Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a man who kidnapped his attorney and demanded a $1 million ransom gets 24 years in prison, Texas warns the state’s high court of dire consequences in a bid to revive its suit against Google, and a jury in rural West Texas awards more than $1 million in an oil and gas contract dispute.
Stating that President Donald Trump and his administration are “engaged in an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on the independent bar, the independent judiciary and the rule of law,” lawyers for Susman Godfrey asked a federal judge Monday to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent federal officials from enforcing the president’s executive order signed last Wednesday against the Houston law firm. Last Friday, Susman Godfrey sued the Trump administration claiming that the executive order was an abuse of power “in an express campaign of retaliation for representing clients and causes” that President Trump “disfavors or employing lawyers he dislikes.”
The event was described as a “fireside chat,” intended as a brief, informal Q&A session to kick off the 8th Annual Bench Bar Conference for the Northern District of Texas. The discussion featured NDTX District Clerk Karen Mitchell and NDTX Chief Judge David Godbey. They began by addressing the dynamics of the district and common challenges related to budgeting and policy, including the impact of AI. However, the conversation also took a more serious turn as they talked about the issue of judicial death threats. “Non-elected, active citizens will send me death threats and publish my personal information on the internet and encourage like-minded people to try to kill me,” he said. “That’s a different ballgame.”
It may be that no American court outside the United States Supreme Court has been more talked about over the last year than the Texas Business Court. The court opened its doors for business on Sept. 1, 2024, and received its first filing at 12:03 in the morning that same day. Since then, it has been off to a roaring start. As of this writing, more than 105 cases have been filed in the court, of which more than 75 are actively pending.
“There is no right that is so entrenched in the American experience that someone can't take it away,” trial lawyer Jeffrey B. Simon told The Texas Lawbook about writing his book, Last Rights: The Fight to Save the 7th Amendment. Simon, who co-leads the state’s opioid multidistrict litigation, shared why he wrote his book and how it's a collection of thoughts and ideas developed over a career spanning more than three decades.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifth Circuit sends a certified question about judges refusing to perform same-sex marriages to the Texas Supreme Court, Tesla hires Jackson Walker to defend against a workplace death lawsuit, and we take a look at three petitions for writ of mandamus the state’s high court recently granted.
Jackson Walker issued a statement to The Lawbook indicating more settlements will be filed soon. “We have always said that we regret being misled in this matter by our former partner, and we have continued to proactively reach out to other parties to try to resolve this matter in a constructive fashion,” the statement reads.
Susman Godfrey trial attorney and partner Geoffrey Harrison won five lawsuits last year involving a total of more than $1.25 billion. In this exclusive interview, Harrison talks about his trial rituals, what name partner H. Lee Godfrey taught him as a newly minted lawyer, the litigation trends he’s watching closely and more.
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