The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston ruled Tuesday that 20,000 plaintiffs in wrongful death, personal injury and other Winter Storm Uri-related lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from Texas electric transmission and distribution utilities may move forward to trial. The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that trial judge Sylvia Matthews was correct in allowing allegations of gross negligence and intentional misconduct to proceed against the TDUs, which include CenterPoint Energy, Oncor Electric Delivery and American Electric Power, but that charges of common-law negligence and strict-liability nuisance are prohibited by state law. Legal experts say the Fourteenth Court’s opinion is a partial win for both sides.
More Stories
SLB Scoops Up ChampionX for $7.7B
Latham & Watkins was the main outside counsel advising SLB while Weil assisted ChampionX. The combination is expected to expand SLB’s presence in the less cyclical and growing production and recovery space.
Three Partners Named to Lead Simpson Houston Office
There’s a change coming in the Houston office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. The firm announced this morning that Houston managing partner David Lieberman is stepping down and will be succeeded by a trio of partners: Matthew Einbinder, Breen Haire and Christopher May.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 8 Firms, 136 Lawyers, $9.3B
The end of Q1 this week suggests a healthy M&A market during the opening round of 2024, with deal volumes rising globally by 26 percent, with the U.S. volumes even high and topping the $400 billion value mark, according to data from Dealogic. Claire Poole examines the deals behind the data in this week’s CDT Roundup and reviews the Easter week action on the Texas M&A front.
Cruel & Unusual Punishment: The Tale of 2 Prisoner Rights Pro Bono Wins
Within the same week, two separate teams of associates from Haynes Boone prevailed in two pro bono cases that protect the Eighth Amendment rights of an extremely sleep-deprived inmate whose health has suffered and an intellectually disabled inmate on death row. The Lawbook spoke to one lawyer on each team to learn more about the cases, how their firm got them and what the outcomes mean on a micro and macro level.
Litigation Roundup: Judge Finds BP Violated ERISA; Fifth Circuit Stays Chamber’s Fight with CFPB
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a judge in Houston sides with a group of former BP employees in an ERISA suit, the Fifth Circuit expedites oral arguments in a dispute between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over plans to cap credit card late fees and Parkland Health prevails on appeal in an employment discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.
Nelson Mullins Pulls from Five Firms for Houston Office Launch
The South Carolina-based law firm has recruited a total of 10 laterals from King & Spalding, Foley & Lardner, Frost Brown Todd, Hicks Thomas, and Platt Richmond.
Senior Counsel at DNOW, LyondellBasell, Phillips 66, Virage Capital — Houston Corporate Counsel Award Finalists
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have selected LyondellBasell Lead Litigation Counsel Brittany Ringel Walton and Phillips 66 Senior Counsel Kristina McQuaid as the two finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department. In addition, ACC Houston and The Lawbook have chosen DistributionNOW Deputy General Counsel Jordan Chester as the sole finalist and thus the recipient of the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department and Virage Capital Management Director of Litigation Funding Leslie Hillendahl as the winner of the 2024 Senior Counsel of the Year Award for a Small Legal Department.
Houston Jury Hits Fracking Company with $8.9M Verdict in Patent Infringement Trial
Nitro Fluids infringed on two of Cameron International Corporation’s patents, a federal jury decided. John Keville, the Sheppard Mullin partner who represented Cameron, discusses what challenges Cameron faced and why he believes the trial went in his client’s favor.
On the Shoulders of Giants
In this guest essay, Sidley Austin associate Maegan Quejada discusses times she’s been underestimated and othered as well as times she’s been supported and believed in, how her formative years shaped her to be the attorney she is today and the impact of who you spend most of your time with.