Premium Subscriber Content: A Q&A with Forney GC Cheslea Casiano, who discusses how she hires outside counsel and negotiates rates, her pro bono efforts and the day last September when she had to be rushed to the emergency room.
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Trial Begins in $500M Wrongful Death Case Against Bobcat
Opening statements came Thursday morning in a trial that’s expected to last three weeks and seeks to hold Bobcat of Houston and its parent company responsible for the incident that killed Ricardo Garza in October 2017. Plaintiff’s lawyer Chrysta Castañeda told jurors the family’s patriarch had been “flayed alive” by a piece of forestry equipment.
OpTic Gaming’s Johnathan Jordan Handles ‘Everything Under the Sun and Then Some’
Back in middle school, Johnathan Jordan played Halo, a military science fiction game set in the 26th century in which the player controls a technologically created super soldier to battle evil aliens. But young Jordan also knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. Never did he think the two passions — law and gaming — would come together.
Last year, Jordan became the first GC in Texas of an esports and gaming business, OpTic Gaming. The legal work he has done since has been groundbreaking and the reason he is a finalist for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year. This is his call to duty.
UPDATED Chesapeake Sheds Eagle Ford Assets to WildFire for $1.425B
Haynes and Boone advised the seller while Locke Lord assisted the buyer.
Ocwen Financial’s Joel Israel is ‘The Gold Standard’
Joel Israel oversees about 500 mortgage foreclosure-related lawsuits as the assistant GC at mortgage giant Ocwen Financial. He tries to foster a compassionate approach as most are single-plaintiff cases with customers in unfortunate financial distress. But there are lawsuits by those abusing the system, fabricating facts and just seeking nuisance settlements.
Using innovative research techniques and an aggressive litigation strategy, Israel and his outside counsel at Womble convinced California judges to reject two such lawsuits. In doing so, they sent a message that frivolous litigation would not be tolerated. They also are finalists for the 2022 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
Q&A: Ocwen’s Joel Israel
Using innovative research techniques and an aggressive litigation strategy, Israel and his outside counsel at Womble convinced California judges to reject two such lawsuits. In doing so, they sent a message that frivolous litigation would not be tolerated.
Israel found time for Mark Curriden, founder of The Texas Lawbook, who asked him about his views and expectations of outside counsel, lessons learned from the pandemic and, as a proud Duke alum, how he has coped with the retirement of the school’s legendary basketball coach, Mike Kryzewski.
Pilots, Lawyers, Problem Solvers: A Profile of Texas Aviation Attorneys Mike Slack and Ladd Sanger
Texas trial lawyers Mike Slack and Ladd Sanger are among an elite tier of attorneys who are experts in aviation law and whose work has made commercial and private aviation safer for the masses. They recently sat down with The Texas Lawbook to discuss their career paths and what keeps them going.
CDT Roundup: 11 Deals, 10 Firms, 102 Lawyers, $2.8B
Maybe you haven’t heard of ProFrac; but you probably should. The company’s been on an acquisition tear of late, gobbling up producers of pumps and proppants at an eye-popping rate. CDT Roundup has their latest deals — and the lawyers and firms that advised them, along with the usual roster of last week’s transactions.
Forging a New Path: From the Federal Bench to ADR
Former federal judge Vanessa Gilmore, now a mediator, arbitrator and special master at JAMS, visited with The Lawbook about her career, the developments she anticipates in alternative dispute resolution and the legacy projects she is working on to pave the way for Houston’s future leaders.
Litigation Roundup: AT&T Hit With $166M Patent Infringement Verdict, Texas Med Schools Sued Over Affirmative Action Practices
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a team from Susman Godfrey secures a $166 million patent win against AT&T and Nokia, the Texas Supreme Court sides with insurance companies in a dispute brought by emergency room doctors over out-of-network reimbursement payments and the Fifth Circuit chides an attorney’s litigation tactic.