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.
After more than 20 years practicing at Thompson & Knight and later Holland & Knight, Richard Roper has left the law firm to take a new role with Vartabedian Hester & Haynes, where he will start and head a white collar and investigations practice group.
The liquidating trustee overseeing the Sorrento Therapeutics Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed an adversary proceeding this week against the company’s directors and officers, alleging their breaches of fiduciary duty caused the company’s creditors to suffer at least $100 million in damages.
The U.S. Trustee’s Office has told Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses that Jackson Walker “has no substantive right to a jury trial” in the case where it is trying to claw back millions in fees awarded to the law firm in 33 cases where former bankruptcy judge David Jones served as a mediator or judge.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday instructed U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to conduct a more thorough analysis before deciding whether to grant a motion from Media Matters to move a lawsuit to the Northern District of California.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit finds that a lawsuit challenging admissions practices at the University of Texas at Austin is not moot, a fake immigration lawyer faces prison time, and the Western District of Texas announces a high-profile indictment.
Beck Redden announced this week the hiring of Chris Dove, who focuses on commercial litigation in the energy, financial services and maritime sectors. He had spent more than two decades practicing at Troutman Pepper Locke and Locke Lord.
This week, Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of the Western District of Texas gave Jackson Walker and the U.S. Trustee’s office until July 15 to let her know how attempts to mediate the multimillion-dollar fee dispute are going.
Rebecca Fike, formerly senior counsel with the SEC, officially made the move to Reed Smith July 1. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook after one week on the job, she said she knew joining Reed Smith was the right move for her after meeting lawyers in the firm’s Dallas office during the interview process.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Northern District of Texas sees a busy week prosecuting those who allegedly file false tax returns, a trade dress fight between competing carnicerias with ties to Texas moves forward in California, and the city of Dallas secures a favorable ruling at the Fifth Circuit in its fight to regulate short-term lenders like TitleMax.
When the relationship between Dr Pepper and Reyes — which dated back to the inking of an October 2017 exclusive licensing agreement — hit a snag, Dr Pepper filed a declaratory judgment action in Texas in April 2024, seeking a ruling it had a right to cancel the distribution deal, and two days later Reyes filed suit in California arguing Dr Pepper had breached the agreement.
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