Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
For Texas’s commercial litigation bar and their clients, the wait is over. Texas’ business court is open for business.
But it’s still a court of limited jurisdiction, and securing a hearing there is far from guaranteed. The business court can only hear the kinds of disputes listed in its jurisdictional statute, the new Texas Government Code § 25A.004, write Gibson Dunn’s Matt Scorcio and Trey Cox in this Expert Voices column.
Sarah Budd testified in U.S. District Court in Dallas that from the day she showed up for work in SkyWest’s maintenance department at DFW International Airport, she was subjected to a barrage of crude, demeaning, frightening comments by male co-workers.
Content warning: This article contains sexually explicit language.
Sherman Roberts, president and CEO of City Wide Community Development Corporation, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to commit bribery. Roberts is accused of bribing two former Dallas City Council members in exchange for their support of his real estate projects.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez told all sides in the Johnson & Johnson talc powder bankruptcy litigation Tuesday that he will “get a big pot of coffee” and spend the weekend in his office going through more than 11,500 disputed votes in order to get an accurate number of claimants supporting and opposing J&J’s $8.2 billion settlement plan. New Jersey-based J&J created a new Texas-headquartered subsidiary in September called Red River Talc and used a Texas law to transfer all its potential liabilities from tens of thousands of lawsuits filed against J&J by women who claim they have ovarian cancer because they used J&J’s talc powder. But there’s a dispute over 11,500 votes that were switched from voting against J&J’s forced bankruptcy plan to being in favor.
A Nashville-based healthcare services company that focuses on treating incarcerated inmates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston Monday, claiming more than $1 billion in liabilities and an equal amount in assets. Wellpath Holdings and about 40 of its affiliated companies, which served about 3,000 in 2023 and reported revenues of $425 million, filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas. The case has been assigned to Judge Alfredo Perez.
While these megadeals promise efficiency gains and economies of scale, they’ve had a chilling effect on one critical area: in-house legal hiring. Consolidation has temporarily shifted priorities, leaving legal teams focused on deal execution, integration, compliance and cost-cutting.
After more than tripling its Texas headcount over the last year, the firm announced Tuesday it has inked new office deals at The Knox Street Development in Dallas and 609 Main in Houston.
Locke Lord, soon to become Troutman Pepper Locke, announced Monday its hiring of Clay Pulliam to its commercial real estate practice. Pulliam had been a member at Frost Brown Todd since September 2021.
Elections mean change, and change is good, right? Maybe so, but there are concerns that a new administration might be inclined to make dramatic changes in policies regarding energy and manufacturing that have been the basis for billions in equity investments. Comments made by the president-elect shortly before the election have some worried that the seemingly uncontroversial CHIPS and Science Act could be in the crosshairs. The CDT Roundup looks at that concern and what the CHIPS Act has meant already to Texas. That and the usual roll call of last week’s transactions.
Lawyers representing tens of thousands of women — including 465 from Dallas/Fort Worth and a total of 2,558 from Texas — will face off with each other and against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson in a Houston courtroom this week to determine the legitimacy of an $8.2 billion settlement agreement proposed by J&J to end all lawsuits brought by women who claim the company’s talc powder caused their ovarian cancer.
Trial lawyers representing thousands of the women claim the settlement is a farce and a fraudulent attempt by one of America’s most iconic and profitable corporations to use the federal bankruptcy system to force victims to accept their proposal and shield itself and its shareholders from billions of dollars more in potential liability. They and the U.S. Trustee want Judge Christopher Lopez to intervene.
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