Texas

  • August 02, 2024

    5th Circuit Remands FDA's E-Cigarette Product Denials

    The Fifth Circuit has once again said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration acted unlawfully when the agency denied a number of requests from e-cigarette manufacturers seeking permission to sell their flavored vapes.

  • August 02, 2024

    5th Circ. Tosses 1988 Case In Galveston Voting Rights Ruling

    Multiple minority groups cannot "combine forces" to bring vote dilution claims under a portion of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits race discrimination, the Fifth Circuit said Thursday, overruling a decades-old case in a blockbuster decision regarding Galveston County's voting districts.

  • August 02, 2024

    Justices Urged To Hear Standing Issue For Patent Licensors

    The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to give its take on whether the terms of a decade-old loan can be used to create issues over legal standing and exclusionary rights in a lawsuit tied to radio frequency developed in the mid-2000s.

  • August 02, 2024

    Nonprofit Presses 5th Circ. To Keep 'Life-Saving' Parole Policy

    A Massachusetts community group called on the Fifth Circuit Friday to maintain an embattled immigration program allowing Haitian nationals to be paroled into the U.S., arguing the policy's critics haven't shown the program harms them.

  • August 02, 2024

    Ebix Opt-Out Releases Illegal In Ch. 11 Plan, Judge Rules

    A Texas bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that third-party releases contained in Ebix Inc.'s Chapter 11 plan are impermissible, deciding an opt-out provision of the liability waivers wasn't enough to establish consent.

  • August 02, 2024

    Boeing's New CEO To Steer Daunting Safety Culture Rebound

    Boeing's selection of an engineer and longtime aerospace industry executive as its next CEO demonstrates an eagerness to correct course amid daunting legal and regulatory troubles, as victims' families relentlessly press for Boeing to face a criminal trial over the two 737 Max 8 crashes.

  • August 02, 2024

    Real Estate Recap: Grants Pass, Population Data, CMBS Risk

    Catch up on the past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including city and state reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on homeless encampments, a new proptech venture leveraging population data for investors and developers, and one BigLaw leader's view of which sectors are most sensitive to commercial mortgage-backed securities distress.

  • August 02, 2024

    Bid To Get Ex-Judge Jones' Phone Records Blocked, For Now

    A Texas judge has temporarily barred JCPenney's bankruptcy administrator from accessing former Judge David R. Jones' cellphone records amid the scandal involving his concealed romantic relationship with an ex-Jackson Walker LLP partner and firm fees he approved in various cases, including JCPenney's bankruptcy.

  • August 02, 2024

    Fla. Atty Cops To Attempted DC Bombing, Explosion In Texas

    A Florida criminal defense attorney pled guilty on Friday to federal charges stemming from an attempted bombing outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2023 and the bombing of a satirical sculpture of communist leaders in San Antonio, Texas, in 2022.

  • August 02, 2024

    NYC Courts' $9.5M Accounting Error Quietly Broke The Law

    Internal audits found New York City courts violated state law by failing to turn over $9.5 million to the state treasury — the result of clerks not keeping tabs on public money in recent years.

  • August 01, 2024

    Texas Biz Court Costs Unlikely To Be Prohibitive, Experts Say

    The Texas business court's fee schedule is unlikely to price potential litigants out, but many questions remain about the efficiency of the new venue's fee schedule, experts told Law360.

  • August 02, 2024

    CORRECTED: Delay Sought In Citgo Auction

    A Delaware federal judge has appeared open to postponing to October an auction for Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s parent company, a proceeding aimed at satisfying billions of dollars in Venezuelan debt. Correction: A previous version of this article mischaracterized the nature of Judge Stark's order. The error has been corrected.

  • August 01, 2024

    Pioneer Health Approved For $450K To Fund Ch. 11 Sale Plan

    Bankrupt clinic operator Pioneer Health Inc. received approval from a Delaware court to borrow $450,000 as it pursues a sale of its assets, but agreed to delay a hearing on a proposed Chapter 11 plan to give the company time to update the filings to reflect its new track.

  • August 01, 2024

    Groups Say DC Circ.'s Toss Of FERC OK Boosts Their Case

    Conservation groups and the city of Port Isabel, Texas, told the D.C. Circuit that its recent decision to vacate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of a Northeast pipeline expansion supports their challenge of the commission's decision to approve two Texas liquefied natural gas facilities.

  • August 01, 2024

    Texas Juvenile Detention Centers Rife With Abuse, DOJ Says

    A U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Texas Juvenile Justice Department found a widespread pattern of physical and mental abuse and sexual exploitation at state-run facilities, with a report released Thursday calling for widespread reforms in juvenile detention institutions.

  • August 01, 2024

    PTAB Takes Out Last Patent From Google's $12M Trial Loss

    Google has persuaded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate all Flypsi Inc. patent claims tied to the tech giant's $12 million infringement loss in the Western District of Texas.

  • August 01, 2024

    Texas Judge Pauses Border Buoy Trial After 5th Circ. Ruling

    A federal judge on Thursday postponed a bench trial in the Biden administration's suit against Texas over a border barrier in the Rio Grande after the Fifth Circuit vacated the district court's order for Texas to move the barrier during litigation.

  • August 01, 2024

    Texas AG Paxton Promotes Deputies From Strategy, Appeals

    The Texas Office of the Attorney General announced a series of promotions Thursday, appointing Ralph Molina as deputy first assistant attorney general, Joseph Mazzara as special counsel to the attorney general and to the first assistant attorney general, Ryan Baasch as associate deputy attorney general for civil litigation and Amy Hilton as chief of the Healthcare Program Enforcement Division.

