Texas Lawyer Blog

Survey says: Big jumps in some not-so-positive numbers reflecting firm leaders' views of the future

The vast majority of leaders of large U.S. firms believe firms are competing on price more than they did before the recent economic downturn, results of a new survey indicate.

Compete on price: According to the fourth annual Altman Weil Law Firms in Transition Survey, 92 percent of firm leaders believe the new price competition system is the new paradigm, compared to only 42 percent who thought so in 2009.

Commodity market: Also, 89 percent of firm leaders believe legal work has become commoditized permanently, compared to only 26 percent who believed so in 2009.

Less room at the top: Of the firm leaders, 68 percent believe firms will make fewer equity partners in the future, compared to only 23 percent who thought that in 2009.

Less room at the bottom: Additionally, 55 percent believe firms will hire smaller first-year classes than before the recession, compared to only 11 percent who thought so three years ago.

Optimistic nonetheless: When asked about their overall confidence that firms are prepared to meet the challenges of the current legal marketplace, the majority of firm leaders gave their firm a “7” on a scale of 1-to-10, with a 10 meaning completely confident. That rating was an “8” in 2011, Altman Weil reports in a press release about the survey.

Here’s what firm leaders expect their greatest challenges to be over the next two years: sustaining and growing profitability, attracting and retaining the most talented lawyers, strengthening relationships with clients, and leading change/managing the expectations of partners.

Altman Weil, a consulting company in Newtown Square, Pa., surveyed managing partners and chairmen/chairwomen at 792 U.S. firms with 50 or more lawyers in March and April for the survey. The results are based on completed surveys from 238 firms. At least 16 of the firms surveyed are in Texas.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Fulbright & Jaworski names new chairman for executive committee, effective Jan. 1, 2013

Kenneth L. Stewart (pictured) will take over the leadership of 851-lawyer Fulbright & Jaworski on Jan. 1, 2013. The firm announced today that its 351 partners have elected Stewart chairman of the Houston-based firm’s executive committee. He is currently partner-in-charge of the firm’s Dallas office and is a member of the firm’s policy committee and partners committee. He will succeed Steven B. Pfeiffer, of Washington, D.C., who has been chair of the firm’s executive committee since January 2003. Stewart has been a corporate partner with the firm since 1987, according to the firm’s announcement. Neither Pfeiffer nor Stewart immediately returned a telephone call seeking comment.

-- Jeanne Graham

Greenberg Traurig’s loss is McDermott Will & Emery's gain

Allan Van Fleet (pictured) has joined McDermott Will & Emery in Houston as a partner in the firm’s antitrust and competition practice group, along with associate Nicholas Grimmer. Van Fleet and Grimmer joined McDermott from Greenberg Traurig’s Houston office.

“I am making the move to step up my antitrust game with some of the very best people in the world,” says Van Fleet, who says he’s excited to work again with Allison Smith, former U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division deputy assistant attorney general. (Van Fleet and Smith once worked together at Vinson & Elkins.)

Steven Spears, partner-in-charge of McDermott’s Houston office, says, “Allan brings a lot to the office.” Van Fleet says his clients include The Kansas City Southern Railway Co. of Kansas City, Mo. He says he spent Monday and Tuesday moving into his new office.

In a written statement, Douglas Atnipp, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Houston office, writes, "Allan is a fine lawyer. We wish him the best with his new firm."

--Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Michele Petty, Democratic candidate for Texas Supreme Court, seeks to boot opponent, Republican Justice Nathan Hecht, from ballot

A Texas Supreme Court candidate has sued high court Justice Nathan Hecht and the Texas Republican Party, among others, seeking to strike Hecht’s name from the ballot.

Michele Petty, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for the Place 6 seat on the high court that Hecht now holds, claims Hecht’s candidacy is invalid because of alleged defects in some of the petitions required to put him on the ballot. That’s according to the May 11 petition in Michele Petty v. Texas Republican Party, et al., filed in Travis County’s 126th District Court.

