Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Adam Sanderson was in a patent trial in Chicago in 2016 when opposing counsel pulled him aside. He had a potential big case but also a conflict and offered to introduce Sanderson to his client. Today, a decade later, Sanderson won a $213 million federal jury verdict for those clients in a patent case against Comcast.
Wes Sharples had a clear vision when he left Texas for college at Dartmouth in 1999: Play football, earn a degree in economics and get a big job on Wall Street.
“My playing career ended after a year and a half along with my interest in economics,” Sharples told The Texas Lawbook. "I ultimately determined law school was the best fit, but it was more pragmatism than lifelong ambition.”
Twenty-seven years later, Sharples is the GC at Lewis Energy Group, where he has guided the San Antonio-based privately owned energy company through five transformational corporate transactions and negotiated a highly favorable settlement agreement in an eight-figure litigation during the past two years. And he is also the 2026 San Antonio GC of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
Texas Lawbook: What do you look for in hiring outside counsel? Wes Sharples: I hire lawyers, not law firms. Technical expertise is important, but, with some exceptions for niche practice
Rhodes shares why he chose a career in corporate law and dishes on what he looks for in outside counsel.
During his five years as GC at Frost Bank, C.E. Rhodes has achieved extraordinary successes. He is the recipient of the 2026 San Antonio Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department (21 lawyers or more).
The chief judge of the Northern District of Texas has issued two separate “special orders” that remove all civil and criminal cases from the docket of U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who is a highly respected jurist and believed to be the only Native American woman federal judge in Texas. Neither of the special orders provides an explanation.
In an era when corporate lawyers frequently change jobs, Abel Martinez and Michael Danforth have been rocks for their employers. The two San Antonio in-house counsel have been with their respective legal departments for a combined 45 years.
Danforth, a principal lawyer at USAA for more than 18 years, and Martinez, group vice president at H-E-B, are also widely respected for giving back to the legal profession and their local community.
The Texas Lawbook published an article Wednesday about a Texas Supreme Court case involving Exxon Mobil that wrongly included a sentence that Justice Debra Lehrmann “owns shares” of Exxon Mobil stock and that she “was present” for the oral arguments. The Lawbook pointed to 2025 financial disclosure forms.
But The Lawbook has learned that the sentence was incorrect and that Justice Lehrmann sold her Exxon Mobil stock. The Lawbook failed to do the additional reporting and editing required and The Lawbook team apologizes to Justice Lehrmann for our error.
An avalanche of high-stakes litigation related to rogue artificial intelligence activity is just around the corner, but there is a significant split in the Texas legal community about whether the
On Monday, the two energy companies are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to put a stop to one specific case brought by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, with hopes that a favorable ruling will kill off similar lawsuits before they go to trial.
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