Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Three weeks after exiting bankruptcy, Talen Energy announced that GC Andrew Wright will be the company's next chief administrative officer and V&E partner John Wander will be the energy firm’s next GC effective June 19. Wander also served as V&E’s internal GC. With his departure, the firm announced that partner Vanessa Griffith will be the Houston-based law firm’s new GC.
The Texas Lawbook exclusively reported on Friday that Jonathan Castelan joined the Magic Circle firm from Latham & Watkins' Houston office. Trevor Lavelle, a partner at Latham, will also be accompanying him.
As female attorneys who have worked in-house and in various firm environments, we have seen firsthand the challenges that women and marginalized communities face in the legal profession.
While there has been progress in recent years, there are still far too few female partners and other underrepresented leaders in the field, such that we can’t rely on structural and institutional change alone. More progress cannot occur without lawyers across the spectrum investing in the next generation of lawyers from underrepresented communities.
London-based Allen & Overy has coveted a presence in Texas to boost its global energy practice. On Sunday, the Magic Circle firm got it. A&O and Shearman & Sterling, a New York-headquartered corporate law firm with 60 lawyers in Austin, Dallas and Houston, announced Sunday that they are merging. The Texas Lawbook looks at Shearman's operations in Texas and what the merger might mean.
Legendary Dallas trial lawyer Mike McKool announced Thursday that he has left the 130-lawyer firm that he co-founded 32 years ago in order to take on an assignment that he sees as the final big case of his career.
McKool, who has tried more than 100 cases to juries resulting in verdicts exceeding $1 billion, told The Texas Lawbook that he has shed many tears today because he is leaving McKool Smith to take on a case for a client that presents a conflict with other clients at the law firm that bears his name.
The top 50 firms in Texas corporate law continued to thrive in 2022, generating more than $8 billion for the first time. The Texas Lawbook 50 raked in a record $8.6 billion in 2022 — 7.6 percent more than the prior year.
Thirty-eight of the Lawbook 50 firms scored higher revenues in their Texas offices last year than in 2021. Thirty-five of them achieved record revenues in 2022. Texas corporate law roared to new heights because of strong demand across the board, with work generated by headline events like the Winter Storm Uri litigation, the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, which spurred a considerable amount of transactional work in the energy industry and a steady flow of M&A activity, including a handful of mega-transactions. The Texas Lawbook has the exclusive data and analysis.
U.S. News & World Report had to delay its release of the 2024 rankings after some institutions raised questions about the data. The new list shows the University of Texas at Austin School of Law still leads the state, but Texas A&M University School of Law is rising rapidly.
Whether you are embarking on a summer associate position at a firm, a summer clerkship at the courthouse or an internship at a legal aid clinic, there are three universal truths that can make or break the summer.
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