Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Last year was a year of transition, particularly in M&A. According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs, that augurs a really optimistic outlook for M&A in 2025. Simplifications in strategies, governance and geography are driving a surge in M&A, particularly the corporate variety. This week's Roundup looks at the data behind the Goldman optimism, as well as the deals that shaped last week.
Days after becoming the new Drake Software GC in 2022, Willa Kalaidjian learned Cinven was buying Dallas-based digital tax filing platform TaxAct for $720 million. Kalaidjian's assignment: Help develop a new name for the combined businesses and lead the integration. Enter TaxAct senior counsel Nicola Hobeiche, who joined the new company via the merger. The duo immediately started the lengthy process integrating legal, compliance, procurement and legislative affairs. But they also had to simultaneously address a potentially devastating threat to the company: a series of class-action lawsuits filed in California, Illinois and Pennsylvania and separate charges brought by multiple state attorneys general related to the allegations of improper use of personal and financial information by a third-party vendor for TaxAct. Citing the extraordinary achievements of the legal department of five, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Taxwell as one of two finalists for the 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Corporate Legal Department of the Year.
The en banc oral arguments came in a dispute between Abraham Watkins Nichols Agosto Aziz & Stogner and former associate Edward Festeryga, who the firm alleges tried to take its clients with him when he left. The whole court agreed to hear the dispute after Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan — who sat on the panel that sided with the law firm and affirmed a ruling that sent the case back to state court — called for the move in a July 2024 concurring opinion that said the crux of the court’s 1980 holding in In re Weaver was “incorrect.”
Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann secured a major win for Energy Transfer in a complex fraud and breach of contract claim mounted by investment funds associated with Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. After a three-week trial in New York, the judge ruled Jan. 17 that Energy Transfer was not liable on any counts, effectively avoiding a potential $200 million judgment including pretrial interest.
Kelsey Williams almost didn’t become a lawyer. She bucked her parents’ efforts to persuade her to follow in her father’s footsteps. But it was in a specific moment during her undergraduate literature studies that she realized she may be a natural fit for the legal profession. Today, her peers say she has a “signature brand of meticulous and thoughtful legal work” that has transformed Workrise’s profitability and stability. And she is a finalist for the 2024 DFW Senior Counsel of the Year Award.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals decides a case of first impression in favor of Google in the biometric data lawsuit Texas is pursuing, the state and W&T Offshore join forces to sue the outgoing Biden administration, and a jury in San Antonio determines a barbecue restaurant owes millions in a suit over hot barbecue sauce.
Amid uncertainty about the new administration, top Texas litigators who specialize in white-collar criminal law and securities enforcement say healthcare fraud will continue to be a top priority for federal prosecutors, though immigration cases will likely see a surge. The Texas Lawbook asked eight leading white-collar specialists what they see as the most important legal trends in the state and what they predict regarding white-collar prosecutions this year. Cybersecurity, foreign bribery, elderly abuse and privacy law violation offenses are best bets. But then again, it is President Trump, so who knows?
The roster of M&A deals in 2024 suggests that we should be thankful for small things. Or, at least, small deals, according to the Corporate Deal Tracker.
Bryan Stevenson’s career has been marked by bold moves and transformative moments, culminating in his role as chief legal officer at Arcosa, where his strategic vision helped orchestrate the largest deal in the company’s history, earning him recognition as a finalist for the 2024 DFW M&A Deal of the Year Award.
Along with the explosion of investment in AI comes a parallel eruption of potential threats. As a result, consultants at McKinsey suggest that the current, addressable market for cybersecurity is $2 trillion — about 10 times what is actually being spent. This week's CDT Roundup looks at a noticeable uptick in cybersecurity deals as well as the usual roll call of the Texas lawyers involved in last week's reported deals.
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