Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Scott Fletcher and Kenneth Held were young trial lawyers at V&E in the securities litigation practice. Fletcher loaned Held an office couch and chair when Held became a partner in 2003. Seven years later, Held replaced Fletcher as V&E’s co-chair of the securities litigation section. Now both in their 50s, Fletcher and Held are partners again – this time at their own Houston securities litigation boutique, appropriately named Fletcher Held.
Prerak Shah, who has been the acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas since January, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down effective Oct. 1. The Biden Administration hasn’t nominated any candidates for the four U.S. Attorney positions in Texas, but the U.S. Justice Department is expected to announce a new acting top prosecutor for North Texas in the next couple weeks.
The Texas legal market is so hot right now that law firms have discovered the economic theory known as supply and demand. Corporate lawyers are stretched and in danger of burnout. Law firm leaders want to hire more attorneys and are even offering huge signing bonuses. But there's a problem: There just aren’t enough lawyers in Texas to do the job.
Norton Rose Fulbright, Mattress Firm and nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis came together Sunday for a charity race to raise money for three elite organizations that fight racism and to announce college scholarships. The “Run Against Racism” raised $197,087 and produced a lot of good times. And Mattress Firm announced two $10,000 college scholarships.
Energy companies that compensate employees by the day must still pay those people overtime because they are not exempt salaried workers under the strict wording of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Fifth Circuit has ruled. The appeals court decision is a huge blow to energy companies who have relied for decades on the idea that they could escape paying OT to workers paid an extra high daily wage. Dissenting judges say the decision overturns decades of standard practices within the energy sector and will have a devastating impact on the oil and gas industry. The Texas Lawbook has the full details.
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.
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