Main Content
Top Stories
Top Stories
Litigation Roundup: Texas Oil Co. Ordered to Comply with SEC Investigation - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas Instruments is dealt a blow by the Texas Business Court in its quest to get an injunction against a competitor and a half dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by parties in favor of preserving a Texas gun restriction penal code. August 24, 2026
CDT Roundup: No Blockbusters, but Some Big Moves Brewing - The CDT Roundup saw nine deals announced during the week ended Aug. 22, with a combined reported value of about $2.8 billion — the lightest dollar figure since late January. The week prior had 15 deals with a value of nearly $7 billion, and a year ago at this time, the Roundup was reporting 23 deals worth more than $15.2 billion.
The rare week ended without an M&A megadeal. August 23, 2026
The rare week ended without an M&A megadeal. August 23, 2026
Dallas Firm Notches $1.2M Win Against J&J - After deliberating for four hours Friday evening, a New Orleans jury awarded $10 million in damages finding that talc powder manufactured and sold by Johnson & Johnson “was a substantial cause of Lynne Roy’s mesothelioma.” The jury set J&J’s share at $1.2 million. The jury, which issued its verdict Friday at 9:47 p.m. after a three-week trial, found that J&J and five other defendants made products, including talc powder, that led to the 2020 death of the prominent Louisiana real estate agent’s death at the age of 76. August 22, 2026
Dallas Jury Awards $8M to AT&T in Breach of Contract Case with Former Sales Providers - A Texas Business Court jury in Dallas deliberated for just 90 minutes late Friday night before ordering FiberWave and one of its subcontractors to pay AT&T $8 million for breaching its contractual duty to indemnify the telecom giant. The litigation started when FiberWave, a former sales partner, sued AT&T for $50 million in unpaid commissions. August 22, 2026
Trial Court’s Post-Verdict Error Triggers Major Reduction in Damages for Alex Jones - A Texas appellate court Friday slashed more than $43 million in exemplary damages awarded against Alex Jones, holding that the trial judge erred by letting the parents of a student murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to amend their petition post-verdict in order to avoid the state’s cap on exemplary damages. August 21, 2026
Centerpiece
The Dallas-Based Law Firm Taking on Johnson & Johnson — And Winning - Dallas litigation boutique Dean Omar Branham Shirley — with 39 lawyers and 35 support staff — belongs to a small group of firms nationwide that continue to reject Johnson & Johnson’s offers to resolve all its mesothelioma talc litigation through firm-level settlement agreements. Instead, DOBS has taken J&J to trial one case at a time, across the country, facing a roster of major law firms, including Kirkland & Ellis, King & Spalding and Gibson Dunn. And they’re winning. August 21, 2026Texas Immigration Court Backlog Tops 321,000 Amid Judge Shake-Up - Texas immigration courts are carrying one of the nation’s largest backlogs as the system has undergone a sweeping shake-up of more than 200 judges, coinciding with a rise in deportation orders. Nearly 3.2 million cases were pending before U.S. immigration courts as of June 2026, including 321,006 in Texas, the third-highest total in the country. August 17, 2026
Expert Voices
Four Pitfalls European Companies Should Avoid When Transferring Senior Leaders the U.S. - As European companies launch operations into Texas and across the United States, transferring senior leaders stateside is among the most consequential steps they’ll take during the expansion process. In the course of these cross-border moves, foreign companies frequently underestimate four pitfalls that can undermine even well-planned transfers. August 24, 2026
How Growing Up Poor Made Me a Better Expert - Growing up poor helped lay the foundation for my professional life. The real-life lessons I learned to survive my childhood and help support my family and community became the values that now guide my everyday practice as an expert. Here are four lessons that resonate. August 19, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
The Real Harry Potter’s ‘Magic Wand — Loyalty to the Law’ - “Your boss is a crook!” Arthur Golden, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a lawyer for Big Tobacco, screamed into the telephone in the fall of 1998. “A crook!”
On the other end of the line, Harry Potter, then a special assistant attorney general in Texas running the tobacco litigation, who was appointed three decades ago by then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to lead the historic lawsuit brought by the state of Texas against Big Tobacco. Potter and Golden had negotiated the details of the historic $15.3 billion settlement agreement between the state of Texas and large cigarette makers.
“Arthur was extremely angry — livid,” Potter said. “He talked about secret lawyer contracts. I didn’t know anything about it, but it sent chills throughout my body."
In Part II of The Texas Lawbook's series on the tobacco litigation, learn the story of the real Harry Potter, a Houston lawyer whose secret power was his ethics and commitment to the law. July 16, 2026
