A new antitrust lawsuit filed in Texas names more than 30 real estate companies and associations across the state that home sellers QJ Team and Five Points Holdings allege have participated in a conspiracy developed by the National Association of Realtors that saddles home sellers with costs that should be borne by buyers. The proposed class action lawsuit alleges the practice results in inflated commissions and increased home prices. Last month in a similar lawsuit, a federal jury issued a $1.78 billion verdict to the sellers of about 260,000 homes in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.
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CDT Roundup: 15 Deals, 13 Firms, 179 Lawyers, $9.8B
A recent Mergermarket survey of top global private equity executives yielded few surprises concerning the once and future deal environment. The survey, conducted on behalf of Dechert, revealed that more than a quarter of respondents cited interest rates as the most important factor in determining deal development in the next 12 months. Among the few surprises, however, was the overwhelming and newly found attraction to take-private deals. The Roundup looks at the data, as well as the firms and lawyers behind 15 Texas-related transactions reported last week.
Jury Says Berg & Androphy Owes Nothing to Ex-Associate
A jury that heard three days of testimony in a contentious lawsuit where attorney Justin Pfeiffer was seeking $32,000 in back wages from his former firm, Berg & Androphy, unanimously decided after about an hour of deliberations Monday that no employment contract agreement existed between the parties. The lawsuit pitted Pfeiffer, now a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, against Houston trial lawyer David Berg.
Jackson Walker: Lawyer Misled Firm Over Relationship With Bankruptcy Judge
When Jackson Walker leaders confronted its partner, Elizabeth Freeman, in 2021 and 2022 about reports that she was in a romantic relationship with then Chief Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, Freeman assured them that “there was no ongoing intimate relationship with Judge Jones,” according to a court document filed Monday afternoon by lawyers for Jackson Walker.
“Jackson Walker did not know of any ongoing intimate relationship between Ms. Freeman and Judge Jones until 2022 when it learned, quite by accident, that Ms. Freeman’s denial was possibly false or at least no longer true,” the firm states in a five-page filing titled “Preliminary Response of Jackson Walker to Recent Filings by the Office of the United States Trustee.”
Litigation Roundup: Client Sues Winston; SCOTUS Clears Path for Environmental Suit; McKool Awarded $4.7M in Fees
Last week was business for lawyers and judges inside the courtroom and publicly. Texas voters by a nearly two-to-one margin rejected Proposition 13, which would have raised the mandatory retirement age for state judges from 75 to 79. In litigation, two energy companies sued Winston & Strawn for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty; The U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt an environmental trial set to start later this month in Louisiana against BP America, Shell Oil and Hilcorp Energy in which the plaintiffs seek $7 billion in damages; a Dallas jury awarded McKool Smith in $4.7 million in legal fees; and Akin scored a win for Elon Musk’s SpaceX in an immigration dispute.
Texas GC Forum Honors Eight Corporate Counsel for Leadership, Successes
Eight general counsel and senior counsel from Baker Hughes, Beneficient, Cart.com, City of Grand Prairie, McDermott, Transocean, Trillium Flow Technologies and Westlake Chemical, were honored Thursday night in Austin by the Texas General Counsel Forum for their accomplishments and leadership in 2022 and 2023. The 17th annual Magna Stella Awards went to four women and four men on topics ranging from major transaction and major litigation of the year to general counsel for large and small corporate legal departments. The Texas Lawbook was there and has full details.Photo: Andres Sotomayor
P.S. — An Aviation Gala, A Humanitarian CLE, A Veteran ‘Hype Man’
This edition of P.S. features an award received by an Aldous Walker attorney, an upcoming international rule of law-focused CLE hosted by Dallas nonprofit ACT and a Veterans Day gala tonight in Houston co-chaired by the top lawyers at CenterPoint and ConocoPhillips. Plus: a feature of Haynes Boone associate Alex Clark, an Air Force intelligence analyst turned lawyer who helped organize a special swearing-in at the state capitol this week for newly minted lawyer-veterans, discusses how his personal experiences motivate him to continue serving veterans.
Judge Twice Rebukes Ex-Associate Suing Berg & Androphy During Contentious Testimony
The unusual admonition from the bench came on the third and final day of testimony in Justin Pfeiffer’s breach-of-contract suit against Berg & Androphy, his former employer.
Blank Rome Bolsters White Collar Defense Group as DOJ Investigations, Prosecutions Increase
Dallas litigator Barrett Howell came to Blank Rome from Katten. Howell says the most significant trend he’s seeing in his white collar practice is the Department of Justice’s criminal health care fraud investigations and prosecutions.
California Jury Awards Reese Marketos Client $5.2M in Unlawful Competition Trial
A federal jury heard four days of testimony from nine fact witnesses and two experts in a trademark infringement, fraud, defamation and unlawful business interference case brought by fintech firm ConsumerDirect against a competitor. The jury deliberated for three hours before delivering a multimillion-verdict in the litigation … for the defendant, Array. It is the second time in a decade that lawyers at Reese Marketos won a huge judgment for the same client as a defendant.