Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of P.S., women across Houston’s legal community shared their career insights and celebrated each other’s growth in a Women’s History Month event sponsored by Beck Redden.
In observance of Ramadan, hundreds of guests attended an annual Iftar hosted by Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing.
We also highlight a general counsel program sponsored by Dorsey & Whitney’s Dallas office that featured an all-Hispanic panel of legal professionals.
A jury in the Third Division of the new Texas Business Court in Austin late Tuesday returned a verdict of at least $50 million in favor of ES3 Minerals, and in support of its claim that several former employees conspired to steal proprietary information and software to start their own competing businesses.
Caroline M. Hill, a 21-year-old student at Vanderbilt University, is seeking access to the books and records for the Lyda Hunt-Margaret Trust. Her lawsuit alleges she is a contingent beneficiary of the trust, which should contain at least $15 million but has instead been “looted” and “dissolved.” Disputes involving members of the Hill family and the trusts that hold the family’s fortune are not new.
Walmart Inc., the largest corporate employer in the U.S., has named former Dallas prosecutor Erin Nealy Cox as its new chief legal officer. Cox, who has been a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Dallas since 2021, will assume the job as the retail giant’s top lawyer April 13.
Jurors in Harris County found a man was not liable for the death of a woman who had run into the road to pick up tools that had fallen off a tow truck. The jury deliberated for three hours following an eight-day trial that was spread over two weeks before it returned its verdict last week.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Chris Porter discusses what he loves about being a trial lawyer, his early dreams of being a restaurateur and how the door closing on his football career opened other opportunities.
Much has been written about the “hot” lateral market for law firm partners in recent years. This publication, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and others have all noted the fierce competition for talent. In years past, that competition centered around transactional or corporate lawyers. Today, it also centers around trial lawyers. Why? With fewer cases going to trial than ever before, even as deals are being done at historically record levels, why would trial lawyers be as in demand as deal lawyers? The answer: There aren’t that many of us around.
Clifford Chance named Alexandra Wilde the Office Managing Partner in Houston, as the Magic Circle law firm continues investing in the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Wilde joined the firm after more than a decade at Jones Day in Dallas, as one of the first partners in the Houston office in 2023.
When the Texas Business Court opened its doors in September 2024, following years of discussing its potential promise, there was a flood of excitement from the business and legal community. Cases streamed into the new court in greater-than-expected numbers, especially in Houston and Dallas. But filing a case and trying it are two very different things.
The jury returned its verdict March 5, finding Downhole Well Solutions’ tools infringed three patents held by Impulse and that the infringement was willful. The jury rejected arguments that the patents were invalid. Impulse’s lead lawyer, John Keville of Sheppard, told The Lawbook the jury awarded the damages he requested “to the penny.”
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