Last November and December, Houston-based Coterra Energy spent nearly $4 billion in a series of major investments in the Permian Basin. Last week, the company announced that it may be reopening its activity in the Marcellus, which it all but abandoned in August. Also last week gas prices dropped precipitously. Tom Jorden, the company’s CEO explained to analysts why Coterra is banking on increased demand and the flexibility to make — or not make — capital commitments. The CDT Roundup looks at his remarks, along with last week’s transactions.
And Justice for All … of Those Who Can Afford It
A new bill was recently filed in the Texas House to ease the burden of landlords that want to evict a tenant. It provides for sweeping reforms to the Texas Property Code, all of which are aimed at removing due process protections and denying tenants access to justice, such as getting help from legal aid lawyers. Afterall, it’s much easier to evict tenants that can’t defend themselves. And if you can’t win in a fair fight, then simply make sure the fight is rigged.
I’m not arguing that eviction is inherently wrong. Private property owners should be paid for the use of their property. But I am saying that evictions should be executed lawfully. It’s only the unlawful evictions I have a problem with. It just turns out, that describes most of them. And by the way, we only win the cases where the landlord proceeded unlawfully.
We shouldn’t fix this problem by making lawful what is currently unlawful. And we certainly shouldn’t fix it by removing due process and accountability from the system so that landlords can return to an environment where noncompliance with the law is simply overlooked and the poor can be denied their rights as a matter of course.
GWG Trustee Sues Holland & Knight for $148M Over Alleged Beneficient Fraud
The bankruptcy trustee appointed to recover funds for creditors in the GWG Holdings bankruptcy case has sued Holland & Knight for nearly $150 million for “knowing participation in a fraudulent looting scheme and associated criminal enterprise” that included Dallas-based financial services firm Beneficient and its founder and CEO Bradley Heppner. In a 156-page complaint filed Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the court-appointed trustee accuses longtime outside counsel Holland & Knight and one of its Dallas law partners of colluding with Heppner to “fraudulently induce” GWG to invest the $148.4 million to help BEN “stave off collapse” by repaying a senior lender.
Jackson Walker, US Trustee Drop Objections to Experts in Bankruptcy Fee Case
At an evidentiary hearing where the parties were supposed to fight to convince Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Eduardo V. Rodriguez, to strike the experts offered by the other side, a détente was reached shortly after lunch Thursday. But during the hearing, the U.S. Trustee revealed that the secret romantic relationship between former judge David Jones and former Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner Elizabeth Freeman began in 2010 or 2011 and said the firm learned about it in 2021.
M&A Newsmaker: Katten’s David Washburn and the Anatomy of a Deal
David Washburn always felt “hardwired” to become a lawyer despite his father and others trying to sway him down different paths while growing up. “In what I now understand to be my dad’s attempt to induce me to take another path, he gave me a copy of Gray’s Anatomy when I started high school. The book bored me to tears,” he said, noting it as a moment that further pushed him to pursue law.
Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock Gives His First State of the Judiciary Address
Speaking to members of both chambers at the Texas Capitol Wednesday morning, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock launched his speech by asking that lawmakers approve an across-the-board 30 percent increase in pay for judges at all levels. That increase would take Texas from having the 48th lowest paid judiciary to the 31st out of 50 states, he said.
Carter Arnett Adds Former Dallas Appellate Justice Pedersen
Bill Pedersen III joins Carter Arnett after serving one term as a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas. In an interview with The Texas Lawbook, Pedersen called the firm a “go-to litigation boutique” and said he couldn’t pass up the chance to join its ranks.
CDT Exclusive Data: 2024 Top M&A Dealmakers in Texas
There are some new leaders atop the 2024 M&A scoreboard. Most of the regulars are there, as well as some fresh faces, according to The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker. The CDT has two separate rankings for Texas-led transactions — deal count and deal value. Lawyers on both lists had an extraordinary 2024.
Litigation Roundup: ‘Aspiring Texas Lawyer’ Strikes Out in Fifth Circuit Appeal of ABA Lawsuit
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we bring details of a defense win for Cisco in a jury trial in the Western District of Texas, Greyhound escapes a $15 million damages request in a wrongful death trial in Dallas County and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a pro se lawsuit against the American Bar Association.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 7 Firms, 149 Lawyers, $16.5B
In the doubtful case that dealmakers were getting too giddy for their own good, the folks at the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) have published their latest global scorecard on YTD deals in M&A and the capital markets. They should come with a warning: “Keep antacids close.” They are presented without comment or explanation, so the CDT Roundup is serving them pretty much raw — but with a generous side-order of last weeks deals and the names of the lawyers who handled them.