Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Texas immigration courts are carrying one of the nation’s largest backlogs as the system has undergone a sweeping shake-up of more than 200 judges, coinciding with a rise in deportation orders. Nearly 3.2 million cases were pending before U.S. immigration courts as of June 2026, including 321,006 in Texas, the third-highest total in the country.
A Houston lawyer in Kelley Drye & Warren’s environmental law practice group served as lead trial counsel for the state of New Jersey, guiding historic $2.4 billion settlements in “forever chemical” litigation against DuPont and 3M that were finalized via consent orders by a federal judge last week. Jackson previously represented the state of Louisiana in Deepwater Horizon litigation.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, Bell Nunnally partner Heath Cheek discusses his first trial and trial prep. He also shares how he got involved with the State Fair of Texas and how it became a piece of home for him in Dallas.
After the attorneys argued their case at trial and submitted post-trial briefs to U.S. District Court Judge Ada Brown, she recused herself without explanation. Now, the attorneys may have to retry the case before a new judge. The bench trial between the trustee of a Dallas luxury senior living community and its landlord began in May.
Mark Cuban's request to withdraw his Rule 202 petition was granted by Texas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill without prejudice Monday. The case originated in the Dallas County District Court and was removed to the Texas Business Court last week.
In Round 4 of multidistrict litigation stemming from the fatal explosion at the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing facility on the Northwest Side of Houston, jurors determined 3M was 30 percent responsible. Most recently, in May, a different jury had returned a complete defense win for the company. The lawyers involved told The Texas Lawbook it was the first civil jury trial they had handled that required the jurors receive an Allen charge.
Today was Andrew LeGrand’s first day with Kirkland & Ellis after 14 years at Gibson Dunn. He said he has “no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision.”
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a hedge fund manager goes to prison for failing to report millions in income, and a bankruptcy law firm operating in Texas is pinged for filing cases with false financial information.
There’s no sign of a summer slowdown in Texas Business Court. The Court has delivered 20 opinions since our last monthly installment, and thus far, summer’s defining feature has been breadth over blockbuster. All five divisions and nine different judges pitched in. The First Division led the way with almost half the total publication volume. July supplanted May as the Court’s busiest month yet, but it was also its most doctrinally varied, one in which the Court behaved less like a specialty commercial docket and more like a full-service court majoring in business disputes.
Three themes tie the summer’s substantive opinions together thus far.
A Dallas County jury awarded $10,814 in damages for past pain in a trucking accident case where the plaintiff had asked for $15 million. The four-day trial ended on Friday following seven hours of deliberation.
Following a two-week trial before Bexar County Judge Nadine Nieto, a jury awarded $8.45 million to a woman who claimed she was defamed by statements made in the Netflix documentary Dirty Money.
As the Texas Business Court prepares to enter its third year, legal experts say one case really stands out as an exemplar for the new commercial litigation system’s potential: Dallas Mavericks v. Dallas Stars.
Texas business litigation expert Ben Barnes, in an interview with The Texas Lawbook, said the business court judge’s trial order in the fight between Dallas’ sports franchises shows the court’s ability to compress complex, high-stakes commercial disputes when the circumstances demand it.
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