Porter Hedges Adds Co-Managing Partner
Rob Reedy, who has served as Porter Hedges’ managing partner for 13 years, told The Texas Lawbook that the decision is part of the firm’s leadership succession planning process.
St. Mary’s Hosts Lawtina Network Summit
This weekend, the Lawtina Network Summit will bring together pre-law students, law students, practicing lawyers and allies of Latinas in the legal profession. The summit is the brainchild of St. Mary's 3L Brianna Chapa.
DBJ: Munsch Hardt Opts to Keep HQ at Ross Tower with New Lease
The firm, which hit record profits last year, has 50% more employees since it first made the move to Ross Tower and expects to move to the new space in the fall of 2023.
Three GCs Provide a Peek into Their Companies’ Diversity Efforts
The top lawyers at Jacobs Engineering Group, Southwest Airlines and El Rancho Supermercado spent Tuesday’s lunch hour speaking about multiple aspects of diversity within the legal profession — what diversity means for them and their organizations, why it’s important in both the in-house and outside counsel context and how it could be improved. The Lawbook attended the event, which was organized by the Dallas Regional Chamber, hosted by UNT Dallas College of Law and sponsored by Munsch Hardt and Carrington Coleman.
Law Experts: Firms Need to Take TX Freedom Caucus Threats on Abortion Assistance Seriously
Corporate law firms should not ignore nor routinely dismiss threats made last week by Texas Republican legislators that they will punish law partners who fund travel for Texas employees who go to other states to have abortions. Leading academic experts who studied the Texas Freedom Caucus letter to Sidley say law firms "should treat this like any other legal challenge” and “throw all the resources and knowledge they have ... to analyze any potential legal risk than a collection of legislators who don’t seem to understand what the law is or how the law works.”
Texas Law Firms Gird for Battle Against GOP Leaders’ Threats for Providing Abortion Options to Employees
A handful of conservative Republicans are threatening corporate law firms operating in Texas with criminal prosecution, civil sanctions and even disbarment if they play any role in their Texas employees going out of state to get abortions. Texas Freedom Caucus accuses the global law firm Sidley Austin of being “complicit in illegal abortions” and assert the “consequences that you and your colleagues will face for these actions.” But leaders at several law firms tell The Texas Lawbook that the threats are “extreme political debauchery and legally dubious.”
McDermott Opens in Austin
Chicago firm McDermott, Will & Emery has opened an Austin office with the hiring of eight intellectual property partners from Baker Botts. It's the firm's third office in Texas and 22nd worldwide.
Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation Works Toward a More Diverse Field of Law
The Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation last week honored 18 Texas law students with its annual scholarships, bar study grants and internships. The Lawbook reveals this year’s recipients and breaks down why they were chosen.
Texas Commercial Law Firms Merge, Now Exceeds 90 Lawyers
In the largest corporate law firm merger of 2022, Houston-based personal injury defense law firm Lorance Thompson announced Thursday that it has merged with Mayer LLP, a Dallas-based business law boutique. Lorance Thompson’s 22 attorneys officially started June 1 with Mayer, a three-and-a-half-year-old law firm that now has more than 90 lawyers in Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque and Fayetteville.
DBJ: O’Melveny Signs New Dallas Office Lease
The firm's new lease at Harwood No. 14 will triple its Dallas office footprint.
DBJ: Ross Tower Snags Four Law Firm Leases
One law firm has found a home for its first Dallas office; another has doubled its footprint; and two others have relocated or plan to relocate within the city.
Yvette Ostolaza is ‘First Texan to Lead a Global Law Firm’
Yvette Ostolaza, a first-generation Cuban American who grew up in a working-poor neighborhood in Miami, learned English from Sesame Street and almost didn't go to college. On Friday, Ostolaza becomes chair of the management committee of Chicago-founded Sidley Austin, a 2,000-lawyer global corporate law firm that reported nearly $2.8 billion in revenue in 2021. She is the first Latina and the first Texan to lead a top 50 global corporate law firm. Ostolaza joined Sidley from Weil Gotshal in 2013 as the leader of the infamous "Seven-Plus-One." During her time leading Sidley in Dallas, the firm has tripled its Texas lawyer headcount and quadrupled the revenues it generates in the state, according to The Texas Lawbook 50.