The suit also names as defendants Texas Republican Party Chair Steve Munisteri and Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.

“I think that the bottom line is that it’s important that the judicial candidates all have to comply with the Election Code,” says Petty, a San Antonio civil-litigation solo.

Hecht, who is running unopposed in the Republican Primary, says he hasn’t been served with the suit, and he declines further comment. Munisteri and Rich Parsons, spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State’s office, each didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Chris Elam, spokesman for the Texas Republican Party, says he’s unsure if the party or Munisteri have been served with the suit.

Petty’s petition says the Texas Election Code requires judicial candidates to collect 50 signatures from each of the state’s 14 intermediate appellate districts. She alleges some Fort Worth signatures for Hecht are “facially defective” because there were “three blanks which should have been filled out completely but were left blank.”

Petty also claims: There are defects in the affidavits of the people who circulated the signature petitions; notaries failed to comply with the Texas Government Code; and people who circulated the petitions failed to comply with a requirement to read a statement informing people that upon signing, they’d become ineligible to vote in another party’s primary and more.

Petty seeks injunctive relief to enjoin and restrain the defendants from placing Hecht’s name on the primary or general-election ballots; certifying Hecht’s candidacy; or creating and circulating election materials including Hecht.

-- Angela Morris

Federal suit filed: Richard Mithoff representing children whose parents died in crash

Administrators of the estates of Joshua Bryant Berry and Robin Perlo Berry, who were killed in an accident in West Texas on July 2, 2011, and the guardian of the Houston’s couple’s three children filed a strict liability, negligence and breach of warranty suit on May 14 against Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Canada Inc.

The accident gained national attention after a number of celebrities, including Justin Bieber, assisted in fundraising for the Berry children.

The complaint was filed by Matthew Berry, guardian of the three Berry children and administrator of Joshua Berry’s estate, and Sue G. Perlo, administrator of Robin Berry’s estate.

All three children were injured in the accident, but the couple’s two sons sustained “permanent paraplegia.” The children currently live in Houston with Matthew Berry and his family.

In Matthew Berry, et al., v. Chrysler Group LLC, et al., filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the plaintiffs also bring a negligence cause of action against Mike Scott Doyle, the driver of the Toyota 4Runner that allegedly veered across the road and collided with the Berry family’s 2003 Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

The plaintiffs allege in the complaint that the “structural safety cage” of the minivan “failed structurally,” crushing Robin Berry, the driver, and Joshua Berry, the front-seat passenger. The plaintiffs also allege the rear seat restraint system “failed to provide adequate restraint and actually increased risk of serious injury to these children.”

The plaintiffs seek unspecified actual damages from the defendants, along with prejudgment and post-judgment interest and other relief.

Richard Mithoff (pictured), an attorney for the plaintiffs, says he cannot estimate damages but says the lifetime care of the children will “run into the millions of dollars.” He says, “It’s obviously a very substantial case. The two young boys are paralyzed from the waist down, and all three of the children, of course, lost their parents.”

Michael Palese, a spokesman for both Chrysler entities, wrote this in response to a call requesting comment on the allegations in the complaint: “Chrysler Group’s sympathies remain with the Berry family and friends. . . . We note that the 2003 Chrysler Town & Country minivan meets or exceeds all applicable federal safety standards and has an excellent safety record. As Chrysler Group has not been served with this lawsuit, and has not had an opportunity to study what it alleges, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Neither Phil Summers, a member in Lorance & Thompson of Houston who represents Doyle, nor Joseph Ahmad, a shareholder in Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing and an attorney for Perlo, immediately returned a telephone message each seeking comment.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys 

Vinson & Elkins opens San Francisco office

Vinson & Elkins opened an office in San Francisco today, to complement the office it opened in Palo Alto in January 2010.

“We would expect the two offices would work in close coordination to each other. There’s some synergies to being in the local market,” says Mark Kelly, chairman of the Houston-based firm.

