Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced he was suing Southwestern Public Service Company, which does business as Xcel Energy, for allegedly causing 2024’s Smokehouse Creek Fire. The fire, which killed three and caused more than $1 billion in damages, was the largest wildfire in recorded Texas history. (File photo by Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)
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Susman Godfrey Associate Bonuses Skyrocket
Lawyers at Susman Godfrey have had an extraordinary year — the “second-most successful year in the firm’s history,” according to Susman Godfrey leaders.
During 2025, Susman attorneys achieved a $1.5 billion copyright infringement settlement against Anthropic over its AI scraping of content. They defeated the Trump administration’s executive orders that targeted the Houston litigation powerhouse.
On Tuesday, firm leaders announced record high year-end bonuses for its associates and elected six new lawyers to its equity partnership, including one in Houston.
Luminar Technologies Files Bankruptcy in SDTX
A Florida company that makes laser sensors for vehicles filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in Houston, citing $508 million in liabilities owed to more than 200 creditors but only $189 million in assets.
Luminar Technologies hired Weil Gotshal as its lead outside legal advisor, with Houston partner Stephanie Morrison and New York partner Ronit Berkovich leading the way. The case has been assigned to Houston Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez.
Litigation Roundup: Samsung Seeks New Trial After $445.5M Infringement Verdict
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, on the same day a patent holder who won a $445.5 million verdict against Samsung Electronics asked the court for a permanent injunction that would bar the company from selling its infringing phone, the tech giant asked the court for a new trial.
Winston & Strawn to Merge with Taylor Wessing UK to Form Global Business Firm
Winston & Strawn announced Monday that it has agreed to a trans-Atlantic merger with Taylor Wessing, the global business law firm ranked among the top 20 law firms in the United Kingdom.
Winston & Strawn’s Dallas and Houston offices ranked 18th in combined Texas lawyer headcount and 15th in Texas-based revenue with $215 million for 2024.
DFW Business Litigation of the Year Finalists Announced
Two Texas corporate giants — Keurig Dr Pepper and Energy Transfer — are the finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year. The senior counsel for both companies are alumni of the same Dallas litigation boutique and the lead outside lawyers are alums of the same law firm but are now trial partners at two of the largest and wealthiest corporate law firms in the world.
TXSE Group Gains $20M in New Equity Investments
The nascent Texas Stock Exchange boosted its total capitalization to $270 million with the addition of $20 million from a new group of investors led by Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
Texas Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange Resolve Trademark Suit
After a November hearing on a motion to dismiss, the two stock exchanges were sent to mediation. Almost a month later, the mediator announced the Texas Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange have come to a resolution in mediation and have until January to file dismissal.
ACC-DFW 2025 M&A Transaction of the Year Finalists Announced
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have announced that the corporate legal departments at Celanese and Comerica are the two finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards for M&A Transaction of the Year.
The DFW Corporate Counsel Awards honor in-house lawyers for their extraordinary legal and business successes during the past year.
Fifteen Deals, $10 Billion and a Few Accounting Quirks
For the week ended Dec. 13, the CDT Roundup saw 15 deals reported with a total value of just under $10 billion. At this time last year, we saw 15 transactions come across our desks with an aggregate value of $5.3 billion.
In M&A, this edition of CDT Roundup includes a handful of energy-related deals with a shuffling of midstream assets, Texas solar projects selling minority stakes and some offshore rigs trading hands.
And on the CapM side: a SPAC IPO, a nearly $1 billion private placement, a stock buy-back and a post-merger holiday cleanup on the Constellation-Calpine aisle.