CenterPoint Sheds Natural Gas Assets to Bernhard Capital for $1.2B
Latham advised CenterPoint and Kirkland assisted Bernhard on the transaction, which is part of a broader trend by utilities disposing of their unregulated businesses.
Litigation Roundup: Fifth Circuit wants SCOTX Input in TCEQ Suit; Texas Gamer Brings $680M Monopoly Claim
In this edition of litigation roundup, the Fifth Circuit has asked the Texas Supreme Court to answer a certified question in a dispute that pits a nonprofit group against the state’s environmental protection agency, the Texas Supreme Court grants review in two tax appraisal cases involving the value of Oncor’s transmission lines and the founder of a Call of Duty esports team take aim at Activision Blizzard’s business practices in a new suit.
SCOTX: Newspaper Did Not Defame Prosecutor in Article That Linked Him to Wrongful Conviction of Michael Morton
A career prosecutor argued that he was 17 and not a lawyer when Morton was convicted of murder in 1987 in Williamson County. The Supreme Court, however, said it was uncontested that Tommy Lamar Coleman “assisted the prosecution” in 2011 when he was an assistant DA who mocked Morton’s post-conviction efforts to have a bloody bandana tested for DNA.
Major Franchise Owner Hit with $30.7M Jury Verdict
A Dallas jury heard eight days of testimony and deliberated for two hours before deciding the owner of roughly 150 Popeyes restaurants, Guillermo Perales and his company Sun Holdings, owed former employee Jerry “Scott” Stockton about $15.6 million in compensatory damages and $15.1 million in punitive damages for failing to follow through on a promise to compensate him with 5 percent of the annual operating profits of the restaurants. Sun Holdings is the second largest franchisee organization in the country, with about 1,800 restaurants in its portfolio.
Appellate Panel Asked to Halt March 5 Appellate Court Primary
During oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the configuration of Texas’ intermediate appellate court districts, the panel was asked to halt the March 5 primary election for the intermediate courts of appeals. The lawsuit brought by Keresa Richardson seeks to have the courts redraw the districts to address malapportionment. Richardson previously sought to have all members of the Dallas appellate court recuse themselves (two obliged) from hearing the case arguing they all have a conflict of interest “derived from the fact that this case will affect their elected status, their voting districts, and their future elected status, and thus they are all personally interested in the relief being requested and should not be the arbiters of the issues.”
Correction — Revised CDT 2023 M&A Law Firm Rankings
Last week, The Texas Lawbook published the exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker ranking of law firms whose Texas lawyers handled the most mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures in 2023. Unfortunately, we missed 65 M&A transactions done by three law firms that were submitted to the CDT at the end of the year. We accidentally recorded one transaction as a $4 million deal when it was for $4 billion. The Lawbook withdrew the article from publication as soon as we recognized our error.
Texas lawyers at 19 firms worked on 25 or more deals in 2023. Eight law firms — Akin, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Haynes Boone, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Sidley Austin, Vinson & Elkins and White & Case — reported their lawyers in Texas worked on 50 or more transactions. Four law firms had lawyers in their Texas offices work on 100 or more M&A deals last year. The Texas attorneys at only two firms recorded total 2023 deal counts at 150 or more and deal values exceeding $150 billion. And the Austin, Dallas and Houston lawyers for a single law firm were lead or co-lead legal advisors for the buyers, sellers or targets in 140 deals — nearly twice as many as any other law firm, according to CDT data.
Court Reporters Say Texas Judicial Branch Certification Commission ‘Turns a Blind Eye’ to A.I. Deposition Services
Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ruled an Austin transcription service violated Texas law governing the court reporting industry, even though the commission dismissed a complaint saying it lacked jurisdiction. Court reporters say Judge Ezra’s ruling is a profound decision that affirms their interpretation of the law.
Power Trader Brings Legal Challenge to PUCT’s Creation of Contingency Reserve Service
Aspire Power Ventures filed a direct appeal with the Third Court of Appeals in Austin on Tuesday, challenging three orders issued by the Public Utility Commission of Texas that created and modified a program to provide reserve power in emergency situations. While the stated goal of the ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service is to prevent grid issues like what the state experienced during Winter Storm Uri, Aspire alleges it instead “does nothing to increase actual electricity reserve capacity — in fact, it actually decreases capacity when it is most needed.”
Dallas Jury Awards $22M to Ousted Real Estate CEO
A jury heard eight days of testimony and deliberated for less than two hours before unanimously siding with Daniel Moos on his breach of contract claims. The jury rejected Pillar Income Asset Management’s counterclaims that Moss had breached his fiduciary duty to the company.
CDT Roundup: 26 Deals, 14 Firms, 196 Lawyers, $10.8B
VC M&A has suffered from the same statis markets as any other kind of M&A. But it's been a while since the CDT Roundup has focused on startups, so this is the week. With the help of PitchBook, The Lawbook's Claire Poole takes a look at what those in the industry are predicting for the coming year. Are non-SPAC IPOs making a comeback? That, and a look at a rather raucous week of 26 pretty disparate deals and the lawyers who worked on them.