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Toyota CLO Sandra Phillips to Retire from ‘Dream Job’ - Toyota Motor North America chief legal officer and corporate secretary Sandra Phillips told The Texas Lawbook Tuesday that she is retiring from the company’s top legal post July 31 to spend more time with her parents, who are in their 80s, and to focus more on serving on corporate boards.
“I’ve been living the dream job for 15 years, working with a great team,” Phillips said. “I am proud that I was able to help Toyota navigate some of its most difficult issues and to help move this great company forward. This is a good time to transition to a team that is ready to take more responsibility and lead Toyota into the future.” May 5, 2026
Justice Barrett Talks Life on the Bench - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett spoke about her book Listening to the Law at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University’s campus Monday evening. From clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia to ruling on a death penalty case, Justice Barrett covered a few topics in her book. May 5, 2026
Litigation Roundup: Supersedeas Bond Fight in $210M Case Heats Up in Fifth Circuit - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Hunton Andrews Kurth scores a win for Oncor in an appeal of a National Labor Relations Board decision, and the former head of internal audits for a defunct electric vehicle company strikes a deal to settle insider trading allegations. May 4, 2026
NCAA Struck with $140M Jury Verdict in 1950s SMU Football Player’s Head Injury Suit - Following a four-week trial, a jury determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association is liable for negligence in a lawsuit brought by the family of a former Southern Methodist University football player who died of chronic traumatic encephalopathy dementia. May 4, 2026
CDT Roundup: Utilities, Pipelines and Oil Take Center Stage - For the week ended May 2, the CDT Roundup reported on 13 deals valued at nearly $37.9 billion. The prior week had 11 deals reported with a total value of about $19.7 billion, while a year ago at this time, the Roundup reported on 11 deals valued about $4.3 billion.
On the M&A side, the week proved to be all about power and energy and data centers. That and more in this week's CDT Roundup. May 3, 2026
On the M&A side, the week proved to be all about power and energy and data centers. That and more in this week's CDT Roundup. May 3, 2026
Texas Access to Justice Gala Raises Record $1.05M for Legal Aid, Veterans - The Texas Access to Justice Commission’s Champions of Justice Gala in Austin topped last year’s record-shattering haul with $1.05 million raised for legal aid and veterans. Co-chaired by Toyota Motor North America CLO Sandra Phillips and CenterPoint Energy GC Monica Karuturi, the event Thursday honored Texas lawyers for their contributions to advocacy. May 2, 2026
‘The Golden Age for Corporate Law in Texas is Now’ (Updated) - Never in history have Texas corporate lawyers worked so many hours, charged such enormous rates and raked in more revenue and profits than they are right now. The Texas offices of more than three dozen law firms scored record-high revenues in 2025 — and many of them surpassed their old records by tens of millions of dollars, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.
Citing increased demand for legal services and healthy hourly rate increases, 48 of the Lawbook 50 law firms generated more revenue and more profits in their Texas operations in 2025 than they did in 2024. April 30, 2026
Centerpiece
Simpson Thacher’s Really, Really Big Year - The Texas Lawbook launched the Texas Lawbook 50 and the Corporate Deal Tracker in 2015 — two exclusive databases that calculate the law firm headcounts and revenue in Texas. The CDT documented those law firms’ M&A and capital markets transactions. Simpson Thacher didn’t make the leaderboard of either database in 2015.
A decade later, however, and the elite Wall Street corporate law firm is vaulting up both rankings by increasing its 2025 Texas headcount by 26 percent, its Texas revenue by 34 percent and leaping into the upper echelons of Texas dealmakers. May 5, 2026
The Texas Twelve - Eleven of the dozen Texas-based corporate law firms in the Texas Lawbook 50 experienced record revenue and profit in 2025, and the 12th firm did pretty damn well, too.
Citing heavy demand in legal services for real estate, tax, corporate transactions, fundings, commercial litigation and intellectual property disputes, the Texas-based lawyers for the Texas 12 generated $3.58 billion in 2025 — 10.56 percent more than the year before, according to the Lawbook 50. May 5, 2026
Expert Voices
Texas Business Court Quarterly Update – 2026 Q1 Summaries - In the first quarter of 2026, the Texas Business Court continued to make progress through the ever-growing number of lawsuits appearing on its dockets. In the first few quarters following the Business Court opening its doors Sept. 1, 2024, the vast majority of its opinions resolved the jurisdictional and procedural questions entailed in standing up a new court with limited jurisdiction. In the second half of 2025, such procedural decisions were increasingly mixed with substantive decisions. Early 2026 marked a new phase of the Court gaining “cruising altitude,” with many of the initial procedural and jurisdictional questions behind it and most decisions addressing the merits of the disputes. May 5, 2026
DOJ’s Plans to Revoke Naturalizations Could Undo Hundreds of Convictions - The DOJ's accelerated plans to revoke the citizenship of hundreds of naturalized citizens who “committed fraud” in the naturalization process will rely, in part, on a provision allowing revocation when the citizen is convicted after naturalization of a crime that started or occurred before naturalization. Ironically, such a move could provide the legal predicate to invalidate the very convictions the government will use to seek denaturalization. Citizens who pled guilty to pre-naturalization crimes likely had no idea that doing so could lead to denaturalization. Unless they were warned of this risk — and in our experience they were not — their guilty pleas may now be subject to challenge as uninformed and involuntary, even after the fact. April 30, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
‘The Golden Age for Corporate Law in Texas is Now’ (Updated) - Never in history have Texas corporate lawyers worked so many hours, charged such enormous rates and raked in more revenue and profits than they are right now. The Texas offices of more than three dozen law firms scored record-high revenues in 2025 — and many of them surpassed their old records by tens of millions of dollars, according to new Texas Lawbook 50 data.
Citing increased demand for legal services and healthy hourly rate increases, 48 of the Lawbook 50 law firms generated more revenue and more profits in their Texas operations in 2025 than they did in 2024. April 30, 2026
