Texas

Closed Firm Jenkens & Gilchrist Awarded $3M in Suit Against Ex-Client

The dissolved Dallas law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist has been awarded $3.14 million in a fee suit against a former client. The firm was also awarded $1.15 million in attorney fees and $300,000 in prejudgment interest, bringing the value of the verdict to more than $4 million, according to Texas…

Jul 30, 2009 11:24 AM CDT

Troubled Corporate Client Creates Headaches for Four Unpaid Law Firms

Four law firms are claiming that one financially troubled company has failed to pay millions of dollars in legal fees. One of the firms, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, claims in a lawsuit that it is owed $2.5 million in fees, the New York Law Journal reports. The defendant, Home Solutions…

Jul 29, 2009 2:27 PM CDT

Feds Raid Vegas Home and Office of Michael Jackson Doc

Following up on an earlier raid by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents on the Houston office of a physician who has treated Michael Jackson, authorities today arrived with a search warrant at the Las Vegas home and office of Dr. Conrad Murray. This time DEA agents were accompanied by Los…

Jul 28, 2009 5:31 PM CDT

Texas Lawyer Charged in Parking Spat; No Gun Found in Office Search

A fender-bender at the parking lot of a Texas law office on Wednesday resulted in the arrest of a well-known defense attorney after a man who may have been a client of another firm accused him of pulling a handgun during an alleged post-accident attack. No gun was found on…

Jul 24, 2009 10:35 PM CDT

Judge Tosses SEC Case Against Mavericks Owner

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has won dismissal of civil insider trading accusations filed against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—at least for now. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater of Dallas gave the SEC 30 days to file an amended suit, Reuters reports. The SEC had maintained Cuban…

Jul 17, 2009 3:28 PM CDT

Lawyer Apologizes After Screaming at Prosecutor on National TV

A Dallas criminal defense lawyer who got riled and screamed at the district attorney on national TV later acknowledged he was probably out of line. The outburst was captured on a new program on A&E called After the First 48, according to Tex Parte Blog. The show chronicles the prosecution…

Jul 15, 2009 5:32 PM CDT

Lawyer Could Face Jail for Voir Dire Question

A federal magistrate has found patent lawyer John van Loben Sels in contempt of court and threatened him with a 48-hour jail sentence for a question he asked during voir dire. Van Loben Sels asked potential jurors in a patent infringement suit whether they had “a problem with a company…

Jul 14, 2009 2:54 PM CDT

On-Site Interviews Drop by 45 Percent at Texas Law School

Students at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin are getting an early taste of the poor job market. The number of scheduled on-campus interviews for 3Ls has dropped by 45 percent at the school since last year, the Daily Texan reports. David Montoya, assistant dean for career…

Jul 7, 2009 4:37 PM CDT

Dallas Law Firms Better Poised to Weather Recession

Some Dallas law firms are laying off lawyers, but on the whole they are faring better than counterparts in other cities. The firms are doing well in part because they have energy and intellectual property practices that do better in an economic downturn, the Dallas Morning News reports. John Attanasio,…

Jul 6, 2009 4:09 PM CDT

Smaller Law Firms Get More Big-Company Work, Survey Finds

The nation’s largest companies are increasingly turning to smaller and midsized law firms to perform legal work for less money. The survey of 550 large companies found that 38 percent hired law firms last year outside of the nation’s top 200 law firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. In 2007,…

Jul 6, 2009 12:07 PM CDT

Judge Revokes $500K Bail for Billionaire R. Allen Stanford

Billionaire R. Allen Stanford had hoped to live with his girlfriend in a luxury apartment in Houston, albeit wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, while preparing for his trial on federal charges concerning the alleged $7 billion bank fraud he is accused of masterminding. But U.S. District Judge David Hittner revoked…

Jul 1, 2009 12:39 AM CDT

Jury Awards $1.67B to Drugmaker in Record-Breaking Patent Verdict

Siding with the world’s biggest health care company, a federal jury in Texas awarded a record-breaking $1.67 billion today to a Johnson & Johnson unit after five hours of deliberation. In its verdict against Abbott Laboratories, the jury found that the Illinois-based drugmaker willfully violated an exclusive patent licensing agreement…

Jun 29, 2009 11:08 PM CDT

Federal Jury Awards $5M to Texas Man Convicted on Bad Crime Lab Evidence

After wrestling with the concept of deliberate indifference, a federal jury in Texas today awarded $5 million to a man wrongfully convicted in a kidnapping and rape case more than two decades ago. George Rodriguez, 59, was incarcerated for 17 years, based on false testimony by an employee of the…

Jun 26, 2009 12:39 AM CDT

Stanford Bond Stayed; Financier Drew $100M from Swiss Bank, Prosecutors Say

After the approval of a $500,000 bond that would allow Texas billionaire and accused swindler R. Allen Stanford to be released from prison prior to trial in August, a U.S. magistrate judge then stayed the issuance of the bond after prosecutors argued that he is a flight risk, reports Reuters.…

Jun 26, 2009 12:08 AM CDT

Federal Judge Samuel Kent Resigns, as Senate Impeachment Trial Looms

After the Senate began gearing up yesterday for a historic impeachment trial of an imprisoned U.S. District Court judge, he had apparently already decided to throw in the towel. In a letter that he hand-delivered yesterday to two Senate officials who had come to serve him with a subpoena in…

Jun 25, 2009 10:05 PM CDT