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Commercial Litigation

Kirkland and Bell Nunnally Win Jury Trial for AMLI Residential in $38M Dispute

Kirkland & Ellis partner Jeremy Fielding and AMLI Chair Gregory Mutz, a Vietnam War infantry lieutenant turned lawyer turned real estate developer, stood side by side last Wednesday as a Houston jury delivered its verdict. AMLI stood accused of lying, breach of contract and destroying evidence related to the $57 million sale in 2012 of a Houston luxury apartment complex. The verdict, both men say, brought them to tears.

Widow: $26 Million Life Insurance Was Surprise

Blanca Monica Villareal, accused in a civil suit of faking her husband’s death in Mexico City to swindle insurers Transamerica and Prudential, claimed that she knew nothing about his finances. Testifying in Spanish, she told Houston jurors she couldn’t read the insurance policies and didn’t know what they were when she found them, because they were in English.

Investigator to Jury in $26M Life-Insurance Case: Two People Identified the Insured as Alive More than a Year After His ‘Death’

A private investigator testified Wednesday that two people at a Mexico City office where he was searching for the supposedly dead Eduardo Rosendi, flashing Rosendi’s photo, told him the man in the photo worked there as an accountant – and one had seen him earlier that day. The investigator was a critical witness in the third day of a federal trial in which a $26 million insurance payout is in the balance – if Rosendi is not dead. But Mikal C. Watts, the beneficiary’s attorney, should get his chance at cross-examination Thursday.

Employment Suits Drop in Texas As Pandemic Drags On

Federal wage-and-hour suits have been steadily declining since the first half of 2020, when suits rose 19% from pre-pandemic days. And federal employment-discrimination lawsuits filed in Texas under Title VII were also down. Many factors may be at work, including the pandemic, recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the backlog of government agencies that oversee the litigation.

Fort Worth Bankruptcy Judge Hears Details of $33M Elevate Credit Settlement

The multistate predatory lending and fraud litigation pitting more than a million low-income plaintiffs against two Fort Worth financial tech companies – Think Finance and Elevate Credit – is in “its final chapter,” lawyers told a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlan Hale Wednesday. Elevate agreed to pay $33 million to settle three class actions and an adversarial bankruptcy complaint that alleged a decadelong scheme of predatory lending and subsequent corporate transactional legal maneuvering that claimed victims in nearly every state.

Fort Worth Fintech Firm Settles Massive Litigation for $33M

Fort Worth technology-based financial lender Elevate Credit has agreed to pay $33 million as part of a proposed settlement agreement related to a web of litigation across the United States, which alleged a decade-long scheme of predatory lending and subsequent corporate transactional legal maneuvering that victimized more than a million low-income people.

Lauren Brogdon Talks Energy Litigation and Her Move to Haynes and Boone

Energy trial litigator Lauren Brogdon was on maternity leave last year when she started “reflecting on the future growth” of her law practice and the right “environment” where she wanted to practice. Last week, the Houston lawyer moved her practice to Haynes and Boone. In an exclusive interview, Brogdon told The Texas Lawbook the reasons behind her lateral move, the biggest litigation risks she sees for energy companies today and her passion for pro bono.

Wife or Widow: Jury to Decide Confounding Life-Insurance Claim

Is Eduardo Rosendi dead or alive? Was he a Mexican tech CEO worth $70 million or a custodian who earned $12 a day? Those are the $26 million questions brought by two of the world’s largest insurance companies, a question they will put before a federal jury in Houston next week. “It’s the most interesting trial I have ever been involved in,” said trial lawyer Mikal C. Watts of San Antonio.

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