Texas Lawbook 50 Report: Lateral Partner Moves Cooled in 2023 

Some big names in Texas corporate law changed addresses in 2023. Sean Gorman, Mary-Olga Lovett, Rakhee Patel, David Sweeney, Greg Nelson and Paul Genender, to name a few. In all, 229 partners jumped to new firms — down 13 percent from 2022. Even so, Lotus Legal Search founder Kate Cassidy said the "Texas lateral market is strong compared to other markets.” The Texas Lawbook breaks down Texas lateral partner moves by law firm, practice area, metro and gender.

April 29, 2024 Mark Curriden & Christi Trammell

P.S. — Houston Lawyers Rock Out for Charity, May Pro Bono Clinics, UNT Law Celebrates 10 Years

This edition of P.S. features May dates for pro bono legal clinics in Dallas, fundraising goals for a public service and a diversity-oriented law school’s upcoming 10th anniversary, and the fundraising outcome of a recent Houston concert that featured a battle of lawyer-formed bands.

Firms mentioned in this week’s P.S. include Goldman Sachs, Prudential, Cooper & Scully, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Bradley, Weil, Haynes Boone, Akin, Godzina Law, Greenberg Traurig, Latham, Sidley, Baker O’Brien, Gibbs & Bruns, IST Management, Vinson & Elkins, Consilio, Jones Walker, Powerhouse Copy, Walker Eisenbraun, Weaver, Secretariat, Shell, Enterprise Products, the Harris County Law Library, Sommerman McCaffity, Carter Arnett, Stewart Law Group, Susman Godfrey, Locke Lord and Toyota.

April 26, 2024 Natalie Posgate

From Lawyer to Counselor: Building Trust with Credibility, Reliability and Connection

Of the many qualities that help young lawyers build a productive, fulfilling career, self-awareness ranks among the most important.

April 26, 2024 Hy Pomerance

Dallas Jury Awards Nearly $72M in Wrongful Death Suit Against Walker Engineering

Charla Aldous and co-counsel won the verdict in a three-week trial over the 2019 death of Hernan Murillo at a Frito-Lay Inc. construction site in Irving.

April 25, 2024 Bruce Tomaso & Krista Torralva

Mary Flood: ‘Dean of the Houston Legal Scene’

For more than three decades, reporter and lawyer Mary Flood walked the halls of state and federal courthouses in Houston, chronicling the victories and defeats of the city’s colorful legal lions. She used her quick wit and persistence to win sources, from those who cleaned the building to the powerful who sat high on the bench. Her investigative reporting forced the Hermann Hospital board to provide more charitable care and offered leads to federal agents investigating Enron’s implosion. Flood went from college dropout to Harvard-educated lawyer. When she reinvented herself as a media consultant for law firms, she became a rainmaker.

April 25, 2024 Janet Elliott

Wrongful Death Case Against Walker Engineering Goes to Dallas Jury

Charla Aldous and other lawyers for the family of an electrician killed in a construction accident at a Frito-Lay facility in Irving are asking for more than $100 million. Defense lawyers say $6 million is more appropriate.

April 23, 2024 Bruce Tomaso & Krista Torralva

CDT Roundup: 19 Deals, 11 Firms, 147 Lawyers, $16B

In addition to its usual fare, the CDT Roundup this week includes a quarterly accounting of the volume and value of deals Texas firms reported to us during the first 13 weeks of 2024. It turns out we've logged a lot of lawyer names. We have that number, too.

April 23, 2024 Claire Poole

10 Years of Kirkland: A Bold Vision Transformed Texas Corporate Law and Generated Record Revenues and Profits

A decade later, Kirkland has 414 lawyers in Houston, Dallas and Austin. The firm last year made $200 million more than any law firm in Texas has ever made in one year. Through the eyes of those who were there at the beginning, this is the story of how Kirkland became the highest revenue generating and most profitable corporate law firm in Texas history. And firm leaders are promising they are not finished growing.

April 23, 2024 Mark Curriden

Litigation Roundup: SEC Sued Over Trading Surveillance

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a man who alleges he was shorted two ounces of beer by Cinemark files a class action lawsuit against the movie chain, an East Texas jury hits Samsung with a $142 million patent infringement verdict in a damages redo trial, and a new SEC trading surveillance initiative draws a constitutional challenge.

April 22, 2024 Michelle Casady

GC Tabitha Bailey is ‘A Force to Reckon with for Many Years to Come’

For 18 months — from the last quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of 2024 — Tabitha Bailey faced trials and tribulations that few young corporate general counsel have encountered. As GC of Avantax, Bailey played a critical role in the $720 million sale of its TaxAct software business in October 2022. Days later, the Richardson-based wealth management firm became embroiled in an alleged data breach crisis that led to congressional inquiries, state and federal investigations, four class action lawsuits and hundreds of individual arbitrations, which required extensive communication with investors and the private equity fund buyer that was making noises about terminating the deal.

The excitement for Bailey was only starting. In the months that followed, Avantax faced its third activist challenge and proxy contest in three years, executed a $250 million tender offer, overhauled its executive compensation plan and successfully completed a $1.2 billion take-private merger with competitor Cetera. Earlier this year, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook honored Bailey with the 2023 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Midsized Legal Department. This is her story.

April 22, 2024 Mark Curriden