Bank Fraud Lawsuits Target NexBank Securities, A Client, Accountants and Lawyer

Two national financial lenders have sued Dallas-based NexBank Securities and its investment banking subsidiary, one of its clients and the client’s accountants and a lawyer for conspiring together to commit a $66 million fraud. Regions Bank and MCG Capital Corp. claim that NexBank Securities, NexBank Capital Advisors and its officials worked with Color Star, a now bankrupt greenhouse and nursery company with large operations in Sanger, Texas, to procure a $66 million loan “through a massive accounting fraud” scheme. A third major bank is expected to file its own lawsuit soon.

February 17, 2014 Mark Curriden

Life Partners Wins and Loses in The Same Week

The federal jury found the company and two executives did not defraud investors or commit insider trading, but that they did commit other securities violations.

February 6, 2014 Natalie Posgate

UPDATE: Jury Says ETP and Enterprise Were in a Partnership, Awards $319 Million

A Dallas jury, in a potential landmark verdict that has attracted a lot of attention from energy companies and general counsel, ruled last Tuesday that two businesses can be involved in a legally binding partnership even when one of the parties never intended for the joint venture to be official. The jury ordered Enterprise to pay ETP $319 million in damages for violating the corporate version of a common law marriage. The victory was the largest for prominent trial lawyer Mike Lynn and one of the largest ever awarded by a North Texas jury. However, it did not find that Enterprise and Enbridge conspired for Enterprise to breach its duty to ETP for their partnership. Jurors awarded ETP $319 million in actual damages to ETP, but an additional amount for restitution could be added. The jury’s conclusion is a landmark decision for Texas business lawyers and their corporate clients for what under State law constitutes a business partnership. The decision follows four full weeks of intensive testimony from the three oil and gas giants. ETP claimed that Enterprise violated their “Double E” partnership agreement by cutting ties with ETP to pursue a more financially viable pipeline project with Enbridge and that the two conspired to cut ETP out of their new deal. More details as the story develops.

January 31, 2014 Natalie Posgate

Three Texas Energy Giants Take Multibillion-dollar Dispute to a Jury

When does a business relationship become a partnership? That question is at the heart of a multibillion-dollar dispute involving Energy Transfer Partners, Enterprise and Enbridge Inc. that is scheduled to start trial this week in Dallas.

January 24, 2014 Mark Curriden

Akin Gump Prevails in $4 Million Jury Verdict

A Texas neurosurgeon won $4 million in damages when the jury determined last week that a medical device company misappropriated his trade secret.

January 21, 2014 Natalie Posgate

Antitrust Lawsuits Jump in Texas, But Still Far Behind Other States

Federal antitrust complaints lodged in Texas by both individuals and businesses against other corporations hit a six-year high in 2013 and is more than triple the number of such lawsuits filed just two years earlier. The belief that Texas might be coming more receptive to such claims was buoyed four months ago when a jury in Marshall handed down a nine-digit judgment for a Texas-based company that sued a competitor over illegal anti-competitive practices. Corporate in-house counsel and antitrust experts examine the trend and whether it will continue.

January 10, 2014 Mark Curriden

SEC v. Cuban Shows Importance of U.S. Jury System

(December 12) – While trials before a jury of one’s peers are increasingly rare as big business interests push mandatory arbitration clauses and tort reform measures are narrowing access to courts, it’s important to note that Cuban’s case shows that the jury system, although battered, remains a powerful public resource that is alive and well in the 21st century.

December 12, 2013 Mark Curriden

The Inside Story of American Airlines Settlement with DOJ

Next Monday, before the financial markets open, lawyers for American Airlines and US Airways will gather in the Dallas offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges on the second floor of the Crescent Court to sign the “closing papers” officially merging the two companies and creating the world’s largest airline. The closing, which will be more ceremonial than substantive, ends one of the most complex, expensive and successful corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history. This is the inside story of how the airlines settled the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the merger – a lawsuit that the airlines, the federal government and nearly all legal experts said couldn’t be settled.

December 1, 2013 Mark Curriden

GCs Call for Reforms to Limit Patent Trolls

The chief legal officers of Whataburger, Rackspace Hosting Inc., the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association and the Internet Association trade group said patent lawsuits have an $80 billion drag on the national economy

November 18, 2013 Jeff Bounds

American Airlines Settles with DOJ

The settlement clears the way for American to merge with US Airways.

November 12, 2013 Mark Curriden

Highland Capital Management Sues Looper Reed for Extortion

Accused of holding on to internal documents to extort Highland, Looper Reed contends the lawsuit is factually baseless and a trial tactic for a related case.

November 12, 2013 Natalie Posgate

Frank and Debbie Branson: Partners in Life, the Law

(October 24) – For three decades, Frank and Debbie Branson have taken hundreds of catastrophic personal injury cases to trial, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in jury verdicts and settlements. Now they are expanding into large commercial litigation, including the representation of PlainsCapital Bank against Jackson Walker. He has sued Six Flags Over Texas for the death of a woman who fell to her death in July. But there is a lot more to their story.

October 23, 2013 Mark Curriden