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‘Reminds Me of the Facebook Relationship Status — It’s Complicated’

Seven trial lawyers have been contacted by parties involved in corporate bankruptcies and restructurings before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones of Houston between 2018 and 2022 to inquire about potential legal claims they have against the judge or the law firm that employed his live-in girlfriend during those five years. No new lawsuits have been lodged and no one is publicly claiming that they were wronged as a result of Judge Jones’ secret romantic relationship with a partner in Jackson Walker’s bankruptcy practice.

But the controversy surfaced last week in an ongoing bankruptcy case. U.S. Trustee Kevin Epstein asked Judge Marvin Isgur, who is overseeing the GWG Holdings restructuring, to postpone awarding more than $1 million in legal fees to Jackson Walker, who served as co-lead debtor’s counsel, while the U.S. trustee’s office investigates. Judge Jones served as the mediator in the case and the lawyer worked on the case.

October 30, 2023 Mark Curriden

Litigation Roundup: Paxton Gets TRO to Stop Razor Wire ‘Destruction’ at Border, ITC’s Win Against Enviro Claim Affirmed in Case of First Impression

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a jury sides with a Baylor graduate in a lawsuit over the alleged mishandling of her sexual assault complaints, a woman sexually assaulted by her masseuse has a $1.8 million punitive award wiped out on appeal, and a judge in Texas puts a nationwide halt to a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that would require lenders collect certain data from small business borrowers.

October 30, 2023 Michelle Casady

Ed Blum Sues Winston Challenging DEI Fellowship

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Houston federal court, alleges one of Winston’s diversity fellowship programs “has been racially discriminating against future lawyers for years” because the only law students considered for the DEI-oriented fellowship are those who “belong to a group that is ‘diverse,’ ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘historically underrepresented’ — Winston’s shorthand for not a straight white male.” Winston is the third law firm to be sued by conservative legal activist Edward Blum and his organization, American Alliance for Equal Rights.

October 30, 2023 Natalie Posgate

SEC Charges Austin’s SolarWinds, CISO with Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges Monday against SolarWinds Corporation, an Austin publicly traded company that provides information infrastructure software used by thousands of businesses and government agencies, for alleged failures regarding cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. The SEC’s complaint filed in New York that accuses SolarWinds and its chief information security officer, Timothy G. Brown, with making “materially false and misleading statements and omissions related to SolarWinds’ cybersecurity risks and practices in at least three types of public disclosures” between 2018 and 2020.

October 30, 2023 Mark Curriden

Regulations Cutting Roofers Out of Insurance Claim Process Challenged

Tensions between free speech and public protection were exposed during SCOTX arguments on licensing requirements for public adjusters. The justices posed hypotheticals about professions including lawyers, doctors and journalists, but the prevailing image was that of a roofer standing atop a house calling the insurance company.

October 27, 2023 Janet Elliott

SCOTX Denies Bid to Skip Over 5th COA in Judicial District Reapportionment Challenge

Keresa Richardson has argued to the courts that the malapportionment of the 14 judicial districts in Texas is a “disease” and that the use of docket equalization measures to even the workload among the courts is a “field dressing.” Richardson is alleging both issues constitute violations of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

October 27, 2023 Michelle Casady

TMCP Panel: Diversity Fatigue Rampant on Both Sides of the Corporate Aisle

White lawyers, a word of caution: Your colleagues of color are sick of having to constantly educate you on racial issues and the nuances of diversity, equity and inclusion. Lawyers of color: We know you are exhausted, but there are still benefits — both institutional and personal — in continuing to play the game.

These were the two main takeaways during a panel discussion of law firm partners Thursday afternoon at the Texas Minority Counsel Program’s 31st annual conference in Houston.

October 27, 2023 Natalie Posgate

Pharma Marketer Guilty in $60 Million Fraud and Kickback Scheme

Quintan Cockerell was paid millions to steer doctors to write expensive, often needless, prescriptions to two Fort Worth pharmacies, federal investigators said. After a week of testimony and four days of deliberations, a jury in the court of U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer agreed on Thursday.

October 26, 2023 Bruce Tomaso

Administrative Patent Judge Joins Bracewell’s IP Practice in Austin

Christopher L. “Kit” Crumbley navigated unprecedented trials as an administrative judge on the U.S. Patent and Trial Appeal Board beginning in 2012, as the America Invents Act went into effect. He said he left the bench in pursuit of his “next challenge.”

October 26, 2023 Krista Torralva

Lawyers, Guns and Money: An Occasional Series on Movies, TV and Other Stories about Lawyers and the Law

The Insider is not a movie about the law per se. Like most Michael Mann movies, it’s about men engaged in an operatic, high-stakes dance with each other and with their fates, coming together and splitting apart in a flurry of paradoxically macho sensitivity. It’s about the sacred bond between a journalist and his source, and the troubling divide between the noble work journalists do and the corporate interests of their employers. As such it’s one of the great journalism thrillers; there’s no heresy in mentioning The Insider in the same breath as All the President’s Men. But there is, in fact, a lot of law in The Insider, and a fair number of lawyers.

October 26, 2023 Chris Vognar