In Round 4 of multidistrict litigation stemming from the fatal explosion at the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing facility on the Northwest Side of Houston, jurors determined 3M was 30 percent responsible. Most recently, in May, a different jury had returned a complete defense win for the company. The lawyers involved told The Texas Lawbook it was the first civil jury trial they had handled that required the jurors receive an Allen charge.
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Kirkland Hires Top-Notch Trial Lawyer from Gibson Dunn
Today was Andrew LeGrand’s first day with Kirkland & Ellis after 14 years at Gibson Dunn. He said he has “no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision.”
Litigation Roundup: Permanent Injunction Against Samsung Urged in Patent Infringement Appeal
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a hedge fund manager goes to prison for failing to report millions in income, and a bankruptcy law firm operating in Texas is pinged for filing cases with false financial information.
20 Rulings, 5 Divisions: Reappointed Business Court Judges Build Rapidly Maturing Case Law
There’s no sign of a summer slowdown in Texas Business Court. The Court has delivered 20 opinions since our last monthly installment, and thus far, summer’s defining feature has been breadth over blockbuster. All five divisions and nine different judges pitched in. The First Division led the way with almost half the total publication volume. July supplanted May as the Court’s busiest month yet, but it was also its most doctrinally varied, one in which the Court behaved less like a specialty commercial docket and more like a full-service court majoring in business disputes.
Three themes tie the summer’s substantive opinions together thus far.
Curiosity as a Competitive Edge
How Yetter Coleman’s Jeffrey Andrews is using AI to rethink litigation, client service, and the practice of law.
Dallas Jury Rejects $15M Request, Awards Just Over $10K in Trucking Accident
A Dallas County jury awarded $10,814 in damages for past pain in a trucking accident case where the plaintiff had asked for $15 million. The four-day trial ended on Friday following seven hours of deliberation.
CDT Roundup: Deal Volume Dips, but Billion-dollar Bets Persist
The week that was saw 13 deals valued at $11 billion. They included a $5.5 billion natural gas deal, a major fuel distribution acquisition, a landfill deal involving corporate cousins and a truly major fund raise for an Austin distributor of home battery installations. And, of course, there was SpaceX news.
Catching Up with Katten’s Peter Bogdanow
Though market demands have led many attorneys to specialize in narrow areas, Katten dealmaker Peter Bogdanow has been able to build a practice that reflects the broad training he received as a young attorney. Last month was a great example: Bogdanow played a leading role in two very different transactions. The Lawbook dove into the deals and what else Bogdanow is seeing in his practice in this Q&A.
Latham Leads by Volume; Gibson Dominates Deal Value in Texas
Texas has emerged as a pivotal center of gravity in the 2026 capital-markets rebound. Lone Star companies are bringing major deals to market, but Texas-based lawyers are increasingly leading their execution here and elsewhere, according to The Texas Lawbook‘s Corporate Deal Tracker.
Catching Up with Jude Leblanc on Move to Morgan Lewis
Jude Leblanc, a former assistant general counsel for Fluor who was most recently at McGuireWoods, brings more than 25 years of experience advising clients on complex commercial transactions across the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Leblanc shared his thoughts on the move and more with The Texas Lawbook.