The Texas Supreme Court announced Friday that it would not hear Bickel & Brewer’s appeal to be reinstated as lead counsel in a large international business lawsuit headed for trial in Dallas.
Bickel & Brewer petitioned the state justices to reverse two lower court rulings that disqualified the law firm after its lawyers and co-counsel were accused of improperly hiring a former executive of the opposing corporation who had confidential insider legal information critical to the case.
The Texas high court denied the petition without comment.
The Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas, in an opinion issued last December, upheld a decision by state District Judge Carlos Cortez that disqualified the Bickel & Brewer firm from representing RSR Corporation, a Dallas-based lead smelter, which has sued a Chilean business partner, Inppamet, alleging fraud, theft and breach of fiduciary duty and is seeking up to $60 million in damages.
The case, which has been fiercely litigated for more than four years on three separate continents, featured two of Dallas’ most prominent and hard-charging trial lawyers: Bill Brewer and Mike Lynn, a partner at Lynn Tillotson.
Both sides have accused the other of witness bribery, withholding evidence and fabrication of testi