Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Quinn Emanuel, a national litigation-focused law firm, is expected to announce in the next few days that it is opening an office in Dallas with two partners - one hired away from a local law firm and the second being transferred from Quinn's office in New York.
Clarence and Shonn Brown were married for 21 years and became one of the power couples of corporate law in Texas. He was the GC of Kronos Worldwide. She is the deputy GC of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a multinational personal care products maker. Last Friday, Clarence Brown died from complications from a head injury. He was 52. But the impact he had was immeasurable. The Texas Lawbook has an in-depth report.
Three Texas lawyers sued the State Bar of Texas Monday claiming that the organization is still requiring its members to pay annual dues despite a recent federal appeals court ruling that some of its activities violate the First Amendment rights of some of those members. The suit asks a federal court to create a “constructive trust” designed to hold “all monies and assets obtained by the defendants and that wealth should be disgorged” from the state bar and returned to those in the class action.
O’Melveny & Myers, which opened offices in Austin and Dallas in June, added Baker Botts trial law partner Tim Durst on Wednesday. The Los Angeles-based firm's chair told The Texas Lawbook that he expects "more people to join" O'Melveny soon and that the firm plans "to be materially larger than we are now."
Texas has two of the three busiest patent dockets in the U.S. and is building one of the deepest and most experienced intellectual property bars in the world. There were more patent infringement lawsuits during the first half of this year in Texas than in any other two states combined, including Delaware and California. But some criticize Texas courts for being too accommodating to frivolous patent cases from so-called patent trolls. The Texas Lawbook has the inside story.
Dallas Appeals Court Justice David Schenck issued an opinion late Friday apparently accusing fellow justices of intentionally delaying the public reporting of a decision by a three-judge panel in order to change the composition of the panel and possibly impact the decision. But Fifth Court Chief Justice Robert Burns said Schenck is mistaken on the facts and the law. The Texas Lawbook has details.
Another large corporate full-service law firm has nabbed another young partner from a litigation boutique. Gibson Dunn's plan is to "grow out" the litigation practice in Houston.
Citing the growing threat of the Covid-19 Delta variant among people who are unvaccinated, several law firms in Texas – Akin Gump, Haynes and Boone, Norton Rose Fulbright and Vinson & Elkins – have announced they are delaying the date when they will require lawyers and staff to return to the office and that employees working on-site must be vaccinated.
Frost Bank clearly has a thing for lawyers at Haynes and Boone. The Texas bank has named former Haynes and Boone litigator C.E. Rhodes, who also practiced at Akin Gump and Baker Hughes, to be its new general counsel and corporate secretary. The Texas Lawbook has details.
Corporate bankruptcies in Texas fell significantly during the first six months of 2021 compared to the record numbers that were filed last year as a result of Covid-19 and the recession. But bankruptcy judges are still much busier than they were before the pandemic thanks to Winter Storm Uri. SDTX Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones and legal experts explain why in this report.
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