The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook announced Friday that in-house lawyers at Ascend Performance Material, Shell USA and Spire Resources are finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
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P.S. — A Veteran’s Gala; April DVAP Clinic Dates; Leadership Changes at The Center, ABA
This week’s edition of P.S. features a woman lawyer’s rise in the ranks of the ABA’s litigation section, details on the Texas Access to Justice Commission’s upcoming annual gala benefiting low-income veterans (including how many dollars away it is from hitting its fundraising goal), an impending leadership change at UT Law’s Center for Women in Law and the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s April legal clinic dates.
Firms and corporate legal departments mentioned this week include AT&T, CenterPoint Energy, Greenberg Traurig, Halliburton, H-E-B, Kirkland, Locke Lord, Toyota, V&E, Shell, Jones Day, Baker Botts, Vistra, Winston & Strawn, Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Norton Rose Fulbright, Stewart Law Group, Bank of America, DLA Piper, Citibank, Haynes Boone, Baylor Scott and White and Foley.
Fifth Circuit: FDA Cigarette Warnings are ‘Factual and Uncontroversial’ and ‘Pass Constitutional Muster’
R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette makers learned Thursday that forum shopping does not always pay off. The tobacco companies strategically filed a constitutional challenge to the FDA’s newest cigarette warning labels in East Texas believing the jurisdiction to be favorable, especially on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which the companies viewed as pro-commercial free speech and increasingly distrustful of federal government regulation and overreach. But they figured wrong.
SCOTX Hears Arguments in Oncor Appraisal Disputes
The justices had consolidated the oral arguments in two cases that involve disputes in Mills and Wilbarger counties. The cases are part of a large group of lawsuits filed by Oncor to fight the valuation of its transmission lines in 13 counties. The utility company argues incorrect data provided by a private appraisal firm to determine 2019 values led to a $7 million overvaluation of its property and a “windfall” of taxes for the local governments.
Gaining a Seat at the Table
In this guest essay, name partner Julie A. Springer of Weisbart Springer Hayes reflects on her experience as a woman lawyer, how the legal profession has evolved in women’s favor and how it hasn’t.
Q&A: Chasity Henry of Jacobs
For Premium Subscribers Chasity Henry says a “funny thing happened” on her way to becoming a litigation partner. She discovered that she “was much more interested in the inner workings
Jacobs Deputy GC Chasity Henry, ‘An Advocate for What’s Right and What’s Fair’
Chasity Henry says a “funny thing happened” on her way to becoming a litigation partner. She discovered that she “was much more interested in the inner workings of our clients’ businesses … than I was about actually going to trial.” Only 43, Henry has had an enormous impact on the Texas legal profession in strategic in-house positions with corporate giants Dr Pepper Snapple, Kimberly-Clark, CECO Environmental and now Jacobs, a Dallas-based multibillion-dollar international technical services company. She has led billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions and been one of the strongest and most effective advocates of diversity and inclusion in the DFW area.
Since joining Jacobs as deputy GC in March 2022, Henry transitioned two large internal contracting units within the company to her working group, which expanded her team from 20 to 60 lawyers, paralegals and professionals. She revised their operating model to meet the evolving needs of the business. She led the creation of a contracting process map, which enabled Jacobs to identify and implement procedural improvements and coordinate and delegate tasks more efficiently. In January, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook awarded Henry with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Fifth Circuit Says Challenge to SEC’s Gag Order Policy is ‘Procedurally Improper’
In a case that presented the court with an issue of first impression, the panel wrote that it would “decline to open that Pandora’s box of frivolous appeals” by exercising jurisdiction in the case. Christopher Novinger had unsuccessfully tried to undo the gag order provision he agreed to in July 2022, and failed again Tuesday.
Elizabeth Freeman: Secret Relationship with Bankruptcy Judge Jones Had No Impact on McDermott Restructuring Case
The decision to keep secret the relationship between then-U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones and Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner Elizabeth Freeman was made by Judge Jones in 2020 at the start of the multibillion-dollar corporate restructuring of McDermott International, a lawyer for Freeman stated in court documents filed late Monday in federal court in Houston. Prominent Houston corporate bankruptcy lawyer Tom Kirkendall, who represents Freeman in the ongoing litigation related to Freeman’s relationship with Judge Jones, wrote that neither Jackson Walker nor Kirkland & Ellis were aware that the couple were living together or were romantically involved and that the federal lawsuit against them should be dismissed.
SCOTX Hears Arguments in APA Challenge to PUC’s OK of Post-Uri Pricing Rule
The Texas Supreme Court must decide two things: Is the new protocol for setting prices in an electricity emergency a “competition rule” under the Public Utility Regulatory Act? And if it is, did the Public Utility Commission of Texas exceed its authority under either PURA or the Administrative Procedure Act in approving it?