Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Two heavyweights of the Houston business community, Jim Crane and Drayton McLane, were at their respective tables in the well of the courtroom as a panel of nine women and six men —12 jurors and three alternates — filed into the jury box in the Ceremonial Courtroom on the 17th floor of the Harris County Civil District Courthouse Thursday morning for the first day of testimony in a case where $440 million is at stake.
The jury’s decision reached Wednesday is the second nine-digit damages verdict in three months favoring Headwater, which is led by inventor Greg Raleigh.
A veteran police officer wounded while directing parade traffic is now seeking a jury trial and $10 million in damages. The lawsuit filed in Harris County is one of many against the gun manufacturer Sig Sauer.
A Harris County jury on Thursday will begin the job of determining whether Jim Crane was duped into paying too much to buy the Houston Astros from the prior owner in 2011. Jury selection began this week, and opening statements are expected to come Thursday morning in the trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks.
Lawyers for IBM were seeking an award of about $59.2 million in fees and costs for work done on the case. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen did knock down the hourly rate of some Quinn Emanuel lawyers from $1,925 an hour to a maximum of $935 an hour, and also pinged the legal team for a few expensive dinners in New Orleans and stays at the Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton. “While, of course, the attorneys do not need to stay at a motel along the interstate, BMC should not be required to pay for these establishments for a large number of attorneys who were peripherally involved,” Judge Hanen wrote.
Dallas real estate executive Jared Caplan claims in a new lawsuit that he is the victim of a switch-and-bait fraud perpetrated by Lily Sarafan, a top executive at private equity owned home healthcare company TheKey. A lawyer for Sarafin, who is now the chair of the Stanford University board of trustees, calls the lawsuit vexatious.
In a legal era dominated by discovery, summary judgments and settlements, trial experience has become increasingly rare yet increasingly valuable. Haynes Boone is betting on deep, deliberate, in-house trial training to bridge the readiness gap of a generation of lawyers more familiar with Zoom hearings than the well of a courtroom. The inaugural HB Trial Academy brought together 16 lawyers from eight of the firm’s 19 offices for three high-impact days of instruction, hands-on workshops and live mock trials judged by seasoned Haynes Boone litigators.
J.D. Silva & Associates’ new head of litigation is based in Pearland. She hopes to strengthen the firm's trial team.
© Copyright 2025 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
