During three furious weeks in September 1948, lawyers for LBJ and former governor Coke Stevenson waged a historic legal battle. They sought and obtained successive, trumping injunctions in state and federal courts until finally a U.S. Supreme Court justice ended the matter by entering an unusual stay that ensured Johnson’s victory. The story is intrinsically interesting with LBJ at the center. But the litigation provides a useful case study or illustration of “lawyering.”

During three furious weeks in September 1948, lawyers for LBJ and former governor Coke Stevenson waged a historic legal battle. They sought and obtained successive, trumping injunctions in state and federal courts until finally a U.S. Supreme Court justice ended the matter by entering an unusual stay that ensured Johnson’s victory. The story is intrinsically interesting with LBJ at the center. But the litigation provides a useful case study or illustration of “lawyering.”

The number of new patent cases filed in the Northern District of Texas during the first half of 2012 more than doubled the number filed during the first six months of 2011. The Eastern District saw its new patent filings jump 63 percent. The Western and Southern districts witnessed significant increases, too. One likely reason, according to IP litigation Eric Findlay of Tyler, is the passage of the America Invents Act in September 2011.

The five important business cases from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the first half of 2012 show a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to business cases. The Court tested whether an arbitration clause comported with basic principles of contract law, parsed each line of a pleading to test its sufficiency, enforced each element of the basic test for personal jurisdiction, and methodically applied Daubert to complex expert testimony. The five cases illustrate the work of a court that takes seriously the “blocking and tackling” basics of commercial disputes.