  • August 01, 2024

    5th Circ. Backs Louisiana's Block Of EPA Chemical Rule

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday refused to overturn a Louisiana agency's move to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing a chemical rule that a neoprene maker says would force it to shut down.

  • August 01, 2024

    Senate Passes Bill To 'Systematically' Increase Judgeships

    The Senate passed a bipartisan bill Thursday by voice vote to create 66 new and temporary judgeships to help federal courts handle increasing workloads.

  • August 01, 2024

    5th Circ. Says Oil Crossing State Lines Made Work Interstate

    The crude oil that a worker transported travels outside of Texas and thus is part of an interstate trip, the Fifth Circuit ruled, flipping a district court's decision that the Motor Carrier Act exemption didn't apply to a transporter who sought unpaid overtime.

  • August 01, 2024

    Holland & Knight Adds Winston & Strawn Finance Pro In Texas

    Holland & Knight has bolstered its financial services team with a partner in Dallas who came aboard from Winston & Strawn LLP.

  • July 31, 2024

    AT&T Faces New Data Breach Class Action By Non-Customers

    AT&T, already facing litigation over a data breach it admitted to in mid-July, was hit Tuesday with another putative class action in Texas federal court, this time by two individuals who alleged the telecom giant disregarded the breach's impact on customers of other companies using AT&T's network.

  • July 31, 2024

    Lewis Brisbois TM Foe Can't Ax Injunction, 5th Circ. Says

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday upheld an injunction against three Texans accused of ripping off the Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP name, saying it's clear the only reason the defendants created the infringing entity "was to ride on the back" of the BigLaw firm's reputation.

  • July 31, 2024

    Ghanaian Oil Co. Hit With Sanctions In Discovery Fight

    A Texas federal judge has slapped sanctions against an African energy company after finding that it lied in Ghanaian court about a discovery dispute related to a case in Ghana, saying attorney fees and costs are appropriate in relation to several proceedings.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Healthcare FCA Deals Provide Self-Disclosure Takeaways

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    Several civil False Claims Act settlements of alleged healthcare fraud violations over the past year demonstrate that healthcare providers may benefit substantially from voluntarily disclosing potential misconduct to both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, say Brian Albritton and Raquel Ramirez Jefferson at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Increase Small Biz Ch. 11 Debt Cap

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    Congress must act to reinstate Subchapter V, which recently sunsetted when the debt threshold to qualify reverted from $7.5 million to just over $3 million, meaning thousands of small businesses will no longer be able to use the means of reorganization, says Daniel Gielchinsky at DGIM Law.

  • How Loper Bright Weakens NEPA Enviro Justice Strategy

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    The National Environmental Policy Act is central to the Biden administration's environmental justice agenda — but the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo casts doubt on the government's ability to rely on NEPA for this purpose, and a pending federal case will test the strategy's limits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Series

    After Chevron: ERISA Challenges To Watch

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    The end of Chevron deference makes the outcome of Employee Retirement Income Security Act regulatory challenges more uncertain as courts become final arbiters of pending lawsuits about ESG investments, the definition of a fiduciary, unallocated pension forfeitures and discrimination in healthcare plans, says Evelyn Haralampu at Burns & Levinson.

  • Justices' Intent Witness Ruling May Be Useful For Defense Bar

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    At first glance, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Diaz v. U.S. decision, allowing experts to testify to the mental state of criminal defendants in federal court, gives prosecutors a new tool, but creative white collar defense counsel may be able to use the same tool to their own advantage, say Jack Sharman and Rachel Bragg at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • How To Grow Marketing, Biz Dev Teams In A Tight Market

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    Faced with fierce competition and rising operating costs, firms are feeling the pressure to build a well-oiled marketing and business development team that supports strategic priorities, but they’ll need to be flexible and creative given a tight talent market, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

  • Patent Lessons From 5 Federal Circuit Reversals In June

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    A look at June cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court highlights a potential path for branded drugmakers to sue generic-drug makers for off-label uses, potential downsides of violating a pretrial order offering testimony, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • Series

    Rock Climbing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Rock climbing requires problem-solving, focus, risk management and resilience, skills that are also invaluable assets in my role as a finance lawyer, says Mei Zhang at Haynes and Boone.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step

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    From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Alice Step 2 Trends Show Courts' Extrinsic Evidence Reliance

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    A look at recent trends in how district courts are applying Step 2 of the Alice framework shows that courts have increasingly relied on extrinsic evidence to help determine whether a claimed invention is "well-understood, routine, and conventional," says Jonathan Tuminaro at Sterne Kessler.

  • What To Know As Children's Privacy Law Rapidly Evolves

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    If your business hasn't been paying attention to growing state and federal efforts to protect children online, now is the time to start — there is no sign of this regulation slowing down, and more aggressive enforcement actions are to be expected in the coming year, says Susan Rohol at Willkie Farr.

  • Tips For Lenders Offering Texas Home Equity Lines Of Credit

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    As interest in home equity lines of credit increases, lenders seeking to utilize such products in Texas must be aware of state-specific requirements and limitations that can make it challenging to originate open-end lines of credit on homestead property, says Tye McWhorter at Polunsky Beitel.

  • CFTC Action Highlights Necessity Of Whistleblower Carveouts

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's novel settlement with a trading firm over allegations of manipulating the market and failing to create contract carveouts for employees to freely communicate with investigators serves as a beacon for further enforcement activity from the CFTC and other regulators, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: Rare MDL Moments

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    Following a recent trend of rare moments in baseball, there are a few rarities this year in multidistrict litigation panel practice, including an unusually high rate of petition grants, and, in one session, a two-week delay from hearing session day to the first decision, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

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