He says the San Francisco office will focus on antitrust, complex commercial litigation, intellectual property work and white-collar crime defense.

Litigation partner Matthew Jacobs relocated from the Palo Alto office to San Francisco, and Kelly says a number of associates have also moved to the firm’s newest office. Jacobs did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

The firm didn’t set up shop in San Francisco for any particular client, he says.

“It was more looking long term and looking in terms of where we want to be to expand our national litigation,” he says.

The San Francisco office is the 16th for the firm. V&E currently has six lawyers in Palo Alto.

— Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Keynote speakers prepare for law school graduation ceremonies

The keynote speakers for the spring hooding ceremonies at Texas’ nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools include jurists, an academician, a philanthropist, an assistant attorney general, private practitioners, a general counsel and the president of the State Bar of Texas.

The May rituals begin tomorrow at five of the schools. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff of San Antonio will address graduates at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio; philanthropist Robert H. Dedman Jr. will deliver the keynote address at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas; Judge Ilona M. Holmes, 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Fort Lauderdale, will speak to graduates at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston; Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, will address graduates at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth; and Alan R. Crain, senior vice president and general counsel of Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. will be the speaker at the University of Houston Law Center.

Three graduation ceremonies are planned for May 19. Sigmund G. Libowitz, actor, movie producer, screen writer and associate with Venable in Washginton, D.C., will be the keynote speaker at South Texas College of Law in Houston; State Bar of Texas President Bob Black will be the commencement speaker at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock; and trial lawyer Joe Jamail, partner in Jamail & Kolius in Houston, will give the graduation address to students at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.

Baylor University School of Law in Waco held its spring commencement ceremony on April 28. Jeremy Counseller, Baylor Law professor, was the keynote speaker.

-- Jeanne Graham

Akin Gump considering two for next firm chairman

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is going through a succession process and is considering two partners as successors to firm chairman R. Bruce McLean. The two partners are Kim Koopersmith of New York, the firm’s managing partner-United States, and J. Kenneth Menges, partner-in-charge of the firm’s Dallas office, Menges acknowledged today.

Washington, D.C. partner McLean succeeded name partner Alan Feld as chairman of the Dallas-based firm in 1996. He did not immediately return a request for comment.

Koopersmith is a litigation partner, serves as chair of the firm’s partnership committee, is a member of the firm’s partner compensation committee and the diversity committees for the firm and New York office, according to the firm’s website. She did not immediately return a request for comment.

Menges is co-head of the firm’s corporate practice, a member of the firm’s management committee and the Dallas office’s diversity committee, according to the firm’s website. Menges deferred questions about the firm’s succession process and plans to Barry A. Chasnoff of San Antonio, chairman of the firm’s succession committee. Chasnoff did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

-- Jeanne Graham

State Bar poll respondents spurn Keller in CCA race

If it were up to Texas lawyers, the November general election for presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would be an upset: challenger Keith Hampton would boot incumbent Sharon Keller from her position, according to the 2012 Judicial Poll by the State Bar of Texas.

State Bar spokeswoman Kim Davey explains the Bar conducts the poll every election year before the primaries, simply to ask lawyers who they would vote for if the election were held today. The poll covers candidates for the Texas Supreme Court, the CCA, and the state’s 14 intermediate appellate courts.

“The judicial poll has been conducted since 1952 at the direction of the Supreme Court. It’s a long-standing nonpartisan preference poll on the judicial candidates,” explains Davey.

If the poll actually decided the election, Supreme Court Justices Don Willett, David Medina and Nathan Hecht would be safe and sound. So would CCA Judges Barbara Hervey and Elsa Alcala. But Keller garnered only 3,516 votes compared to Hampton’s 4,838 votes. Another 941 votes went to Lance Stott.

