Texas Lawyer Blog

Suspended student sues Pat Robertson, Regent U law school

Adam Key alleges in a suit filed Nov. 29 in U.S. District Court in Houston that Regent University breached contracts with him by suspending him from law school.  The suspension came after Key posted an image on an Internet site of television evangelist Pat Robertson, the university’s founder and president, with his middle finger extended. Key, a Harris County resident, alleges, among other things, in his original complaint in Key v. Robertson and Regent University that the university sent him materials touting its students’ involvement in religious and civil liberties cases and its accreditation by the American Bar Association. “The materials clearly indicate that he would enjoy religious liberty and freedom of speech,” says Houston solo Randall Kallinen, who represents Key.  To be ABA accredited, Kallinen says, a university must meet standards for ensuring students' First Amendment rights.  Key also alleges in the complaint that university officials threatened disciplinary action against him unless he removed the Robertson finger picture, which the officials called obscene, from the Internet site.  As alleged in the complaint, Key immediately removed the photo -- a still picture taken from a YouTube video -- and posted on a Regent e-mail discussion group an academic critique on freedom of speech with regard to the Robertson picture.  University officials then suspended Key from law school for two years without providing notice or an opportunity to be heard, according to the complaint.  Kallinen contends the officials’ action breached their contract not to discipline Key if he pulled down the finger photo.  Regent University spokeswoman Judy Baker declines comment, noting that the university has not been served with the suit.  U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent is assigned to hear the case. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins

New Dallas leader for Jones Day

George Manning, a defense lawyer who counts Harriet Miers on his client list, will become the partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s 207-lawyer Dallas office on Jan. 1, 2008. Manning, who has led the firm’s 135-lawyer Atlanta office since 2000, will succeed Frank Hubach, who has been partner-in-charge in Dallas for 15 years. Manning says his plan is to work with Nancy MacKimm, the partner-in-charge in Houston, to “make the great state of Texas understand the breadth and depth of what we are, both nationally and internationally.” He notes the 2,359-lawyer firm has more than 400 lawyers in Europe and more than 200 in Asia. Manning says he will spend about 75 percent of his time representing clients and the rest of his time on management obligations. Manning says he represents Miers, the former White House counsel who is now a partner in Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell in Dallas, in connection with an investigation conducted by the House Judiciary Committee into circumstances surrounding the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. He declines to identify other clients. “The work I do, which is usually below the radar screen, is investigative work and white-collar work, which if truly successful, you will never hear their names,” he says. Prior to his assignment in Atlanta, Manning worked in Jones Day’s Washington, D.C., office and was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Manning says he will work closely with Hubach over the next year. In addition to assisting Manning, Hubach says he will work on client relationships and development, partner-level recruiting and charitable duties during 2008. Hubach, who joined Jones Day in 1968, says he plans to retire at the end of 2008.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Lawyer accused of forging judges’ signatures

An Austin criminal defense lawyer accused of forging the signatures of three Austin judges on personal bonds to gain clients’ release from jail is free on a personal bond, says Roger Wade, spokesman for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. Wade says Bruce Phillip Garrison, a solo practitioner, turned himself in at the Travis County Jail shortly before 7 p.m. on Nov. 27 in response to an arrest warrant that the Travis County District Attorney’s Office issued earlier that day. Wade says authorities released Garrison, 37, on a personal bond on three charges of forgery, a third-degree felony, and three charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony. As alleged in the affidavit for the arrest warrant, Garrison forged the signatures of Travis County Court-at-Law No. 6 Judge Jan Breland and District Judges Julie Kocurek and Jon Wisser, who is now retired, on bonds. According to the affidavit, a witness provided a sworn statement that he witnessed Garrison sign Kocurek’s name to a bond. The witness alleges in the statement that Garrison told him, “I do this all the time.” But Austin solo Joshua Saegert, Garrison’s attorney, says his client is innocent.  “He did not do this, and we intend to plead not guilty,” Saegert says. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Starry, starry night

