Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The fifth edition has 26 entirely new chapters covering topics on no one’s radar screen four years ago but likely to be the subjects of the highest stakes litigation in the years to come.
Despite efforts by a handful of federal appellate judges to limit jurisdiction and criticism from tech companies, the Western and Eastern districts of Texas remain two of the hottest courts in the U.S. for patent litigation. New data shows that federal courts in Waco and Marshall have more patent infringement disputes than 40 other states combined. Lawyers for plaintiffs and defendants tell The Texas Lawbook there are explanations behind the numbers.
The lawsuit has been settled that had the National Rifle Association in its sights and led to an investigation of the gun-advocacy group. The suit filed in Texas, now settled, was bitter. At one point, lawyers for ad agency Ackerman McQueen — Michael Gruber and Brian Mason of Dorsey & Whitney — sought state sanctions against Bill Brewer, the NRA attorney, which ultimately the Texas Supreme Court dismissed.
Texas companies’ reprieve from litigation due to the Covid-19 pandemic is over. A new study of corporate general counsel in Texas finds that the number of lawsuits filed against larger businesses jumped 75 percent in 2021 over the previous year and that the fear of additional litigation in 2022 has increased, too. The good news for lawyers at Texas law firms is that companies returned to pre-Covid levels of hiring outside counsel to handle their litigation battles in 2021.
The allegations in the case involved the financing for the former Wade Park project located along the “$5 Billion Mile,” a one-mile stretch of land in Frisco that’s home to The Star headquarters and training center for the Dallas Cowboys, Toyota Stadium, and various high-end, mixed-use developments such as Frisco Station and The Gate.
ERCOT is having a very bad two weeks in court. And things just got worse for power providers in Texas, too. Nine London-based insurance companies joined a massive lawsuit this week brought by scores of the world’s largest property insurance companies seeking to force the ERCOT and three dozen Texas electric providers to reimburse them for billions of dollars in damages related to Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.
After eight days of trial, a Houston federal court jury dispatched life-insurance claims by a woman accused of faking her husband's death, answering two essential questions: Did she prove her husband was dead (no) and did the insurance companies prove he misrepresented in his application for the insurance (yes).
Kirkland & Ellis partner Jeremy Fielding and AMLI Chair Gregory Mutz, a Vietnam War infantry lieutenant turned lawyer turned real estate developer, stood side by side last Wednesday as a Houston jury delivered its verdict. AMLI stood accused of lying, breach of contract and destroying evidence related to the $57 million sale in 2012 of a Houston luxury apartment complex. The verdict, both men say, brought them to tears.
Federal wage-and-hour suits have been steadily declining since the first half of 2020, when suits rose 19% from pre-pandemic days. And federal employment-discrimination lawsuits filed in Texas under Title VII were also down. Many factors may be at work, including the pandemic, recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the backlog of government agencies that oversee the litigation.
For 11 months, hundreds of wrongful-death, personal-injury and property-damage lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages related to Winter Storm Uri edged along at a snail’s pace. But a Houston judge appointed to oversee the litigation has put strict new deadlines on the lawyers who suddenly find themselves in the midst of a make-or-break few months that could determine the legitimacy and survival of their lawsuits. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
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