, said in an interview with The Lawbook. "The magic they had is magic I did not want to disturb."

Michelle Casady

SCOTX Rejects Justice’s Request to Remove Opponent, Justice Devine, From Ballot

The Texas Supreme Court appeared displeased with the timing of Second Court of Appeals Justice Brian Walker’s challenge to his opponent’s ability to appear on the March primary ballot. Justice Walker is running against incumbent Justice John Devine. In a ruling issued Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court denied mandamus relief, holding that even if Justice Walker promptly brought his challenge, the law requires Justice Devine be given an opportunity to cure any deficiencies in his application. “A timely challenge would advance rather than impede ballot access because it would alert all parties to any deficiencies and enable a candidate to correct them if he could,” the court wrote. “But when a party slumbers on his rights — or, indeed, does not slumber but carefully lies in wait — these principles are not advanced but impaired.”

Michelle Casady

Texas Supreme Court Hears UT Regents’ $51M Royalty Dispute

For 13 years, the University of Texas Board of Regents and IDEXX Laboratories seemed pleased with a royalty deal they inked for certain diagnostic tests used by veterinarians. Then an auditor told UT IDEXX had been underpaying what it owed under the structure of the deal. That finding led to litigation and a $51 million award for UT that was later undone by the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to determine whether the contract binding the parties is ambiguous.

Michelle Casady

Mesa Airlines Settles Racial Profiling Suit

Issam Abdallah and Abderraouf Alkhawaldeh recently reached a confidential settlement with Mesa Airlines. The two men filed suit after their flight was delayed and subsequently canceled because of what they allege was racial profiling by a flight attendant and pilot. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor had tossed the claims against Mesa on summary judgment. The Fifth Circuit revived the lawsuit in October.

Michelle Casady

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