CDT Roundup: First Quarter Deadline for Filing Deals is Two Weeks Away

In this edition of CDT Roundup for the week ending March 22, the Corporate Deal Tracker saw 18 deals with an aggregate value of $5.2 billion. That eclipses the prior week in volume (13 deals) but falls far short in value ($13.7 billion). Still, the week parses well against the same week last year which saw 18 deals for $5.4 billion. Also, The Lawbook has new 2025 quarterly deadlines for deal submissions to qualify for its annual firm and lawyer deal rankings. Firms and lawyers who wish to be considered for the first quarter and year-end Lawbook leaderboards for M&A and CapM must submit all of their first-quarter deals by April 7 at 5 p.m.

March 24, 2025 Nick Peck

UPDATED: At Justice’s Request, Stephen Hammer Argues First SCOTUS Case

A fourth-year associate in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher made his first oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday when he defended a ruling by a lower court that neither the U.S. Justice Department nor the defendant in the case believe was correct.

March 23, 2025 Mark Curriden

Energy Transfer Wins $660M Jury Verdict Against Greenpeace in Dakota Access Pipeline Case

The torts and defamation case centered on the role of Greenpeace, the activist international environmental group, on protests in 2016 and 2017 against a controversial North Dakota pipeline. Greenpeace, based in the Netherlands, said the verdict could cause an end to its U.S. organization. Trey Cox, a Dallas partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, led the legal effort for the plaintiffs with an all-Texas team.

March 19, 2025 Allen Pusey

Justices Dig Into Preemption Issue in Boeing, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association Case

The crux of the case is whether the Railway Labor Act preempts the claims brought by SWAPA. Boeing says it does because deciding the case requires interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement between Southwest Airlines and its pilots. SWAPA says the RLA does not preempt its suit because the act only applies to claims between airline carriers and employees, and Boeing is not either of those.

March 19, 2025 Michelle Casady

Special Master Tells Judge Gilstrap ‘Bad Faith Conduct’ Requires Sanction of Irell & Manella Lawyers

Samsung had asked the court to sanction opposing counsel in a sealed motion filed in October, alleging attorneys representing CogniPower had deposed a Samsung representative using a doctored document. David Folsom of Texarkana was appointed by the court to serve as special master and investigate the issue in October. 

March 19, 2025 Michelle Casady

NCAA Beats Back Texas’ ‘Sex Screening’ Temporary Injunction Bid

The NCAA had told the court there was no evidence to support Texas’ contention that any men were competing in women’s sports. “As previously represented to this Court, the NCAA is not aware of any transgender female student-athletes in any division of women’s college basketball. Moreover, even if there were, the 2025 policy would prevent them from competing.”

March 19, 2025 Michelle Casady

SCOTX Considers Ownership of ‘Produced Water’

Advances in technologies to treat water produced from oil and gas fracking operations has made what was a worthless by-product into a potentially valuable resource. It’s now worth fighting for, as evidenced by arguments in the closely watched case of Cactus Water Services v. Cog Operating.

March 18, 2025 Janet Elliott

Litigation Roundup: SCOTX Clarifies Jurisdiction of 15th Court of Appeals 

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Texas Supreme Court answered a burning question about the jurisdiction of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, and Google moves to arbitrate a negligence lawsuit over an AI chatbot.

March 18, 2025 Michelle Casady

EEOC Targets 13 Law Firms Operating in Texas for DEI Initiatives

The new acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sent a 10-page letter to 20 different corporate law firms — 13 of them with operations in Texas, though no Texas-based law firms — demanding detailed information about their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and decision making. The letters, which are addressed to the leaders of each of the law firms, demand that they “fully identify all clients that have diversity preferences or any demographic-related requirements for matters, including but not limited to race or sex requirements for the employees staffed on their matters.”

March 17, 2025 Mark Curriden

O’Melveny, SMU Law Clinic Secure Pro Bono Win for Permanent Injunction Over Jail’s Mail Policy

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant entered a permanent injunction in a First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit against Grayson County and its sheriff that requires the jail to allow books, magazines and other correspondence sent to incarcerated people from the nonprofit prison advocacy Human Rights Defense Center. The Florida-based group is represented on a pro bono basis by O’Melveny & Meyers and the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic. 

March 17, 2025 Krista Torralva