Is the star of Bethlehem -- described in the New Testament’s Gospel of Matthew as guiding the magi to Jesus in Bethlehem -- fact or myth? Frederick A. Larson, an intellectual property solo in College Station, says the existence of the star of Bethlehem is an astronomical fact, and he has created a video presentation to prove it. Larson says he has spent more than a decade researching the history of the star and combing the Gospel of Matthew “for every shred of evidence.” He says he has correlated the information culled from the gospel, such as Matthew's reference to the star as one that rose in the east and endured over time, with a software program that recreates the position and movement of celestial bodies on any night. A Web site has more details about Larson’s findings as well as his speaking schedule at various churches. Larson says he shows the audience via computer model what the sky looked like more than 2,000 years ago: “I reproduce those night skies for them to see,” he says, “the same skies the magi saw.” Over the centuries, there have been numerous theories about the possible celestial events that could have produced something like what Matthew described. Larson says his presentation builds on the planetary motion laws proposed by German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler during the 17th century. Kepler determined that a series of conjunctions -- occuring when celestial bodies are at the same celestial longitude -- during 6 B.C. of the planets Jupiter and Saturn could have created the astronomical event known as the star of Bethlehem. Larson argues that the event occurred during April of 2 B.C. with the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Venus, the star Regulus and a new moon. Larson says the conjunction would have appeared as the brightest star ever seen. “I believe the actual event matches the events described in Matthew,” Larson says. “For me, personally, that means the star was real.”
-- Jeanne Graham

It’s now official, to me at least

It’s easy to get so bogged down in the details and peculiarities of news and issues affecting the law and attorneys in our grand state that some of the bigger events of the day pass on by. For example, I heard somewhere that there’s a new U.S. attorney general: some guy named Michael Mukasey. Remind me, what happened to the old guy, Alberto Gonzales? He’s from Texas, right? Sorry. However, I finally got confirmation through my very Texascentric viewpoint that Mukasey does exist, because in my world, you’re nobody until you sue or get sued in a Texas court. Confirmation of the new AG's existence comes in the form of Haryani v. Mukasey, a minor Nov. 21  per curiam opinion from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, involving an appeal of a Dallas immigration case heard by the Board of Immigration Appeals. Since the immigration courts are an administrative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, the attorney general is always listed as the respondent in an immigration case. Unfortunately, the recent respondent's name change from Gonzalez to Mukasey in this 5th Circuit appeal didn’t do much to change the fortunes of Malik Muradali Haryani, a nonimmigrant visitor from Pakistan who came to the U.S. in 1990 with permission to stay one month. He, along with his wife -- also a nonimmigrant who entered the U.S. in 1998 without inspection -- were ordered removed by an immigration judge, a decision upheld by the BIA and the 5th Circuit.
-- John Council

Getting religion

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a Houston federal judge’s decision that a Harris County Courthouse monument featuring the King James version of the Bible violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the federal Constitution. On Nov. 26, the high court denied Harris County’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Staley v. Harris County, even though the county temporarily removed the monument during renovations at the courthouse. “Generally, this case always has been about religious freedom in Harris County,” says Houston solo Randall Kallinen, attorney for Kay Staley, who is also a Houston solo. Staley sued Harris County in 2003, claiming that the monument displaying the Bible was offensive.  “Harris County is the most religiously diverse county in Texas,” Kallinen says. In 2004, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake concluded that the Bible display violated the Establishment Clause and ordered the county to remove it from the monument. After the county appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel affirmed the district court’s decision in a 2-1 decision in 2006.  But the 5th Circuit, sitting en banc, held on April 24 that the issue was moot, because the county had removed the monument and the Bible.  In its 11-5 decision, however, the 5th Circuit declined to vacate the district court’s decision: “Should we vacate, Staley will be denied her judgment, not because her claim lacked merit, nor because of her choices or acts, but for the reason that Harris County, by its ‘last-minute’ voluntary acts, removed (temporarily) the monument from public viewing,” 5th Circuit Judge E. Grady Jolly wrote for the majority.  Jolly noted in the majority opinion that the county removed the monument on Jan. 19, four days before the 5th Circuit heard oral arguments in Staley. M. Sean Royall, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Dallas and Washington, D.C., who represented Harris County pro bono at the 5th Circuit and Supreme Court, says the county had hoped to persuade the Supreme Court that it did not make sense to leave the district court’s judgment in place after the monument issue was determined to be moot. In its en banc ruling, the 5th Circuit vacated the three-judge panel’s decision to affirm the district court’s ruling regarding the constitutionality of the Bible display in the courthouse monument. But the 5th Circuit refused to vacate Lake’s ruling. Now, the district court will make a determination regarding an award of attorney’s fees to Staley, even though no appellate ruling has affirmed the merits of its ruling, Royall says. Those fees could be monumental. Kallinen estimates that the attorney’s fees in Staley have climbed to six figures. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Big nine look out for little 32,000

With the number of children in foster care continuing to go up, the Texas Supreme Court has created a special commission to help courts better serve those children and move them quickly into permanent homes. The state has charge of about 32,000 children, according to the high court’s Nov. 20 order creating the Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families. “To champion the needs of children, we must foster collaboration among courts, Child Protective Services and other participants,” Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill, chairwoman of the 14-member commission, said in the court’s news release announcing the commission’s creation.  Courts must make life-altering decisions about the children whose cases they hear.  The appointment of this commission comes none too soon.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

High praise from the 5th Circuit

Usually when a losing plaintiff appeals a trial judge’s order granting a motion to dismiss his complaint and argues abuse of discretion, the appellate court can find at least one issue the trial court slipped up on -- especially when the case involved boxes of records requiring examination. But DTEX LLC v. BBVA Bancomer S.A., et al., which U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal dismissed in April, isn’t that case. DTEX is a South Carolina company that attempted to sue Bancomer, a Mexican banking company, and its affiliates for tortious interference, among other allegations, in the United States. The dispute concerns the ownership of textile equipment that DTEX bought in Mexico and has been the subject of litigation in Mexican courts since 2002. DTEX first attempted to sue Bancomer in a U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in 2004, but its complaint was dismissed by a trial court for lack of personal jurisdiction. Then DTEX filed another complaint in 2006 in the Southern District of Texas, because Bancomer has a bank located in Houston. Rosenthal, in a 34-page memorandum and order, dismissed DTEX’s complaint on the basis of a foreign non conveniens motion filed by Bancomer. DTEX later appealed Rosenthal’s ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It wasn’t an easy result for Rosenthal to reach, as the 5th Circuit noted in its November 21st per curiam opinion, saying that “even this ongoing conflict’s relatively small chapter in the Southern District of Texas has produced a record on appeal comprising fourteen volumes, illustrative of the extent of this international brouhaha.” And the 5th Circuit found that Rosenthal’s ruling was the sports equivalent of a judge hitting a home run, noting: “It will become obvious to any reader of the district court’s Memorandum and Order that the facts and the law were considered in excruciating detail by that court before it granted its order, and that the court not only touched all the bases but exhaustively examined each.” What’s next for Rosenthal? The Judicial Hall of Fame?
--- John Council

BEEware

No matter that the enhancement of lawyer prestige has been at the top of every bar association president’s agenda since the beginning of the modern era. The lawyer joke is alive and well, and I can testify to as much, after my wife and kids schlepped me to a showing of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie” last week.  Although I was somewhat resistant to see another cartoon about bugs who know better than humans, I found it inspired viewing — witty banter, broad slapstick, great graphics -- the bee’s life, an entertaining vehicle for children of all ages, including me. The story’s protagonist Barry B. Benson, voiced by Seinfeld, wants more out of life than making honey in the hive. His search for meaning puts him into contact with humans. It’s in the human world where he learns that the product of bee labor is being usurped by humans who steal honey without just compensation to the bee. So Barry decides to sue and his legal prowess has no peer. Well, maybe just one. Chris Rock provides the voice for Mooseblood, a mosquito who really just has a cameo role. But he delivers one of the best lines in the movie when a cow approaches Mooseblood and asks, “You’re a lawyer too?” And Mooseblood responds, “Ma’am, I was already a bloodsucking parasite. All I needed was the briefcase” — which he holds up. My audience roared with laughter and approval — at least the adults did. The line escaped the kids so there may remain some hope of saving the reputation of lawyers with the next generation. But lawyers should act fast. A sequel could clear up any ambiguity.

