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KBR Gets Complete Defense Win in Houston Trial Over $18B Mexican Refinery Job - It took a jury in Harris County about seven hours of deliberations over Thursday and Friday to determine Houston-based Kellogg Brown & Root owed nothing to a Mexican construction company that had been seeking more than $100 million in damages over losing a bid to build a refinery in southern Mexico. May 9, 2025
Jackson Walker Hires Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht - Retired Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht has joined the Dallas-based law firm Jackson Walker as a partner in its Austin office, the firm announced Friday. May 9, 2025
First CEO of San Antonio Legal Services Association Steps Down from Non-profit, Board Initiates Search - Sarah Dingivan, the founding CEO and Executive Director of the San Antonio Legal Services Association otherwise known as SALSA, is stepping down after leading the nonprofit since 2019. SALSA’s Managing Attorney Robert Mihara will serve as interim executive director while a search for her successor is underway. A former Air Force JAG, Dingivan guided the organization through challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uvalde school shooting and a recent funding crisis. May 9, 2025
Appeals Court Upholds Part of Verdict for Fired Southwest Flight Attendant, Tosses Religious Training Order - Southwest Airlines won partial relief from a jury verdict in a case involving the firing of a flight attendant over antiabortion messages she sent to her union president. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Thursday that while the airline violated Charlene Carter’s right to religious expression, it did not break federal laws banning religious discrimination in the workplace. The court also struck down U.S. District Court Judge Brantley Starr’s order requiring three of the airline’s attorneys to attend religious liberty training with a Christian legal group. May 8, 2025Susman Godfrey: President Trump Executive Order is ‘Unconstitutional — Full Stop’ - A lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge Thursday that President Donald Trump was legally exercising his executive authority by prohibiting lawyers with the Houston-based law firm Susman Godfrey from entering federal buildings or representing clients who had contracts with the federal government and suspending their security clearances. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of Washington, D.C., repeatedly asked U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson to provide evidence supporting the president’s April 9 executive order condemning Susman Godfrey for racial discrimination in their hiring practices and for “spearheading efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrading the quality of American elections.” May 8, 2025
Litigation Roundup: Google, Texas in Talks to Settle Consumer Protection Lawsuit - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revives a software company’s breach of contract lawsuit against the Tarrant County College District, a sex discrimination lawsuit against UT Southwestern Medical Center is set for a bench trial, and Houston lawyers secure a $31 million jury verdict in Miami. May 6, 2025
Jury Sides With Marathon Oil, Rejects $123.7M Claim in Uri Natural Gas Delivery Trial - Federal jurors in Houston on Monday afternoon sided with Marathon Oil in a lawsuit stemming from the delivery of natural gas during February 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, rejecting a $123.7 million breach of contract claim lodged by Koch Energy Services. May 6, 2025
Centerpiece
M&A Newsmaker: Katherine Terrell Frank Never Became Perry Mason, But It Still Worked Out - Katherine Terrell Frank has fond memories of growing up watching Perry Mason with her grandfather. "I imagined the life of a lawyer as theatrical and dramatic, with cases neatly resolved within an hour," Frank said. But it was while she was with V&E that she discovered something different while working in their capital markets and M&A practice. "It turns out I really enjoy transactional work," Frank said. May 7, 2025
Julia Wright ‘Sets the Example for All General Counsel Globally’ - Julia Wright was a third grader when she did a book report on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “I didn’t know women could be lawyers until I read that book,” Wright told The Texas Lawbook. “I knew then that it was what I wanted to do. Throughout the 1980s, my dad would cut out newspaper articles showing the data of increased enrollment in law schools of women, showing me it was possible.” Forty-two years later, Wright is the general counsel at ChampionX, where she is one of two finalists for the 2025 Houston General Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsized Legal Department. May 6, 2025Expert Voices
A Guide to the Texas Mechanic’s Lien Process for In-House Counsel and Business Litigators - Lawyers should understand the steps in the mechanic's lien process so that they can prevent or resolve issues related to unpaid work that could expose the company to financial risks, like lien foreclosure or delays in project completion. Preventing or resolving these issues early can affect a company's bottom line. With careful drafting, corporate in-house counsel and savvy business lawyers may be able to add lien release language into any construction contracts the company enters, thus avoiding potential financial risk and general legal exposure all together. May 6, 2025
Stories You Might’ve Missed
Texas Firm Headcount Inched Up 1% in 2024 - Big corporate law firms operating in Texas dramatically slowed their hiring in 2024, adding the fewest new lawyers since the pandemic year of 2020. The 50 largest law firms doing business in Texas grew, on average, by only two attorneys last year — down from an average of four in 2023, according to new data compiled as part of the Texas Lawbook 50 annual firm business review. And that number is skewed due to the significant headcount growth of four law firms — Jackson Walker, Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Hastings and Sheppard Mullin. Remove those four firms and the average firm in Texas witnessed a lawyer headcount decline in 2024. April 28, 2025
