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Texas Supreme Court Calls on Nonlawyers to Shrink Justice Gap

After an exhaustive, 22-month process, the Supreme Court of Texas on Tuesday issued a set of preliminary rules that will allow select nonlawyers — licensed paraprofessionals and court-access assistants — to provide limited civil legal services to low-income Texans. The order places the efforts of the Texas Access to Justice Commission and SCOTX at the finish line for this slice of their ongoing effort to help close the civil justice gap in Texas.

Natalie Posgate talked with Texas Supreme Court Justice Brett Busby about how this project began and Legal Services Corporation President Ron Flagg about the success of this model at a national level.

CDT Roundup: 26 Deals, 16 Firms, 334 Lawyers, $16.5B

Over the past few months, The Roundup has repeatedly noted a wave of consolidation rolling through the energy space, particularly in the Permian. This week, Enverus M&A Analytics provided comprehensive numbers to back that up. As if to punctuate the point, a few new energy deals queued up for this week’s edition of The Roundup, alongside some significant transactions in other, non-energy sectors. Our Claire Poole has them, as always, as part of her weekly accounting of Texas-related deals and the folks who made them happen.

Elon Musk’s X Corp. Accuses Advertisers of Antitrust Violations in NDTX Suit

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Wichita Falls Division of the Northern District of Texas and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor. John Sullivan and Jace Yarbrough of S|L Law are representing X Corp. in the suit that names the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever PLC, Unilever United States, Mars Incorporated, CVS Health Corporation and RSTED A/S as defendants.

SDTX Chief Bankruptcy Judge Considering Contempt Proceedings, Sanctions Against Judge Jones, Jackson Walker

Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo Rodriguez of Houston has ordered his former colleague, ex-bankruptcy Judge David Jones, and law firm Jackson Walker to appear in his court this Wednesday to explain why they apparently went behind his back and against his prior order to conduct a private interview regarding facts involving the judge’s secret romantic relationship with former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman.

Chief Judge Rodriguez issued a show-case order Monday stating that the U.S. Trustee’s Office has informed the court that such an interview recently took place and demanded that Judge Jones and lawyers for Jackson Walker appear Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to explain their reasons and face possible sanctions.

“Jackson Walker, its counsel and David R. Jones and his counsel must be prepared to explain to this court whether in fact the allegations raised in the U.S. Trustee’s notice regarding Jones’s interview by Jackson Walker’s counsel did in fact occur and if so explain to this court the details of such interview,” the chief judge wrote in a blistering three-page order.

At the same time, the plan administrator in the JC Penney bankruptcy is seeking to subpoena cell phone records of Judge Jones to see if he was secretly sending text messages to Freeman during court proceedings.

Litigation Roundup: Fifth Circuit Sends Another Certified Question to SCOTX

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, individuals accused of bilking the government out of millions via Covid-19 testing and dental scams are sentenced to prison, Austin-based CrowdStrike gears up to fight litigation related to a global software outage and the Fifth Circuit seeks the Texas Supreme Court’s input in a lawsuit brought by a former Southern Methodist University law professor who was denied tenure.

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