Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas touts what could be a first-of-its-kind settlement with an artificial intelligence company accused of misleading customers about the reliability of the product, The Wall Street Journal secures a ruling upholding the strength of its subscription agreements, and the full Fifth Circuit agrees to rehear a case involving a Houston personal injury law firm and a former associate.
Derrick Carson, who previously chaired Locke Lord’s energy litigation practice and construction law practice groups, has represented clients in complex energy and construction disputes for more than 25 years. Pillsbury announced Monday that Carson joined the firm as a partner in its Houston office.
Johnson & Johnson, hoping the third time's a charm for solving its multibillion-dollar talc baby powder litigation fiasco, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday for its Red River Talc subsidiary in Houston. The case featuring the highly controversial Texas Two-Step procedure has been assigned to Southern District of Texas Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez. Two Texas lawyers expected to play key roles for the debtors in the case are Jones Day partner Gregory Gordon of Dallas and Porter Hedges partner John Higgins of Houston.
The Fifteenth Court of Appeals, which opened and began accepting cases Sept. 1, will be tasked with determining whether Dallas County District Judge Emily Tobolowsky got it right when she rejected Texas’ request to halt a ban on guns at the State Fair. Texas has argued it pursued litigation to protect citizens’ gun rights. The defendants argue this case is actually about property rights.
A main point of contention in the briefing is whether the dispute centers on a bank loan — which would deprive the Fifteenth Court of Appeals of exclusive jurisdiction over the case under Texas Government Code section 25A.001(14) — or if it centers instead on a guaranty agreement. In the underlying case, parties on both sides of the dispute claim to have been the victims of a Ponzi scheme.
The state judge in Oregon did not immediately offer a reason for overturning a jury’s verdict in the trial for a woman who accused J&J’s talc-based baby powder of causing her mesothelioma. J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation blasted Dean Omar Branham Shirley lawyers for “prejudicial conduct” that led to an “indefensible” verdict.
The Lanier Law Firm represented a mesothelioma patient who lawyers said is the first person to claim that the medical procedure talc pleurodesis led to his deadly cancer. Cimbar Performance Minerals failed to warn its buyers of the risk of asbestos in its products, which was contained in a product used in the plaintiff’s medical procedure, lawyers said.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers representing about 20 crew workers aboard the Deepwater Asgard drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico when Hurricane Zeta hit in October 2020 have asked a Houston judge to issue sanctions and possibly remove defense attorneys for Transocean Offshore Drilling for a “false and inflammatory” pretrial filing last week that the lawyers say “tainted the jury pool” and “deprived plaintiffs of their right to an impartial jury.” Attorneys for Arnold & Itkin claim that opposing counsel Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing violated disciplinary rules when AZA publicly accused the Houston plaintiffs' firm of being involved in a financial scheme that includes medical experts and a private equity funding source.
A federal jury in Marshall found Samsung infringed on five patents obtained by California-based startup Mojo Mobility with the tech giant’s flagship smartphone Galaxy series and other products. Jurors awarded Mojo Mobility more than $192 million in damages and found that Samsung willfully infringed on at least one of the asserted claims.
A federal jury in Marshall began deliberating Thursday whether South Korean technology company Samsung Electronics infringed on cell phone wireless-charging patents obtained by California-based startup Mojo Mobility. McKool Smith lawyers asked for $303.5 million for its client. A legal team led by Paul Hastings denied Samsung infringed and asserted the patents at issue were invalid.
For the second day in a row, King & Spalding has multiple lateral partners joining the firm in Texas. On Wednesday, it is a team led by Austin trial partner Kim Bueno.
Lauren Varnado is the fourth lawyer to join Brown Rudnick’s one-month-old office in the Bayou City.
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