Kelly Hart Opens Midland Office, Laterals O&G Law Veterans
The firm's fourth office officially opened Oct. 1 and includes nine attorneys from Hinkle Hensley.
Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

The firm's fourth office officially opened Oct. 1 and includes nine attorneys from Hinkle Hensley.

The firm's fourth office officially opened Oct. 1 and includes nine attorneys from Hinkle Hensley.

Only a month ago, Don Godwin and his legal team won one of the biggest environmental legal disputes ever. Today, 17 lawyers from that team are out of work.

The Philadelphia law firm has been seeking to open an outpost in Texas for years, but officially did so Wednesday when it merged with David & Goodman, an 18-lawyer firm in Dallas. Clinton J. David said if he merged his firm, it would need to be with a compatible culture, he said. “I found that in Fox Rothschild,” David said.

The legal market in Texas has remained flat in the past decade, but it is still better off than most of the nation’s.

Locke Lord, a 630-lawyer firm based in Texas, announced Wednesday that it has signed a letter of intent to merge with another large law firm based in Boston.

If you never thought a film starring the Hollywood duo of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn could influence how a law firm does business, you’re in for a surprise.

Attention lawyers, general counsel and business executives involved in high stakes litigation: “No comment” just doesn’t cut it anymore, says Chrysta Castañeda, a former Locke Lord litigation partner who recently opened the downtown Dallas office of Canterbury Communications.

More than 600 Texas lawyers during the past five years have left local based firms to start or grow the Texas practices of national law firms. About 30 out-of-state law firms have opened in Dallas, Houston and Austin since Feb. 2010. Virginia-based LeClairRyan and California-based Quinn Emanuel opened Houston offices in July. The national law firms have offered multimillion-dollar guaranteed contracts to senior partners with large books of business. Even mid-level associates with no portable business were offered signing bonuses as high as $75,000. The Texas Lawbook examines the trend and how it impacts the legal marketplace.

The firm also recently announced the new partners-in-charge of the firm's Dallas and San Antonio offices.

The office formerly was structured as a joint venture with lawyers from Mexico City-based Arena y Asociados.
Another new week, another national law firm opens in Texas. Prominent Houston white-collar criminal defense attorney David Gerger, who represented Enron CFO Andy Fastow and now defends BP rig supervisor Robert Kaluza in the Deepwater Horizon explosion, will lead Quinn Emanuel's new Houston office.
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