Practice Areas
Texas
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February 22, 2012
Total Units To Exit FCA Suit Over Gas Royalties For $15M
Affiliates of French oil giant Total SA will pay $15 million to settle allegations in Texas federal court that they underpaid royalties owed on natural gas extracted from federal lands in violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.
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February 22, 2012
Stanford Receiver Sues 2 La. Law Firms Over $1.8B
Robert Allen Stanford receiver Ralph S. Janvey hit two Louisiana law firms with a lawsuit last week alleging they helped the Ponzi schemer fraudulently obtain state approval for one of his companies, referred clients in exchange for benefits and misappropriated more than $1.8 billion.
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February 22, 2012
Colony Need Not Defend Insured's Predecessor: 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit found Monday that Colony National Insurance Co. does not owe defense costs to lifting equipment manufacturer Manitex LLC in underlying litigation over a crane accident, finding Manitex did not assume its predecessor-in-interest's tort liability to trigger coverage.
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February 22, 2012
Ex-KBR Exec Gets Probation, Fine For Nigerian Bribes
A former executive for one-time Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR Inc. was sentenced Wednesday in Texas federal court to one year of unsupervised probation and a $20,000 fine for his part in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials for natural gas contracts.
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February 21, 2012
Wells Fargo To Buy BNP Paribas Energy Loan Unit
Wells Fargo Bank NA has agreed to buy BNP Paribas SA's reserve-based energy lending business, which has about $9.5 billion in loan commitments and $3.9 billion in outstanding loans, the banks said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Grid Petroleum To Develop 4,500-Acre Field In Texas
Denver-based Grid Petroleum Corp. has inked a joint venture development agreement with an unnamed private holding company to develop a 4,500-acre oil and natural gas field in southern Texas, Grid Petroleum announced Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Stanford Investors Protest Proskauer's Bid To Pause Suit
Plaintiffs in one of six lawsuits claiming Proskauer Rose LLP protected accused Ponzi schemer Robert Allen Stanford's bank protested a motion to stay the suit Monday, calling it a ploy to prevent the court from remanding the suit before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation reaches a decision.
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February 21, 2012
Greenberg Traurig Can’t Take Tax Shelter Case To High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to consider Greenberg Traurig LLP’s appeal of a decision that allowed a New Orleans resident to refile a suit claiming the firm committed securities fraud by tricking him into an illegal tax shelter.
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February 21, 2012
Thompson & Knight Nabs M&A Vet from Bracewell
Thompson & Knight LLP’s Houston office has added longtime Bracewell & Giuliani LLP attorney Geoffrey A. Long to its corporate and securities practice group as partner, the firm announced Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
High Court To Hear Challenge To Race Use In UT Admissions
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear an appeal from an unsuccessful white applicant to University of Texas at Austin who challenged the school's policy of taking race into account during the undergraduate admissions process.
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February 21, 2012
High Court Won't Take Up Idearc Investors' Ch. 11 Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a group of investors' challenge to a bankruptcy court's confirmation of Verizon Communications Inc. spinoff Idearc Inc.'s reorganization plan, which they claim deprived them of their rightful ownership in the reorganized company.
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February 17, 2012
4 Found Guilty In Ex-Cowboy's $20.5M Mortgage Fraud
A Texas federal jury on Thursday convicted four defendants on all counts in a $20.5 million mortgage fraud scheme allegedly masterminded by a former Dallas Cowboys linebacker.
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February 17, 2012
Texas Top Court Will Tackle Wind Farm Contract Dispute
Texas' highest court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal in a case centering on the enforceability of a liquid damages provision in a contract dispute between an Energy Future Holdings Corp. unit and three wind farms led by a predecessor of NextEra Energy Inc.
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February 17, 2012
Texas High Court To Rehear Workers' Comp Insurer Dispute
Texas' highest court agreed Friday to rehear a dispute involving Texas Mutual Insurance Co. in which it had ruled that claims against workers' compensation insurers for unfair settlement practices could not be made under state insurance law.
