In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas finds a Chinese company infringed eight patents held by Texas-based Atlas Global Technologies, the Fifth Circuit rejects the University of North Texas’ bid to end a professor’s First Amendment retaliation claim and a fired Texas prison guard who represented himself on appeal prevails in a discrimination case.
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Paul Genender Jumps from Weil to Paul Hastings
Prominent Dallas trial lawyer Paul Genender joined Paul Hastings as a partner Monday to be the firm’s head of litigation in Texas and co-chair of its Houston office. Genender, who had been a partner at Weil Gotshal in Dallas for the past seven years, will split his time between Houston and Dallas.
Enbridge Hires Former Marathon Oil GC as its New CLO
Reggie Hedgebeth has been named as the next chief legal officer at Canadian-based midstream oil and giant company Enbridge Inc.
‘Ticket’ Denied TRO Against Ex-hosts’ Sports Podcast
After a daylong evidentiary hearing, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer said the radio station’s owners failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm if the new podcast by Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp continues until December, when a civil trial is scheduled to determine whether the two violated their noncompete agreements with KTCK “The Ticket.”
AI Hallucinations in Legal Research Are a Serious Problem … for Now
By now, we know that GenAI hallucinates. It is very real. It is very serious. And it is most likely very temporary.
Looking to learn from others who are approaching the inevitable disruption that GenAI will bring to the legal industry, I talked with three legal technologists from the UK law firm Travers Smith about mitigating the hallucination problem, the development of their own open-source AI chatbot and more.
Vital Buys Oil & Gas Assets for $1.16B
In simultaneous acquisitions from three different sellers, Vital promises to add scale in the Permian Basin, increase cash flow and reduce leverage. Texas lawyers from six different firms were involved: Akin, Baker Botts, Jackson Walker, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins and Vinson & Elkins.
La Michoacana Meat Market’s Quest to See Biz Partner’s Books Continues in Arbitration
The dispute between the largest Hispanic grocery store chain in Texas and the business partner that supplies its meat will be settled through arbitration after a failed attempt by La Michoacana to get a district court to grant it access to the books and records of Amigos Meat Distributors. Judge Tanya Garrison, who sent the case to arbitration, told the parties at a hearing last month “I feel like this is a fight between my kids in the backseat. ‘He touched me first.’ And they’re saying ‘nuh-uh.’”
Texas Appellate Experts Preview SCOTX Term
Coming off another cohesive term, the Supreme Court of Texas began its new session hearing arguments this week in a variety of cases. The Texas Lawbook hosted a panel of appellate experts on Tuesday to discuss some of the upcoming cases they are watching and reviewed significant decisions from last term.
Gibbs & Bruns Associate Re-launches Debate Classes for Houston Prisoners
On Thursday, Caitlin Halpern will host a pizza party to commemorate the re-launch of a program that teaches public speaking and critical thinking through debate to incarcerated people in Harris County. Natalie Posgate collected details on the event, the program and the organization behind it that marries Halpern’s passions for debate and criminal justice reform.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 8 Firms, 102 Lawyers, $6.4B
Kirkland dominated this week’s Roundup with participation in four of the seven M&A/Fundings deals reported last week. But according to the firm, that’s also been the case during the summer, especially in the energy sector. They provided some rankings from Deal Point Data to back that up. We tested their data against some numbers from our own Corporate Deal Tracker, and the results may reveal some good news for everyone. And, of course, there’s the usual rundown of firms and lawyers involved in all the deals last week.