This being Year Three of the Covid 19 pandemic, technically speaking/writing, it may come as no surprise that healthcare deals are becoming a thing, even in Texas. The Corporate Deal Tracker counted 55 Texas-related healthcare deals in 2022, up from just 10 the year previous. This week’s CDT Roundup looks at the kinds of deals that are leading the recent rise in healthcare transactions — including a recent $2.1 billion transaction — along with the usual roll call of the firms and lawyers who reported in last week.
More Stories
SEC Names New Top Cop for Financial Institutions, Publicly Traded Businesses in Texas Region
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has promoted Fort Worth Regional Office Associate Regional Director of Enforcement Eric R. Werner to the region’s top position – regional director.
The SEC’s decision to make Werner its top corporate cop in the region is garnering praise from lawyers who know him.
Honeywell’s Dionne Hamilton: ‘’Pragmatic Leader with an Uncanny Ability to Demand Respect’
Honeywell Smart Energy GC Dionne Hamilton has scored several successes during her 30 months on the job, including leading the legal department’s role in the company’s launch of revolutionary gas meter technology that monitors residential and commercial activities in real time and stops incidents before they occur. She advises senior corporate leadership on all legal issues, new regulatory activities and geopolitical subjects that impact operations, works on M&A and joint ventures and manages all aspects of the legal budget. Hamilton is also national leader on DEI.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named the UT Law graduate a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Bill Moss is Talos Energy’s ‘Quarterback’
For nearly all of 2022 and the first few months of 2023, Talos Energy GC Bill Moss guided the Houston company through the negotiations and highly complex $1.1 billion acquisition of EnVen, a fellow deep-water operator in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It was a difficult deal to get done,” said Moss, who has corporate law in his DNA.
Citing the complexity of the deal, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook named the Talos acquisition, led by Moss and Vinson & Elkins as outside counsel, as a finalist for the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for M&A Transaction of the Year. This article looks at the Talos acquisition and the GC behind it.
Litigation Roundup: SCOTUS Won’t Hear Big Oil’s Bid to Move Climate Suits, Steptoe to Defend HMS in Sex Assault Suit
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a request from a handful of major oil companies seeking to move climate-related lawsuits filed in state court to federal court and a Dallas County jury recently found that Robert L. Winspear and his business colleague defrauded a finance lender.
Texas Juries Award a Combined $582M in Two Patent Trials Friday
A team of lawyers from McKool Smith and Irell & Manella secured a $303 million patent infringement verdict on Friday in U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s courtroom after convincing the jury that Samsung willfully infringed Netlist’s patents related to computer memory technology. The same day, in a trial before U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, a jury sided with Textron Innovations, finding that SZ DJI Technology owes $279 million for infringing two patents related to drones.
P.S. — TX Appleseed Gets $, Legal Aid Kiosk Launches, ‘The Pro Bono Squad’ Explained
This week’s edition of P.S. features a Houston law firm’s six-figure award to a nonprofit dedicated to fair debt collection and responsible lending practices, May dates (and sponsor information) for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s free legal clinics, the upcoming launch of one of the state’s first virtual court kiosks and an update on a Houston Bar Foundation-affiliated pro bono award previously reported on that involves a group of six first-year associates.
SCOTX Sides with Point Energy in Drilling Deadline Dispute
The Texas Supreme Court rejected MRC Permian’s attempt to invoke a contract’s force majeure clause when it missed a deadline to drill a new well. MRC pointed to a well collapse at a different side for the delay, while Point Energy said MRC simply miscalculated the deadline.
From Boom with Little Hiring To Boom with a Lot More Hiring
From 2010 to 2018, the Texas economy boomed and dozens of national law firms opened offices in the state. But the total number of corporate lawyers working at the firms stayed flat. In 2019, that changed. The 50 largest corporate firms in Texas have grown lawyer count in record numbers the past four years, including in 2022. While Big Law has returned to pre-pandemic scrutiny of underperforming attorneys, most of the larger firms are still planning for record-sized summer associate classes and fall hiring of first-year lawyers.
Q&A with Willkie’s Tan Lu
The Lawbook caught up with Lu about his move to Willkie from V&E earlier this year, the emerging trends he is paying attention to and the “fuel that keeps [his] fire burning” as a deal lawyer.