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.
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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.
Baker Botts, Murtha Cullina Score Defense Jury Win for Exxon Mobil
A Connecticut jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday before rejecting claims in a $40 million lawsuit brought by the wife of a former Exxon gas station owner that the Houston-based oil giant was responsible for the acute myelogenous leukemia that caused his death in 2018 at the age of 67. The defense legal team also included Exxon Mobil corporate counsel Ted Ray and Baker Botts partner Ty Buthod.
An Army Veteran Applies Martial Wisdom to Trial Practice
While I am now proudly a Texas trial lawyer, I spent the first 18 years of my adult life in the Army. Although I left the Army in 2016, I still view many things through the lens of my military training and experiences. My work as a trial lawyer is no exception. On this Veterans Day weekend, I write to share a few of the military teachings that have stuck with me and how I conceptualize them now as a member of the profession of law rather than the profession of arms.
Jeremy Wallace: From Air Force Language Analyst to Lawyer Giving Back to Vets
Commercial litigator Jeremy Wallace loved his four years in the Air Force. He loved his work as a cryptologic language analyst, the friends he made, and the acquired skills that still show up in his law practice at Greenberg Traurig.
But, he acknowledges, “many people serve and they don’t leave unscathed,” so he’s put in significant hours this past year helping veterans pro bono. Wallace sat down with The Lawbook this week to discuss his military service, his path to becoming a lawyer and, as Veterans Day approaches, why he continues to serve veterans through pro bono work.
Yetter Coleman Nets $58.5 Million Settlement in Business Civil Rights Case
The settlement between a gravel mining company and Sacramento County, California, is one of the largest ever in a business civil rights case nationwide, the Houston-based firm said.