Between 2011 and 2022, commercial real estate giant CBRE allegedly required departing employees to sign a document pledging that they had not filed any complaints with any federal agencies as a condition of severance pay. The SEC contends that requirement by the Dallas-headquartered commercial real estate investment and services firm violated federal whistleblower laws.
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Seyfarth Shaw Adds Second Texas Office
The firm expanded its presence in the state by recruiting a group of Dallas attorneys from Bryan Cave and QSLWM, with an eye to enhancing its real estate finance capabilities.
The Use of Scattergrams to Challenge Extreme Verdicts: A Case Study
How trial and appellate courts should review challenges to outsize noneconomic damages awards has been the talk of the Texas bar. With the Texas Supreme Court indicating openness to verdict comparisons, defense counsel should consider, when the facts permit, using visuals such as scattergrams to show that a verdict lies so far outside the norm.
Litigation Roundup: Texas Co. Gets $37.5M in Patent Trial, Southwest Airlines Beats Back 2 Class Actions
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas finds a Chinese company infringed eight patents held by Texas-based Atlas Global Technologies, the Fifth Circuit rejects the University of North Texas’ bid to end a professor’s First Amendment retaliation claim and a fired Texas prison guard who represented himself on appeal prevails in a discrimination case.
Paul Genender Jumps from Weil to Paul Hastings
Prominent Dallas trial lawyer Paul Genender joined Paul Hastings as a partner Monday to be the firm’s head of litigation in Texas and co-chair of its Houston office. Genender, who had been a partner at Weil Gotshal in Dallas for the past seven years, will split his time between Houston and Dallas.
Enbridge Hires Former Marathon Oil GC as its New CLO
Reggie Hedgebeth has been named as the next chief legal officer at Canadian-based midstream oil and giant company Enbridge Inc.
‘Ticket’ Denied TRO Against Ex-hosts’ Sports Podcast
After a daylong evidentiary hearing, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer said the radio station’s owners failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm if the new podcast by Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp continues until December, when a civil trial is scheduled to determine whether the two violated their noncompete agreements with KTCK “The Ticket.”
AI Hallucinations in Legal Research Are a Serious Problem … for Now
By now, we know that GenAI hallucinates. It is very real. It is very serious. And it is most likely very temporary.
Looking to learn from others who are approaching the inevitable disruption that GenAI will bring to the legal industry, I talked with three legal technologists from the UK law firm Travers Smith about mitigating the hallucination problem, the development of their own open-source AI chatbot and more.
Vital Buys Oil & Gas Assets for $1.16B
In simultaneous acquisitions from three different sellers, Vital promises to add scale in the Permian Basin, increase cash flow and reduce leverage. Texas lawyers from six different firms were involved: Akin, Baker Botts, Jackson Walker, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins and Vinson & Elkins.
La Michoacana Meat Market’s Quest to See Biz Partner’s Books Continues in Arbitration
The dispute between the largest Hispanic grocery store chain in Texas and the business partner that supplies its meat will be settled through arbitration after a failed attempt by La Michoacana to get a district court to grant it access to the books and records of Amigos Meat Distributors. Judge Tanya Garrison, who sent the case to arbitration, told the parties at a hearing last month “I feel like this is a fight between my kids in the backseat. ‘He touched me first.’ And they’re saying ‘nuh-uh.’”