In an announcement, the firm said he died following a long illness. In 1982, Godfrey joined his friend, Steve Susman, who launched his own firm two years earlier. Together, the pair built Susman Godfrey into a preeminent, commercial litigation boutique with a reputation for taking big cases on a contingency basis.
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Fisher Phillips Hires Reed Smith Partner to be Regional Managing Partner in Houston
Fisher Phillips on Monday announced it has hired Reed Smith labor and employment partner Emily Harbison, who will serve as the firm’s regional managing partner in Houston.
Gibson Dunn Partner Launches Solo Dallas Firm to ‘Reengineer Litigation Models for Businesses’
Texas legal history is replete with young hot-shot trial lawyers leaving their big corporate firms to start their own operations — from David Beck, Paul Yetter and John Zavitsanos in Houston to Mike Lynn, Pete Marketos and Clayton Bailey of Dallas. This week, John S. Adams hopes to join this elite group of highly successful trial lawyers-turned-business leaders who have their name on the front door. Friday was Adams’ last day as a partner in the Dallas office of the elite global law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Today, he launched his own law litigation boutique, the John S. Adams Law Firm, where he is the only lawyer but plans to add lawyers quickly.
CDT Roundup: Another Week for the $20B Streak, Unusual Deals and a SPAC Twist
The week ending May 31 saw 19 deals reported involving Texas businesses or Texas lawyers. They were valued at $23.4 billion, representing the fourth week in a row reporting transactions valued at a total of $20 billion or more. Last week, we saw 15 deals for $24 billion. And this time last year, there were 12 transactions for $34 billion. And it was a week that was more than usually unusual.
U.S. Trustee and Jackson Walker to Mediate Judge Jones Fee Dispute
Jackson Walker has agreed to attempt to mediate claims brought by federal officials that the Dallas-based law firm should be forced to return millions of dollars it was paid in legal fees from 33 bankruptcy cases in which Jackson Walker lawyers failed to disclose that one of its former partners had a romantic relationship with the Houston judge who was presiding over those cases. The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee in the Southern District of Texas and lawyers for Jackson Walker filed a joint notice Friday stating that they “intend to participate in an in-person mediation” between June 16 and July 1.
(2020 file photo of David Jones by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty)
TX Chief Justice ‘Urgent Memo’ to Legislature: Texas Judicial Pay is an ‘Embarrassment’ and Pleads for 11th Hour Pay Hike
New Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock sent a last-minute email on Saturday to members of the state house and senate with the subject line “Urgent Memo”, begging them to hike the compensation of judges, which currently ranks 49th in the U.S. — only West Virginia pays its judges less.
Motion: Gateway Church Lead Counsel David Middlebrook ‘Must Be Disqualified’
Lawyers for Robert Morris, the former Gateway Church pastor who had an inappropriate relationship with a teenager decades ago, asked a Fort Worth judge to remove one of the lead attorneys representing the church in litigation over disputed financial payments. In court documents filed Friday, Morris’ attorneys want the judge hearing the case to disqualify David Middlebrook, Gateway’s longtime outside general counsel, because he previously represented Morris in several matters, including giving Morris legal advice about the issues that are at the heart of the current dispute.
President Names Career Prosecutor as NDTX U.S. Attorney
President Donald Trump has named Nancy E. Larson, a career federal prosecutor, as the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
GATX, Brookfield to Purchase Wells Fargo Railway Fleet for $4.4B
The deal, advised by Skadden and Mayer Brown, involves 105,000 rail cars, a potential 10-year buyout by GATX and a separate purchase of Wells Fargo rail leasing assets.
P.S. — From Corporate Counsel to Clemency Crusader: Brittany K. Barnett’s Journey to Criminal Justice Reform
Last week, I had the honor of interviewing Brittany K. Barnett at the Texas General Counsel Forum Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter breakfast about her impressive legal career. Barnett’s start was in accounting. From there, she went to work as a corporate finance attorney and in-house M&A counsel. By night, she dedicated herself to pro bono efforts, working on President Barack Obama’s historic Clemency Project 2014. Barnett ultimately left her job and founded The Buried Alive Project, a powerful initiative to represent individuals sentenced to life without parole for nonviolent drug offenses. Her work has led to clemency for nearly two dozen clients across three presidential administrations. She’s also the author of a best-selling memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom, and she is working on a second book. I was so inspired by her story that I wanted to share our interview with a wider audience in this week’s P.S. Column.