Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Three Texas legal aid providers located in North Texas, the Houston area and South Texas, are receiving $2.5 million from a Congress-founded nonprofit to assist in their efforts to represent low-income Texans impacted by Winter Storm Uri and other natural disasters. The money will go toward expanding resources and reimbursement for legal services already provided.
In a scalding order, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer said the pro football retirement plan violated federal regulations, abused its discretion and acted arbitrarily and capriciously in limiting pension benefits for former running back Michael Cloud.
Some law students had been displeased with the dean’s progress, according to an email obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Texas Southern announced professor Okezie Chukwumerije as the law school’s interim dean.
In this week’s roundup, we have two new lawsuits, a venue change, a new SEC enforcement action, a ruling denying a request for a new trial, a revenge porn final judgment, a loss for Ken Paxton and a tentative dismissal of an investor lawsuit involving Tilman Fertitta.
Dealmaking is hard enough in the simplest of times. Try putting one together when you're in the process of changing firms. Angela Olivarez did exactly that, pulling off a complex technology deal while switching from Willkie to O'Melveny. Read what she tells the CDT Roundup about the experience, along with the usual list of last week's Texas-made deals.
The court answered certified questions from the Fifth Circuit asking it to interpret state liquor laws banning public corporations from owning package-store permits in Texas. But, in doing so, justices determine an exempt corporation, exempted by a grandfather clause that allows a public corporation to own liquor stores, should not forfeit its exemption by selling interests to ease debt in a Chapter 11 reorganization.
V&E advised the buyer, who plans to fund the purchase using available cash and debt within its targeted leverage ratio.
President Joseph Biden has nominated U.S. Magistrate Dana Douglas of New Orleans to one of two open seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. An African American jurist who practiced energy litigation, products liability and intellectual property law during her 17 years in corporate law, Judge Douglas would be the first woman of color to serve on the Fifth Circuit.
Jim Cowles, who tried nearly 600 cases to a jury verdict, including a dozen trials while he was still in law school, died this past weekend, according to an announcement released Wednesday by Cowles Thompson, the firm he co-founded in 1978.
A federal judge in Austin has ruled that University of Texas School of Law professor Linda Mullenix and the university will go to trial over the educator’s claim that she has been discriminated against under the federal Equal Pay Act. An expert on class action litigation, Mullenix claims she was paid less than male professors who have less experience, fewer articles published and fewer professional honors.
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