The Texas Lawbook

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP became the first Texas legacy corporate firm to announce bonuses this morning and Vinson & Elkins followed quickly thereafter. Hundreds of associates that both firms employ will be receiving year-end bonuses ranging from $21,000 for first-year lawyers to $140,000 for associates in their eighth year. Mark Curriden reports. https://lnkd.in/gzUm_HtA

’Tis the season of law firm partner promotions. Between October and February, dozens of corporate law firms officially announce the associates and counsel that they are promoting to equity and nonequity partners. Most of the announcements are made in December.?The Texas Lawbook's Mark Curriden has the details on the latest announcements. https://lnkd.in/gs4Jq_Vh Kirkland & Ellis Vinson & Elkins Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Latham & Watkins McGuireWoods LLP Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Locke Lord LLP Mayer Brown Polsinelli Gibbs & Bruns LLP White & Case LLP

Not since the frontier days when Texas jurisprudence was being developed from Spanish law has there been a Supreme Court justice as influential as Nathan Hecht. While serving on the court for 35 years as a justice and chief justice, Hecht was a leader in the court’s transition from a plaintiffs-oriented body to one that pleased the business community with skepticism about large jury verdicts in tort cases. He played key roles in writing procedural rules that make litigation more efficient and vigorously advocated for civil legal services funding. As the longest-serving judge in Texas history hangs up his judicial robe due to state-mandated retirement, he recalls elections past and decisions that helped shaped the current court. Janet Elliott spoke with Ben Mesches, former Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, former Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips, and former Justice Deborah Hankinson in this profile of Chief Justice Hecht for The Lawbook. https://lnkd.in/gXtfZUst

Fulbright & Jaworski was the biggest of the Big Three in Texas a dozen years ago. For the past century, Fulbright, Baker Botts and Vinson & Elkins reigned as the masters of corporate law in Texas. Lawyers at the trio didn’t need to do much business development because clients rushed to their offices when they needed big-time help. Fulbright and her two sister firms — all headquartered in Houston — represented Texas’ biggest businesses and wealthiest citizens. Each employed about 700 attorneys, and they reported roughly the same revenues and profits. The best students at all the Texas law schools prayed one of the Big Three would extend them an offer. Lawyers joined Fulbright and stayed until they retired. Even as national law firms dipped their toes in the Texas legal market waters, leaders at the Big Three swore they would never merge. Texas forever. Then came Nov. 14, 2012. And everything changed. Mark Curriden reports. Norton Rose Fulbright https://lnkd.in/ghGag6QN

Jacobs Deputy GC Chasity Wilson Henry founded the The NEW Roundtable, Inc., a nonprofit that brings together in-house and outside counsel with the mission of promoting the advancement of African American women lawyers. NEW stands for Network of Empowered Women. The organization celebrated its 10th anniversary this month. The NEW Roundtable started with Henry and about two dozen other Black women lawyers and has grown to nearly 100 members, including Black women who are in-house counsel, lawyers at law firms or in government service or in academia. “This broad base enables us to drive impactful connections and career development across various sectors of the legal profession,” Henry said in an interview with?The Texas Lawbook. “Our members’ professional achievements across the legal spectrum demonstrate that The NEW Roundtable is not just creating opportunities — it is transforming the legal landscape for Black women attorneys. Through community, mentorship, and strategic alliances, we are reshaping what is possible in the legal profession.” The Lawbook?recently interviewed Henry about the 10th anniversary of the NEW Roundtable, the successes and challenges of the organization and the legal profession regarding diversity and inclusion. https://lnkd.in/gaEVbena

Appellate lawyers David Coale, Craig T. Enoch, and Anne M. Johnson spoke with Krista M. Torralva of The Lawbook about the impact of the judicial elections. https://lnkd.in/gWcUZUdV

In today's Public Service (P.S.) column from Mark Curriden, we featured NDTX Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan's full remarks honoring retired Judge Hon. Harlin DeWayne “Cooter” Hale (Ret.) for receiving the DALLAS BAR FOUNDATION's prestigious Justinian Award. In her introduction, Judge Jernigan describes what?made Judge Hale unique among his peers. "The world of bankruptcy law is pretty different from other types of litigation or from transactional legal work. It’s an area where folks and companies are confronting hardship or failure. Oppressive debt that has wrecked their lives.?Mistakes or misfortune. They come into our courts feeling awfully low.?Embarrassed.?Stigmatized.?Our courts are also what I have described to my own SMU law students as 'the land of broken promises.'?And it’s also a place for second chances.?It has moral dimensions; it’s laden with moral overtones. People are wanting forgiveness. Rehabilitation seems like a way of giving them back their dignity and their self-respect. But, meanwhile, other people (the creditors) are wanting retribution. They are feeling shocked and understandably outraged sometimes. Judges in our courts are not simply applying the law in difficult situations. A bankruptcy judge needs to sometimes calm people down and always show parties respect, when maybe the parties seem pretty unsympathetic to the average citizen. The whole process actually has Biblical roots. You know, 'forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors'? It’s a legal construct that has been woven into our social fabric from early times, as immigrants fled to America, or American settlers fled West, to places like Texas, sometimes fleeing from financial calamity and angry creditors. The point I am leading up to here is that it takes real wisdom and compassion to rebalance, the needs of people and companies who are wanting a fresh start in bankruptcy against the rights of others who understandably feel very shortchanged. Cooter embodies the ability to maneuver that rebalancing like no one else that I have ever known. He works hard and studies hard so he can correctly apply the law, but he also has more concern than anyone I have ever seen with getting the discretionary part of our job right.?The equitable adjustments part. The fixer part. The handler part. The keeping it all positive part. The wise sage who ignores the background noise. I don’t think you can truly teach people to have what Cooter has. You can’t really teach it in a law school class or in a CLE. I think we just have to all stand back and watch and admire it really. And be grateful for it.??And honor it. And hope that, every once in a while, other people come along that are kind of like him.?While what he has is hard to teach, hopefully we can still learn just a little from watching his example. Hopefully." https://lnkd.in/gsJnjsBw

The lead lawyer for tens of thousands of foster care children in Texas said Sunday that he will appeal a decision handed down Friday by a federal appeals court removing the federal judge who has overseen the litigation for 13 years and whose orders have forced Texas officials to greatly improve how they investigate accusations of abuse in the state’s foster care system. Houston trial lawyer Paul Yetter told?The Texas Lawbook?in an interview Sunday that he believes the opinion by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit focuses too much on procedure and not enough on specific evidence involving dozens of mentally challenged and disabled children in the foster care system who remain in serious danger because of the lack of attention from Texas officials. Mark Curriden with the story. https://lnkd.in/gG6tajxB

The Power of Truelove: Jennifer Truelove and Kurt Truelove have been involved in some of the biggest verdicts and settlements to come out of Marshall, the East Texas town famous for its patent litigation docket. Krista M. Torralva profiled the power couple for The Lawbook. https://lnkd.in/gd8JrfQ7 McKool Smith

The Texas Lawbook is expanding its reach into the Texas business community with a new content partnership with?The Dallas Morning News. Starting this month,?The Dallas Morning News?will publish select?Lawbook?articles in the award-winning daily newspaper’s business news section and on its website. https://lnkd.in/gnjrNF4f