-- Mark Donald

Cruz to help steer “Lawyers for Fred Coalition”

It’s no surprise that behind many of the presidential candidates this election cycle stands a good lawyer — and in several instances, a Texas lawyer. Among others, there is Dallas attorney Fred Baron who early on joined the campaign of Democratic contender and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Baron serves as a big-ticket fundraiser and trusted adviser. There is Pat Oxford, the managing partner of Bracewell & Giuliani, who served as the chairman of the exploratory committee for Republican Rudy Giuliani and now serves as chairman of the entire presidential campaign.  And now we learn that Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson has tapped Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz to be a member of his National Steering Committee for the “Lawyers for Fred Coalition.”  Cruz, who served as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk to former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, has made several appearances before the high court as an able advocate for the state of Texas. His hands-on appellate experience could be a valuable asset for the conservatively-positioned Thompson in the unlikely event Thompson secures the Republican nomination and the presidency. Of course, dark horse-candidates gain momentum all the time.

-- Mark Donald

Lonely West Texas on film

  While driving down Highway 90 towards Sanderson this summer for a feature article about the historic Terrell County Courthouse, I got a taste of what it must feel like to be the last person on the planet --- no passing cars, no cell phone service and no freakin’ Starbucks. And that’s an experience that all uptight city dwellers should experience at least once. When I finally got to Sanderson after a 500 mile journey from Dallas, I was glad I made the effort. It’s a starkly beautiful town set in a desert canyon. But what makes the place great are the colorful, friendly people (population 947 -- three of whom are lawyers) who’ve grown accustomed and even proud of living on the edge of the planet. Even though I was in Sanderson to write a feature about the courthouse, I had the urge to keep the place to myself. Should I ever disappear from Dallas, Sanderson would a great place to tell the authorities to start looking for me. But Hollywood just ruined that option. Terrell County and Sanderson play a big part in the new movie “No Country for Old Men.” Tommy Lee Jones plays the fictional Ed Tom Bell, the beleaguered Terrell County sheriff. The aging sheriff laments a time when his colleagues around the state didn’t bother to carry guns, which isn’t a realistic option for a lawman on the Mexican border at a time when the drug trade is flourishing. When Bell tells a retired lawman, played by Barry Corbin, that he’s thinking of quitting because of the violence, the old lawman reminds Bell that the county has always been rough. The fictional characters do speak a bit of truth about my favorite West Texas county. In 1912, the last train robbery in the state occurred in Sanderson but was foiled by a quick-thinking messenger on the train who brained one of the robbers with an ice maul and the shot another robber with a rifle. In 1938, Terrell County Sheriff Lee A. Cook was found shot to death in the courthouse under mysterious circumstances. And in 1965, a flood killed 28 people in the town. Terrell County is very peaceful these days --- so quiet that the courthouse almost never has a felony case filed in its district clerk’s office. But don’t tell anybody.
--- John Council

Jaworski documentary screened

With the smell of popcorn wafting through the auditorium in Fulbright Tower, the family of the late Leon Jaworski, the famed Houston lawyer, attended an advance screening Monday of a new PBS documentary about Jaworski. The documentary will premier at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 on Houston PBS Channel 8. The  Texas Foundation for the Arts produced the movie, which traces Jaworski’s career as a lawyer. The movie is “very well done,” Jaworski’s daughter Joanie Jaworski Moncrief said after the screening. “It emphasizes what’s important. I don’t think dad did much of anything that wasn’t about honesty, truthfulness and what he considered the rule of law.” There’s a lot to highlight in the career of Jaworski, who was licensed as a lawyer in 1924 at age 19 – the youngest person ever to get a Texas law license. After World War II, he became chief of the war crimes trial section of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, a job that led to his role as a prosecutor of Nazis. He also did work for fellow Texan Lyndon B. Johnson. In the early 1960s, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy appointed Jaworski to prosecute Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett for failing to follow court orders to admit an African-American veteran, James Meredith, into the University of Mississippi. But Jaworski is perhaps most widely known as the Watergate special prosecutor. After that appointment in 1973, Jaworski successfully subpoenaed the White House for tapes and documents, including the tapes that implicated President Richard Nixon in a cover up of the Watergate break-in. Jaworski died in 1982, but the documentary includes several film clips of him.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Giving thanks for welcoming families

On Saturday, National Adoption Day, 73 children left foster care with the help of 35 students from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth. During the fall semester, the students assisted local attorneys working on the adoptions by 53 families, adoptions which were finalized Nov. 17 at the Tarrant County Family Courthouse in Fort Worth. National Adoption Day is an effort to demonstrate the need to find permanent homes for thousands of children. Since its inception eight years ago, it is celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. “The law students who participate in National Adoption Day get more than just legal experience from the program,” Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Patti Gearheart Turner said in a statement. “In drafting and finalizing adoption cases, they gain experience in technical skills, but they also gain insight about the many children in foster care.”
-- Jeanne Graham

