Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Elon Musk’s SpaceX filed a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday for a much-anticipated initial public offering of its common stock that will trade on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the symbol “SPCX.”
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is advising SpaceX led by capital markets partners George Sampas in New York and Hillary Holmes, Harrison Tucker and Atma Kabad in Houston. Davis Polk is advising the underwriters.
In this edition of Asked & Answered, King & Spalding partner Bruce Hurley reflected on his career and recently being named trial lawyer of the year by the Texas chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Hearing the stories from family who were trial lawyers pushed him toward becoming a trial lawyer himself.
Even if the Securities and Exchange Commission gives public companies permission to report less often, will investors, analysts and lenders actually let them?
That is the central question raised by the Commission’s May 5 proposal to allow U.S. public companies to replace quarterly Form 10-Q filings with semiannual reports on a new Form 10-S — the most significant proposed change to the periodic reporting framework since quarterly reporting became mandatory in 1970.
The Rookie of the Year Award is intended to recognize lawyers who, in a short time, demonstrate outsized influence and leadership. Castleton Commodities International Counsel Helen Xiang has done precisely that. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are honoring Xiang with the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Rookie of the Year, which recognizes lawyers who have been in-house counsel for two years or less. This is the story of her path to Castleton.
In this Q&A with The Texas Lawbook, Helen Xiang discusses the traits she seeks in outside counsel, what outside counsel need to know when working with her and more.
Lawyers from Dallas-based Simon Greenstone Panatier recently secured a $10.2 million jury verdict for a mesothelioma client in Minneapolis.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap has determined Collision Communications, a patent holder that secured a $445.5 million infringement verdict against Samsung Electronics last year, failed to show it was also entitled to a permanent injunction to prohibit ongoing infringement.
Tom Melsheimer and lawyers for Texas Instruments, Intel and two other tech companies told U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater Tuesday that he should dismiss a potential precedent-setting case in which five Ukrainians injured or killed in Russian missile and drone attacks have sued for allegedly providing the microchips that guide the Russian weapons. Melsheimer told the judge that the plaintiffs’ lawsuits are fatally flawed because they fail to directly link the technology companies’ products to horrific attacks on Ukrainians, fail to show misconduct by the chip makers and failed to have filed their lawsuits in a timely manner.
Larry Carbo shared a bit of his vision for leading the 60-year-old firm with The Lawbook, including a possible third Texas outpost. He also reflected on the legacies of his predecessors Larry Campagna and Wayne Risoli.
Melanie Benefield was a “landman” long before Billy Bob Thornton made being a landman cool — except it involved offshore assets. Fifteen years later, Benefield is a Houston-based senior counsel at Calgary-headquartered Enerflex Ltd., a global energy firm that specializes in natural gas processing, power generation and water solutions.
“What makes Melanie’s nomination compelling is not just the breadth of that mandate, but what she delivered within it during 2025 — a year that tested Enerflex’s business and legal team in extraordinary ways,” AZA partner Jason McManis said.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook are awarding the 2026 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Senior Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department (six to 19 attorneys) to Benefield.
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