Lawyers from Dallas-based Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel earlier this month convinced the jury in a 10-2 decision that their client, Paul Gill, was entitled to damages from ExxonMobil for its failure to warn consumers about the risk of exposure to benzene that is in its petroleum products, including gasoline. Gill, who worked as a Mobil service station mechanic between 1975 and 1980, was diagnosed in 2019 with acute myeloid leukemia and testified about using gasoline to clean car parts.
More Stories
CDT Roundup: 13 Deals, 15 Firms, 171 Lawyers, $9.7B
We’re more used to writing about semiconductor chips than corn chips, but this week the CDT has the pleasure of highlighting the ones you stick in salsa. Yes, it’s a PE deal involving one of our favorites, And you can enjoy it alongside our usual review of last week’s dealmaking.
Sidley Signs O&G Leader from Akin
Stephen M. Boone, Jr. brings “strong industry knowledge and significant corporate experience in the upstream and midstream sectors” to Sidley. In January, Boone helped guide Talos Energy in its $1.29 billion acquisition of QuarterNorth.
Gibson Dunn’s Back-to-Back Years of Record Growth in Texas
Gibson Dunn faced a strategic crisis in late 2010: Firm leaders had serious doubts about the viability of its Texas operation. Shuttering the Dallas office was a real possibility. And then, the Texas law gods smiled upon the LA-founded corporate law firm. More than a dozen years since, Gibson Dunn has sextupled the number of lawyers it has in Texas and increased revenues from those Texas attorneys by 10 times.
During the past two years, the firm has been on a Texas-sized hiring spree — growing from 117 attorneys to 179. This year, the firm is expecting its largest class of Texas summer associates and its largest class of first-year hires. Revenues and profits have soared. This is the story about how it happened.
Gray Reed Gets Corporate Partner Michael Overstreet
Michael Overstreet, who practiced for the last eight years at Chamberlain Hrdlicka, said the “stars aligned” for a move to Gray Reed. The lawyer and CPA has worked on three deals recently that are indicative of a trend he is seeing in his practice.
Litigation Roundup: Anti-ESG Class Action Certified Against AA; Samsung Defeats Patent Suit in EDTX
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Samsung beats back a patent suit seeking half a billion dollars in damages after arguing the plaintiff had unclean hands, a jury in Marshall renders a $445 million infringement verdict and we detail what led American Airlines to replace Wilson Elser as its outside counsel in a lawsuit involving a bathroom recording of a 9-year-old girl.
SEC on the Lookout for Whistleblower Restrictions
The agency has been very active in whistleblower protection for the last 18 months — with seven cases generating more than $30 million in fines — and now appears to be kicking off an enforcement sweep looking at executive agreements for public companies to determine whether they somehow “inhibit” sharing information with the SEC. This is a timely issue for public company legal departments, especially since the SEC’s most recent cases have expanded what the agency thinks is problematic conduct.
Hill Country Doctor Convicted in $39M Phony Prescription Scam
Dr. David M. Young of Fredericksburg was accused of prescribing orthotic devices and genetic tests for thousands of patients he never met. He was convicted by a jury Friday and is scheduled to be sentenced in October.
Energy Transfer Snares WTG Midstream for $3.25B
V&E advised Energy Transfer and Sidley assisted private equity-backed WTG on the deal, which expands the buyer’s natural gas pipeline and processing network in the Permian Basin.
Texas Firms Lead Nation with 13% Revenue Surge in 2023 as Results Driven by Big Victories
The 10 biggest Texas-based firms posted an eye-popping 13 percent revenue gain in 2023, good enough to earn the top spot among the 11 regions in Michael McKenney’s latest review of the U.S. corporate law business.