Blind spot

Brian and Lisa Wright alleged in Wright v. Ford Motor Co., filed in U.S. District Court in Beaumont in 2004, that the Ford Expedition that backed over and killed their 3-year-old son in a parking lot in 2003 “had a large and unreasonably dangerous blind spot immediately behind the vehicle” and was not equipped with the safety devices on other Ford SUVs. The Wrights filed a products liability, wrongful death and survivor suit against Ford. After a jury trial in 2005, Judge Marcia Crone issued a take-nothing judgment in favor of Ford, and the Wrights appealed. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment on Nov. 15.  According to the 5th Circuit’s opinion, written by Senior Circuit Judge Will Garwood, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by instructing the jury to rebuttably presume that the Ford did not defectively design the Expedition under Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code §82.008. That statute provides for a rebuttable presumption if the equipment at issue complies with mandatory federal safety standards. The Wrights argued that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111 does not govern the rear sensing system with which the Expedition that hit the Wrights’ child should have been equipped and that §82.008’s rebuttable presumption was not triggered. The 5th Circuit found otherwise. Judges Rhesa Barksdale and Emilio Garza joined in the decision. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Top quality, informative entertainment. Free.

It’s Friday. Your week is winding down, and you are on information overload. Your head is going soft from all the hard news and you’ve been bombarded with. You can’t read another blog posting about American lawyers protesting the treatment of their Pakistani brethren or pundits laying odds on whether Barry Bonds will go down swinging. So we at Tex Parte are offering you a kindler, gentler alternative: Tune into our video blog, “Reversed and Remanded,” and while away the next five minutes. There is little fact to digest here; it's all opinion -- John Council’s and mine, to be precise. To entice you to watch, we have attached a photo lifted from today’s show. Notice Council’s hard Popeye-like glare (left) and his cohort's soft dream-like demeanor (right). You just can’t get that kind of ying and yang in every video blog. We at Tex Parte promise you one thing: The quality of the show is bound to exceed the quality of this photo.
--  Mark Donald

Taking judges to court

Within less than a week, Houston solo Randall Kallinen filed two separate suits against judges on behalf of clients.  On Nov. 13, Kallinen filed Burns v. Mayes, et al. in federal court in Houston, alleging that 410th District Judge K. Michael Mayes’ policy of jailing probationers who provide “dilute” urine samples -- meaning the urine has a low creatinine level -- violated Paul A. Burns’ rights to due process and equal protection under the law. “He was in jail 44 days for an accusation of dilute urine,” Kallinen says of Burns. The suit also names Montgomery County and John Does as defendants. Mayes refers reporters to Ray Johnson, assistant county attorney for Montgomery County.  Johnson, who represents the county but does not represent Mayes, declines comment.On Nov. 7, Kallinen filed suit against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller on behalf of the widow of executed murderer Michael Richard. Marsha Richard alleges in Richard v. Keller, et al. that Keller ordered the CCA clerk’s office not to accept paperwork concerning Michael Richard after 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, the day that the state executed him.  Keller declines comment on that suit, which Kallinen originally filed in a Houston federal court and subsequently moved to federal court in Austin. A decade ago, Kallinen sued the 22 criminal district judges in Harris County over an administrative order that prohibited the district clerk and sheriff from releasing addresses and phone numbers of unrepresented defendants in pending cases.  Kallinen, who represented criminal defense attorney Lee Scham, won that case. In 1997, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of Houston granted Scham’s motion for summary judgment in Scham v. District Courts Trying Criminal Cases, et al., holding that the judges did not have authority to issue the order.  But Kallinen says suits against judges are difficult.  “What you’re doing is saying, hey, judicial branch, limit your own powers, which is not an easy thing to do,” Kallinen says. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins

