Texas

  • February 19, 2025

    Insurer Must Cover Trucking Co. In Fatal Fire Row, Judge Says

    A trucking company's insurer cannot rely on a hydrofracking exclusion to avoid covering an underlying suit over a fire at a saltwater disposal facility that killed one of the company's employees, a Texas federal court ruled, rejecting the insurer's request for a new trial.

  • February 18, 2025

    Limited FERC Pipeline Review Makes No Sense, DC Circ. Told

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had no evidence to support its finding that the pipeline it chose to review only a 1,000-foot section of would transport only Texas-produced gas, the environmentalists trying to force a review of the full pipeline project told the D.C. Circuit.

  • February 18, 2025

    J&J Talc Unit Launches 2-Week $10B Ch. 11 Settlement Trial

    A Johnson & Johnson spinoff began its case Tuesday for a $10 billion Chapter 11 settlement of the company's talc liability before a Texas bankruptcy judge while opponents of the deal questioned the legitimacy of the bankruptcy case and the plan vote.

  • February 18, 2025

    5th Circ. Questions X's Need For Watchdog's Donor Lists

    Fifth Circuit judges expressed concern Tuesday that X Corp.'s bid to identify a watchdog's donors could chill free speech, questioning how the information could prove the watchdog published an allegedly false article that caused major advertisers to abandon X.

  • February 18, 2025

    Convicted Pharma Exec Seeks Trial Redo, Citing Feds' Error

    A former pharmacy executive convicted on criminal charges over a healthcare scheme that defrauded the government of $160 million has urged a Texas federal court to grant him a new trial, arguing an admission of error by the federal government necessitates a redo.

  • February 18, 2025

    Dems Push Corporate Transparency Act Legitimacy To Courts

    Congress has the authority to establish a nationwide registry of the beneficial owners of legal entities by passing the Corporate Transparency Act, a group of Democratic legislators said in similar amicus briefs filed in appellate courts.

  • February 18, 2025

    ER Says 3rd Parties Allow For Accurate Blame In Injury Suit

    A Texas emergency room told state high court justices Tuesday that refusing to allow it to designate responsible third parties in a nurse's injury suit would create " a dramatic upheaval" by " not letting us blame who's really at fault" for the woman's back injury.

  • February 18, 2025

    Acccounting Firm Blames Broker For Losing $1M In Coverage

    A Texas accounting firm accused its insurance broker of causing it to lose $1 million coverage by failing to inform an excess insurer that the firm was subpoenaed in connection with the investigation of a $12 million seismic data collection company embezzlement scheme, the broker told a Texas federal court.

  • February 18, 2025

    Steward Says Mass. Owes $22M For Withheld Patient Claims

    Steward Health Care has sued Massachusetts in Texas bankruptcy court to recover $22 million, which the insolvent hospital operator alleged it is owed for treating low-income patients in Massachusetts after the company filed for Chapter 11 relief.

  • February 18, 2025

    Houston Energy Co. Settles Claims Over Utah Plant Turbines

    Houston clean energy company Fervo Energy Co. has settled its claims with a geothermal equipment supplier it accused of threatening to file a patent infringement lawsuit if it didn't win a bid to supply turbines for Fervo's Utah power plant.

  • February 18, 2025

    DHS Campaign Warns Unauthorized Immigrants To Leave

    A new U.S. Department of Homeland Security ad campaign warns people not to even think about entering the U.S. without authorization and to leave if they already have.

  • February 18, 2025

    States Ask 5th Circ. To Rethink Contractor Wage Hike Ruling

    Republican attorneys general in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana called on the full Fifth Circuit to reconsider a panel's decision backing the Biden administration's contract worker minimum wage hike, saying the ruling contradicts at least 11 other precedential decisions.

  • February 18, 2025

    Apple Wins Ax Of Heart Monitor Patent In PTAB Remand

    After being ordered by the Federal Circuit to reconsider its decision upholding some claims of an Omni MedSci Inc. heart rate monitor patent challenged by Apple Inc., the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found all the claims of the patent invalid as obvious.

  • February 18, 2025

    Baker Botts Partner Says Inventor's Atty Is Threatening Her

    A Baker Botts LLP lawyer being sued over her comments in a news article about a patent suit against Starbucks Corp. accused opposing counsel of threatening her in an email exchange over the details of a deposition.

  • February 18, 2025

    Pillsbury Adds Reichman Jorgensen Trial Ace In Austin

    Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP announced Tuesday that it has strengthened its litigation bench with a partner who previously led the Austin, Texas, office of Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP.

  • February 18, 2025

    Proposed Tweaks To Del. Chancery Law Ignite DExit Firestorm

    Stockholder attorneys in Delaware pushed back immediately against two state Senate measures that would amend corporation law provisions at the center of recent debate over shareholder class lawsuits, big court awards and recent corporate moves to purportedly more business-friendly states such as Texas and Nevada.

  • February 18, 2025

    5th Circ. Won't Rethink DOL Win In OT Threshold Dispute

    The full Fifth Circuit refused to reconsider its decision finding the U.S. Department of Labor has the authority to create a salary threshold as part of its role in defining overtime exemptions, rejecting a Dairy Queen franchise owner's argument that the opinion conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • February 18, 2025

    Diamondback Buys Midland Assets For $3B Cash Plus Stock

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised oil and natural gas company Diamondback Energy Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to buy Midland Basin assets from Vinson & Elkins LLP-led Double Eagle IV Midco LLC. in a cash-and-stock deal that includes a $3 billion cash payment.

