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Texas Pulse
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Mid-Law Mergers On Track In 2024 To Match Recent Years
Thus far in 2024, law firm mergers have been in keeping with prior years, industry observers said, with leaders at midsize firms considering mergers driven by a number of factors including the rise of artificial intelligence, aging firm leadership and effort to meet client demand.
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Texas Attorney Serving 15-Year Sentence Is Disbarred
The State Bar of Texas announced Monday that it has yanked the license of a criminal defense attorney who was sentenced in 2021 to more than 15 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of cheating big-time Colombian drug trafficking clients.
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Paul Hastings Adds Cyber Ace In Dallas From Akin Gump
Paul Hastings LLP announced Monday that it has strengthened its global data privacy and cybersecurity practice with a partner in Dallas who previously served as co-head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she practiced for more than two decades.
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Split SCOTX Revives Judge's Same-Sex Wedding Challenge
A split Texas Supreme Court revived a judge's lawsuit against the state judicial ethics commission over sanctions for her refusal to officiate same-sex marriages, with the majority finding the judge's claims are not barred because she did not go through the administrative process.
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Texas Judge Who Axed DACA To Retire In January 2025
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen — a controversial Republican appointee best known for twice ruling against President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy — has announced that he will take senior status on Jan. 2, 2025, allowing the next president to name his replacement.
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
Susman Godfrey LLP, Hausfeld LLP and Langer Grogan & Diver PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury awarded $4.7 billion to two classes of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers in an antitrust trial against the National Football League and its teams.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
The legal industry marked the end of June with another action-packed week of BigLaw hires and three straight days of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
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Litigation Pro Joins Bradley Arant From Houston Boutique
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has strengthened its litigation practice in Texas with a partner who came aboard from Houston corporate law firm BoyarMiller.
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Ogletree Deakins' Well-Being Leader On Mental Health Effort
Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC is no stranger to the needs of employers, focusing its legal efforts on representing management. But the law firm recently launched an effort to prioritize its own employees' mental health.
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Paxton Attys To Testify In Federal Probe, 5th Circ. Indicates
A federal grand jury impaneled to weigh Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's alleged abuses of office is set to continue hearing witness testimony next week, a recently published Fifth Circuit opinion indicates.
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Texas DAs Escape Defendant Class Cert. In Abortion Case
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid to force state prosecutors to become a certified class of defendants in a suit aimed to curb retaliation against advocates who help women get an abortion outside the state, saying there was no risk of varying adjudications.
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Law Firm Real Estate Report
Leasing activity remained strong for several large firms throughout June as Lathrop GPM moved its Chicago office into a smaller space, and Polsinelli PC planted its second flag in Utah three years after launching its Salt Lake City office and three months after relocating its St. Louis team.
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How Attorneys Are Celebrating Pride Month In 2024
This June, LGBTQ+ attorneys around the country at law firms big and small shared with Law360 how they — and their firms — are celebrating Pride Month.
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New Holland & Knight Diversity Atty Hopes To 'Reimagine' DEI
Holland & Knight LLP's new diversity partner, O'Kelly E. McWilliams III, never sought out opportunities to serve in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, but the chance to serve in those roles presented themselves throughout the years.
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Spencer Fane Lobbying Pro Joins Holland & Knight In Austin
Holland & Knight LLP has brought on a veteran lobbyist and lawyer in Austin, who previously led the government affairs group at Spencer Fane LLP, to helm the firm's new Texas government advocacy team.
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Most New Attys Don't See 'Flashy Lawyer Salary'
While some new attorneys earn top dollar right out of their Juris Doctor program, that isn't actually the norm, according to a new study from Georgetown University, which found that when factoring in student loan debt, the median earnings for all law graduates land at just $72,000 four years after graduation.
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Texas Planning To Use New Bar Exam In 2028, Justices Say
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday announced that it expects to adopt a new bar examination beginning in July 2028 after considering public comments.
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The Case For BigLaw Being More Transparent About Suicides
While BigLaw's suicide prevention efforts emphasize open communication around mental health, firms are largely less transparent about how they'd respond to the suicide of an employee.
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Baker McKenzie Promotes 66 To Partner In 2024
Baker McKenzie said Wednesday that 66 lawyers are being promoted to partnerships in 2024, its smallest yearly intake of newly elevated partners in a decade, though it has also hired nearly 50 partners over the past year.
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Stone Hilton Brings On Litigation Pro From Austin Boutique
The newest partner to join the roster of boutique litigation, appellate and government relations firm Stone Hilton PLLC came aboard from Austin boutique Ewell Brown Blanke & Knight LLP and also boasts experience at BigLaw outfits like Vinson & Elkins LLP and Covington & Burling LLP.
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Kroger Using Annual Meeting To Stress Value Of Merger
As grocery chain The Kroger Co. prepares to defend its proposed merger with Albertsons Cos. later this summer, it's using its virtual annual meeting on Thursday to trumpet its value to shareholders, to communities and to workers.