Hampton, an Austin criminal-defense solo and a Democrat, says he thinks the vote reflects he’s “getting support from independents and Republicans,” and that he’s conveyed to the legal community “my skills and my record and what I’ve done as a lawyer.” Hampton adds he thinks the vote also reflects controversy surrounding Keller over her decision to “shut the courthouse doors” on a last-minute death penalty appeal and a Texas Ethics Commission fine against her.

Keller didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment before deadline.

-- Angela Morris

Writer-lawyer's first novel drawing rave reviews

Ben Fountain says his wife’s comment that he, a former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld associate, will never return to lawyer-dom represents: “a safe assumption on her part.” His wife, Sharon Fountain, a partner in Dallas’ Thompson & Knight, has supported Ben Fountain as he has launched himself as a fiction writer.

His first novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, was published May 1 and it has received rave reviews in The New York Times and elsewhere. Both husband and wife welcome the reviewers’ kind words about the novel, which the Times calls, “a gripping, eloquent provocation.”

The 307-page book, according to the publisher’s description, tells the story of the eight surviving men of a ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents — three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew — who have become America's most sought-after heroes and are concluding a Bush administration-launched media tour to reinvigorate public support for the war as guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, and are slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the superstar pop group Destiny's Child. The lead character is a 19-year-old Texan.

Fountain, who in 2006 had published a well-reviewed collection of short stories, “Brief Encounters With Che Guevara,” which Texas Lawyer wrote about in 2008, says: “All along, my fiction has been tied pretty closely to the actual world.” That means, he says, he drew from real-life characters he met as a lawyer for some of the traits of fictional ones in this novel. “There are quite a few wealthy successful men who float through its pages. I would say my experience, my five years as a lawyer in commercial litigation, and one year in real estate finance, gave me some good ideas for those types. They want to make a lot of money and spend a lot of money and leave a big wake behind them.”

-- Miriam Rozen

TAJC committee studying changes to civil-procedure rule on forms

A committee within the Texas Access to Justice Commission may soon turn its attention to researching ideas for changes to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (TRCP) to require courts to accept pro se filings made with standardized forms and to create a uniform definition of indigency.

The ideas came partially from discussions at the April 13 and 14 meeting of the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee (SCAC) about controversial pro se divorce forms, says TAJC Executive Director Trish McAllister.

McAllister (pictured) says she asked a subcommittee of the TAJC’s Self-Represented Litigants Committee to research a change to TRCP Rule 7, which says litigants have the right to represent themselves in civil suits. The change would indicate judges can’t reject a legally sufficient court filing simply because a litigant used a form.

“One of the difficulties we’ve seen for people who attempt to represent themselves … are judges that won’t accept fill-in-the-blank forms or any form of any kind,” she explains.

McAllister says several SCAC members suggested the revision, and she also read it in a report to the SCAC by the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section and the Texas Family Law Foundation

Steve Bresnen, a lobbyist for both groups, says the groups’ position is courts shouldn’t reject form filings if they’re legally sufficient and they achieve justice in an individual’s case. But the groups oppose standardized forms because “people are not standardized,” he says

The TAJC subcommittee also will continue its research into revising TRCP Rule 145, which allows poor people to ask a court to waive court costs, McAllister says. The revision would clarify the guidelines for a court to find a person is indigent because, currently, there are many conflicting guidelines, and courts make different decisions on who is considered poor.

-- Angela Morris

The morning docket

Legal Sector Adds 3,900 Jobs in April (The AmLaw Daily)

Justices remove themselves from Tom DeLay's appeal (Austin American-Statesman)

Judge blasts Harris public defender over costs for juveniles' cases (Houston Chronicle)

An Evening with the Texas Supreme Court” (2012) (The Supreme Court of Texas Blog)

Errant prosecutors seldom held to account (Austin American-Statesman)

Prosecutors rarely go wrong, should not be hindered (Austin American-Statesman)

-- Angela Morris

This week in Texas Lawyer

Intervention Prevention: Intervening to Collect Fee in Client’s Tort Case Doesn’t Work for Firm