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February 17, 2012
Chemical Co. Brings Retiree Premium Fight To Supreme Court
Sterling Chemicals Inc. asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to find that it was allowed to raise premiums for a class of retired workers acquired in a merger because Sterling had rejected the merger contract during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
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February 17, 2012
MOEX Hammers Out $90M Deal Over Deepwater Spill
A MOEX USA Corp. unit that owned a stake in the offshore well involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has reached a $90 million settlement with the U.S. government and five Gulf states, agreeing to pay the largest civil penalty ever collected under the Clean Water Act, officials announced Friday.
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February 17, 2012
Contractor Can Be Sued In La. Under Iraqi Law: 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a wrongful death suit against contractor Arkel International LLC., ruling Thursday that the company could be sued under Iraqi law for the death of a National Guard sergeant who was electrocuted at a U.S. military base in Iraq.
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February 16, 2012
Texas Judge Ordered Off $50M Valero Contract Suit
A Texas state judge on Wednesday was reportedly forced to recuse himself from a Valero Energy Co. subsidiary's $50 million breach of contract suit arising from a 2007 fire at the company's Texas City plant, due to his undisclosed relationship with a former Valero attorney.
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February 16, 2012
Icahn Proposes $2.6B Takeover Of CVR Energy
Billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn offered to buy all the outstanding shares of Texas-based CVR Energy Inc. on Thursday for $30 per share in cash for a total value of about $2.6 billion, plus a contingent value right for an additional payment if the company is sold for a higher price.
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February 16, 2012
Texas County Settles EEOC Age Discrimination Suit
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday signed off on a $20,000 settlement between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a Texas county that it had accused of retaliating against a secretary in the treasurer's office after she filed an age discrimination suit against the county in 2009.
Expert Analysis
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A Troublesome Twist In Texas Workers' Comp Decision
Due to the Supreme Court of Texas' decision in Port Elevator-Brownsville v. Casados, insurance companies providing workers' compensation coverage to staffing customers in Texas now must worry about how much uncompensated exposure they may have for injuries to temporary agency workers, says George Reardon of Littler Mendelson PC.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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'Independent Practice,' Collective Enforcement
In North Texas Specialty Physicians v. Federal Trade Commission, the Fifth Circuit has affirmed the FTC's decision that collective rate negotiation within an independent practice association is illegal under an "inherently suspect" analysis, providing fertile ground for payers to receive meaningful relief from the FTC if they suspect collective negotiation, says Ryan Marth of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Failure Of Proof: US V. O'Shea
In U.S. v. O’Shea, the acquittal of a former ABB Ltd. manager of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations appears to serve as a reminder of the difference between information that may be a powerful lever in bringing about a guilty plea and evidence that is required to prevail at trial, say attorneys with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.
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Case Study: Fisher V. Halliburton
The Fifth Circuit's recent opinion in Fisher v. Halliburton represents a good result for employers and employees alike, furthering the dual purposes of the Defense Base Act — prompt relief for employees, with limited and predictable liability for employers, says Ryan Berry of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC.
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Benefit Corps. — A New Structure For The New Economy
The formation and operation of benefit corporations are now authorized in seven states and legislation to authorize the formation of benefit corporations has been introduced in several others. The formal establishment of this new corporate structure is necessary in order to give companies legal protection to consider nonfinancial factors when making decisions, says Jonathan Storper of Hanson Bridgett LLP.
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Is Ch. 9 The Next Chapter In The Municipal Saga?
Boise County, Idaho, demonstrates one of the reasons that Chapter 9 is not a panacea for every kind of financial problem burdening U.S. municipalities. Unfortunately, an increasing number of municipalities are passing the test that Boise County failed, say Joseph Witalec and Mark Douglas of Jones Day.
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Key Points From The O’Shea Acquittal
Following U.S. v. O'Shea, individuals and companies alike can feel some assurance that if the U.S. Department of Justice takes a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action to trial, the government will need more than mere assumptions and conclusory statements to prevail, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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A Little 'Guidance': All You Need For Preemption?
Regulated entities, courts and federal agencies have struggled with the question of whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's reliance on guidance documents, employed in place of formal rulemaking, can be used to preempt state law claims when such claims conflict with agency guidance, but do not explicitly conflict with formally adopted regulations or laws, say David Graham and Anthony de Sam Lazaro of Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP.