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Kirkland Texas Amps Up the Deal Machine (All the Way to 11) - The Kirkland & Ellis Texas team did not need long to make its case this week with a Texas Triangle deal blitz stretching from Canada to West Texas. In less than 24 hours, the firm’s public relations team, almost as busy as its deal team, rolled out a rapid-fire run of transactions involving its Austin, Dallas and Houston dealmakers. August 13, 2026
Here’s What the 5th Court of Appeals Financial Disclosure Forms Show - Stocks in technology companies and reimbursements are among the financial interests detailed in the 5th Court of Appeals justices’ financial disclosure forms for the past year. The Texas Lawbook made an open records request for the forms of the 13 sitting justices. August 13, 2026
Judge’s Post-trial Recusal Throws Edgemere Dispute Into Limbo - After the attorneys argued their case at trial and submitted post-trial briefs to U.S. District Court Judge Ada Brown, she recused herself without explanation. Now, the attorneys may have to retry the case before a new judge. The bench trial between the trustee of a Dallas luxury senior living community and its landlord began in May. August 11, 2026
Mark Cuban Withdraws Rule 202 Petition - Mark Cuban's request to withdraw his Rule 202 petition was granted by Texas Business Court Judge Bill Whitehill without prejudice Monday. The case originated in the Dallas County District Court and was removed to the Texas Business Court last week. August 11, 2026
Dallas Marina Operator Snaps Up MarineMax for $1.5B - Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marinas said on Aug. 10 that it has acquired MarineMax for $53 a share, or about $1.5 billion, in cash. MarineMax, based in Oldsmar, Florida, is a boat and yacht retailer that also provides superyacht services. Sidley Austin provided outside legal counsel to MarineMax, while Simpson Thacher advised Safe Harbor. August 11, 2026
Jury Finds 3M Partially Responsible for Fatal 2020 Explosion, Awards $62.3M - In Round 4 of multidistrict litigation stemming from the fatal explosion at the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing facility on the Northwest Side of Houston, jurors determined 3M was 30 percent responsible. Most recently, in May, a different jury had returned a complete defense win for the company. The lawyers involved told The Texas Lawbook it was the first civil jury trial they had handled that required the jurors receive an Allen charge. August 10, 2026Kirkland Hires Top-Notch Trial Lawyer from Gibson Dunn - Today was Andrew LeGrand’s first day with Kirkland & Ellis after 14 years at Gibson Dunn. He said he has “no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision.” August 10, 2026
Litigation Roundup: Permanent Injunction Against Samsung Urged in Patent Infringement Appeal - In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a hedge fund manager goes to prison for failing to report millions in income, and a bankruptcy law firm operating in Texas is pinged for filing cases with false financial information. August 10, 2026
Dallas Jury Rejects $15M Request, Awards Just Over $10K in Trucking Accident - A Dallas County jury awarded $10,814 in damages for past pain in a trucking accident case where the plaintiff had asked for $15 million. The four-day trial ended on Friday following seven hours of deliberation. August 10, 2026
Centerpiece
Asked & Answered with Bell Nunnally’s Heath Cheek: State Fair & Texas Business Court Working Group - In this edition of Asked & Answered, Bell Nunnally partner Heath Cheek discusses his first trial and trial prep. He also shares how he got involved with the State Fair of Texas and how it became a piece of home for him in Dallas. August 12, 2026
Sober as a Judge: One Year Without a Drink, and What Came Back - For most of my career, drinking wasn't a problem I had. It was a skill I was known for. I did my law school homework in the back booth of a pub. I've recruited lawyers over long dinners, courted reporters over scotch and raised the seed money for a nonprofit around my backyard fire pit while a bottle of whiskey made the rounds. A friend once described me, fondly: “Mark may be the drunkest guy in the room by blood alcohol content, but he'll appear as sober as a judge.” In our profession, that's practically a letter of recommendation. Nobody worries about the lawyer who never slurs, never misses a deadline and outworks the room.
That is the trap, and it is our profession's trap, specifically. August 12, 2026
Expert Voices
A Front-Row View of Texas Corporate Law’s Evolution: From the First TBOC Drafts to ‘DExit’ and ‘Y’all Street’ - The recent phenomena of “DExit” reincorporations of Delaware corporations to Texas and the development of “Y’all Street” have highlighted the benefits of the Texas Business Organizations Code. The TBOC is the work product over the course of three decades by a dedicated group of volunteer Texas lawyers. Where did the TBOC come from? August 13, 2026
20 Rulings, 5 Divisions: Reappointed Business Court Judges Build Rapidly Maturing Case Law - There’s no sign of a summer slowdown in Texas Business Court. The Court has delivered 20 opinions since our last monthly installment, and thus far, summer’s defining feature has been breadth over blockbuster. All five divisions and nine different judges pitched in. The First Division led the way with almost half the total publication volume. July supplanted May as the Court’s busiest month yet, but it was also its most doctrinally varied, one in which the Court behaved less like a specialty commercial docket and more like a full-service court majoring in business disputes.
Three themes tie the summer’s substantive opinions together thus far. August 10, 2026
Three themes tie the summer’s substantive opinions together thus far. August 10, 2026
Stories You Might’ve Missed
The Real Harry Potter’s ‘Magic Wand — Loyalty to the Law’ - “Your boss is a crook!” Arthur Golden, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a lawyer for Big Tobacco, screamed into the telephone in the fall of 1998. “A crook!”
On the other end of the line, Harry Potter, then a special assistant attorney general in Texas running the tobacco litigation, who was appointed three decades ago by then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to lead the historic lawsuit brought by the state of Texas against Big Tobacco. Potter and Golden had negotiated the details of the historic $15.3 billion settlement agreement between the state of Texas and large cigarette makers.
“Arthur was extremely angry — livid,” Potter said. “He talked about secret lawyer contracts. I didn’t know anything about it, but it sent chills throughout my body."
In Part II of The Texas Lawbook's series on the tobacco litigation, learn the story of the real Harry Potter, a Houston lawyer whose secret power was his ethics and commitment to the law. July 16, 2026
