Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Earlier this week the University of Texas System’s Board of Regents appealed to the Texas Supreme Court in its fight with IDEXX Laboratories arguing a lower appellate court misinterpreted the parties’ contract in wiping out the victory.
Attorneys who represent property owners have argued that the law has been turned on its head, saddling policyholders with a burden of proof that is squarely on the insurer in every state in the union except Texas. A settlement reached earlier this month — five days before the Texas Supreme Court was going to hear arguments in the case that could have clarified the issue — deprived the state’s high court of its second opportunity to answer certified questions from the Fifth Circuit.
Few lawyers are busier these days than Sameer Mohan at Morgan Lewis. With a couple of deals announced last week, the sheer breadth of his practice is worth pondering. Claire Poole takes a look at a sample of his recent transactions, as part of the usual CDT Roundup of Texas lawyers who announced their own deals last week.
Multibillion-dollar investment firm NexPoint Advisors LP has sued three imprisoned top executives of an embattled North Texas residential real estate lender, claiming the lender’s now-former CEO and others in management positions have improperly used tens of millions of dollars in shareholder funds to pay their personal legal fees.
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, Sidley is representing the Texas Medical Association in its Administrative Procedure Act challenge to the No Surprises Act, CenterPoint is ordered to pay $16 million to an injured worker and a Texas real estate developer is accused by the SEC of a $26 million fraud.
Joan Bullock, the first woman dean of the historically Black university's law school, says her abrupt dismissal in June was unexplained, undeserved and lacked due process. She is asking the court to enjoin the school from revoking her tenured teaching position until the facts surrounding the dismissal are heard by a faculty committee.
The family of Nevaeh Hall sued the dentist, Bethaniel Jefferson, reaching a settlement with her insurer prior to trial, and also sued a pharmacist Charlotte M. Smith Brown, alleging she told Jefferson to administer an incorrect medication to Hall during the medical emergency. Brown drew Jefferson back into the lawsuit as a potentially liable party, and jurors found the dentist 100 percent liable for the injuries.
Lawyers on opposing sides in a $41 million dispute over offshore drilling differ on the need for a new rule defining the meaning of standard arbitration rules in a contract on the gateway issue of arbitrability. Courts of appeals have split on the issue.
The cash-and-stock deal doubles the Talos presence in the Gulf of Mexico, adding 40% in production and substantial deepwater infrastructure in its current operational areas. Vinson & Elkins was involved, along with Gibson Dunn. The Lawbook has the names of the lawyers who advised.
A federal jury in Austin slapped Facebook and Instagram and its parent, Meta Platforms with a $174.5 million verdict Wednesday, finding that the social media giant infringed on patented technology developed by messaging app maker Voxer. The case is a win for law firms Quinn Emanual and Mann Tindel Thompson.
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