Eighteen prominent lawyers and corporate in-house counsel filed an amicus brief late Thursday stating that those seeking to have mandatory membership and dues in the Texas Bar declared unconstitutional fundamentally misunderstand the importance of diversity to the practice of law.
Texas Regains Title as the Land of Patent Litigation
New patent infringement complaints filed in Texas doubled during the first six months of 2020 compared to a year earlier. All focus is on the federal court in Waco, which had a 1,127% jump in patent disputes over the same six months in 2018, according to new data provided exclusively to The Texas Lawbook by Androvett Legal Media Research.
Fieldwood Energy Files for Bankruptcy, Again
Houston-based Fieldwood Energy filed for bankruptcy for the second time in two years in SDTX. Fieldwood GC Thomas Lamme turned to Weil Gotshal, Thompson & Knight and Jones Walker as its legal advisors.
Feds: Houston Entrepreneur Used PPP Money for Strippers, Lamborghini, Rolex
A Houston businessman fraudulently obtained $1.6 million from the Paycheck Protection Program on several luxury items, including a 2020 Ford F-350, and a few expensive nights at Houston area strip clubs, according to federal prosecutors in Houston.
Texas Bar to Fifth Circuit: Mandatory Membership and Dues are Constitutional
U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows the state bar to collect mandatory dues to support programs that improve the quality if legal services. That is the Texas Bar’s argument at the federal Fifth Circuit which is hearing an appeal by lawyers seeking to end the very existence of mandatory bar associations.
Two Oil Corp. Bankruptcies, Two GCs, Four Law Firms, One Judge
The chief lawyers at Noble Corp. and Denbury Resources chose the Southern District of Texas for their multibillion-dollar restructurings Friday. They chose Kirkland, Porter Hedges, Skadden and Jackson Walker as advisors. In an exclusive Texas Lawbook interview, Denbury GC Jim Matthews explains why he made the hires and why the Plano E&P company filed in Houston.
Texas Bar Board Seeks to Restrict Bar President’s Duties, Require Implicit Bias Training
The governing body of the State Bar of Texas cannot oust its president for his past comments about women lawyers, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, but it has decided to take steps to make sure that no future leaders with a history like Larry McDougal’s could or would be elected again.
Texas Bar Virtual Meeting Gets Heated Over President’s BLM Comments
State Bar President Larry McDougal issued his third apology Monday for past comments that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group. His statements came during a multi-hour stare bar board meeting in which more than five dozen Texas lawyers appeared on Zoom to express their outrage about the situation.
Dallas Appellate Judge David Bridges, ‘a True Gentleman,’ Killed in Car Crash
Justice David Bridges, a 24-year veteran of the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas, died late Saturday night, a victim of a crash with an apparent drunken driver. “We are stunned and heartbroken by this news,” said Justice Ken Molberg. “We couldn’t have asked for a better public servant or a finer gentleman as a colleague.”
Kirkland and Gray Reed Lead BJ Services into Chapter 11 – Updated
Oilfield services firm BJ Services filed for bankruptcy Monday in the Southern District of Texas. BJ Services GC John Bakht selected Kirkland & Ellis and Gray Reed as legal advisors, PJT Partners as a financial advisor and Ankura Consulting as its restructuring advisor.