V&E opens Abu Dhabi office

Vinson & Elkins has opened an office in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, making it the first U.S. firm with offices in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Lewis Jones transferred from the firm’s London office to be the administrative partner in charge in Abu Dhabi. Also, partner Christopher Strong, currently in V&E’s Dubai office, will move his practice to Abu Dhabi, and partner Rindala Beydoun will divide her time between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. With the Abu Dhabi outpost, Houston-based V&E has 13 international offices, including the Dubai office that opened in 2003. Although Abu Dhabi is only a 90-minute drive from Dubai, Jones says the Abu Dhabi economy on its own warrants an office. “Our clients were very keen for us to open in their home city,” Jones says. He says the firm received a trade license about three weeks ago that allows the firm to open the office. Jones says V&E clients in Abu Dhabi include Mubadala Development Co. and Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority, which is the UAE agency similar to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Jones says the firm has leased office space that will accommodate up to 15 lawyers, so the Abu Dhabi office will grow over time. The firm does energy, corporate, and Islamic and project finance work in the Middle East. In a statement, V&E Managing Partner Joseph Dilg writes, “We have been very pleased with the growth of our team in the UAE, supported by other lawyers from our London, Asian, and U.S. offices who also spend time in the UAE. The opening of the Abu Dhabi office will help V&E accelerate that growth.”
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

"Attorneys/lawyers": slightly less popular than pizza

Nearly half of the people looking to find a lawyer do it the old-fashioned way: They look in the Yellow Pages if they don’t otherwise know a lawyer or get a name from a referral. According to a survey  conducted this summer, which was announced in a New Jersey-based Yellow Pages Association press release, 46 percent of consumers use the Yellow Pages to select an attorney. The Attorney Advertising Perceptions Study also found that Yellow Pages advertising is the most accepted form of advertising, scoring 6.7 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being totally acceptable, and nearly four of 10 consumers believe the Yellow Pages is the best way for lawyers to reach prospective clients. The “Attorneys/Lawyers” telephone directory heading is the sixth most popular, coming in right behind “Pizza” and just ahead of “Automobile Dealers” on a list of the most popular categories. The most popular category is “Restaurants.” To conduct the study, Wiese Research Associates Inc., of Omaha, Neb., surveyed 400 households nationwide during July and August.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

In-housers biggest fears

The Houston Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association brought together three Houston-based in-house lawyers this morning for a panel discussion on issues relating to the relationship between in-house lawyers and their outside counsel. The in-housers told the crowd of legal marketers at the two-hour event that they do expect their outside firms to think about diversity, they don’t find beauty contests very useful, and they turn down invitations to lavish firm marketing and networking events at resorts. “I just don’t support the nature of those,” said Cyndi Baily, general counsel of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Larry Smith, a senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications who moderated the panel discussion, asked the in-house lawyers to identify their biggest on-the-job fear. Jamey Seely, vice president and general counsel of U.S. Direct Energy in Houston, said she fears the unexpected. A whistle-blower action is what Bailey fears the most. For Joseph Speelman, associate general counsel at Houston-based Lyondell, it’s whatever plaintiffs lawyers deem the latest hot area of litigation. “I spend 20 to 25 percent of my time trying to figure out where the next predatory litigation is coming from,” Speelman said.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys   

TWU's highest bar pass rate ever

Graduates of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law hit a high note on the July 2007 Texas bar exam. Those TWU graduates taking the bar exam for the first time earned a 91.14 percent pass rate – the highest bar pass rate in the school’s history. This percentage exceeds the school’s previous high pass rate of 87.94 percent on the July 2006 exam. The Fort Worth school’s first graduating class was in 1994; the pass rate for TWU first-time test-takers on the July 1994 exam was 45.71 percent. On the most recent exam, 144 of TWU’s 158 first-time test-takers passed. The Texas Board of Law Examiners in Austin administers the exam and provides the pass rate data for each law school. Not only did TWU July test-takers earn the school’s highest pass rate ever – they also beat the 89.55 percent overall pass rate earned by graduates of Texas’ nine American Bar Association-accredited schools. And, for extra kudos, TWU’s pass rate is higher than five other Texas law schools. Congratulations!

