Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Facing a looming discovery deadline, former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman has filed an expedited motion to drop her $258,000 fee request in the IEH Auto Parts bankruptcy, heading off a fight with the U.S. Trustee.
Operating since September 2024, the Texas Business Court has swiftly moved from a statutory innovation into an active, high-stakes commercial trial forum. The court's first nine completed bench and jury trials reveal a bench defined by strict contractual textualism, evidentiary discipline requiring proof of actual loss, measured remedies and rapid trial timelines.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup Jackson Walker and Quinn Emanuel are hired by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to pursue trademark violation claims, the Texas Supreme Court agrees to wade into a dispute involving the municipal regulation of short-term rentals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determines a federal law regulating switchblades is unconstitutional.
Parties in Texas Business Court jury trials have been adding to jurors’ $58 daily pay, with total compensation ranging from $120 to $250 per day with lunch provided. A judge and a veteran trial lawyer say the extra money recognizes the hardship of jury service. It also keeps jurors from resenting litigants fighting over millions of dollars.
Dallas County jurors ruled in favor of a commercial property owner and awarded $1.1 million in damages after finding a real estate broker committed fraud and breached its fiduciary duty. Dallas County District Judge Eric Moyé presided over the three-day trial.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, Baker Botts partner Doug Kubehl shares how a temporary move to Dallas became a 30-year patent litigation career, highlighted by overturning an $847 million jury verdict. He also discusses emerging legal risks for data centers and renewable energy, and how fronting a law firm rock band keeps him grounded.
In an era saturated with synthetic content, the outcome of high-stakes trials will once again turn on "personal advocacy"—where candor, mastery of the record and unshakeable human credibility will decide cases.
Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez took under advisement Thursday whether to sanction Jackson Walker, expand the universe of cases subject to fee disgorgement or even appoint a special master if needed after an hourlong show-cause hearing in Houston. The hearing was prompted by the court’s discovery of more undisclosed cases in which former judge David Jones presided while romantically involved with former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman.
The 12-member jury delivered a complete defense victory for Blackbrush Oil & Gas and affiliated investors Thursday, rejecting clean-energy developer Synergy Thermogen’s $100 million-plus breach-of-contract and fraud claims in the Texas Business Court. Following a two-week trial before Judge Bill Whitehill and seven hours of deliberations, jurors found that Synergy and founder Rich Halvorson fraudulently induced the parties’ advisory agreement, ordering them to return the investors' entire $1.5 million seed investment.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied without prejudice competing motions to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee or to approve independent fiduciaries in the Camp Mystic bankruptcy, giving the debtors until Oct. 28 to file an amended plan to give independent fiduciaries control over the potential settlement of wrongful death lawsuits. The proposed plan the camp filed, he said, failed to provide the kind of independence necessary “to move these cases forward.”
After closing arguments in the Texas Business Court trial, 12 jurors now weigh the 46-page charge. Synergy accuses Blackbrush Oil & Gas of sabotaging its clean-energy technology. Blackbrush says Synergy founder Rich Halvorson squandered its $1.5 million investment.
The lead lawyer for Westlake Chemical said defeating the motion for a permanent injunction seeking to shut down a section of ethylene pipeline can be viewed as a win for Texas’ midstream energy industry. Express H20 Pipeline and ROW had argued a 3.5-mile portion of the Westlake pipeline violated its exclusive, blanket easement.
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