Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Sixteen deals were reported to the CDT Roundup this week valued at $79.4 billion the second-highest weekly total recorded this year — or, if you prefer, the largest weekly total that didn’t involve SpaceX. Well, not exactly.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
Clarissa Howley Mills, an environmental regulatory partner, has joined Holland & Knight in Dallas from Haynes Boone. She will focus her practice on environmental regulatory counseling, enforcement defense, permitting, litigation, due diligence and transactional matters.
Sam Megally and Will LeDoux, state and local tax partners, and Cindy Ohlenforst, senior counsel, have joined Holland & Knight in Dallas from K&L Gates. The three joined the firm’s tax, executive compensation and benefits practice group and will focus their practices on Texas and multistate tax matters.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday determined 5-4 that Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 52.006(b)(2), which applies a $25 million cap on bonds posted to appeal, applies per judgment debtor.
In this edition of P.S., we cover a Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearing on how the state’s law schools can help address a lawyer shortage in rural parts of Texas. Lawmakers heard from Texas A&M University School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh and SMU Dedman School of Law Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center Executive Director Pamela Metzger, among others, about how the legislature, bar and universities can work together to ease the gap.
After meeting a lawyer at her elementary school’s career day, Cisselon Nichols Hurd went home and informed her mother she did not want to follow in her footsteps of becoming a teacher. She wanted to become a lawyer instead.
That’d be just fine, her mother replied.
Fast forward to 2009, and Hurd’s mother accompanied her to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Hurd helped steer a groundbreaking environmental case that narrowed seller liability, endorsed apportionment principles and remains a cornerstone to the Superfund practice.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Hurd, Shell USA Senior Counsel, with the Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion award at the May 28 ceremony.
Cisselon Nichols Hurd highlights what makes for successful diversity efforts and describes a common challenge she observes when working with outside counsel at big firms.
Sara Keith is one of those people who seems to do it all and make it look effortless.
At Shell USA, where she serves as senior legal counsel of global litigation, Keith manages complex legal matters while also devoting significant time to pro bono work, mentoring young lawyers and leading service initiatives across Houston’s legal community — all while raising two daughters.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Keith with the Harry Reasoner Pro Bono Advocacy Award at the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards on May 28.
In this Q&A, Sara Keith offers ideas for ways corporate in-house lawyers can give back to the community and talks about how AI is shaping expectations with outside counsel.
Round Two of a fight between the state of Texas and proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is now underway before Round One has ended, after a new lawsuit was filed by the state in Collin County this week.
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