Pool suit: Defendants Seek Death Penalty Sanction Against Customers

Labor and employment: Court Reverses Sabine Pilot Punitives Award

Approach the bench: For Fort Bend Judge, Legal Career Had a Hectic Start

Election: State Bar Gets First African-American President-Elec

Criminal law: Federal Judge Grants Habeas in Death Row Case

Some Prosecutors Question CCA Survey

Litigator of the week: Houston Lawyer Fends Off Pet Store’s DTPA Claim

Trial practice: Objecting to the Admission of Harmful Evidence

Litigation: Preparing a Lawyer-Witness for Trial

Texans to join in lobbying for up-or-down votes on judicial nominations

Chris Elliott, a shareholder in Austin’s Dougherty, Hearon & Moody, will be among four Texas lawyers and 150 others from 27 states descending on the nation’s capital on May 7 to participate in what organizers are calling “a day of discussions,” about unfilled judicial vacancies, according to a statement the group released May 3. The lawyers have scheduled stops at the White House and the Senate.

From Texas, the group includes: Matt Glazer, executive director of the non-profit Progress Texas; Celeste Villarreal, associate judge for the City of Austin; and Jeanne Cezanne “Cezy” Collins, president of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations and partner in El Paso’s Kemp Smith.

According to the release, the Texans plan to urge the Senate hold final up-and-down votes on all pending federal judicial nominations and encouraging the president to keep nominating until all the vacancies in the state are filled.

In an email, Elliott writes: “I see the primary source of the delays as the hyper-partisan tone that the judicial nominations process has taken on during the past few administrations. However, the current Senate has taken this to new levels. The bi-partisan “Gang of Four” agreement from 2005 (only filibuster judicial nominations under extraordinary circumstances) has been completely abandoned by the current Senate minority. The filibuster, or threat of filibuster, of judicial nominations by the minority party in the Senate has become routine. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get anything done.”

Asked how his group expects to accomplish its goal, given how rarely judicial nominations have been confirmed this close to a presidential election, Elliott adds: “Part of what we hope to accomplish in our visit to Washington next week is to highlight the effect that this hyper-partisan approach to judicial nominations is having across the country — record numbers of judicial vacancies and over 30 ‘judicial emergencies’ across the country (not enough judges on the bench to hear the backlog of cases) — so that perhaps both sides will realize and appreciate that filling judicial vacancies should not be held hostage to the desire to score political points. So many times in past administrations we’ve heard the mantra ‘these nominations deserve a simple up or down vote.’ That’s our message next week, backed up by strong evidence that our federal justice system is suffering because of the current almost complete lack of up-or-down votes. We are hopeful that this message, and the message of untold numbers of other citizens who are speaking up on this issue, will resonate. If it does, the hope is that votes on nominees in the pipeline will proceed without reference to the upcoming election.”

-- Miriam Rozen

Texas February bar exam results released

More than three-fourths of Texas law school graduates who sat for the Texas bar exam for the first time in February scored well enough to pass, according to the Texas Board of Law Examiners in Austin. Of the 367 Texas law school graduates who were first-time test-takers, 281 (76.57 percent) passed, according to the Texas BLE. That pass rate is lower than the 87.89 percent, or 341 of 388, first-time test-takers who passed the February 2011 exam.

With a 92.59 percent pass rate on the February 2012 exam, Baylor University School of Law in Waco takes first place among Texas’ nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools in terms of the percentage of grads passing the exam on their first try.

An alphabetized list of those who passed the February exam can be found at http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Results/pass_0212.htm

Congratulations to all!

-- Jeanne Graham

McKool Smith opens its newest office in the Silicon Valley

Dallas-based McKool Smith now has most of its bases covered when it comes to locating law offices in federal jurisdictions with hot intellectual property dockets. On May 2, the firm hired former King & Spalding partner Courtland Reichman to head the firm’s newest office in the Silicon Valley.

