Ryan McBeth, lawyer, inventor and former IBM engineer, joins McKool Smith as a principal from Bracewell, where he specialized in patent, trade- secret and trademark disputes in the energy and tech sectors.
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DBJ Reporter’s Notebook: An Inside-Baseball Look at the UDF Trial Going Into Week 2
The Dallas Business Journal’s Bill Hethcock reviews what’s happened so far (and been left unsaid) in the criminal securities fraud trial of four United Development Funding executives, including a certain phrase that starts with a “P” and a Twitter feud between one of the defense lawyers and a certain hedge fund manager. Jurors return Tuesday for Week 2.
SCOTUS is Set to Consider Ted Cruz’s Campaign-Finance Law Challenge
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz returns to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as a party — not as a practitioner — to argue federal campaign-finance limits violate his First Amendment rights. At issue: a 20-year-old federal law that prohibits candidates from raising more than $250,000 after an election to repay a personal loan to their campaigns.
Kathy McCoy: ‘A Visionary in the Ranks of Corporate Counsel’
Lawyers in the world of natural gas know Williams Companies Senior Counsel Kathryn McCoy, a former FERC lawyer who has led groundbreaking legal work developing a partnership involving LNG bunkering for ships in the U.S. She played a leading role in Southern Company’s sale of subsidiary Pivotal LNG to Dominion Energy, tackled legislation involving efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and handled major force majeure issues related to Winter Storm Uri. McCoy’s knowledge of the energy industry is unparalleled and her value to her new employer, the Williams Companies, is immeasurable. She is the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Small Legal Department.
Fifth Circuit Reverses Houston Lawyer’s Tax Evasion Conviction
Although the case “facts were difficult,” the Fifth Circuit vacated a tax evasion conviction of Houston lawyer Jack Stephen Pursley on a simple premise: a statute of limitations defense that the three-judge panel said was erroneously shot down by the trial court without analysis.
Judge Declines to Seal Docs in TeamHealth-UnitedHealthcare Case
A Las Vegas judge on Wednesday preserved a majority of the public record in a case between TeamHealth and UnitedHealthcare that recently rendered a $63 million jury verdict for three groups of ER physicians over reimbursement rates. The ruling reflects the vast public interest the case has garnered from doctors in Texas and beyond as they consider their own legal rights against insurers.
DBJ: Former Director of UDF Fund Says Money Transfer Shouldn’t Have Occurred
On Day 3 of the United Development Funding trial, prosecutors called a former board member to the stand who said shifting money from one investment fund to another is improper. The Dallas Business Journal reviews that testimony the testimony of two other witnesses who took the stand Friday.
Houston Corporate Counsel Awards to Chevron, METRO, EP Energy and Prosperity Bank
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook handed out the 2021 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards Thursday night to 14 in-house lawyers who achieved extraordinary success during the past two years.
UDF Auditor: ‘I Had a Number of Questions’ that Went Unanswered
Prosecutors attempting to send four executives of a North Texas-based real estate investment trust to prison called witnesses Thursday to build their case that transfers between the REIT’s funds are illegal. The Dallas Business Journal is providing continuous coverage of the trial.
Updated: Fifth Circuit Judge Gregg Costa Resigns, ‘Returning to My Passion’
Judge Gregg Costa, one of the few moderate to left leaning jurists on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, told The Texas Lawbook Thursday that he is resigning his position on the 17-member appellate court to go back to practice law. Costa, who is only 49, informed his judicial colleagues, law clerks and President Joe Biden this week that he plans to leave the bench in early August. In an interview with The Lawbook, Costa said it “has been a true honor” to serve on the New Orleans-headquartered appeals court and that it was “a difficult decision” to resign.
“I look forward to returning to my passion and getting back into the arena of trying cases,” Costa said. The Texas Lawbook has the inside details.