- Jeanne Graham

Revisiting the story of an ax-wielding suburbanite

If you’re bored one lonely evening, flip over to Court TV; you might catch a repeat of a recent episode of “Murder by the Book,” featuring one of the greatest courtroom dramas ever to go down in Texas. The show, inexplicably, uses crime fiction writers to introduce and analyze real murder cases. Unfortunately, author Sandra Brown has little if anything to add to the murder story of Candy Montgomery, who killed neighbor Betty Gore with an axe in 1980. The Collin County murder captivated people in North Texas -- a fact Brown repeatedly points out, because she “lived in the area” at the time. Somehow, this qualifies her as an expert and allows for ridiculous commentary such as “You can’t make this stuff up, and I’ve tried!” Thanks for that insight, Sandy. However, the show does spend some time interviewing people involved with the case, including Robert Udashen, the Dallas criminal defense attorney who represented Montgomery in 1980. Udashen was only three years out of law school when he teamed up with Don Crowder, a civil lawyer who’d never tried a criminal case, to defend Montgomery. Udashen and Crowder floored prosecutors when they mounted a self-defense claim for Montgomery, who hit Gore 41 times with a three-foot-long axe. By delving deep into Montgomery’s psychology, they convinced a Collin County jury to acquit Montgomery, who cleaned herself up at Gore’s house and returned home as if nothing had happened. The show attempts to explain Udashen and Crowder’s defense strategy but focuses more on the salacious details of the case -- as Court TV shows are inclined to do. For those interested in the case, read “Evidence of Love” for the serious lowdown on how the Montgomery trial went down. Authors John Bloom and Jim Atkinson spent more than a year researching and writing that book, which was published in 1985. And they wrote one of the best Texas true crime books ever in the process.
--- John Council      

Linebacker files police brutality suit

A pro football player has sued the city of Houston for police brutality following a November 2006 traffic stop that resulted in a Tasering incident but no criminal charges. In Weary v. The City of Houston, et al., filed Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary alleges that on Nov. 14, 2006, police officers Margaret T. McGivern and Joe F. Vasquez pulled his vehicle over on the 9500 block of Main St. as he returned home after practice. The two officers were part of an antidrug unit conducting "Zero Tolerance Hot Spot Checks." Weary's suit claims that a police spokesman said that the officers pulled Weary over, because he was acting suspiciously and looked at the officers several times. Weary asked why he had been pulled over, the complaint states, and Vasquez replied, "I don't have to tell you nothing" and ordered him out of his vehicle. When Weary asked again, Vasquez ordered McGivern to Taser him, and she did so. As a result, the Taser darts pierced his skin and the electric shock knocked Weary to the ground. According to the complaint, police charged Weary with resisting arrest but dropped the charges on Nov. 21, 2006, on the basis of no probable cause. Weary's civil rights suit alleges the city and the officers, inter alia, engaged in racial profiling (Weary is black), used excessive force, violated his due process rights, made a false arrest, engaged in malicious prosecution and defamed him.
-- Jonathan Fox

Win-win situation

South Texas College of Law students scored back-to-back wins recently in moot court competitions.  On Nov. 11, a team of STCL students captured first place at the 16th annual Health Law Moot Court Competition at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  The STCL students defeated a team from Seton Hall University School of Law in the final round of the competition, which drew 30 teams from across the nation. On Nov. 12, a STCL team won the Georgetown White Collar Crime Invitational Mock Trial Competition after defeating a team from Pace Law School in the final round.  STCL student Christian Johnson won the title as best speaker at the Georgetown competition, which drew teams from 16 law schools.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

In search of diversity

A report on diversity at Dallas’ largest law firms was just released and the results aren’t that great. While the "Law Firm Diversity Report Dallas 2007" prepared by the Dallas Diversity Task Force notes some improvement at big Dallas firms, it also shows that 68.4 percent of the 19 largest firms in the city don’t have an African-American equity partner. The report was the main topic of discussion at a diversity roundtable at the Dallas Bar Association’s Belo Mansion today, where a panel primarily made up of corporate in-house lawyers had a warning for Dallas law firms: Hire diverse lawyers or we won’t hire you. “We haven’t told any of our outside counsel you better get your house in order or we’re taking your business away. But I think that’s where it’s headed,” said Robert L. Jones Jr., an in-house attorney for Fort Worth-based American Airlines. Jones litigates employment cases. And showing up in front of a diverse jury with two white outside counsel “won’t work for me,” he said. Wesley K. Young, general counsel of Debt Settlement America, told the audience the same thing: “If I’ve got a sexual harassment case, I want a woman. If I’ve got a racial discrimination case, I want a minority lawyer." Raquel Tamez, vice president and corporate counsel for Affiliated Computer Services Inc., said outside counsel sometimes show up with a “colorful group” of lawyers to win her business, but will assign her company’s case to a “traditional white male.” Her company has started to look at a law firm's diversity before hiring outside counsel. “We all know you have competent people in your law firms,” she told the audience. But “what does the firm look like, broader?”