  • February 15, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Practice Pivot, Tariff Tax, Lennar's Lawyers

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including the latest shifts in real estate law practice, a Big Law leader's predictions for a looming tariff "tax" debate, and a look at the legal talent behind homebuilder Lennar Corp.'s $5.8 billion spinoff.

  • February 14, 2025

    Loper Bright Doesn't Sink ESG Rule, Texas Judge Says

    A Texas federal judge again upheld a Biden-era rule allowing retirement fiduciaries to consider issues like climate change and social justice when choosing investments, ruling that the rule was still valid despite the U.S. Supreme Court doing away with a decades-long approach to interpreting statutes.

  • February 14, 2025

    Feds Seek Stay Of States' Methane Suit, Citing Trump Order

    The federal government has requested a pause on North Dakota and other states' challenge to a Bureau of Land Management methane waste rule, saying a stay is appropriate because the rule is under review following President Donald Trump's "Unleashing American Energy" executive order.

  • February 14, 2025

    ITC Bans Some Power Converter Devices In Vicor Patent Case

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has issued a limited order banning certain power converter modules and computing systems from being imported into the U.S., in a final decision that upheld most of an administrative law judge's findings in the dispute over patents held by electronics company Vicor Corp.

  • February 14, 2025

    SEC Crypto Mining Case Paused After Feds Bring Charges

    A Texas federal judge paused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against a crypto asset mining and hosting company after federal prosecutors filed their own suit against three of its executives for allegedly spending investor funds on themselves instead of the mining equipment they promised.

  • February 14, 2025

    Tech Cos. Say Gilstrap Bungled Eligibility Instructions

    Three tech companies are taking issue at the Federal Circuit with jury instructions in a Texas case that implicate the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice decision, telling the Federal Circuit that the instructions "lower the standard for patent eligibility."

  • February 14, 2025

    Texas Justices OK Indirect Facts In Some Defamation Suits

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said plaintiffs can survive summary judgment motions by presenting evidence that a defendant was the source of defamatory information even if they don't identify specific, verbatim statements made by that person.

Expert Analysis

  • The Current State Of Play Around Corporate Transparency Act

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    Although a Texas court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act and paused an impending Dec. 31 reporting deadline, multiple states have similar requirements, so companies should continue to monitor compliance obligations regardless of the CTA's constitutionality, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Reviewing 2024's State Consumer Privacy Law Enforcement

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    While we are still in the infancy of state consumer privacy laws, a review of enforcement activity this year suggests substantial overlaps in regulatory priorities across the most active states and gives insight into the likely paths of future enforcement, says Thomas Nolan at Quinn Emanuel.

  • 5th Circ. Crypto Ruling Shows Limits On OFAC Authority

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent decision that immutable smart contracts on the Tornado Cash crypto-transaction software protocol are not "property" subject to Office of Foreign Assets Control jurisdiction may signal that courts can construe OFAC's authority more restrictively after Loper Bright, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • AV Compliance Is Still A State-By-State Slog — For Now

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    While the incoming Trump administration has hinted at new federal regulations governing autonomous vehicles, for now, AV manufacturers must take a state-by-state approach to compliance with safety requirements — paying particular attention to states that require express authorization for AV operation, say attorneys at Frost Brown.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • How Litigation, Supply Chains Buffeted Offshore Wind In 2024

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    U.S. offshore wind developers continue to face a range of challenges — including litigation brought by local communities and interest groups, ongoing supply chain issues, and a lack of interconnection and transmission infrastructure — in addition to uncertainty surrounding federal energy policy under the second Trump administration, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Permitting, Offtake Among Offshore Wind Challenges In 2024

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    Although federal offshore wind development started to pick up this year, many challenges to the industry became apparent as well — including slow federal permitting, the pitfalls of restarting permits after changes in project status, and the difficulties of negotiating economically viable offtake agreements, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • How Trump's 2nd Term May Alter The Immigration Landscape

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    Rhetoric from Donald Trump's campaign and his choice of hardline appointees indicate that a more restrictive and punitive approach to immigration is in our immediate future, especially in areas like humanitarian relief, nonimmigrant visa processing, and travel and green card eligibility, says John Quill at Mintz.

  • Equitable Mootness Insights From Greenlit Ch. 11 Plan Appeal

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    A Texas federal court recently allowed a challenge to ConvergeOne's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan to proceed because it wouldn't disrupt the IT company's confirmed plan or harm creditors, reinforcing the importance of judicial restraint in applying equitable mootness where limited relief is possible, say attorneys at Parkins & Rubio.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Opinion

    FTC Actions In Oil Cases Go Against Its Own Rulemaking

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    Two recent Federal Trade Commission actions concerning the oil and gas industry appear to defy its own merger guidelines, with allegations that fall far short of the commission's own standard — raising serious questions about the agency's current approach, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.

  • Series

    Flying Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Achieving my childhood dream of flying airplanes made me a better lawyer — and a better person — because it taught me I can conquer difficult goals when I leave my comfort zone, focus on the demands of the moment and commit to honing my skills, says Ivy Cadle at Baker Donelson.

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