Texas

Cravath Lawyer Credits Talking Texan for M&A Successes

Jim Woolery, a 40-year-old partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, has represented four Texas companies over the last five years in buyouts valued at more than $60 billion. He thinks more deals are in the offing because the seller’s market is heating up—and he hopes to be…

Oct 19, 2009 12:39 PM CDT

Did Man Confess Before Much-Debated Execution? Former Wife May Think So

In a new twist on a controversial case involving what some believe was the execution of an innocent man for setting the 1991 fire that killed his children, it is now being reported that Cameron Todd Willingham may have made comments amounting to a confession shortly before his own death.…

Oct 16, 2009 7:39 PM CDT

RIP: Judge William Wayne Justice

U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, known for his rulings on ground-breaking class-action suits that compelled Texas to integrate schools, reform prisons, educate illegal immigrants and revamp many other policies has died Tuesday at an Austin nursing home. He was 89. Justice, who had taken senior status in 1998, nevertheless…

Oct 16, 2009 3:15 PM CDT

Bon Jovi to Perform at Lawyer’s Holiday Party

The rock band Bon Jovi will perform at this year’s holiday party of Houston personal injury lawyer Mark Lanier. The Tex Parte Blog had the news. Lanier’s annual parties “have become the stuff of Houston cultural lore,” the story says. Last year, Miley Cyrus—known for her Hannah Montana TV show—sang…

Oct 14, 2009 11:29 AM CDT

Stanford Investors Sue 2nd Law Firm, Ex-GC; Proskauer Partner Withdraws

A second law firm has been named as a defendant in an investor lawsuit contending that a now-former partner of Proskauer Rose, Thomas Sjoblom, participated in a claimed $7 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly operated by the Stanford Financial Group. The new defendant in the federal class action case is another…

Oct 13, 2009 8:26 PM CDT

Stanford’s D&O Coverage Can Pay for Private Counsel in $7B Case, Judge Rules

it looks like Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford may soon have a private lawyer again. After his assets were frozen, he couldn’t afford to pay legal counsel and had to get a public defender. But today U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who sits in Dallas, said he and other executives…

Oct 9, 2009 10:26 PM CDT

1st Latina Named to Top Texas Court; Other Hispanics May Soon Be Fed’l Judges

Following the historic appointment today of a Latina to a seat on the Texas Supreme Court, more Hispanics may soon be named to the state’s federal bench. A list made public today by the state’s Democratic delegation to Congress includes four, although no official candidates for the federal bench have…

Oct 8, 2009 9:25 PM CDT

Longhorns Star Charged in Alleged Fight With Texas Law Student

A pick-up basketball game at the University of Texas led to a misdemeanor assault charge against a star Longhorns freshman safety after he allegedly fought with a law student at the school’s Gregory Gymnasium last month, leaving the fledgling legal eagle with a bloody lip. An arrest affidavit says the…

Oct 7, 2009 11:26 PM CDT

Recruiter Got Zip in 12-Lawyer Leap, Now Seeks $100M in Federal Suit

A legal recruiter has sued Los Angeles-based Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith for $100 million in actual and punitive damages, contending that the 700-attorney law firm squeezed C.B. Legal Search LLC out of a 12-attorney placement deal it helped orchestrate. In March, C.B. Legal Search introduced partner Edward Ruberry of…

Oct 7, 2009 6:16 PM CDT

9 Patent Lawyers Leap to Bracewell from IP Shop’s Soon-to-Close Texas Office

Nine Texas patent lawyers from a Boston-based intellectual property boutique have found a new home in Austin, little more than a month after their own firm announced that it would soon be closing its Austin office. Headed by partner Alan Albright, the four partners and five associates from Fish &…

Oct 6, 2009 9:43 PM CDT

McKool Smith Raids Andrews Kurth to Open New Office, Add Bankruptcy Practice

Following news last month that McKool Smith is planning rapid expansion in New York, the Texas-based trial firm is now adding a new Houston office. It raided Andrews Kurth to do so, bringing in the firm’s former national bankruptcy practice leader, Hugh Ray, and two other bankruptcy veterans from the…

Oct 1, 2009 6:19 PM CDT

Contempt Charge Dropped Against Lawyer Who Refused to Testify Against Client

A Texas lawyer briefly jailed for contempt after he refused to testify against his client has been acquitted under an agreement approved by a judge on Tuesday. Lubbock lawyer Ben Webb was jailed for about an hour in June after he refused to testify that his client had failed to…

Sep 30, 2009 11:42 AM CDT

Two Law Firms in Texas Building Targeted by Alleged Would-Be Bomber

Attorneys at two Texas law firms found themselves uncomfortably close to the latest domestic terrorism concerns as federal authorities charged two men in separate attempted-bombing cases in Dallas and Illinois. Both Hunton & Williams and Bracewell & Guiliani have offices in the Fountain Building in Dallas, and attorneys and other…

Sep 25, 2009 10:00 PM CDT

Freed from Prison & Awarded $4M, Exonerated Man Fights $1M Legal Bill

Freed from a Texas prison and awarded $4 million in compensation after DNA evidence showed that he didn’t commit the sexual assaults for which he served 24 years, 51-year-old Steven Phillips is now fighting his $1 million legal bill. His new legal counsel is asking a state-court judge in Dallas…

Sep 23, 2009 4:37 PM CDT

Lawyer-Blogger Settles Defamation Suit After Favorable Ruling on Punitives

A former in-house lawyer sued for his blog comments about an intellectual property litigator has settled after a favorable ruling during his defamation trial in Texas. Rick Frenkel and his former employer, Cisco Systems, apologized for Frenkel’s anonymous statements on his Troll Tracker blog in a statement announcing the settlement,…

Sep 23, 2009 12:00 PM CDT