Texas Pulse


  • Texas Powerhouse: Baker Botts

    Baker Botts LLP, a law firm with Texas roots dating back nearly two centuries, secured wins in high-profile energy cases last year, including the defeat of a wide-ranging patent dispute against Halliburton and a Winter Storm Uri victory for the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

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    Barnes & Thornburg Names 5 IP Department Leaders

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP announced Thursday that it tapped five new leaders for its intellectual property department in an effort to further help clients protect, enforce and leverage their assets.

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    Polsinelli Adds M&A Pro From Dallas Boutique

    Polsinelli PC announced Thursday that it has added a shareholder in Dallas from Atwood & McCall PLLC whose background includes significant in-house experience.

  • Insurance Firm Adds Texas Office As Claim Denials Spike

    Your Insurance Attorney announced Wednesday that it has opened a new office in Houston, noting that the property and casualty insurance firm's expansion comes as the state faces worsening hurricane seasons and higher levels of insurance claim denials.

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    Mid-Law Mergers: Some Eye Gains, Others Under Pressure

    Mid-Law firms are increasingly eyeing tie-ups despite this year's lag in mergers, although industry observers note that some firms are jumping on opportunities while others are seeking a lifeline.

  • Texas Powerhouse: Yetter Coleman

    A native Texas firm, litigation boutique Yetter Coleman LLP racked up a series of wins last year for clients in the Lone Star State and beyond, including achieving a reversal on appeal of a $1.6 billion judgment against IBM, securing a dismissal in a billion-dollar oil and gas lease dispute, and defeating an antitrust suit brought by the Federal Trade Commission.

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    Longtime Texas A&M Atty Becomes General Counsel

    An attorney with two decades of service on the in-house legal team for the Texas A&M University system has been elevated to the role of general counsel.

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    Wright Close Elevates Former Texas Justice To Name Partner

    Lone Star State trial and appellate boutique Wright Close & Barger LLP announced Wednesday that it is changing the firm's name to Wright Close Barger & Guzman, highlighting the contributions of former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman.

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    Legal Rates Surge Moderates, But Pressure Remains High

    As legal departments face mounting pressure to manage costs, increases in hourly billing rates from law firms appear to be moderating, with the first few months of 2025 presenting a snapshot of this reality, according to a recent report from Wolters Kluwer's ELM Solutions.

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    The Top In-House Hires Of August

    Legal department hires in the last month included high-profile appointments at the Association of Corporate Counsel, GE Vernova, and a California legal legend joining an AI startup named Anthropic. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from the past few weeks.

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    Hines Picks Ex-Cantor Fitzgerald Atty For GC Position

    Global real estate firm Hines announced Tuesday that it's hired a former executive managing director and general counsel for financial company Cantor Fitzgerald as its new general counsel, chief compliance officer and managing partner in its New York City office.

  • Texas Powerhouse: Haynes Boone

    Haynes Boone, an international law firm that got its start more than 50 years ago in Dallas, signed on recently as counsel to the new Texas stock exchange, represented Sabre Corp. in a $1.1 billion sale of its hospitality solutions business and obtained a complete trial court dismissal of a complex $1.3 billion subrogation action against Chiyoda International Corp.

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    2 Attorneys Return To Weil From Latham, Norton Rose

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP announced Tuesday that it has continued its boomerang hiring streak with the addition of two partners who began their legal careers at the firm, including another intellectual property lawyer from Latham & Watkins LLP.

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    Hunton Brings On Former Texas Assistant Solicitor General

    Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP announced Tuesday that it has added a leader for its appellate practice in the Lone Star State, a former Texas assistant solicitor general who arrives from energy law firm Davis Gerald & Cremer PC.

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    The 2025 Regional Powerhouses

    Law360's annual list of regional powerhouses reflects not only the work of exemplary firms, but also emerging legal trends in each state, from matters involving Colorado's growing life sciences industry, to an uptick in bankruptcies in Delaware, to the continued flurry of intellectual property litigation in California.

  • Federal Judge Blocks New Texas ESG Disclosure Law

    A Texas federal judge temporarily blocked the state attorney general from enforcing a new state law that requires proxy advisory firms to disclose when their advice stems from factors such as diversity and inclusion, siding with the companies that argued the law breaches the First Amendment.

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    Retired Federal Judge Joins Lynn Pinker In Dallas

    Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann LLP, a Dallas-based commercial litigation firm, is bringing on retired U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, the first female chief district court judge for the Northern District of Texas.

  • Panel Nixes Buzbee Win Against Atty Who Aided Campaign

    A Texas state appeals court has reversed a $765,000 summary judgment awarded to personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee in a dispute with an attorney who said she was never paid for her contributions to his 2019 Houston mayoral campaign.

  • Quinn Emanuel, Nano Dimension Debate $30M Fee Spat Venue

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has urged a Massachusetts federal court to send a dispute over $30 million in legal fees allegedly owed by former client Desktop Metal back to state court to hash out claims with its parent company Nano Dimension, while Nano says the dispute belongs in Texas bankruptcy court.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Sullivan & Cromwell LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Fifth Circuit vacated a pair of Biden-era regulations aimed at bolstering transparency in the short-selling market.

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    Thompson Coe Elevates 18 To Partner Across Six Offices

    Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons LLP has elected 18 new partners from rosters in six offices in Texas, Colorado and Louisiana, the largest partner class in the firm's history.

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    Judges Split On Moving Marshals Into Judiciary

    Federal judges disagree about the necessity of a proposal to move the U.S. Marshals Service out from under executive branch control over fears that President Donald Trump may order marshals to stop protecting federal judges who rule against him or not to enforce those judges' orders.

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    Scores On July Bar Exam Rise Amid Dip In Test Takers

    The number of examinees passing the multistate bar exam in July continued to gain momentum, with near record highs seen this summer over the past 12 years, according to an announcement from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

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    Law360 Names Attys Who Moved Up The Firm Ranks In Q2

    A promotion to partner or election to practice group chair means a slew of new responsibilities and also lots of well-deserved recognition. Law360 reveals the list of attorneys whose commitment to legal excellence earned them highly coveted spots in the law firm leadership ranks. Find out if your old legal friends — or rivals — moved up in the second quarter of the year.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    BigLaw firms announced a slew of new hires this week as the legal industry sees August recede in the rearview mirror. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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Expert Analysis

  • 5 Best Practices For Firms Designing DEI Programs Author Photo

    Nikki Lewis Simon, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Greenberg Traurig, discusses best practices — and some pitfalls to avoid — for law firms looking to build programs aimed at driving inclusion in the workplace.

  • Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs Author Photo

    Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.

  • Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities? Author Photo

    While involvement in internal firm initiatives can be rewarding both personally and professionally, associates' billable time requirements don’t leave much room for other work, meaning they must develop strategies to ensure they’re meeting all of their commitments while remaining balanced, says Melanie Webber at Fisher Phillips.

  • Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets Author Photo

    Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together Author Photo

    It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.

  • How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers Author Photo

    A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.

  • A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy Author Photo

    Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.

  • Series

    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter Author Photo

    Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job? Author Photo

    Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law Author Photo

    Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

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