Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Texas supplier to the commercial real estate and construction industries will change hands for nearly $1.3 billion with New York-based outside counsel leading much of the transaction.
A three-judge panel in the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas Thursday affirmed a $213 million trial court judgment against Toyota Motor Corp. The case revolved around a rear-end collision in 2016 that left two children severely brain-damaged. A Dallas jury concluded in 2018 that the injuries were exacerbated by a defective seatback design in the family's 2002 Lexus. The Lawbook's Natalie Posgate has details of the court's 2-1 decision.
Much like M&A in the latter half of 2020, the U.S. secondary market saw active investors keen to get creative with existing funds – and the space should continue to see increased activity as venture capital, private credit and real estate transactions nip at the heels of private equity. Closer to home, 145 Texas-based lawyers from 11 firms took part in 35 deals in this week's Corporate Deal Tracker Roundup.
Spring-based Southwestern Energy Co. plans to acquire the third-largest natural gas producer in the country that comes with an impressive roster of financial backers. Texas lawyers from Skadden, Kirkland & Ellis and Akin Gump also played a role.
In a trans-border tiff over a gold mine in Mexico, two companies — one American and one Canadian — have managed to unearth a motherlode of litigation. Experts say their grueling court battles across several international venues point up the shortcomings of binding arbitration agreements and their limited ability to compel business partners not to be jerks. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso explains.
When the Texas Supreme Court reversed a trial court on an issue over electronic signatures, Justice Jeffrey Boyd had a problem. The court had already decided the case, he noted in dissent, 90 years ago. The Lawbook's Allen Pusey reviews Judge Boyd's singular opinion in which he takes Bob Dylan along for the ride.
Foster Johnson was only a high school freshman in Houston when his father, a workaholic corporate lawyer at a silk-stocking firm, died of a stroke. Resolved not to follow in his footsteps, Johnson and his brother Alec took the equal-and-opposite path: they formed a rock band called Vegas DeMilo.
For a decade, Johnson made a go of the rock life — with better success than most. But in the end, he found himself back on his father's path — as a top-notch trial attorney at Houston's AZA litigation boutique. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso chronicles his transition, and the ways that being a serious rock musician and a trial attorney may not be as different as you'd expect.There's a new king of revenues per lawyer in Texas. For the first time ever, two law firms operating in Texas had RPLs of $1.8 million or more in 2020.
The Texas Lawbook 50 ranking of corporate law firms in Texas shows 21 firms achieved an RPL of $1 million or more last year, but only three of them have Texas roots. The Texas Lawbook has the exclusive data and the details.Institutional investors are favoring private placements and direct lending transactions over public securities. That's according to a new report on capital debt markets, which has been broken down in the latest Corporate Deal Tracker, along with details on $53.2 billion in deals tied to Texas-based counsel.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, a Colorado investor is seeking to recover a $1.3 million investment he made with the real estate firm owned by Nate Paul, who recently was at the helm of a political scandal involving the Texas Attorney General's Office.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
