Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The overstuffed but strangely compelling 1979 legal drama starring Al Pacino begins with the voice of a child reading the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a sardonic start to a barbed, furious, free-swinging indictment of a legal system that, the movie suggests, has gone off the rails. Up is down, black is white, left is right.
A lone Baltimore defense attorney, Pacino’s Arthur Kirkland, is among the only people upset by what he sees. And make no mistake, he’s plenty upset.
Winston & Strawn has hired Banee Pachuca as a partner in the Houston office, the firm announced, as a part of its transactions department. Her focus will be healthcare.
In an administrative order issued Aug. 26, the Texas Supreme Court transferred to the newly-created Fifteenth Court of Appeals 88 cases that had been pending with various intermediate appellate courts. It’s no surprise to observers that the bulk of the cases, 49, were transferred from the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, which formerly decided most cases involving state agencies that are headquartered in the capital.
An Oklahoma midstream has embarked on another deal spree that will expand its pipeline network and deepen its presence in Texas and Louisiana.
Tulsa-based ONEOK Inc. will purchase Global Infrastructure Partners’ 43 percent stake in Dallas-based EnLink Midstream for $3.3 billion.
Separately, ONEOK is also buying Irving-based Medallion Midstream, the largest privately held crude gathering and transportation system in the Permian Basin, from New York-based GIP for $2.6 billion.
In Haynes Boone’s latest “Legal Landscape” podcast, litigation and appellate experts walk through some of the more common concerns relating to the new business courts opening on Sept. 1.
During a hearing Tuesday Chief U.S. bankruptcy Judge Eduardo Rodriguez brushed aside scheduling concerns the parties raised and ordered that Albert Alonzo, who served as case manager to former Judge David Jones for more than a decade, be deposed on Sept. 18. Jones, who resigned his office after public revelations that he had a secret romantic relationship with a Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner, will be deposed in the same courtroom, under the supervision of Chief Judge Rodriguez, the following day.
This week we honor a retiring colleague. She created the Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup seven years ago and has been the pulse of it since. But rest assured, the CDT Roundup has the usual rundown of the deals reported to us last week, along with names of the firms and lawyers behind them.
Austin patent litigator Raghav Bajaj leaped from Haynes Boone to Latham & Watkins earlier this month. In a Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Bajaj shared why he made the move and recent trends in the world of patent law and litigation.
Damien Lyster has been hired as a partner in the Energy Regulatory Practice Group for Kirkland & Ellis, the firm announced Monday in a news release.
Lyster comes to Kirkland after 16 years at Vinson & Elkins, where he was a partner since January 2022.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we share the announcement that a new magistrate judge will be serving in the Northern District of Texas, and share details about both the federal government’s antitrust lawsuit against Richardson-based RealPage and the punishment doled out to a former controller for Simon Greenstone Panatier who bilked the plaintiff’s firm out of nearly $1.5 million.
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