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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued Life Partners Holdings, Inc., and its subsidiary, Life Partners, Inc. for violating the Texas Securities Act by allegedly selling unregistered securities to investors and has asked an Austin judge to appoint a receiver to oversee the Waco-based company’s financial operations immediately.

Sixty-six years ago, Heman Sweatt walked into the University of Texas Tower seeking admission to the UT Law School. His application was denied for one simple reason: “the fact that he is a negro.” Sweatt sued and won a historic case at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1950. This week, his daughter and other family members filed amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court in the Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas, which challenges the law school’s consideration of race in its admissions policy.

“The purpose of the Sweatt family’s brief is simple,” says Allan Van Fleet, a litigation partner in the Houston office of McDermott Will & Emery, who is representing the family pro bono. “They want the Supreme Court to remember their father and uncle and his story.”

For Dallas M&A partner Scott Cohen, this is the four major transaction in the semi-conductor industry this year.

The $1.3 billion contract between Dallas-based Celanese Corporation and Houston-based Southern Chemical Corporation is valid and will continue until the agreement terminates in 2015, a Houston jury ruled Friday.

The dispute dates back to 2005, when Southern made a deal with Celanese to supply Celanese with methanol until 2015 – the year the acetyls producer expects to have its own methanol plant up and running.

The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed an $18.6 million judgment against the Houston Port Authority in a six-year contractual dispute with Zachry Construction Corporation. The justices also awarded $10.6 million in legal fees for the Port Authority and its legal team, led by Vinson & Elkins.

“The decision of the Court of Appeals upholds the contractual terms agreed to by sophisticated contracting parties and allows the Port to protect the public’s funds with contract provisions that provide certainty as to the dollars that the Port will owe under the contract,” says V&E appellate partner Marie Yeates.

Houston-based National Oilwell Varco is paying $2.5 billion to buy Robbins & Myers, an Ohio-based oil and gas equipment maker.