Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Don Henley and the Eagles could very easily have been writing about Southern California corporate law firms checking into the Hotel California during their constant and seemingly endless, decades-long expansion efforts.
They are all checking into Texas — and with the money they are making here, they will never leave.
Veteran appellate lawyer Anne Johnson joined Norton Rose Fulbright earlier this month from Tillotson Johnson & Patton, where she built a reputation as one of the top appellate lawyers in Texas.
The Texas Lawbook spoke with Johnson recently about her move to Norton Rose, trends she’s seeing in her practice and more.
A Starr County jury unanimously awarded $1.6 billion to the families of two men who died in an explosion at a Pecos hazardous-chemicals plant in 2023. The 12-member jury answered the 16-question verdict form late Friday after the two-week trial in Judge Jose Luis Garza’s courtroom.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Winston & Strawn is representing the NFL Players Association in a federal lawsuit in Houston over the handling of a grievance and AZA and Beck Redden prevail on appeal in a California trade secrets dispute over a penile implant.
For the week ended April 18, the CDT Roundup reported on 14 deals with a total valuation of just over $3.5 billion, and nearly half of that value came from one deal. The prior week had 10 deals reported with a total value of slightly more than $5 billion, while a year ago at this time, the Roundup reported on 13 deals valued at nearly $2.4 billion. While total deal volume is up of late, total values are muted somewhat by a number of deals reported sans financial terms.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
Ryan Gorsche and Katie Legband O’Brien, corporate M&A partners, have joined O’Melveny in Dallas from BakerHostetler, where they practiced in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital groups. They will focus their practices on complex domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and private equity matters.
Three large corporate firms — all with deep Texas roots and Texas-sized offices. They are the second, third and fourth largest law firms operating in Texas by lawyer headcount. All three are in growth mode. All three reported record revenues and record profits in 2025.
Combined, Jackson Walker, Haynes Boone and Norton Rose Fulbright saw their 1,364 Texas lawyers generate a combined $1.53 billion in revenue last year — a 15 percent increase over 2024, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.
Leaders for the trio of firms say the first quarter of 2026 is off to another record start.
DENVER — The eight-member jury unanimously found Tellurian founder Charif Souki breached a contract with an investor and awarded $39 million in damages after deliberating just over three hours on a snowy Friday afternoon. While the jurors found Parker prevailed on his breach of contract claim based on a 2019 text message exchange, they rejected his five other claims, including breach of a separate agreement, fraudulent inducement, unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel.
The U.S. Supreme Court Friday decided that an environmental damages lawsuit in a Louisiana state court against oil and gas giant Chevron USA should rightly be removed to federal jurisdiction because of the company’s history as a vendor for petroleum products during World War II.
Chevron was represented by Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy. Plaquemines Parish was represented by Louisiana Solicitor General J. Benjamin Aguiñaga and Victor Marcello of Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello in Baton Rouge.
Television in the 1980s disrupted the media landscape with MTV and the QVC Shopping Network. MTV long ago gave up playing music videos, and the QVC Group on Thursday officially filed for Chapter 11 protection in the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of Texas, citing $6.6 billion in debts.
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