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Schouest Bamdas Opens Dallas Office With 6-Partner Hire
Schouest Bamdas Soshea BenMaier & Eastham PLLC has expanded its footprint in Texas by launching a new office in Dallas with six new partners from Hartline Barger LLP, it said in an official announcement Tuesday.
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Small Firms Put Unique Spin On Summer Associate Programs
As the competition for sought-after BigLaw summer associateships continues to ramp up, some small firms and boutiques are seeing an opportunity to develop their own programs to attract law students looking to gain valuable experience.
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Legal Office Leasing Stayed Strong In Q1, Cushman Says
Cushman & Wakefield said in a report Tuesday that the legal sector continued to take on real estate at a strong clip in the first quarter of 2024 after reaching records among office leases in both 2022 and 2023.
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Approach The Bench: Judge Nazarian Touts Mentorship
Judge Douglas Nazarian of the Appellate Court of Maryland has given a lot of thought to clerkships since he took the bench more than 11 years ago.
Expert Analysis
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DoNotPay Cases Underscore Hurdles For AI-Fueled Legal Help
Recent legal challenges against DoNotPay’s "robot lawyer” application highlight pressing questions about the degree to which artificial intelligence can be used for legal tasks while remaining on the right side of both consumer protection laws and prohibitions against the unauthorized practice of law, says Kristen Niven at Frankfurt Kurnit.
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For The Future Of Legal Practice, Let's Learn From The Past
At some level, every practicing lawyer is experiencing the ever-increasing speed of change — and while some practice management processes have gotten more efficient, other things about the legal profession were better before supposed improvements were made, says Jay Silberblatt, president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
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Why All Law Firms Should Foster Psychological Capital
Law firms will be able to reap great long-term benefits if they adopt strategies to nurture four critical components of their employees' psychological wellness and performance — hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism, says Dennis Stolle at the American Psychological Association.
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A GC's Guide To Litigation, Inspired By Sun Tzu's 'Art Of War'
With caseloads and spending increasing, in-house counsel might find themselves called to opine on the risks and benefits of litigation more often, and they should look at five Sun Tzu maxims from the ancient Chinese classic "The Art of War" to inform their approach to any suit, says Jeff Golimowski at Womble Bond.
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Mentorship Is Key To Diversity In The Legal Industry
Not only can effective mentorship have a profound impact on women and people of color entering the legal field, but it also benefits mentors and the legal profession as a whole, creating a true win-win situation for all involved, says Natasha Cortes at Grossman Roth.
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ChatGPT Is A Cool Trick, But AI Won't Replace Lawyers
Generative AI applications like ChatGPT are unlikely to ever replace attorneys for a variety of practical reasons — but given their practice-enhancing capabilities, lawyers who fail to leverage these tools may be rendered obsolete, says Eran Kahana at Maslon.
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Pro Bono Work Is Valuable In IP And Continued Learning
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent elimination of a rule that partially counted pro bono work toward continuing legal education highlights the importance of volunteer work in intellectual property practice and its ties to CLE, and puts a valuable tool for hands-on attorney education in the hands of the states, say Lisa Holubar and Ariel Katz at Irwin.
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Increasing Public Access To Legal Services: A Practical Plan
Recommendations recently issued by a special committee of the Florida Bar represent a realistic, pragmatic approach to increasing the accessibility and affordability of legal services, at a time when the disconnect between the legal profession and the public at large has widened considerably, says Gary Lesser, president of the Florida Bar.
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Priorities For Improving The Legal Industry In Texas
To assist Texas lawyers in effectively executing their duties, we should be working on succession planning, attorney wellness, and increasing understanding of the grievance system by both bar members and the public, says Laura Gibson, president of the State Bar of Texas.
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Leading Your Law Firm's Creation Of A New Practice Group
Marjorie Peerce and Peter Jaslow at Ballard Spahr discuss the challenges of building a new law firm practice group from the ground up, and how sustained commitment, communication and collaboration are the key ingredients for success.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Relay Shortcomings To Associates?
Michael Cohen at Duane Morris discusses the best ways to articulate how an associate is not meeting expectations, and why documentation of performance management is crucial for their growth and protecting the firm from discrimination suits.
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10 Principles For Effective Partner Reward Systems
Several forces are reshaping partners’ expectations about profit-sharing, and as compensation structures evolve in response, firms should keep certain fundamentals in mind to build a successful partner reward system, say Michael Roch at MHPR Advisors and Ray D'Cruz at Performance Leader.
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Why Interdisciplinarity Is Key To Designing The Future Of Law
The legal profession faces challenges that urgently demand new solutions, and lawyers and firms can address this by leaning on other industries that have more experience practicing, teaching and incorporating innovation into their core business and service models, says Jennifer Leonard at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Incorporating ADA Guidance Into Lawyer Wellness Movement
The Americans with Disabilities Act and rules of professional conduct may help the legal profession promote lawyer well-being by focusing on mental conditions' actual impact, rather than on associated stereotypes, says Alex Long at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can New Partners Generate Business?
Christine Wong at MoFo discusses how newly elected partners can prioritize business development by creating a strategic plan with the firm's marketing team and strengthening relationships with professional and personal networks.