Kirkland & Ellis partner Jeremy Fielding and AMLI Chair Gregory Mutz, a Vietnam War infantry lieutenant turned lawyer turned real estate developer, stood side by side last Wednesday as a Houston jury delivered its verdict. AMLI stood accused of lying, breach of contract and destroying evidence related to the $57 million sale in 2012 of a Houston luxury apartment complex. The verdict, both men say, brought them to tears.
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DBJ: New SEC Proposal Could Impair Private Firms, UT Professor Says
Ken Wiles said the amount of increased regulation the proposal outlines could significantly impact firms, with potentially minimal payoff.
Texas Tribes to Supreme Court: Sovereignty Means B-I-N-G-O
Texas tribes will argue Tuesday that the Fifth Circuit was wrong to allow state regulation of games like Bingo on reservations that are not otherwise banned by Texas law.
DBJ: Concealment of Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass’ Bashing of UDF Grounds for New Trial, Defense Lawyers Say
Attorneys for UDF argue in new court filings that jurors should have been allowed to hear about a bitter rift pitting United Development Funding and CEO Hollis Greenlaw against Dallas hedge fund manager Kyle Bass.
Widow: $26 Million Life Insurance Was Surprise
Blanca Monica Villareal, accused in a civil suit of faking her husband’s death in Mexico City to swindle insurers Transamerica and Prudential, claimed that she knew nothing about his finances. Testifying in Spanish, she told Houston jurors she couldn’t read the insurance policies and didn’t know what they were when she found them, because they were in English.
Law Firm Culture: Inclusion Is Not Assimilation
The biggest impediment to achieving true diversity does not lie in a failure to recruit diverse attorneys; the failure is in retaining them. This article explores how firms can build more inclusive cultures.
Celanese Picks Up Materials Business from DuPont for $11B
Texas lawyers from Kirkland and Gibson Dunn advised the Dallas buyer on acquiring the business, which represented $3.5 billion of net sales and $800 million in operating earnings last year.
Q&A with Charles Schwab Deputy Chief Counsel Jay Johnson
The former federal prosecutor and Jones Day partner discusses his first months at Schwab, important developments in cybersecurity and data privacy and how he keeps winding up working with Shamoil Shipchandler.
Mikal Watts Grills Investigator Who Concluded $26M Life-Insurance Claim Was for Mexico City Man Still Alive
If a Mexico City businessman faked his death in 2016 to steal $26 million from two U.S. life-insurance giants, he’s done a remarkable job of lying low since, the lawyer
Dissent Calls Fifth Circuit Decision an ‘Orgy of Jurisprudential Violence’
Two appellate judges ruled Thursday that United Airlines’ requirement that its employees be vaccinated causes “irreparable harm” to pilots and flight attendants who claim religious objections. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an unpublished and unsigned opinion ordering a federal judge in Fort Worth to reconsider issuing a preliminary injunction against the Chicago-based airline.
In dissent, Judge Jerry Smith called the majority opinion “absurd,” argued that it creates a new cause of action for every private employee in the Fifth Circuit and stated he would hide his “head in a bag” if he had written the majority’s opinion.