“We have been trying to get into Northern California for several years. Having a presence in Northern California is important for an IP litigation firm. There’s a lot of potential clients out there and, with the new venue rules, a lot of the cases are going to get transferred out there anyway,” says firm founder Mike McKool (pictured at left).

The firm now has eight offices, two of which are in California. In 1996, the firm expanded into Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas, which years later would become one of the nation’s busiest patent venues. A series of rulings from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in recent years made it easier for defendants to transfer patent cases to other venues, and the firm has seen cases it had pending in the Eastern District of Texas transferred to the Northern District of California, where many high-tech companies are located.

“You don’t want it to be a situation where it gets transferred out there and you’re not familiar with the judges . . . .” McKool says. “Well, fine, I’ve got my people out there. I know the lawyers. I know the people, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to overemphasize that but it’s one of the reasons it’s nice to be out there,” he adds.

Reichman (pictured at right), who was formerly managing partner of King & Spalding’s San Francisco office, says McKool Smith is a natural fit in the Silicon Valley — a place he says a “pretty magical thing” happens as a result of the IP work done in the area’s research universities and high tech companies. “You drive down the street and it’s like a who’s-who of high-tech America,” Reichman says. Reichman is being joined in the office by principal Jill Wasserman and senior counsel Sarah Jorgensen, who formerly were with King & Spalding.

-- John Council

Pro bono group of accountants and lawyers opens office in Austin

Austin commercial litigator Blair Dancy likes helping artists turn their creative activities into successful businesses. Dancy, a partner in Austin’s Van Osselaer & Buchanan, is a board member of Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (TALA), a state-wide pro bono group that offers services to artists.

The TALA announced on April 26 the opening of an Austin office in the headquarters of the Austin Creative Alliance at 701 Tillery St., he says.

“Studies match a thriving artist community to a thriving community overall, and helping them turn their art into a viable business is a key part of what we do,” he says. “It’s so fun. It’s a ton of fun.”

Referrals for TALA pro bono work usually involve intellectual property matters rather than litigation, family or criminal law, says Dancy, a commercial litigator.

Lawyers can go online at www.talarts.org or call 512-247-2531 to offer to help, he says. Dancy says he has artists in his family and also does some creative writing. “I have a passion for the arts,” he says. “This is something close to my heart. Artists are all budding entrepreneurs when they begin.”

-- Jeanne Graham

Lisa Tatum's election makes history for State Bar

Lisa Tatum has won a historic election to become the first African-American president-elect of the State Bar of Texas. Kristy Sims Piazza also won election to become president-elect of the Texas Young Lawyers Association. Both women will assume their posts June 15 at the State Bar’s Annual Meeting.

Tatum (pictured at left), a San Antonio solo, says of her historic win: “It is an absolute honor. It is a profound statement. … [W]hat my responsibilities are beyond being the good steward and good servant, now I also have a face that’s representing a first.”

She earned 9,731 votes compared to 7,840 votes for her opponent, Steve Bolden, according to State Bar election results. Tatum says she plans to begin “getting oriented” soon for her term by learning more about programs State Bar leaders are working on now, and “hot issues” like the controversy over divorce forms for indigent self-represented litigants.

Sims Piazza (pcitured at right), who won 2,026 votes compared to opponent Shivali Sharma’s 1,438 votes, says she wants to prepare to launch project ideas like creating tool-kit guides for young lawyers for different practice areas and pro bono work, and an online job bank for young lawyers and law students.

“I am so honored and excited to be elected,” says Sims Piazza, an associate with Koons Fuller Vanden Eykel & Robertson in Plano.

According to the election results, candidates winning election to the State Bar Board of Directors include: Robert Guest, Louis H. Iselin, Laura Gibson, Denise Scofield, Larry McDougal, Lawrence Boyd, Robert E. Aldrich Jr., Sara E. Dysart, Thomas C. Riney and Roger A. Key.

