This week’s edition of P.S. puts on your radar some key dates for community giving and The Lawbook and ACC’s pro bono and diversity awards nomination deadlines, a new series Natalie Posgate is launching this fall and a Dallas lawyer who has joined a nonprofit board.
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A Conversation on Mental Health with TLAP’s Leader
The Lawbook recently spoke to Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program director Michelle Fontenot, who elaborated on the range of mental health and substance abuse services TLAP offers and shared her thoughts on the pandemic’s effect on lawyers’ mental health, the billable hour, best ways for the legal community to support TLAP and what firms and corporate legal departments could be doing better to support the wellness of their employees.
Viper Picks Up Oil Interests from Warwick, GRP for $1B
Akin represented the buyer and Kirkland the sellers in something of a strategic departure for Viper.
Texas Enhances Permissive Appeals by Requiring Explanation for Denials and Expanding Supreme Court Review
The Texas Supreme Court has unveiled a change to Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 28.3 to implement recent legislation requiring the state’s 14 intermediate appellate courts to explain themselves when denying petitions for permissive appeal. The amendment increases the importance of permissive appeals in Texas and will enhance their ability to impact outcomes in civil litigation.
CDT Roundup: 14 Deals, 6 Firms, 92 Lawyers, $2.5B
Clay Brett arrived in May at the Houston offices of Baker Botts with a deep résumé: partner and GC at a private investment firm, Willkie and Bracewell alum. Since then he’s been busy. Very busy. In a Q&A with the Lawbook’s Claire Poole, Brett describes his decision to join Baker Botts, the bifurcated presence (long and short) of private equity in the energy spaces and dealmaking the energy storage space. That, along with the usual list of deals and fundings reported by Texas lawyers last week.
Litigation Roundup: Wells Fargo Asks for Arbitration in Discrimination Class Action, Jerry Jones Assault Case to Proceed
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Southwest Airlines attorneys are denied a stay of a sanctions order that they undergo religious liberty training, the Texas Supreme Court rejects Jerry Jones’ request to end an assault suit brought by a woman he allegedly forcibly kissed at AT&T Stadium and the Fifth Circuit revives a suit against the Food and Drug Administration over tweets about ivermectin.
Holding Vigil: Law Firm Executives Deserve a Gold Star for Patience
Lawyers today face endless liabilities — both financial and reputational. Throw in the continuous industry-wide challenge of diversity and inclusion, a decline in associate writing skills and a truly mixed bag of social skills, and it is no wonder law firms find themselves stagnant and struggling to make big moves. This OpEd outlines key ways law firms can better utilize administrative resources and forge more strategic pathways.
Energy/Infra Lawyer Purohit Leaves Latham for Paul Weiss
Ravi Purohit becomes co-head of Paul Weiss’s infrastructure practice. There has been speculation that Paul Weiss is planning to open a Houston office and has been out trying to recruit lawyers.
Texas Seeks Stay of Federal Court Ruling Against School Book Ban
The fast-moving case is heading to the Fifth Circuit over the First Amendment implications of a new law requiring booksellers to rate material sold to public school libraries. Would Texan Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet be banned for sexual content?
P.S. — A Corporate LGBTQ+ Conference, A Maui Fund, A Life Saved
This edition of P.S. details September dates for the DBA’s phone legal clinics, an upcoming conference that aims to inform on the LGBTQ+ climate and help corporations build more inclusive workplaces, ways Texas lawyers can support the ABA’s disaster relief efforts in Maui and a back-to-school fundraiser that is close to the hearts of lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright. Plus: the son of a well-known Dallas lawyer’s life-saving tale.