Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
As policymakers continue to recalibrate U.S. trade policy in the wake of “Liberation Day,” the real-world effects are still rippling across boardrooms, factory floors, and checkout counters. At a recent economic roundtable hosted by The Texas Lawbook, four Dallas experts offered a look at how tariffs and the uncertainty surrounding them are reshaping decision-making for Texas businesses and consumers alike.
Here are highlights from the conversation.
British oil and gas giant Shell announced Monday an agreement to acquire ARC Resources, a Canadian energy company focused on the Montney shale basin in British Columbia and Alberta, in a deal with a total enterprise value of about $16.4 billion.
Baker Botts is acting as U.S. regulatory counsel to Calgary-based ARC Resources. Travis Torrence is head of legal for Shell USA.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a lawsuit Mercuria Energy American filed against a former trader won’t be going to trial after all, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gets a $7 million final judgment in a case against a forex trader from Houston it alleged was operating a Ponzi scheme.
Facing a “tsunami of litigation” driven by the Trump administration’s expansive classification of noncitizens as “applicants for admission” — making them ineligible for bond — lawyers and judges in the Northern District of Texas have “answered the call,” with attorneys stepping forward to represent immigrants on a pro bono basis and with judges working around the clock to issue timely, thoughtful orders, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix said Friday during closing remarks at the district’s annual Bench Bar Conference, held this year in Arlington.
Brett Johnson, co-managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s Dallas office, was approached in February by a corporate client and the opposing counsel in a litigation matter with the same message.
“You have got to talk to Aimee Fagan,” the client told Johnson. “She’s your kind of lawyer — excellent courtroom skills and an even better person.”
That same weekend, three friends — none of them related to each other — contacted Fagan, a prominent Dallas intellectual property lawyer at Sidley Austin, to encourage her to talk to leaders at Winston because they thought the Chicago-founded firm “was a natural fit for my practice.”
On April 24, Fagan joined the Dallas office of Winston.
For the week ended April 25, the Roundup reported on 11 deals worth about $19.7 billion, or maybe $69.7 billion, depending on how SpaceX’s latest acquisition pans out.
Aside from the SpaceX rent-to-own deal this week’s slate of transactions includes the acquisition of a Brazilian Rare Earth source with a 15-year offtake agreement with the U.S.-backed buyer already in place; a $1.5 billion investment in a REIT that specializes in communications towers; the reverse-merger of an offshore oil services firm with a Houston-based competitor; the acquisition of a fiber provider in Alaska; the sale of a compression services provider to a Lubbock firm and the sale of a minority stake in a hyperscale data center developer.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
Jones Walker has added two maritime lawyers to its Houston office.
The new laterals are Kelly Haas and Hayley Stancil, who worked together in the Houston office of Schouest, Bamdas, Soshea, BenMaier & Eastham.
Two University of Texas School of Law graduates, who are also veterans, are striking out on their own to start Ryman Clark, a boutique firm focused on tenants’ rights and complex property and construction litigation. Alexander Clark and Kyle Ryman, who were then practicing at Haynes Boone and McKool Smith, respectively, first discussed launching their own firm last year at a gala benefiting the Texas Access to Justice Commission’s Veterans Committee.
In this edition of P.S., the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers’ 2025 Leadership Class capped its nearly yearlong charitable efforts Saturday with a day of service at Viola’s House, a nonprofit that provides maternity housing and support for expectant mothers facing unstable living situations. The lawyers are now exploring ways to package the professional development curriculum for Viola’s House and other nonprofits. Several DAYL Leadership Class projects have become lasting initiatives, including The Freedom Run 5k run and one-mile walk, created by the 2001 Leadership Class that raises funds for the Dallas Police Association’s Assist the Officer Foundation.
Also, the nonprofit public interest justice center Texas Appleseed has launched a fundraising campaign aimed at raising $1.5 million in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
Also, today is the deadline to nominate a corporate counsel and in-house Texas attorney for the Texas Access to Justice Commission Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Award.
The group of 12 downstream property owners in this case have alleged their damages total $22 million. Their lawyer, Richard Mithoff, who represents an additional 502 of the thousands of downstream plaintiffs whose claims are still pending, said he’s hopeful a trial date for the damages portion of the case will be set soon.
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