Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The court battle between the Trump administration and four corporate law firms, including Houston-based Susman Godfrey, is being argued Thursday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
While many legal scholars agree that the likelihood of winning the appeal decisively favors the law firms, the focus will be on appellate Judge Neomi Rao, a conservative jurist, former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and champion of the Federalist Society.
Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice James Blacklock has told a Dallas trial judge that she needs to reconsider her standing order requiring mask mandates and disclosure of personal health information before entering her courtroom.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shared stories from her early years at the Southern Methodist University Tate Lecture Series Tuesday evening. Justice Jackson is the third U.S. Supreme Court justice to visit the university campus in the last week.
Dario Mendoza has joined Baker Botts in Dallas as a partner in the firm’s executive compensation and employee benefits practice after more than 15 years at Vinson & Elkins across town.
Baker Botts said Mendoza advises companies, private equity firms, boards, compensation committees and executive teams on compensation and benefits. His work spans tax, securities law, corporate governance and disclosure considerations associated with these arrangements.
Megumi Ryoya saw her future as a corporate lawyer during her senior year of college at Waseda University.
“I met an in‑house counsel at a well‑known Japanese manufacturer who told me that formal legal training and a bar license would significantly broaden what I could do professionally,” Ryoya told The Texas Lawbook. Fifteen years later, Ryoya is senior counsel at global powerhouse Mitsubishi Corporation, where she played a critical role during the past year in developing a joint venture agreement between Mitsubishi and ExxonMobil to develop the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen project.
Citing her achievements, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook are honoring Ryoya with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. The awards recognize lawyers who have been in-house for two years or less.
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Megumi Ryoya discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
The chief engineer of the Singaporean container ship MV Dali has hired prominent Houston criminal defense attorney David Gerger to represent him against federal charges filed Tuesday involving the ship’s March 2024 crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge that killed six people and caused billions of dollars in damages.
Products liability and medical malpractice trial lawyer Scott Frenkel has filed a legal challenge against a Dallas judge who continues to require the people in her courtroom to wear Covid-19-era facemasks.
Blackstone and Halliburton agreed to invest $1 billion in VoltaGrid, a Houston company that provides power generation, portable power, CNG fuel supply, infrastructure and energy management services. VoltaGrid also is acquiring Propell Energy Technology, a Granbury manufacturer of oilfield and well-servicing equipment.
Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin are advising VoltaGrid, while Simpson Thacher is advising Blackstone.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch visited the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University’s campus Saturday afternoon for a talk and reading of his children’s book Heroes of 1776. Young children gathered to hear who the justice’s favorite heroes were.
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