In this edition of Asked & Answered, Bell Nunnally partner Heath Cheek discusses his first trial and trial prep. He also shares how he got involved with the State Fair of Texas and how it became a piece of home for him in Dallas.
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Sober as a Judge: One Year Without a Drink, and What Came Back
For most of my career, drinking wasn’t a problem I had. It was a skill I was known for. I did my law school homework in the back booth of a pub. I’ve recruited lawyers over long dinners, courted reporters over scotch and raised the seed money for a nonprofit around my backyard fire pit while a bottle of whiskey made the rounds. A friend once described me, fondly: “Mark may be the drunkest guy in the room by blood alcohol content, but he’ll appear as sober as a judge.” In our profession, that’s practically a letter of recommendation. Nobody worries about the lawyer who never slurs, never misses a deadline and outworks the room.
That is the trap, and it is our profession’s trap, specifically.
Judge’s Post-trial Recusal Throws Edgemere Dispute Into Limbo
After the attorneys argued their case at trial and submitted post-trial briefs to U.S. District Court Judge Ada Brown, she recused herself without explanation. Now, the attorneys may have to retry the case before a new judge. The bench trial between the trustee of a Dallas luxury senior living community and its landlord began in May.
Mark Cuban Withdraws Rule 202 Petition
Mark Cuban’s request to withdraw his Rule 202 petition was granted by Texas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill without prejudice Monday. The case originated in the Dallas County District Court and was removed to the Texas Business Court last week.
Dallas Marina Operator Snaps Up MarineMax for $1.5B
Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marinas said on Aug. 10 that it has acquired MarineMax for $53 a share, or about $1.5 billion, in cash. MarineMax, based in Oldsmar, Florida, is a boat and yacht retailer that also provides superyacht services. Sidley Austin provided outside legal counsel to MarineMax, while Simpson Thacher advised Safe Harbor.
Jury Finds 3M Partially Responsible for Fatal 2020 Explosion, Awards $62.3M
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.
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.