About four months after the U.S. Trustee and Jackson Walker informed the court they had reached a deal that would resolve the federal bankruptcy watchdog’s objections to nine settlements totaling about $4.7 million, the judge overseeing the case has recommended the settlements be approved.
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Fourth Bellwether Trial in Watson Grinding Explosion MDL Against 3M Begins
Opening statements in the fourth bellwether trial against 3M Company — stemming from a fatal explosion that rocked a West Houston neighborhood in 2020 — had an air of déjà vu Tuesday as the plaintiffs’ lawyers urged jurors to find 3M at fault, while attorneys for the multinational conglomerate argued the actions, and inactions, of Watson Grinding and Manufacturing leadership was solely to blame.
Simpson Thacher Makes Dallas Opening Official
Dallas-based Ryan Cox is part of a three-lawyer Akin team joining Simpson’s Hybrid Capital practice. Cox will lead the firm’s Dallas office with Dave Nemecek.
Pedernales Electric Cooperative GC Returns to Baker Botts
Andrea Stover said it was a hard decision to leave the PEC, but Baker Botts feels like home. “There’s not a better place to be for this [energy regulatory] work than Baker Botts,” she said.
Ferguson Enterprises Acquires FloWorks in $1.6B Deal
The deal for the Houston-based valve distributor provides both tech and customer-base expansion for Ferguson’s push into data center infrastructure air and water services. Orrick, Kirkland and Foley are advising.
Former Dallas COA Justice Picks Cantey Hanger
William “Bill” Pedersen III has joined Cantey Hanger as a partner in Dallas. The former appellate justice will represent clients in litigation and appellate matters across a broad range of disputes.
Litigation Roundup: ExxonMobil Gets Directed Verdict in Baytown Refinery Home Damage Case
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a jury in Austin determines a company that makes synthetic turf fields “fraudulently concealed” material defects in the product and awarded an injured former high school lacrosse player about $2.7 million, and we detail two cases involving issues of first impression.
Fifth Circuit Judge Criticizes Colleagues Over En Banc Grant in Death-Row Discovery Fight
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith recently authored a dissent arguing his colleagues are spending the court’s en banc bandwidth on the wrong case.
It ‘Far Exceeded Our Wildest Imaginations’
Then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales sued Big Tobacco for racketeering and fraud in 1996. Thirty years later, the litigation against the cigarette makers has proven to be an annual financial bonanza for the state of Texas — more than $15.8 billion so far and another $450 million payment expected any day now. And while less than one-tenth of one percent of the payments have gone to antismoking efforts, youth cigarette use overall has plummeted. In a two-part series, Mark Curriden, the former Dallas Morning News legal affairs writer who covered the tobacco litigation full-time for three years, looks back at the historic litigation and its impact three decades later.
CDT Roundup: A Data Center Deal Tops an Eclectic Week
Data centers and the power to run them remained a primary deal-driver in a 14-deal, $4.6 billion week, but the CDT deal targets themselves were global and rather eclectic.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.