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Corporate general counsel in Texas and across the U.S. predict they will hire more lawyers who specialize in civil litigation and governmental regulatory matters during the next year to help meet increased demand, according to a new survey conducted by Texas-based Norton Rose Fulbright. One big culprit? Businesses suing other businesses over contract disagreements. The Texas Lawbook has exclusive details.

Houston lawyers from Latham & Watkins and Vinson & Elkins filed an S-1 late last week for The Woodlands-based Smart Sand, Inc., which provides sand for hydraulic fracturing to exploration & production and oilfield service companies such as EOG Resources and Weatherford.

A federal jury in Tyler ruled Thursday that Apple illegally used source code owned by a Plano-based patent holding company on several models of its iPhones and iPads. Fort Worth IP lawyer Ed Nelson convinced an eight-person jury to award $22.1 million in damages to Cellular Communications Equipment, which the jury said owns a valid patent on unique source code that combines hardware components and specifically designed software instructions to allow advanced buffering technology on smart phones and handheld devices.

JP Morgan Chase Bank is trying to stop seven former employees from going forward with a nationwide collective action lawsuit that alleges bank employees are forced to work off the clock. The employees signed arbitration agreements as part of their jobs, which included a promise not to join any collective action lawsuits, according to a petition that JP Morgan Chase filed this week in federal court in Houston.

The employees agreed to settle individual claims through arbitration, a confidential and increasingly common process that keeps employees from spilling corporate secrets in a public courtroom. The employees asked the arbitration service to allow them to participate in the collective action, citing their rights under a federal labor relations law that allows employees to join together to improve their wages and working conditions, according to the bank’s petition to the court. The Houston Chronicle has full details.