Paul Hastings announced Tuesday that Vinson & Elkins litigation partner Manuel Berrelez has joined the firm’s Dallas office as a partner. Since September, Paul Hastings has more than doubled its presence in Texas — growing from about two dozen lawyers to about 65, including eight corporate finance partners from V&E who joined in March. At the same time, the firm officially announced that it had opened an office in Dallas.
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Litigation Roundup: Trafigura Pays $55M, Settles Trading Fraud Claims; New Rules at the Fifth Circuit
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail two new changes in rules governing attorneys who practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a jury in Harris County issues a $17 million verdict in a seven-year-old lawsuit and Whataburger goes to court to defend its trademark.
Five Attorneys Leave Sheehy Ware Pappas Grubbs for Spencer Fane
Spencer Fane has bolstered its litigation and dispute resolution practice group with three new partners and two of counsel attorneys in Houston. The Kansas City-based firm, which has been growing its Texas presence since it entered the state in 2018, now has 117 attorneys here.
‘Relentless,’ How Reese Marketos Secured $150M False Claims Verdict Against Janssen
A federal jury in New Jersey found in favor of former sales representatives turned whistleblowers who claimed Janssen Products promoted HIV drugs off-label. All told, the verdict could result in Janssen facing more than $1 billion, one of the largest False Claims Act verdicts, partner Pete Marketos said.
Phillips 66 Sells Stake in Rockies Express Pipeline for $1.275B
Bracewell and Vinson & Elkins advised Phillips 66 and Tallgrass, respectively, on the deal which advances the P66’s determination to divest itself of $3 billion in non-core assets. On the buyer side, Tallgrass now holds total equity ownership in one of the largest natural gas pipelines in the U.S.
P.S. — A Renamed Fellowship, A Barefoot Sanders Scholarship, A Congressional Request
This edition of P.S. features a firmwide volunteer day that yielded thousands of meals for Texas families in need, a five-day program hosted at a Dallas law school that educated high school students on the law school experience and life as a lawyer, a recent letter to Congress by law firm managing partners that expresses their grave concern for the underfunding of civil legal aid, a scholarship that a Dallas trial boutique recently awarded to two Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet high school students, and the story behind a renamed diversity fellowship at a large Houston-based firm and the names of this year’s fellows.
Firms and corporate in-house departments mentioned in this week’s column include AT&T, American Airlines, Gray Reed, Lynn Pinker, Baker Botts, Bracewell, Haynes Boone and Vinson & Elkins.
Pictured: The 2024 class of SMU Dedman School of Law’s Rising Scholars Program.
Governor Appoints AG’s Office Alum, Diamond McCarthy Partner to Houston Biz Court
Rounding out appointments to the newly created business courts, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Friday Sofia Androgué and Grant Dorfman will be the inaugural appointees to the Houston division.
Court Rejects Billion-Dollar Legal Challenge to PUC Rates During Winter Storm Uri
Legal efforts by some of the largest energy companies in Texas to force the Texas Public Utility Commission to reprice the record-high electricity rates it charged during Winter Storm Uri three years ago were flatly rejected Friday by a unanimous Texas Supreme Court. The state’s highest court ruled that the PUC did not exceed its legal authority in February 2021 when it ignored market competition to set electric rates at $9,000 per megawatt-hour because the Texas grid faced an emergency crisis and possible collapse “that would have plunged the state into darkness for weeks, maybe months.”
The unanimous 30-page opinion reverses the decision of the Austin court of appeals in 2023 that the PUC overstepped its legal authority by ignoring integrated market competitive procedures and instead manually set electric rates during the four days of Winter Storm Uri.
Dallas Boutique Reese Marketos Obtains $150M Verdict Against Janssen Products Over HIV Drugs
A federal jury in New Jersey found Janssen Products violated the federal False Claims Act by unlawfully promoting Prezista or Intelence. But the jury found Janssen did not violate the Anti-Kickback Statute.
SCOTX Says No Ambiguity in Contract Underpinning UT’s $51M Royalty Dispute
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, writing for the unanimous court, explained that when the royalty provisions are read “together, not separately” and are considered in the context of the parties’ agreement, they are not ambiguous. But the ruling that sided with the University of Texas System Board of Regents did not give the university an outright win.