This week’s P.S. column features fundraising updates on two recent events — one that took place in Austin this week and one that recently happened over the interweb — as well as information on Houston Volunteer Lawyers’ new executive director and a special thank-you to a group of Texas Lawbook Foundation donors.
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Sen. Schumer Asks NDTX Chief Judge to Revise Case Assignment Methods
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer sent the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas a letter Thursday asking that he “reform the method of assigning cases” to judges to put an end to forum shopping by litigants. The senator said litigants — especially the Texas Attorney General — have abused NDTX procedures that automatically assign cases to judges who sit in those geographic divisions, including divisions that have only one or two federal judges, in order to “hand-pick individual district judges seen as particularly sympathetic to their claims.”
How to Thrive as a Summer Associate
Whether you are embarking on a summer associate position at a firm, a summer clerkship at the courthouse or an internship at a legal aid clinic, there are three universal truths that can make or break the summer.
Dallas Jury Awards $860M in Wrongful Death Case Involving Crane Collapse
A Dallas County jury on Wednesday awarded more than $860 million to the parents of a woman killed in 2019 when a 200-foot steel crane toppled onto her apartment building from an adjacent construction site. The verdict exceeded the $700 million sought by plaintiff’s lawyers from Arnold & Itkin.
Group of Plaintiff Lawyers, Most from Texas, Throw Support Behind $8.9B J&J Plan
An ad hoc committee of lawyers who represent about 55,000 talc claimants alleging Johnson & Johnson products caused their cancer have told a bankruptcy judge in New Jersey that they support the company’s plan to establish an $8.9 billion trust to pay out the claims. Many well-known plaintiffs firms from Texas have joined the committee, but one has stayed quiet: Mark Lanier.
New SEC Regional Director Eric Werner: ‘My Job is to Protect Investors’
Tuesday was Eric Werner’s second day as the new regional director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth Office, and he already had hundreds of new emails to answer. In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Werner discussed caseloads, resources and staffing, and the SEC’s lack of a Houston office.
Raymond Chang ‘Takes Extreme Ownership of Everything’ at DNOW
DistributionNOW GC Raymond Chang and his colleagues noticed a wave of sudden worker departures at its Odessa Pumps business. A speedy internal investigation was followed by a quick lawsuit in which the global supplier of oil and gas drilling equipment and parts accused an Odessa businessman and other former workers of stealing confidential information and trade secrets. The case went to trial five months later ending with a jury unanimously finding in DNOW’s favor and awarding $9 million in damages.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Chang as the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. This is his story.
Q&A: Raymond Chang
For Premium Subscribers: When Raymond Chang noticed in the spring 2022 that a wave of key workers at DistributionNOW were leaving in a “coordinated mass exodus,” he felt the need to investigate. That investigation revealed that the employees, including a senior executive, were planning to create a competitive venture using stolen company property. The result was a lawsuit that resulted in a $9 million jury verdict. .
Lawbook founder Mark Curriden asked Chang, has been named 2022 ACC General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department, about his experience, what he looks for in outside counsel and his other successes at DistributionNOW.
Premium Q&A: Dionne Hamilton, GC, Honeywell Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions
Dionne Hamilton is general counsel at Honeywell Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions, a unit of the global conglomerate Honeywell International. She advises senior corporate leadership on all legal issues, new regulatory activities and geopolitical subjects that impact operations, works on M&A and joint ventures and manages all aspects of the legal budget.
Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, had a recent chance to discuss that experience with Hamilton.
CDT Roundup: 16 Deals, 14 Firms, 104 Lawyers, $5.6B
This being Year Three of the Covid 19 pandemic, technically speaking/writing, it may come as no surprise that healthcare deals are becoming a thing, even in Texas. The Corporate Deal Tracker counted 55 Texas-related healthcare deals in 2022, up from just 10 the year previous. This week’s CDT Roundup looks at the kinds of deals that are leading the recent rise in healthcare transactions — including a recent $2.1 billion transaction — along with the usual roll call of the firms and lawyers who reported in last week.