Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley, which has brought several cases against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson across the country, commenced its jury trial in Spokane, Washington, Monday morning. Jurors heard from the parties over whether the alleged asbestos in J&J’s baby powder caused Verna Richards’ life-ending mesothelioma cancer.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit sides with Susman Godfrey and undoes the dismissal of a qui tam False Claims Act suit against Lockheed Martin, and a former financial advisor is convicted of defrauding three NBA players, including two who played for Dallas and Houston.
San Antonio jurors deliberated for nearly three hours after a four-week trial in a trade secrets case that’s been litigated for a decade between HouseCanary and Amrock. The jury found Amrock misappropriated HouseCanary’s trade secrets and defrauded the company.
Pennzoil Quaker State, the lubricants business of Shell USA, announced Monday an agreement to sell Jiffy Lube International to an affiliate of middle-market private equity firm Monomoy Capital Partners for $1.3 billion. Kirkland & Ellis provided counsel to Monomoy. Travis Torrence is head of legal for Shell USA.
The rapid expansion of AI is creating a “super cycle” in data centers, combining headline megadeals with a powerful but less visible middle‑market M&A surge in specialized infrastructure and services. Investors are racing to build and acquire hyperscale facilities, while private equity sponsors increasingly target mission‑critical providers in areas such as cooling, electrical, HVAC, plumbing and more to keep data centers humming around the clock. Legal advisors and their financial counterparts report increasingly sophisticated deal structures (and widely available capital) to support expansion and acquisitions.
For the week ended March 7, the CDT Roundup saw 13 deals with a total reported value of about $48.1 billion. Thanks to a $33.4 billion take-private deal for yet another power provider, that's better than the 11-deal $7.3 billion clocked the week prior. And it's far better than the seven-deal $2.2 billion week reported this time last year. That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
President Trump has the constitutional authority to issue executive orders against Houston-based Susman Godfrey and three other corporate law firms because those firms "have taken actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, and undermine bedrock American principles,” the U.S. Justice Department argued in court briefs filed Friday. “This is simply the President’s speech. Plaintiffs have no First Amendment right, and the Judiciary has no authority, to silence him,” DOJ wrote. But legal experts say what is missing from the DOJ brief is more important and critical to the litigation.
At Southern Methodist University, Judge Bill Whitehill heard arguments Friday afternoon on the Dallas Stars’ summary judgment motion. The lawsuit was filed in October 2024 by the Dallas Mavericks, claiming the hockey franchise was in violation of its agreement over its shared lease of the American Airlines Center.
Atlanta-based Cumulus Media Inc. and 40 of its affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday in the Southern District of Texas.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved an Austin litigator and a Fort Worth judge for the federal bench Thursday morning. Tarrant County Judge Christopher Wolfe will be serving in the Waco Division, and Andrew Davis will be in Austin.
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