Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
John D. Surma, a workplace safety partner, has joined Fisher Phillips in Houston from Ogletree Deakins. He will focus his practice on workplace safety, regulatory compliance and catastrophe management matters.
John D. Penn, a bankruptcy partner, has joined Fox Rothschild in Dallas, where he will focus his practice on complex bankruptcy and financial restructuring matters.
Bailey C. Pompea, a bankruptcy and commercial litigation partner, has joined Bonds Ellis Eppich Schafer Jones in Fort Worth from Michael Best & Friedrich. She will focus her practice on bankruptcy, restructuring and complex business disputes.
The Texas legal community has a history of great leaders.
To identify, celebrate and teach leadership skills, challenges and successes, The Texas Lawbook, with the support of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter, has created the Texas Lawbook Leadership Symposium.
The launch event on April 13 will feature two panels of extraordinary leaders.
May Lyn Yuen, an antitrust partner, has joined Vinson & Elkins in Brussels from Hogan Lovells. She will focus her practice on multijurisdictional transactions, merger control strategy and complex competition matters, according to a news release. Her arrival coincides with the launch of Vinson & Elkins' office in Belgium's capital, the firm's first in continental Europe.
Eversheds Sutherland named Phyllis Y. Young partner and head of the multinational firm’s Texas finance team within its U.S. Finance Practice Group.
Jim Coleman, a role model and mentor for scores and scores of Texas attorneys, openly worried that law was quickly becoming just like every other business and was no longer a noble profession.
“The law, as a profession, rises and falls on leadership,” he told The Texas Lawbook in 2015.
Never have those words been more important than today.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook are pleased to announce the launch of the Texas Lawbook Leadership Symposium, which will focus on issues facing legal industry leaders, provide insight into leadership decision-making and honor corporate general counsel and law firm executives and managing partners who have demonstrated great leadership during an era of disruption.
Hamilton Wingo continues to add experienced trial lawyers to the firm with its latest addition of Alex Wolens. Wolens spent the last six years with Winston & Strawn.
Much has been written about the “hot” lateral market for law firm partners in recent years. This publication, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and others have all noted the fierce competition for talent. In years past, that competition centered around transactional or corporate lawyers. Today, it also centers around trial lawyers. Why? With fewer cases going to trial than ever before, even as deals are being done at historically record levels, why would trial lawyers be as in demand as deal lawyers? The answer: There aren’t that many of us around.
Clifford Chance named Alexandra Wilde the Office Managing Partner in Houston, as the Magic Circle law firm continues investing in the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Wilde joined the firm after more than a decade at Jones Day in Dallas, as one of the first partners in the Houston office in 2023.
Despite weak demand, a decline in productivity and lower hourly rate increases than the national average, corporate law firms based in Texas experienced major increases in revenue and profits per partner in 2025, according to a new report by Citibank’s Global Wealth Law Firm Group. Citi’s Michael McKenney said 2025 started slow for the business law community with fears about a federal government shutdown and other macro concerns but ended the year in record fashion.
Michael Biles, a corporate and securities litigation partner, has joined DLA Piper in Austin from King & Spalding. Biles will focus his practice on securities class actions, derivative lawsuits, and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions involving public companies, officers and directors.
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