Texas Powerhouse: Haynes Boone

By Mike Curley

Haynes Boone represented major companies in the energy industry in the last year, securing a $40 million judgment in favor of Polaris Engineering at the Fifth Circuit, winning a unanimous jury verdict for Shell in a contract dispute and reversing a $6 million judgment against American Midstream at the Texas Supreme Court.

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5th Circ. Asks Texas Students If Drag Is Same As 'Striptease'

By Spencer Brewer

The full Fifth Circuit pressed student LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations to explain how drag shows on Texas college campuses met the standards for First Amendment protection, asking Wednesday if the organizations were arguing the schools should allow "striptease" performances.

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Texas Court Hesitant To Undo $56M Plastic Plant Judgment

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appeals court seemed hesitant to undo a $56 million judgment against a subsidiary of chemical and polymer heavyweight LyondellBasell Industries, saying Wednesday that the trial court found that the company breached its agreement with a contractor in the construction of a $1 billion plastic pellet manufacturing plant.

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Data Center Co. Says It Was Misled By Texas Land Seller

By Isaac Monterose

A developer accused a property seller in Texas federal court of obscuring how much of its land was dedicated to oil and gas development, claiming the energy operations are impeding a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence data center project.

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Judge Won't Block Feds' Land Exchange With SpaceX

By Madeline Lyskawa

SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can proceed with their planned land swap after a Texas federal judge determined that the groups challenging the deal failed to show that their members would suffer irreparable injury as a result of the exchange.

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OpenAI Looks To End SpaceXAI's Apple Deal Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

OpenAI is urging a Texas federal court to end an antitrust case from Elon Musk's SpaceXAI over a deal integrating ChatGPT into Apple devices, saying the pact is not exclusive and does not block competition from rival chatbots.

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Senate Confirms Abbott Aide To Texas Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 50-47, along party lines, on Wednesday to confirm Angela Colmenero, deputy chief of staff to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to serve on the Southern District of Texas.

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DC Judge Rules EPA Wrongly Nixed $7B Solar Program

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. federal judge ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lacked authority to terminate a $7 billion Solar for All program and 60 grants awarded to recipients including Harris County, Texas, which challenged the termination.

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Vape Shop Owners Say Supplier Can't Ditch THC-Content Suit

By Mike Curley

A Texas smoke shop and its owners are urging a federal judge to keep alive their suit alleging that Delta Munchies LLC misrepresented the amount of THC in its products, leading to their prosecution, saying they've sufficiently alleged that they were misled and hurt on both the business and personal levels.

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State Pols Urge Justices To Rein In Kalshi's Sports Offerings

By Alex Lawson

A coalition of state lawmakers has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Third Circuit decision allowing Kalshi to keep its sports offerings online in New Jersey, emphasizing that sports betting oversight must be left to the states.

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Genesis Healthcare Reports Last-Minute Facility Sale Snags

By Rick Archer

Genesis Healthcare and the winning bidder for its 175 nursing homes told a Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday they have fallen into a disagreement over $100 million of the $1 billion purchase price with the deadline to close the sale a week away.

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Gilstrap Says Patent Suit Against NetApp Belongs In Delaware

By Adam Lidgett

A Texas federal judge has shipped to Delaware a suit accusing data storage company NetApp of infringing a half dozen computing systems patents owned by Irish patent-holding company Valtrus Innovations.

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Norton Rose Announces New Dallas Leadership

By Lynn LaRowe

Norton Rose Fulbright announced Wednesday that it has rotated leadership of its Dallas office, naming a trial lawyer as partner-in-charge and a corporate lawyer as administrative partner.

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Baker Botts Adds King & Spalding Energy Deal Pro In Houston

By Lynn LaRowe

Baker Botts LLP has bulked up its energy and infrastructure offerings with a Houston-based corporate partner who most recently practiced with King & Spalding LLP.

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Tracking Trends In State-Level Regulatory Enforcement

State-level enforcement now increasingly involves antitrust, artificial intelligence and data privacy issues, and the key for organizations to reducing risk is having the ability to respond across governance, public affairs, discovery and remediation in multiple states simultaneously, say consultants at FTI Consulting.

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Opinion

Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

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And Now A Word From The Panel: Accessing Key MDL Data

As the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation convenes for its September hearing session, it is useful to examine the treasure trove of historical and statistical information about MDLs past and present that the panel makes available to the public on its own website, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

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Tarter Krinsky Data Breach May Have Affected Health Info

By Andrea Keckley

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP said in a letter this month that a data breach last year may have compromised protected health information the firm possessed due to its representation of an unnamed healthcare provider.

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'I'm Tired Of This': Judge Scolds Atty In Romantasy Suit

By Theresa Schliep

A New York federal judge has reprimanded counsel for a writer in a failed copyright infringement lawsuit over the "Crave" book series, insisting the plaintiff answer all questions in a deposition over attorney fees and writing that she was "tired of this" and "indeed being jerked around."

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Goldstein Not Leaving Prison Any Time Soon, 4th Circ. Rules

By Jeff Overley

The Fourth Circuit balked late Wednesday at freeing Tom Goldstein from prison as he fights felony convictions, and it rejected fast-track review of the renowned appellate advocate's trial, indicating he'll likely spend substantial time behind bars even if his appeal succeeds.

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Analysis

Newman's Roadblocks Guide Judicial Conduct Reform Bill

By Dani Kass

The Judicial Conduct and Disability Act has worked well in allowing the judicial branch to govern itself for nearly 50 years, but the ongoing suspension of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman has exposed gaps that could be addressed with newly introduced legislation, attorneys say.

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Fed. Panel At Standstill Over ABA Law School Accreditor Role

By Emma Cueto

A key U.S. Department of Education committee deadlocked Wednesday over whether the American Bar Association council responsible for approving law schools should continue as a federally recognized accreditor, tabling the issue until Thursday after different proposals failed to win majority support.

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