Frost Bank clearly has a thing for lawyers at Haynes and Boone. The Texas bank has named former Haynes and Boone litigator C.E. Rhodes, who also practiced at Akin Gump and Baker Hughes, to be its new general counsel and corporate secretary. The Texas Lawbook has details.
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Joshua Russ: The Whistleblower
Joshua Russ is a former East Texas federal prosecutor who dared to investigate Walmart over its alleged role in the opioid crisis. Instead, he ended up fighting his own bosses. In a series of exclusive interviews with The Texas Lawbook, he speaks for the first time about his investigation into the world’s largest corporation, about facing allegations of unethical conduct brought against him by lawyers for the retail giant and about his decision to resign and file a formal whistleblower complaint against the federal agency he once dreamed of serving.
Premium Subscriber Spotlight: Akin Gump
Akin Gump identified Dallas corporate partner Tom Yang as having a truly standout year. Yang advised on more than 20 transactions for the year, including 7-Eleven’s $21 billion acquisition of Speedway, which was a finalist for M&A Deal of the Year at the 2020 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards. The firm, in a pro bono matter with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., also helped secure an injunction in federal district court in Texas against a racially discriminatory dress and grooming policy.
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC Taps Clark Hill Partners to Lead New Texas Outposts
The Dallas, San Antonio and Collin County openings mark the single largest geographic expansion in the firm’s 108-year history.
Brookfield Spinoff to Snap Up Galveston Insurance Provider
In a deal valued at $5.1 billion, an arm of investment giant Brookfield plans to continue to build out its reinsurance platform with the acquisition of a Galveston-based company. Sidley, Skadden, Greer, Herz & Adams and Paul Hastings advised.
Business Bankruptcies Decline, But Signs of Danger Are Ahead
Corporate bankruptcies in Texas fell significantly during the first six months of 2021 compared to the record numbers that were filed last year as a result of Covid-19 and the recession. But bankruptcy judges are still much busier than they were before the pandemic thanks to Winter Storm Uri. SDTX Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones and legal experts explain why in this report.
CCS Initiative Uses Carbon Accounting and Verification Standards to Boost Low-Carbon Energy Investments
Northern Lights, TotalEnergies, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, South Pole, Perspectives and Carbon Finance Labs launched a new carbon market initiative this summer to scale-up carbon capture and storage solutions. This article discusses the initiative’s purpose, and related developments that underscore a rapidly developing demand for low-carbon products.
Houston’s Golden Nugget Online Gaming to Join DraftKings in All-stock Deal
Another asset of Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta is making moves. DraftKings plans to acquire Golden Nugget Online Gaming – the i-gaming arm of the casino empire taken public via a de-SPAC merger last year – in an all-stock deal as Latham & Watkins, Sullivan & Cromwell, White & Case and Vinson & Elkins advise.
Premium Subscriber Spotlight: Weil, Gotshal & Manges
A Dallas-led team at Weil, working with the ACLU of Texas, has prosecuted major federal court litigation aimed at freeing hundreds of medically vulnerable immigrant detainees from an ICE civil detention facility in Conroe, Texas. To date, the Weil/ACLU team has obtained release of 15 medically vulnerable detainees through varying forms of individualized relief. The case is still pending and now awaits class certification.
Texas Law Firm PPP Lending Less in 2021, But More Than Reported in 2020
Newly released data from the Small Business Administration reveals the full extent to which Texas law firms relied on Payroll Protection Plan loans to stay afloat while adjusting to the widespread disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the data also shows that law firms in Texas rebounded enough to leave a fair amount of federal money on the table. The Texas Lawbook has the numbers.