Highland Capital Management General Counsel Scott Ellington said he is “pleased” with the settlement that was signed yesterday afternoon between the Dallas hedge fund’s Cornerstone Healthcare Group, private equity firm Nautic Partners, and a consortium of defendants the Texas hospital chain has spent the last nine weeks in trial against.
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Kelly Hart, Latham Handle $855M Reeves County Oil Assets Deal
Riverstone Holdings-backed Centennial Resource Development said Monday that it will acquire 100 percent of Silverback Exploration’s interests in upstream assets located in the Reeves County area of the Permian Basin for $855 million.
Did Dallas Court of Appeals Err by Using Wikipedia?
An appeals court’s use of Wikipedia to define the term “welfare queen” is under review by the Texas Supreme Court in a closely watched libel case involving D Magazine. Media groups urge the court to be cautious in embracing online sources, particularly an open-source website like Wikipedia. The online “encyclopedia” allows users to make and edit entries, which may heighten the potential for inaccurate and biased information.
Tom Barber ‘2.0’: Construction Lawyer, Cancer Survivor, Lucky Guy
As one of his colleagues notes, Tom Barber is a “true subject matter expert” when it comes to construction law. He’s currently lead attorney for one of the largest civil works projects in Texas. His professional vita, however, does not reflect “Tom Barber 2.0.” After this seven-year lung cancer survivor and three-year melanoma survivor surpassed all odds to beat deadly diagnoses, he rebuilt his life to include new law challenges, marriage and family, and triathlons. As he marks Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Barber says, “I’m about the luckiest guy on the planet.”
Legge Farrow Merges with London Law Firm
Houston-based Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown announced Tuesday that the 18-lawyer litigation boutique is merging its operations with Holman Fenwick Willan, a 450-lawyer full service law firm headquartered in London.
Reptilian Plagiarism? CSI Sues Rival DecisionQuest
Las Colinas-based Courtroom Sciences has filed a federal lawsuit accusing rival DecisionQuest of plagiarizing a CSI copyrighted, analytical report that debunks one of the most popular trial strategies used by plaintiff’s lawyers in big-dollar cases.
Derailing the Obama Workplace Agenda: Texas Federal Courts and the Incoming Administration
The injunction issued Nov. 22 against the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule is potentially far-reaching, and a Republican-controlled government makes it conceivable that salary thresholds for white-collar exemptions to overtime may ultimately be reduced or eliminated entirely. This injunction from U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas is the latest in a remarkable series of decisions from Texas federal judges blocking Obama administration orders, rules, and regulations.
Texas Jury Awards Boone Pickens $146 million in West Texas Oil Lawsuit
Two Midland-based oil companies and Dallas-based J. Cleo Thompson intentionally failed to meet their end of a decade-old agreement with Dallas oil mogul T. Boone Pickens to acquire and drill more than 160 oil wells in Reeves and Pecos counties, a West Texas jury ruled Wednesday.
Judge Changes Dee Wyly Bankruptcy from Reorganization to Liquidation
A lawyer for 82-year-old Dee Wyly, the widow of Dallas entrepreneur Charles Wyly, came to tears in her plea Tuesday to Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser that a neutral mediator be appointed to try to help reach a settlement with the IRS because the IRS was not negotiating in good faith and using Mrs. Wyly as leverage in their case against Sam Wyly. Judge Houser rejected the argument and instead changed the bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.
“I realize that this is not a good outcome for Mrs. Wyly,” Judge Houser said. “Mrs. Wyly could lose everything.”
Latham and V&E Advise in $20B ETP-Sunoco Megadeal
As part of the deal, Sunoco will acquire ETP in a unit-for-unit transaction. The deal is the third largest to be announced this year for The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.