Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The nomination marks last needed in the pursuit to fill the five vacancies that are currently in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Statewide, there are 12 judicial vacancies in the federal district courts.
An appeals court in Houston has ruled a lawyer who threatens to file a grievance against opposing counsel during a trial in order to get an advantage in the litigation is committing an ethics violation.
Richard Evans walked out of federal prison Thursday as the first person freed under the new First Step Act’s “compassionate release” measure. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of Houston signed the order and Houston lawyers David Gerger, Samy Khalil and Ashlee McFarland filed the emergency petition. The Texas Lawbook has the inside details.
A three-judge Fifth Circuit panel on Wednesday considered whether to reverse the ruling by a Fort Worth judge that struck down a decades-old law designed to protect the interests of Native American children in custody proceedings. The arguments had deep roots in the nation's uneven relationship with its native forebears. Natalie Posgate reviews the issues.
Morena, the new majority party in Mexico's government, is seeking to centralize the nation's main energy regulatory agencies, which now exercise a measure of autonomy, under the Ministry of Energy. But are these changes necessary? Thompson & Knight attorneys provide an analysis.
With major M&A activity reduced to a few blockbuster simplification transactions and IPOs all but dead, the consensus of those on the floor at CERAWeek is that management is leery of deals when major investors have no interest. "We're going through a major period of adjustment," says Credit Suisse banker Osmar Abib. The Lawbook's Claire Poole reports.
Twice in two weeks, a Republican-appointed Fifth Circuit appellate judge directly dressed down a Houston trial court judge in opinion. But this time, the trial judge is fighting back. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison and Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have gotten into a nasty public feud that Texas legal experts describe as astonishing. The Lawbook has complete details.
Former University of Kansas head football coach David Beaty has hired Dallas law firm Deans & Lyons to pursue litigation against the school’s athletic department on claims that it owes him $3 million for having breached his employment contract. But KU says there's much more to the story. Natalie Posgate has both sides.
Giant energy conference CERAWeek by IHS Markit is in full swing in Houston. About 5,000 are expected to attend. What there isn’t a lot of at the conference, however, is lawyers. Senior M&A writer Claire Poole is there and has the details.
The sale preempts Goodnight's plans to go public, although Bloomberg reported in November that Tailwater was also looking at a possible sale of the company that would value it at $2 billion.
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