Growing activism among Delaware courts, coupled with aggressive pro-relocation moves by the Texas Legislature, has contributed to the rise of a “DExit” movement, with businesses increasingly looking to move not only their headquarters, but their state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
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2025 Houston Corporate Counsel’s Lifetime Achievement and Rookie of the Year Awards
Sylvia Kerrigan and Ernest Kohnke have been corporate in-house counsel for 25 years. Kathryn Hand and Gillian Hobson have been in-house for less than two years. All four of them will be honored at the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards.
Litigation Roundup: SCOTX Vacates Guardianship Divorce Decree
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a woman whose Lyft driver was convicted of raping her settles a civil lawsuit against the company about a week before trial was to begin in Dallas County, members of a Houston megachurch allege an improper takeover by leadership, and a jury in Austin awards a seven-figure verdict in a revenge porn case.
M&A Newsmaker: A Wild, Busy Week for Brittany Sakowitz
The first week April was a busy one for Kirkland & Ellis’ Brittany Sakowitz. The Houston M&A and PE partner led or co-led three separate deals. “[It] was an exciting one … Three important clients, signing three different types of transactions and in three different industries, all in the same week.” After pausing to catch her breath, Sakowitz caught up with The Texas Lawbook to discuss her career, M&A and her predictions for the rest the year.
TPG to Acquire Sabre Subsidiary for $1.1B
Southlake-based Sabre, plans to use the proceeds from the all-cash transaction to reduce debt and focus on its core business objectives. Haynes Boone and Davis Polk advised on the deal.
CDT Roundup: A ‘Rinse-and-Repeat’ Week
Last week looked much like the week that preceded it. The week ending April 26 saw a dozen deals for $8.8 billion. The preceding week saw 11 deals for $8.1 billion. This time last year we were reporting 19 transactions for $16 billion. Deals for the week included a couple of upstream asset acquisitions, a de-SPAC merger involving potential cancer cures, the sale of a waste-to-energy recycler, the acquisition by Japanese investors of Australian-owned asset management businesses, a couple of data center deals and the purchase of a school bus company still shaking off the effects of the pandemic.
Texas Firm Headcount Inched Up 1% in 2024
Big corporate law firms operating in Texas dramatically slowed their hiring in 2024, adding the fewest new lawyers since the pandemic year of 2020. The 50 largest law firms doing business in Texas grew, on average, by only two attorneys last year — down from an average of four in 2023, according to new data compiled as part of the Texas Lawbook 50 annual firm business review. And that number is skewed due to the significant headcount growth of four law firms — Jackson Walker, Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Hastings and Sheppard Mullin. Remove those four firms and the average firm in Texas witnessed a lawyer headcount decline in 2024.
Outtakes from the NDTX Bench Bar Conference
As we reported on the day of the event, the 2025 Bench Bar Conference for the Northern District of Texas held April 11, began with a bit of a bang. U.S. District Judge David Godbey caused an early stir by describing the level of personal threats against himself and against other judges and their families as a threat to judicial independence. Here are a few other notable outtakes from conference.
Amicus for Susman Godfrey Flood Court, DOJ Seeks Case Dismissal
On the very day last week that the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss Susman Godfrey’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order against the Houston litigation powerhouse, the federal judge in the case was blitzed with more than 20 separate amicus briefs by 366 former judges, current law professors, former FBI and CIA directors, 77 former corporate general counsel and dozens of bar associations supporting Susman Godfrey’s legal efforts.
Houston Trial Underway in Battle Over Lost Construction Bid on $18B Mexican Oil Refinery
A Mexican company, Constructora Hostotipaquillo, sued Kellogg Brown & Root, contending that an ill-fated partnering with the Houston-based construction, engineering and consulting giant cost it more than $186 million in lost revenue.