Three weeks after 10 people died and hundreds of others were injured at the Astroworld Festival tragedy, the number of lawsuits, plaintiffs and named defendants continues to mount. The demand for damages now tops $3 billion and the lawyer headcount involved in the litigation exceeds six dozen, including some of the most prominent and powerful law firms in Texas. But there are big questions: about insurance coverage, possible bankruptcy and questionable defenses.
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Lawyers Get Personal in Landmark ER Doc Pay Case Closings
A Las Vegas jury began deliberating Wednesday morning over whether to order UnitedHealthcare to pay a physician staffing firm millions. The impending verdict will decide the fate of the first case to go to trial involving the compensation of emergency room doctors through commercial health insurance plans provided by employers.
CDT Roundup: 20 Deals, 15 Firms, 157 Lawyers, $23B
Historically, Texas dealmaking has run on energy. But dealmaking, in turn, runs on optimism. And if the new Dykema Survey of M&A dealmakers is any measure, there will be much to celebrate this time next year. The CDT Roundup looks at the survey’s surprising results as well the deals involving Texas lawyers last week. There were plenty of them.
Updated: Hilton Hit with $44 Million, Record-Breaking Sexual Assault Verdict
A Harris County jury has returned a $44 million verdict in connection with a woman’s allegation that she was assaulted at a Houston hotel during a business conference in 2017. The Nov. 18 verdict allocated 10% of the damages against the man she accused of assaulting her and 90% against Hilton Management for having failed to protect her when summoned to the scene. Litigation writer Natalie Posgate has the names of the lawyers involved.
Houston Judge Overseeing Winter Storm Uri Lawsuits Praised by Plaintiff and Defense Lawyers
Houston trial lawyers say Judge Sylvia A. Matthews is smart, fair, well-prepared, smart, organized, hard-working, smart, efficient, decisive … and smart. Those traits well serve Matthews, an experienced commercial litigator and trial judge, as she presides over pretrial matters in more than 150 (and counting) lawsuits stemming from one of the deadliest, costliest disasters in Texas history – Winter Storm Uri, the icy blizzard that paralyzed Texas and its electric grid last February.
TX GC Forum Honors Lawyers Dawud Crooms, Farah Bhayani, Rishi Varma, Robert Bell and Others with Magna Stella Awards
The Texas General Counsel Forum honored seven top in-house counsel and the corporate legal departments at CenterPoint Energy and Toyota Motor North America on Thursday night with the 2021 Magna Stella Awards. Lone Star Circle of Care GC Tillery Stout received the award for GC of the Year for a Non-Profit. And legal leaders at Diamondback Energy, Enterprise Products, G6 Hospitality, SAExploration and Intercontinental Terminals were honored for their accomplishments.
The Texas Lawbook attended the Texas Forum annual meeting in Austin and has these exclusive details.
EasyKnock v. Feldman & Feldman: To TRO or not to TRO?
A Houston federal judge is mulling over whether he will issue a temporary injunction that would order Houston plaintiff’s firm Feldman & Feldman to take down statements from its website that its courtroom opponent, residential sales leaseback firm EasyKnock, alleges are false and defamatory. EasyKnock alleges not doing so would cause irreparable harm, while Feldman & Feldman argues doing so would amount to prior restraint — a strict standard in First Amendment law.
Updated — Expert to TX GCs on Cyber Attacks: ‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail’
General counsel at Texas companies are critical for preparing corporate executives and board members about cyberattacks and ransomware demands, Erin Nealy Cox, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, told members of the Texas General Counsel Forum Thursday.
O’Melveny Jolts Texas Growth with LNG Expert from K&S
Monica Hwang, an LNG expert, has practiced for the last 14-plus years in King & Spalding’s Houston office.
Silicon Valley Partner Returns Home to Austin via Perkins Coie
Corporate lawyer Valeska Pederson Hintz is heading home to Texas and joining Perkins Coie’s ECVC practice after spending the first chapter of her legal career in Palo Alto.