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In AI Gold Rush, Capital Markets Learn to Live Off Data

In the shengxiao, the year 2025 was represented by the snake. As the sixth of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, the snake represents both mystery and transformation.

For capital markets lawyers that is exactly what 2025 was supposed to be, a year of pipeline deals, AI-driven demand and a new presidential administration primed to relieve public companies from the inordinate burdens associated with their public-ness.

Well, it was. And it wasn’t.

It’s been a busier year than those passed. But capital markets have changed and are changing. The yearly stats say so. And so do the lawyers who make their living assembling them.

CDT Roundup: Coal Gets Reprieve, Wind Gets Rejected in Quiet Week

Not much was reported for the holiday inflected week that ended Dec. 27. The Roundup saw only two transactions. Only one had a reported value.

However, one Houston-based utility got a Christmas week gift from the U.S. Department of Energy.

That and a bit more in this edition of CDT Roundup.

P.S. — Austin Bar Foundation Honors Legal Leaders, Witherite Law Brings Holiday Cheer 

The Austin Bar Foundation has announced the recipients of its annual gala awards, which will be held Jan. 24 in Austin. Proceeds from the gala benefit the Austin Bar Foundation, a nonprofit that funds law-related community initiatives aimed at expanding access to legal services, promoting public legal education and supporting attorney well-being. 

Meanwhile, The Witherite Law Group and 1-800TruckWreck recently made a $30,000 donation to Minnie’s Food Pantry and supported its Dec. 20 Christmas Food and Toy Giveaway in Plano. 

The Texas Lawbook‘s Krista Torralva has that and more in this edition of P.S.

John Nance Garner: The Texas Lawyer Who Was a Heartbeat Away

The famous saying that characterized the American vice presidency as “not worth a warm bucket of spit” was first uttered about 85 years ago. 

However, the man behind that famous aphorism is largely forgotten. Lost in the tranquility of history’s footnotes stands a West Texas frontier lawyer and judge whose impact extended far beyond the courtroom. He left a significant mark on the judicial, legislative and executive branches of America’s constitutional republic. That country lawyer from the southwest who became America’s 32nd vice president was John Nance Garner.

In this special feature for The Lawbook, historian and author James Lumley offers an important review of Garner’s 50-year legal and political career.

DFW Celebrates Two Legal In-house Rookies and a Lifetime Achiever

Elaine Rodriguez has been a corporate general counsel, including the past 14 years at DFW Airport, longer than Cameasha Turner and Nur Kara have been alive, but all three are being honored by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook.

ACC-DFW and The Lawbook are pleased to announce that Rodriguez is being recognized with the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Lifetime Achievement. Past DFW Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Gary Kennedy of American Airlines, Leanne Oliver of PepsiCo, Chris Luna of T-Mobile, Derek Lipscombe of Toyota and Marita Covarrubias of Tenet Healthcare.

Turner, who is corporate counsel at Brinker International, and Kara, who is the legal director for marketing and advertising at PepsiCo North America, are the finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year.

Litigation Roundup: Founder, CEO of McKinney Aerospace Company Named in Wrongful Discharge Case

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a group of wildfire survivors, represented by Susman Godfrey, are awarded $62 million in damages by a jury in Oregon, federal indictments against the former executives of Dallas-based Tricolor are unsealed and the founder and CEO of an aerospace company in McKinney is accused by former executives he hired of firing them after they refused to commit a $1 million “theft.” 

Harbour Energy buys LLOG Exploration for $3.2B

Harbour Energy said Monday that it agreed to acquire Louisiana-based LLOG Exploration Co. for $3.2 billion, including $2.7 billion cash and $500 million of common stock, giving the U.K. oil company its first deepwater presence in the U.S. Bracewell advised Harbour with a team led by partners in London, Houston and Washington, D.C.

Troutman Pepper Locke Leads Pro Bono Nuisance Suit Against Fort Worth Motel

A pair of Fort Worth residents face “imminent and irreparable harm” if the nuisance caused by a long-beleaguered motel is not stopped, a pro bono legal team from Troutman Pepper Locke and the Dallas-based nonprofit Advocates for Community Transformation are arguing in Tarrant County. The lawsuit, brought by two residents of the West Meadowbrook neighborhood, follows other suits brought by the city of Fort Worth and the state of Texas.

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