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Hines Real Estate’s Theresa Terrell is 2022 Houston Senior Counsel of the Year

Theresa Terrell was a rookie litigator at Jackson Walker when she realized the trial practice was not a good fit for her and a partner at the firm
encouraged her to try real estate. “I still remember the first project I worked on was reviewing leasing in connection with a portfolio acquisition of office buildings, and I never looked back,” she said. “I love that real estate transactions can feel non-adversarial – deals can get contentious, but both sides ultimately want to get to a mutually beneficial outcome.”

Sixteen years later, Terrell is still in the real estate law practice – only now as an assistant general counsel at Hines, a privately held real estate investment firm operating in 28 countries with $90 billion of investments under management. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook honor Terrell with the 2022 Houston Senior Counsel of the Year Award.

June 7, 2022 Mark Curriden

Litigation Roundup: A Trial, An Italian Food Fight, An Indecent Job-Seeker

After years of operating the Corporate Deal Tracker Weekly Roundup, it dawned on The Lawbook staff that we should run something similar on the litigation end.

The idea budded out of a need to keep track of more litigation than our small staff is able to in the context of substantive, standalone articles. That way we can help you (and ourselves) keep abreast of even more of the Texas-sized quantity of lawsuits, trials, settlements, or other notable developments that fill business litigation dockets daily across the state.

We’re yet to develop any formal rules or structure to it, so in the meantime, we’re giving the first roundup a go with a handful of matters that have caught our eye in the last week.

If you have any matters that you think are worthy of a mention in a future roundup, please email your submission here: tlblitigation@texaslawbook.net

June 6, 2022 Natalie Posgate

Texas Supreme Court to Review Houston Astros-Sale Case

Next up in the lineup challenging the 2011 sale of the Houston Astros: the Texas Supreme Court. After the court granted review of former Astros owner Drayton McLane’s petition contesting lower court holdings that the new owner might have paid too much, a principal issue on deck is whether the sale can be reversed.

June 6, 2022 Osler McCarthy

A Doctor’s Struggle to Clear His Reputation Got More Complicated When a Judge Found His Sanction Baseless

First the Texas Medical Board temporarily slapped an Austin neurologist with a sanction for unprofessional patient contact. But only when a judge cleared him of the allegations did his fight really begin to rid a national database of the sanction that even the medical board dismissed. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled enough was enough.

June 6, 2022 Osler McCarthy

Jason Nance Feels He Has the Key to the Future of Legal Education: Research

The new dean of SMU’s Dedman School of Law comes with a trunkful of credentials, a broad range of educational interests and confidence in his belief in what the new breed of lawyers need: an ability to think critically; the quantitative skills to do so and the tools that equip them for a tech-savvy corporate world where change is constant.

June 6, 2022 Allen Pusey

Former Flight Attendant Loses Bid for Removal of Judge in Sex-Assault Suit Against American Airlines

Lawyers for Kimberly Goesling said Tarrant County Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick should be recused because of ‘irregularities’ in her instructions to the jury that exonerated American last month. The recusal motion was denied Saturday by a San Antonio senior judge brought to Fort Worth to decide the matter.

June 5, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Fort Worth Judge Testifies She Doesn’t Know How Jury Charge Got Messed Up in American Airlines Sex-Assault Case

State District Judge Kimberley Fitzpatrick says she can’t explain why jurors weren’t given the correct form to record their verdict, or how they instead got an outdated version that included an instruction she’d earlier ruled was improper.

June 3, 2022 Bruce Tomaso

Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation Works Toward a More Diverse Field of Law

The Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation last week honored 18 Texas law students with its annual scholarships, bar study grants and internships. The Lawbook reveals this year’s recipients and breaks down why they were chosen.

June 3, 2022 Anna Clare Payne

Texas Commercial Law Firms Merge, Now Exceeds 90 Lawyers

In the largest corporate law firm merger of 2022, Houston-based personal injury defense law firm Lorance Thompson announced Thursday that it has merged with Mayer LLP, a Dallas-based business law boutique. Lorance Thompson’s 22 attorneys officially started June 1 with Mayer, a three-and-a-half-year-old law firm that now has more than 90 lawyers in Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque and Fayetteville.

June 2, 2022 Mark Curriden

Schlumberger CLO Dianne Ralston is 2022 Houston General Counsel of the Year

Dianne Ralston had no lawyers in her immediate family and her father, a petroleum engineer, had been deposed a few times and had no fondness for the legal profession. But Ralston found law fascinating. Today, she is the chief legal officer at Schlumberger NV, where she oversees a team of 400 lawyers and compliance professionals operating in 60 countries. During the past two years, Ralston onboarded four new corporate directors, revamped and updated the global corporation’s enterprise risk management processes and dramatically reorganized her legal and compliance teams. ACC Houston and The Lawbook named her the 2022 Houston GC of the Year for a Large Legal Department.

Photo: Sharon Ferranti