David Stryker’s Successfully Litigious Year

For more than four years, Huntsman Corp. and its General Counsel David Stryker fought a high-stakes legal battle over an acquisition of a company whose technology ended up not working. Stryker and Huntsman hired the law firm Kirkland & Ellis to sue for fraud and breach of contract. In 2021, Huntsman and Kirkland won, securing an arbitration victory that led to a $665 million settlement. More recently, Huntsman and Stryker secured a $94 million jury verdict in New Orleans in a separate lawsuit. Stryker’s recent wins came in quick succession, but they were the product of the deep-seated instinct for advocacy that has coursed through Stryker’ veins since the day he became a trial lawyer. The 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year goes to Stryker and the lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis.

May 18, 2022 Natalie Posgate

Fort Worth Jury Clears American Airlines in Flight Attendant’s Sexual-Assault Claim

Jurors found that British celebrity chef Mark Sargeant sexually assaulted Kimberly Goesling in a hotel room in Germany in 2018, but rejected her claim that American Airlines is to blame.

May 11, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Dallas Company’s Patent-Infringement Suit Against Twitter Moving Toward Trial

U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey, reversing a decision he made in 2016, refuses to dismiss the suit over what the plaintiff, VidStream, says is at least $600 million in unpaid patent royalties.

May 10, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Q&A With Mark Shank, a Bare-Foot Skiing Employment Law Author

Mark Shank was a high school sophomore when he read a novel by Irving Wallace called The Seven Minutes, a legal thriller about a First Amendment trial over the banning of a book considered “the most obscene pornography ever written.” The lawyer in the book won an historic jury victory and convinced a teenaged Shank he should become a lawyer. Five decades later, Shank is the author of the 2022 edition of The Texas Litigator’s Guide to Departing Employee Cases. The Texas Lawbook interviewed Shank about his life, legal career and the behind-the-scenes making of his book.

May 5, 2022 Mark Curriden

Huntsman Wins $94M Verdict in The Big Easy

After a three-week trial, a New Orleans jury found that industrial gas provider Praxair repeatedly breached its promises to Huntsman Corp. in a contract agreement and that those breaches directly caused Huntsman substantial financial damages. The verdict is the latest of a series of significant courtroom and boardroom wins Huntsman and its legal teams have achieved in recent months.

May 2, 2022 Natalie Posgate

Beating the TRO: Get Ready Now … and Ensure There’s Gas in the Tank

Unfair competition lawyers get to marry adrenaline, strategy and competition. This article shares a real-life example featuring all of those things on the way to beating a temporary restraining order.

May 2, 2022 Greg McAllister

American Airlines Flight Attendant Gets Day in Court

A jury trial that began Monday in Fort Worth state court will determine whether American Airlines will be held liable for an alleged sexual assault that one of its longtime flight attendants said was encouraged by airline executives. The night in question involves British celebrity chef Mark Sargeant. Natalie Posgate has the details.

April 25, 2022 Natalie Posgate

Burns Charest Scores Victory in Fight Over Vast Costa Rican Energy Concession

The Dallas law firm represented GT Resources of Denver, which won a $41 million verdict this week in a dispute over royalties on 2.3 million acres in Costa Rica.

April 15, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

KRCL: Four Lawyers, a Fax Machine and 30 years of Extraordinary Texas Success and Now Succession

Raymond Kane, Gordon Russell, Joe Coleman and Mike Logan started KRCL in 1992 to flee financial bad habits of their old firm. Thirty years later, the firm they built is entrenched in the Texas middle market of corporate law firms, ranking 46th statewide in revenues in the upcoming 2021 Texas Lawbook 50. But the four partners discovered much more than success. They and their firm used fiscal restraint and commitment to long-term client service to find peace and friendship. At the twilight of their careers, they still love the practice of law and each other.

April 14, 2022 Natalie Posgate & Mark Curriden

Sunoco Wins Defense Verdict in Dallas County

A jury trial in Dallas County concluded Wednesday with a take-nothing verdict in favor of a Sunoco affiliate.

April 13, 2022 Natalie Posgate

East Texas Jury Awards $41.8 Million in Cancer-Drug Patent Case

A Seattle company represented by Johnny Ward of Ward, Smith & Hill prevails in a suit claiming patent infringement by a Japanese big pharma firm that reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of an innovative breast-cancer treatment.

April 13, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Initial Strategy and Attorney To-Do List in Departing Employee Cases

This article covers what attorneys, from the perspective of the former employer's counsel, should consider when developing their initial case strategies and possible action items in connection with them.

April 11, 2022 Dave Wishnew & Ali Ohlinger