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Litigation Between Former Prop Firm Biz Partners Ends with Public Apology, Stipulated Judgment - A fight between two former business partners who made tens of millions of dollars together building a futures prop firm in Austin before the relationship soured and spilled into separate fights in state and federal court in Texas recently ended in rare fashion. The plaintiff, Leo Riot, who in December 2024 had accused Darrell Martin and John Skelton, his former partners at Apex Trader Funding, of defrauding him, breaching contracts and misappropriating his intellectual property issued a public statement in August conceding none of his claims were true. September 17, 2026Michelle Casady
SCOTX Asked to Revive Suit Against Gateway Church, Morris, Elders - The appeal to the Texas Supreme Court comes about a month after the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas determined the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine required the dismissal of nearly all the claims Cindy Clemishire brought against Robert Morris, Gateway Church and three of its elders. Clemishire argued that ruling transformed the doctrine from “a tool of qualified restraint to a totalizing shield that leaves churches immune from judicial oversight.” September 17, 2026Michelle Casady
Jury Awards More than $10M in Retaliation, Defamation Case - A Fort Worth jury found Trinity Valley School liable for defamation and retaliation and awarded its former human resources director more than $10 million in damages earlier this month. Carrie Skains sued her former employer in December 2024 for sex discrimination, retaliation and defamatory statements that claimed she kept information about a teacher who exposed himself to children in order to protect him. September 16, 2026Alexa Shrake
Litigation Roundup: X Corp. Settles Apple Antitrust Suit in Texas - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a Houston immigration attorney is accused of defrauding her clients, X Corp. settles an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in Fort Worth and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hands a loss to Lucid in a constitutional challenge to Texas’ ban on direct-to-consumer auto sales based on precedent they doubt.   September 14, 2026Michelle Casady
CDT Roundup: The CapM Drought is Over. Barely - Last week was another light one, all around, with a total of six deals — five of them M&A/Funding — for a total of $3.3 billion. You know the gruel is thin when the main cause for celebration is the first capital markets transaction in three weeks. September 13, 2026Jason Philyaw
SpaceX Sues AG, Grimes County Over Public Records Requests  - Space Exploration Technologies filed suit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Grimes County over a public records request.

The suit filed Tuesday before Travis County Judge Aurora Martinez Jones focuses on four Texas Public Information Act requests. SpaceX claims one request was withdrawn before a ruling was issued, and another request did not include any documents regarding the company. September 10, 2026Alexa Shrake
Enbridge Buys Tallgrass Energy Crude Oil Ops for $2.55B - Canadian energy infrastructure pipeline company Enbridge said on Sept. 9 that it has acquired the crude oil business of Tallgrass Energy for $2.55 billion cash. Sidley, Sullivan & Cromwell and V&E advised on the deal. September 10, 2026Jason Philyaw
In Jackson Walker Bankruptcy Fee Fight, Judge Takes Trustee’s Standing Argument Under Advisement - During a hearing Wednesday morning, a lawyer for the U.S. Trustee reiterated arguments to Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez explaining why the watchdog has standing to obtain the relief it seeks via vacatur motions filed in the Jackson Walker fee dispute.  September 9, 2026Michelle Casady
Biz Court Jury Sides with Deposition Video Producer in Fight with Ex-Business Partner - SmartDisk, a deposition video and production company that started in Houston more than 20 years ago, was vindicated by a panel of Texas Business Court jurors Tuesday afternoon when they agreed a former business partner owes the company about $6.4 million in damages for breach of an agreement.  September 8, 2026Michelle Casady

Centerpiece

Mike Androvett’s Groundbreaking 45 Years of Law & Journalism - Mike Androvett was making pretty good money as an investigative TV reporter for NBC 5 in Dallas in 1995 when he decided to start his own media consulting business advising lawyers.

“My hope was to get a client or two and just figure out a way to make a living,” he said in a recent interview.

Thirty-one years later, Androvett Legal Media is the largest and most dominant player in Texas legal public relations today with 20 employees and offices in DFW, Austin, Houston and San Antonio.  September 10, 2026Mark Curriden
Asked & Answered with Johnston Tobey Baruch’s Chad Baruch: Hip-hop, Dolly Parton and Brief Writing  - In this edition of Asked & Answered, Johnston Tobey Baruch managing shareholder Chad Baruch shares his experience representing hip-hop artists in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court and highlights a surge in Texas mandamus practice. He also shares his top brief-writing tips and pet peeves.  September 9, 2026Alexa Shrake

Expert Voices

SCOTX 2025–2026 Term by the Numbers: Petitioners Dominate as Reversal Rate Exceeds 75 Percent - The bottom line for this term: The odds continue to favor the petitioner once the Court grants review and sets argument. We dig into the numbers, looking at how many cases came from each Texas court of appeals, explaining how we calculated the Court’s overall affirmance and reversal rates, and examining which courts of appeals saw the most—and least—success on review.   September 9, 2026Allyson N. Ho, Bradley G. Hubbard & Elizabeth A. Kiernan
August Business Court Docket Anchored by Mavs Ownership Fight, 70-Page Trust Ruling - The Texas Business Court stayed hot throughout August, issuing six opinions as the Court’s docket continued to mature with procedural and doctrinal opinions. Evident in several opinions is the familiar theme that has characterized the Court’s growing resolution of complex commercial disputes: Documents mean what they say, and parties are held to the bargains they struck. September 8, 2026Zack Ewing & Michael Patton

More Stories

Litigation Roundup: Divided Panel Vacates Magistrate Referral in $125M Port Dispute 
CDT Roundup: $17B End to the Slog Days of Summer
Flex Acquires EPC Power for $4.4B
More Stories


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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, 2026Mark Curriden

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