Candidates winning election as TYLA directors include Baili B. Rhodes, Aaron T. Capps, William “Bill” Gardner, Leif Olson, Patrice B. Childress, Kathryn E. Boatman, Sally Pretorius, John W. Shaw, Shannon Steel, Danny Razo, Laura Hale and Sam Houston.

TYLA Director District 4 candidates Zeke Fortenberry and Kimberly Smith tied with 75 votes each; pursuant to its bylaws, TYLA decided the race by the flip of a coin, and Smith won the toss.

-- Angela Morris

Houston lawyer says he was target of scam attempt

Houston lawyer Ted Tredennick says an alleged scammer targeted his law firm recently, but he caught the trick and he wants to warn other lawyers. Tredennick, partner in Thompson & Tredennick in Houston, says a person emailed him, identifying himself as chairman of Permanoid Ltd. in Manchester, England. The person wrote he was looking for local counsel to pursue a $1.5 million breach-of-contract claim against a real company, Kaman Industrial Technologies.

When Tredennick emailed back to request more details, the person sent an alleged $1.5 million contract-of-sale with Kaman for industrial supplies he claimed he never received, a string of email messages, and details of a $724,000 wire transfer he allegedly sent to Kaman.

Tredennick says he discovered the trickery when he called Kaman’s corporate headquarters and spoke with its vice president and general counsel, Glenn Messemer. Tredennick says Messemer told him the person’s claims were “bogus” and Tredennick was the sixth lawyer to call about the matter.

Eric Remmington, Kaman’s vice president of investor relations, returned a telephone message left for Messemer. He says he doesn’t know why the scam mentions Kaman, but notes it references the company’s nationwide industrial-parts distribution business, which has seven locations in Texas. Remmington says Kaman is investigating the scam, adding, “We don’t typically comment on that type of investigation.”

Tredennick says he thinks the scam won’t be successful because any good lawyer will learn the scenario is fake while making phone calls to examine the legitimacy of the claim.

“I’m assuming the scam is you tell them what your retainer is, and they send you a check — a bogus check. When you get it to cash it, and you put your account number, somehow they can do something nefarious with your account number and your signature,” says Tredennick.

John Sirman, web manager and strategic planning director for the State Bar of Texas, says he’s heard of similar schemes where the scammer’s goal is to send a check with the expectation a lawyer will deposit it and then disburse funds to someone. But after the disbursement, the lawyer learns the check was fake — no funds came through to the lawyer’s account — and she loses the disbursed funds.

-- Angela Morris

Hunton & Williams' Texas lawyers brainstorm pro bono projects

On April 26, more than 10 Hunton & Williams lawyers met for lunch and fellowship to start identifying future pro bono projects for the firms’ Texas lawyers, says pro bono committee co-chairman Dan Garner.

“We go and originate the opportunities for work for pro bono, much like we would a regular-paying commercial client,” says Garner, partner in Hunton & Williams in Dallas. He says the pro bono committee reviewed the past year’s efforts, brainstormed about future volunteer opportunities, and discussed inviting nonprofits to talk about their legal needs during the firm’s annual Pro Bono Week.

The Texas offices have expectations to meet. In the past three years, all of the firm's 110 attorneys in Dallas, Houston and Austin have worked pro bono, says John Eix, Dallas-based regional business development staffer. During the April 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012, fiscal year, its Texas lawyers spent more than 4,500 hours on pro bono, he says.

“It’s part of the culture here, to give back to the community,” Eix says, adding that Hunton & Williams offices throughout the United States also commit to pro bono service.

Among other things, Hunton & Williams lawyers in Texas during fiscal year 2011 worked on legal matters for the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee and helped pro bono clients through nonprofits like the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program.

Garner notes people have a great need for professional help and says, “I think lawyers have a unique ability to serve a niche of that need. … I think it’s wonderful to be at a law firm where that is celebrated, it’s expected, it’s part of who we are.”

-- Angela Morris