Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Motorola sees a discovery win in a European patent infringement dispute reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and a Houston appellate court ends a man’s quest to investigate potential Texas Heartbeat Act claims against a former romantic partner.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup Jackson Walker and Quinn Emanuel are hired by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to pursue trademark violation claims, the Texas Supreme Court agrees to wade into a dispute involving the municipal regulation of short-term rentals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determines a federal law regulating switchblades is unconstitutional.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and Troutman Pepper Locke partner Paul Coggins spends his mornings writing legal thrillers before stepping into court to defend complex white-collar cases. With a new Cash McCahill novel hitting shelves and a securities-fraud trial on his docket, the veteran advocate reflects on decades of practice in Texas and why trial strategy and fiction writing draw on the same craft.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office closes out a case involving an alleged $91 million Ponzi scheme, a Dallas jury sides with Jani-King in a franchisee dispute, ExxonMobil investors are granted class certification in a securities suit and a Fifth Circuit panel affirms Pioneer Natural Resources’ force majeure win in a Winter Storm Uri dispute.
Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the TCEQ to stop issuing permits for data center projects statewide — including those not connected to the ERCOT grid — until ERCOT finishes a broader audit expected to wrap up in mid-December. The order may reach beyond data center developers themselves to affiliated power-generation projects, and attorneys say its scope leaves open questions about how it applies to lower-tier permitting processes.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a lawyer who filed an AI-generated brief "littered with errors” is sanctioned by the Dallas Court of Appeals, a Stephenville businessman agrees to forfeit more than 90 exotic cars after admitting to running a scam loan program and Vinson & Elkins and Hunton Andrews Kurth gear up to defend data center clients against an environmental suit in San Antonio.
In this September edition of White-Collar & Regulatory Roundup, federal prosecutors say David Gilchrist ran a property tax-lien investment scheme that collected $1.45 million from roughly 20 investors, then forged notary deeds to mislead SEC investigators and urged a potential witness to leave the country. Gilchrist, a licensed Texas attorney since 1983, faces wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and witness tampering charges, plus a parallel SEC civil suit.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas State Securities Board says it was the entity that determined NFL star Travis Kelce was the victim of a Ponzi scheme, a dispute between concrete industry competitors is dropped and the Texas Supreme Court is urged to determine courts here have jurisdiction over a $500 million fight between Brazilian mining companies.
A Fort Worth federal jury convicted Kevin Curry on all nine counts of a healthcare fraud and kickback scheme that bilked TRICARE out of more than $17 million, with prosecutors saying he used stolen doctors' identities and fabricated records to bill for unnecessary treatments. Curry's case was one of seven North Texas prosecutions tied to a recent DOJ healthcare fraud takedown that charged 455 defendants in schemes exceeding $6.5 billion nationwide.
Ronak Patel spent 14 years at the Texas State Securities Board, where he helped lead auction-rate securities investigations and took part in global settlement talks that Akerman says delivered about $50 billion in relief for investors. Now a litigation partner in Austin, he says he brings a regulator's view of enforcement to his work with financial services clients.
Looking to address increased client demand in state attorney general enforcement and energy infrastructure development, Kelley Drye bolstered its Texas ranks this week with the addition of Steven Robinson, a veteran of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and corporate partner Christina Hightower.
A year after Tricolor collapsed into bankruptcy, the SEC’s new fraud case is the latest multimillion-dollar turn in the problems faced by the subprime auto lender that have left it in liquidation and at the center of criminal fraud charges against its former executives.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
