The Texas Public Utility Commission emergency rules in February 2021 that increased electric rates to $9,000 per megawatt-hour in response to the demand for power because of Winter Storm Uri were “invalid” and must be reexamined, a Texas appeals court ruled Friday. The Austin Court of Appeals ruled that PUC board members issued two unlawful rules — an “operation of executive fiat” — that allowed ERCOT to increase the emergency price of electricity 650 percent for five days. The decision, according to legal experts, could be a multibillion-dollar victory for some retail power companies.
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The Evolving Landscape of Business Email Compromise Litigation — A Focus on Texas
Business email compromises remain one of the most prevalent internet-related crimes, with businesses and individuals suffering massive financial losses. This article examines how Texas law handles disputes between companies that have been defrauded by a third-party and the interaction of the contract law.
Austin City Attorney Anne Morgan Doing Legal Work ‘That Makes the World a Little Bit Better’
Anne Morgan and the 60 lawyers in her office are analyzing about 2,000 pieces of proposed legislation being considered by lawmakers in the Texas Capitol. All this while handling the legal matters that come with one of the nation’s fastest growing cities. This is the first in a series of articles about the attorneys leading Texas’s major metros.
Diamond Sports Group Files $8B Restructuring in SDTX
The operator of the Bally Sports Networks has hired Porter Hedges, Paul Weiss and Wilmer Cutler to lead the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring.
Midland Jury Rejects FLSA Overtime Claim Against Oilfield Services Co.
A trial team from Munsch Hardt successfully fended off the claims levied against client Flowco Production Solutions. Instead of raising the highly compensated employee exemption commonly seen in cases involving oilfield services, they told the jury these plaintiffs were exempt from overtime under the administrative employee exemption.
CDT Roundup: 21 Deals, 17 Firms, 165 Lawyers, $11.6B
CERAWeek, the prestigious Houston energy confab, wrapped up last week. One of the more significant observations emerged from former Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti, now a partner at Veritan. He thinks, for instance, it’s time for the term “energy transition” to transition from a political Rorschach test to something more universal, understandable and verifiable. Claire Poole reflects on a few of his other observations in this week’s CDT Roundup, along with the usual rollcall of deals and dealmakers who reported for duty during last week.
Litigation Roundup: OAG Gets Deadline in Whistleblower Suit, Omni Hit with $25M Verdict in Sex Discrimination Suit
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Dallas lawyer secures a $29 million jury verdict in a talc case and the Texas attorney general gets a deadline to respond to a request from whistleblowers to reinstate their case pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
When Clients Make Bad Decisions: What’s a Lawyers’ Duty?
Our ethical rules do not seem to address this issue directly, but there are at least three, maybe four, ethical obligations (we’ll call them touchstones) that dance around an answer to the question.
Shearman Advises SAP SE in $12.5B Qualtrics Take-Private Deal
Several Texas-based lawyers were involved in the take-private deal, which comes barely two years after the business software company went public in a January 2021 IPO. An earlier headline has been changed to reflect the overall deal value.
Former Justice Michael Massengale’s Mission: ‘Set the Record Straight’ About Uvalde
As a Houston arbitrator and former appellate justice, Michael Massengale was the perfect lawyer for the Texas House investigatory committee to choose to help investigate and write the official report about that tragic day last May when so much went wrong and 19 children and two teachers were murdered. For the first time since the report was released, Massengale has given an in-depth interview to Texas Lawbook reporter Janet Elliott about his role in the investigation, the challenges he and the committee faced and his hopes for legislative improvements to police training and school safety.