Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The majority of judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have refused to consider an appeal by a man who argued that his 1992 Collin County trial was tainted because the judge and prosecutor in his case were having a secret romantic affair.
In dissent, Presiding Judge David J. Schenck wrote that the majority on the state’s highest criminal court sacrificed concerns about a fundamental breakdown in due process simply to seek finality in the long-standing appeals of a three-decade-old case.
For the week ended Feb. 14, the CDT Roundup saw 14 deals reported with a total value of $20.5 billion.
Aside from the prior week, last week’s value of $20.5 billion is the highest recorded by the CDT since Nov. 8, when the Texas deal frenzy hit $76 billion boosted by Irving-based Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition of Kenvue for $48.7 billion. That consumer products megadeal was the largest in terms of value in 2025 and the fifth-largest M&A transaction involving a Texas company or led by a Lone Star State lawyer since 2018, aside from a certain super-megadeal in early February.
Winter Storm Uri brought single-digit temperatures and freezing precipitation to Texas in February 2021. Power lines snapped. Natural gas and power generators went silent. Pipelines froze. At least 246 people died. Thousands and thousands more suffered serious medical injuries. In all, 31,600 Texans and businesses sued energy companies for gross negligence. But five years later, not a single case has made it to trial.
In this edition of P.S., we report on the Dallas Bar Association’s impressive $1.4 million fundraising campaign to support the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program. Coming up, you can watch your favorite lawyer-led musical bands while donating to charity at the Feb. 26 Law Rocks Dallas. And a pro bono legal intake clinic hosted by lawyers from Baker Botts and Toyota North America returned to New Friends New Life.
A lawsuit that began nearly seven years ago ended Thursday after jurors determined Apple did not infringe five wireless technology patents held by Optis Wireless Technology. Optis had been seeking between $400 million and $600 million in damages, according to court documents. Judge Gilstrap also entered a sua sponte order Thursday finding that Optis and its affiliated entities that were also plaintiffs in the case are “judicially estopped from asserting that they are entitled to recover pre-suit damages” from Apple.
The opinion from the First Court of Appeals clarified what constitutes an “outside influence” on the jury. It came in a case where Harris County District Judge Sonya L. Aston presided over a jury trial and, post-verdict, heard a juror say she had explained to other jurors that when she worked as a paralegal at a “large, prestigious law firm” in downtown Houston, the attorneys there charged more than $1,000 an hour.
A team of Porter Hedges attorneys secured over a $57 million jury verdict for their client, Shintech Incorporated, earlier this week. The manufacturing company accused Olin Corporation of breaching its contract by refusing to provide the agreed-upon amount of vinyl chloride monomer.
On Feb. 3, a lot of legal and data folks discovered they suddenly cared about stock tickers. Anthropic announced legal plug-ins for its agentic platform, Claude Cowork, and within 48 hours investors shaved tens of billions off the market caps of Thomson Reuters (Westlaw/CoCounsel), RELX (LexisNexis) and Wolters Kluwer. Headlines framed it as AI killing legal software. Social channels called it the “Claude Crash” and the “SaaSpocalypse.” If you work in a Texas law firm or legal department, it felt like watching a tornado touch down a few miles over — not on your roof yet, but close enough to change your weekend plans.
Let’s separate the market drama from the operating reality.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, Mo Lovett Law’s founder discusses opening a new office in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and growing her law firm a year into opening. She also talked about mentorship and the state of the profession.
It didn’t feel like it at the time, but 2025 turned out to be a blockbuster year for M&A lawyers in Texas. The Lone Star State may no longer be matching national trends in M&A; it could be surpassing them. A good year elsewhere was a great year in Texas, regardless of the small print. Put simply, there were more deals made for more money (lots more) than we anticipated, and The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker has the exclusive details.
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