Texas Pulse


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    BigLaw's 'New Normal' Is Fewer Hours Per Lawyer

    Lawyers are billing fewer hours, even as their rates soar, ushering in what appears to be a "new normal" for billable hours.

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    Racial, Class Gaps Persist In Strong Year For Law Grad Hiring

    Employment for the class of 2024 reached near-record levels, but graduates from underrepresented backgrounds were less likely to secure attorney positions or judicial clerkships, according to newly released data from the National Association for Law Placement.

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    Hinshaw Unveils Rebrand To Show 'Forward Momentum'

    Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP on Wednesday announced a new website and rebranding during what it calls a period of strong financial performance and growth.

  • AI Provider Matey Partners With SC Criminal Defense Assoc.

    Matey, a legal technology startup that develops artificial intelligence tools for criminal defense, has partnered with the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as its exclusive AI partner for e-discovery, according to an announcement Tuesday.

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    Kirkland Partner, Ex-Sen. Cornyn Counsel Tapped For US Atty

    A Dallas-based Kirkland & Ellis LLP litigation partner who previously served as U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's chief counsel has been nominated as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

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    Companies Report Increasingly Gearing Up For AI Risks

    More than a third of major public companies in a study cite AI as a risk factor in their annual financial filings, and 73% report they are aligning with external cybersecurity standards. Both numbers are significantly higher than last year.

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    Texas Legislature Bans Social Media, Text Legal Solicitations

    Attention Texas attorneys: Be careful about sending out pitches to solicit new clients through text message or social media message, or hiring someone else to do it for you, because if you're not careful, you might run afoul of an updated Texas criminal law.

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    What It Takes to Stay Elite As Legal Market Shifts

    The law firm market has undergone unprecedented change in recent years, allowing for more upward mobility for some firms yet presenting risks for the longtime stalwarts of prestige. Here's how law firms navigate those shifting dynamics.

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    Prestige Leaders: The Firms In The Billionaires' Club

    As BigLaw firms continue to post record-breaking revenues, we're highlighting the firms that reported more than $1 billion in gross revenue in the most recent calendar year.

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    The 2025 Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders

    Check out our Prestige Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their financial performance, attractiveness to attorneys and law students, ability to secure accolades and positive legal news media representation.

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    These Firms Are The 2025 Prestige Leaders

    Clients gravitate towards firms with sterling reputations, and so does exceptional legal talent. Here are this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders — the 100 firms the industry recognizes for their prominence, power and distinction.

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    Ontier Steps Into Texas With Dallas Corporate Attorney

    International law firm Ontier has expanded its reach into the Lone Star State through an of counsel relationship with the Dallas-based managing attorney of Gutierrez Law Group PLLC.

  • Paul Hastings Adds Baker Botts Energy M&A Pro In Houston

    Paul Hastings LLP announced Tuesday that it has added a Houston-based energy deal lawyer from Baker Botts LLP, expanding the firm's transactional capabilities in the energy industry and strengthening its Texas platform.

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    How GCs Can Keep The 'Essence' Of Their DEI Efforts

    While shifts this year in federal diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines may have changed the way corporate legal teams track and share demographic information — including for their external counsel — a panel of in-house attorneys who spoke Monday said their work on the issue continues.

  • Bank Seeks Atty Fees For 'Vexatious' Patent Suit

    CIBC Bank has asked a Texas federal court to impose sanctions on a rival litigant, its principal and one of its attorneys, saying the patent claims they brought were "vexatious and substantively unsuccessful in every single aspect."

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    Texas Hospitality Biz General Counsel To Resign

    The attorney who has served for more than four years as general counsel of Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. and Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. is stepping down from his role in mid-December, according to filings Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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    Texas Firm Tries To Undo FLSA Ruling Just Before Trial

    A Texas personal injury law firm argued that a federal judge was mistaken when he ruled that a paralegal was an independent contractor for only the first part of her tenure, urging the court to reconsider the decision days before a trial in the wage case.

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    Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

    The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Robinson & Cole's handling of a $146.5 million healthcare transaction and Munger Tolles' defense of OpenAI in a trade secrets suit lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from Oct. 3 to 17. 

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Caldwell Cassady & Curry PC and Miller Fair Henry PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Texas federal jury found Samsung must pay nearly $445.5 million for infringing four wireless communication patents.

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    Amid Expansion, Texas Wealth Manager Adds New GC

    Austin, Texas-based wealth management company Kestra Holdings has brought on a new general counsel in anticipation of its current legal leader's retirement, and has announced plans to launch a secondary headquarters in Arizona.

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    How Frost Brown, Gibbons Merger Plans Took Root

    The proposed tie-up of Midwest-based Frost Brown Todd LLP and Northeast middle-market peer Gibbons PC is being praised as a smart combination in an increasingly competitive middle market where consolidation pressures are driving an increase in merger activity.

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    Reid Collins Leader Makes A Case For Being A Plaintiffs Atty

    Reid Collins & Tsai LLP co-founder William T. Reid IV believes law schools don't do a good enough job of showing students all their options and instead push them toward a BigLaw career they may not find fulfilling. So he wrote a book touting the virtues of a career as a plaintiffs attorney.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    This was another action-packed week for the legal industry as law firms expanded their operations and hired C-suite executives. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

  • Texas Law Firm Partially Misclassified Paralegal, Judge Rules

    A former paralegal for a Texas law firm was an independent contractor for the first four years at the firm, but an employee for the remaining two, a federal judge ruled while denying her bid to snag a win on her overtime and minimum wage claims.

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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.

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    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.

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    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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