Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Asked & Answered Crawford, Wishnew & Lang partner Haleigh Jones sat down with The Texas Lawbook to discuss her career, memorable cases and mentorship. Jones coaches the moot court team at Southern Methodist University, which she says she hopes to do for her whole career. The 2024 team won the American Bar Association competition.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a federal judge in Fort Worth makes a business pitch to Apple and X Corp., a hefty sanction is upheld against two lawyers, and a pro se litigant is called out by a Fifth Circuit panel for citing cases that “appear to be fake” in her sex discrimination appeal.
Lawmakers this session did something that hadn’t been done in more than 40 years: approved the creation of new civil district courts in Harris County. The five new courts will come online next year and in 2027, and officials have said the additions will improve docket efficiency, enhance access to justice and strengthen the court system’s ability to serve Harris County.
A jury in the Eastern District of Texas on Friday morning delivered to a company that accused Samsung Electronics of infringing four patents exactly what it asked for: $445.5 million in damages for the telecommunication giant’s willful use of the technology it hadn’t paid for.
Citing the shutdown of the federal government, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order Wednesday staying all proceedings in the litigation brought by U.S. law firms related to presidential executive orders seeking to punish them for representing clients that President Donald Trump opposes. Meanwhile, 1,400 miles southwest, the U.S. Trustee in Houston has asked the federal court to issue the same order in the government’s litigation against the Jackson Walker law firm related to the romance scandal involving former bankruptcy judge David Jones in the Southern District of Texas.
Dean Omar Branham Shirley, which has racked up numerous wins on behalf of clients who allege Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused their mesothelioma, has done it again.
In a verdict returned by a California jury Monday evening, jurors determined Mae Moore, who died in December 2021 of mesothelioma, was exposed to Johnson’s baby powder or Shower to Shower, a body powder product, that contained asbestos, that the company was negligent in selling the product and that it was a substantial cause of Moore contracting mesothelioma.
After a 12-day trial in Maricopa County, Arizona, and five hours of deliberations in a dispute between two real estate companies, a jury found ZOM Holding breached its contract with Gray Services and Gray Development and owes more than $296 million in damages. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher attorneys from Texas, many of whom also successfully represented Energy Transfer in a trial against Greenpeace earlier this year, represented Gray.
Many trial-centric CLEs set forth the traditional top 10 tips for a successful trial presentation. Examples include: Don’t ask a question to which you do not know the answer, be honest and ethical, tell a compelling story, make sure your witnesses are prepared, don’t fight with opposing counsel, etc. These are worthy tips. But there are many other mistakes to avoid that stem from the evolution of juror behavior over the last 20 years — and especially in the five years since COVID.
For Part II of a set of stories examining how the first year went for Texas’ newest court, The Texas Lawbook spoke to lawyers who have practiced in the Texas Business Court about their experiences litigating complex disputes in the venue. Some of those lawyers have also practiced in the Delaware Chancery Court and drew distinctions about what differentiates the specialty courts.
Two years ago, lawmakers created a new court, in part as a signal to the business community that Texas is a good place to incorporate and that jurists here could deliver quick, consistent results in complex business disputes.
In its first year of operation, the 10 judges appointed to the five divisions of the court have seen more than 180 cases filed. That figure is higher than some of the judges who spoke to The Texas Lawbook expected to see. We asked them to look back on the first year of operations.
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