A Connecticut jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday before rejecting claims in a $40 million lawsuit brought by the wife of a former Exxon gas station owner that the Houston-based oil giant was responsible for the acute myelogenous leukemia that caused his death in 2018 at the age of 67. The defense legal team also included Exxon Mobil corporate counsel Ted Ray and Baker Botts partner Ty Buthod.
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An Army Veteran Applies Martial Wisdom to Trial Practice
While I am now proudly a Texas trial lawyer, I spent the first 18 years of my adult life in the Army. Although I left the Army in 2016, I still view many things through the lens of my military training and experiences. My work as a trial lawyer is no exception. On this Veterans Day weekend, I write to share a few of the military teachings that have stuck with me and how I conceptualize them now as a member of the profession of law rather than the profession of arms.
Jeremy Wallace: From Air Force Language Analyst to Lawyer Giving Back to Vets
Commercial litigator Jeremy Wallace loved his four years in the Air Force. He loved his work as a cryptologic language analyst, the friends he made, and the acquired skills that still show up in his law practice at Greenberg Traurig.
But, he acknowledges, “many people serve and they don’t leave unscathed,” so he’s put in significant hours this past year helping veterans pro bono. Wallace sat down with The Lawbook this week to discuss his military service, his path to becoming a lawyer and, as Veterans Day approaches, why he continues to serve veterans through pro bono work.
Yetter Coleman Nets $58.5 Million Settlement in Business Civil Rights Case
The settlement between a gravel mining company and Sacramento County, California, is one of the largest ever in a business civil rights case nationwide, the Houston-based firm said.
From the Courtroom to the Classroom to ADR: An Austin-Based Attorney’s Professional Journey
Now in my third “career” as a JAMS neutral, I’ve had a front row seat to the rise of alternative dispute resolution as a litigator and a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. The unknown of what the state business court will look like, an increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and a growing focus on ESG are a few reasons to be bullish on ADR.
‘I Wanted Him Gone,’ Berg & Androphy Co-Founder Testifies in Suit by Ex-Associate
David Berg says Justin Pfeiffer, who has sued for $32,000 in back pay, was “not trustworthy and an embarrassment” to Berg’s firm. Pfeiffer claims he wasn’t “fully relieved” of his duties at Berg & Androphy until November 2018, two months after he agreed to resign, when he filed a motion to withdraw as counsel in California in cases where he was a lawyer of record, and that motion was granted.
TAJF Hosts Veterans Legal Aid Week
Throughout this week and next week, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation is celebrating Texas Veterans Legal Aid Week, which offers free civil legal aid to Texas veterans at various in-person and virtual clinics across the state. This article lists all upcoming clinics for veterans in need of pro bono legal advice as well as attorneys who want to inquire about volunteering.
Kinder Morgan Buys STX Midstream from NextEra for $1.8B
Locke Lord’s Kevin Peter counseled KMI and Hogan Lovells’ Greg Hill represented NextEra on the sale of the pipeline system, with KMI viewed as the likely buyer.
Gibson Dunn Scores Win for Uber in Patent Dispute
A federal judge in Delaware has voided three patents obtained by a Texas-based business technology management company involving its surge-pricing system for ride-sharing apps because the feature is less of a “technology problem” and more an issue of “human inefficiency that could be solved by automation.”
CDT Roundup: 15 Deals, 14 Firms, 193 Lawyers, $20.6B
For the first time in a while, energy didn’t dominate the week for value. Still, energy deals dominated the deal count among the 12 M&A transactions reported. This comes as the Haynes Boone financing survey shows increasing interest in financing new upstream E&P. Claire Poole’s CDT Roundup has more, along with the names and firms of the 186 lawyers who worked on last week’s transactions.