Tucker, who helped open Shearman & Sterling’s office in Houston after 35 years at Baker Botts, has advised on a host of big deals in the energy space.
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Litigation Roundup: Nike Ghosts Patent Lawsuit, Tennis Star Double Faults in Court of Law, Energy Transfer Sued
Two jury verdicts that exceed $1 billion, including abortion issues involving Southwest Airlines and the adjudication of long-anticipated Dallas Police and Fire Pension dispute. Two new lawsuits against two major North Texas corporations — one involving alleged illegal horizontal drilling and another involving boiling water poured on customers. Two Ukrainian nationals accused of money laundering strike plea deals with federal prosecutors. All that and more in this week’s Litigation Roundup.
O’Melveny Adds Crypto/Cyber Expert from U.S. Attorney’s Office
Sid Mody served as digital currency crimes coordinator and national security cyber specialist for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Departing-Employee Lawsuits Are a Tough Racket, Panel Says
Experts at a Texas Lawbook CLE say even top litigators struggle with the lightning pace of suits to stop departing workers from stealing customers and trade secrets.
ERCOT & Panda Face Off Again at Texas Supreme Court
The six-year bear of a legal battle between the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and Panda Power has again reached the Texas Supreme Court. In a case being watched by scores of lawyers in the Winter Storm Uri litigation, ERCOT wants the state’s highest court to declare that it is part of the state government and thus immune from civil lawsuits. Panda claims ERCOT knowingly produced false market data in 2011 and 2012 that led it to invest $2.2 billion to build three new power plants and doesn’t deserve immunity.
Three GCs Provide a Peek into Their Companies’ Diversity Efforts
The top lawyers at Jacobs Engineering Group, Southwest Airlines and El Rancho Supermercado spent Tuesday’s lunch hour speaking about multiple aspects of diversity within the legal profession — what diversity means for them and their organizations, why it’s important in both the in-house and outside counsel context and how it could be improved. The Lawbook attended the event, which was organized by the Dallas Regional Chamber, hosted by UNT Dallas College of Law and sponsored by Munsch Hardt and Carrington Coleman.
Texas Lawbook Hires Law360 Litigation Reporter Michelle Casady
Michelle Casady joins Natalie Posgate, who has been with The Lawbook for a decade, and former Dallas Morning News writer and editor Bruce Tomaso in covering litigation for The Lawbook.
“Michelle’s tremendous experience and knowledge in covering Texas courts will mean The Lawbook will provide our readers with more breaking news stories and more in-depth coverage of litigation trends and personalities than ever before at any news publication in Texas,” said Posgate. “Michelle is a highly respected and gifted reporter and we are greatly pleased to be working with her now as a colleague rather than against her as a competitor.”
Fifth Circuit Invites Constitutional Challenges to SEC’s ‘No Admit, No Deny’ Policy
A handful of Fifth Circuit judges seem to have it out for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and “the agency’s current activism.” Two judges issued a concurring opinion that clearly invites defendants being accused of financial fraud to challenge the SEC’s use of “no admit, no deny” settlement agreements. “If you want to settle, SEC’s policy says, ‘Hold your tongue, and don’t say anything truthful – ever’ — or get bankrupted by having to continue litigating with the SEC,” Judge Edith Jones wrote. “A more effective prior restraint is hard to imagine.”
The Texas Lawbook has insight from several legal experts who say they understand Judge Jones’ concerns but say eliminating the “no admit, no deny” provisions in settlements would cause tremendous upheaval in the system and place defendants at an even bigger disadvantage in their negotiations with the federal agency.
Law Experts: Firms Need to Take TX Freedom Caucus Threats on Abortion Assistance Seriously
Corporate law firms should not ignore nor routinely dismiss threats made last week by Texas Republican legislators that they will punish law partners who fund travel for Texas employees who go to other states to have abortions. Leading academic experts who studied the Texas Freedom Caucus letter to Sidley say law firms “should treat this like any other legal challenge” and “throw all the resources and knowledge they have … to analyze any potential legal risk than a collection of legislators who don’t seem to understand what the law is or how the law works.”
CDT Roundup: 11 Deals, 8 Firms, 71 Lawyers, $3.58B
In a generally weak week for dealmaking, it was easy to notice that Kirkland & Ellis partner Rahul Vashi has been on a tear of late with four deals in the past week or so. The CDT Roundup has Vashi’s view on how to keep multiple deal streams in order, and what he expects in the near future from a volatile deal market, as well as the usual list (however short) of the other lawyers who have been making things happen.