-- John Council

Romney backers

Two well-known Texas lawyers will help Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney raise campaign funds in the Lone Star State. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, announced in a Nov. 13 press release that former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, a partner in Baker Botts in Austin, and Pete Winstead, founder and a shareholder in Winstead in Austin, will serve as co-chairmen of Romney’s Texas Statewide Finance Committee along with Allan “Bud” Shivers, son of a former Texas governor. According to the press release, Romney and Phillips were classmates at Harvard Law School, where Phillips received a law degree in 1974.  Cannon 5 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct prohibited Phillips from endorsing political candidates from 1981, when he took the bench on Houston’s 280th District Court, until 2004, when he stepped down from the Supreme Court.  Phillips and Winstead did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. The press release quotes Phillips as saying that Romney “has the experience, vision and conservative values to lead our country forward as we face this new generation of global challenges.”
-- Mary Alice Robbins

V&E's loss is Lazard's gain

Bruce Bilger, who heads Vinson & Elkins’ energy practice group and co-heads its business and international section, will leave the firm at the end of the year to join investment bank Lazard Ltd to chair and head its global energy business. On Jan. 1, 2008, Bilger, a partner in V&E’s Houston office, will join Lazard in Houston where he will also be a co-lead of the firm’s Southwest investment banking region.  Bilger, who earned an MBA and a JD from the University of Virginia, says he has always had an interest in the business and financial aspects of deals, and is excited about working as an investment banker. “I’ve done a lot of fun things here [at V&E], and this was an opportunity to kind of take that one step further -– build on the background I’ve got here, kind of take on one more challenge,” Bilger says. “The timing was right.” Joseph Dilg, V&E’s managing partner, says in a press release that he and Bilger joined the firm together 30 years ago, and Bilger will be “sorely missed.” While at V&E, Bilger led teams handling several significant energy industry transactions, including Duke Energy’s $8 billion acquisition of Canadian company Westcoast Energy Inc., the $13 billion merger between Enterprise Products Partners and GulfTerra Energy Partners and, most recently, the $32 billion leveraged buyout of Dallas-based TXU by Kolhberg Kravis Roberts, TPG and other investors. Bilger says V&E has done work for Lazard and other investment banks over the years. But with Bilger’s move to the New York-based bank, V&E may have a better opportunity to get some of that Lazard business.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys 

Situation in Pakistan hits home for Dallas lawyer

The images were as surreal as they were disturbing: photos of lawyers dressed in dark suits and ties, battling the police in the streets of Pakistan, beaten and arrested as they protest the suspension of their constitution, the imposition of emergency rule and the arrest of Pakistani Supreme Court justices. Pakistani Gen. Perves Musharraf's recent power grab has so eviscerated the rule of law that even the Dallas Bar Association issued a formal statement on Nov. 8 to express its outrage and show solidarity with legal brethren under foreign fire. But for Asad Rahman, a Pakistani-American and Dallas lawyer, the situation in Pakistan is deeply personal. Rahman comes from a proud legal tradition -- his great great grandfather was a lawyer in Pakistan, and a relative, though somewhat distant, still practices there today. “Anyone who is Pakistani in America has a special interest in this situation,” says Rahman, a 2006 graduate of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. “We have an executive there who, in his desperate effort to preserve power, is compromising the judiciary,” Rahman says. “The constitution only prescribes for the president to be a civilian leader, not a military one. He wants to be both and lawyers are standing in his way.” On Nov. 12, Rahman flew to Pakistan for two weeks to attend a family wedding. His wife had arrived earlier, and he says she phoned home to the United States to ask for news about the events in Pakistan. A news blackout there has prevented Pakistanis from gaining information about what was going on around them. Says Rahman, “When I mentioned to friends in Dallas that I was going, they told me not to tell anyone that I was a lawyer. They felt the situation was too dangerous.” Rahman says he doubts he will follow that advice. Instead,. he says he intends “to find out as much information about the situation as I can without damaging my safety.” Then he will follow up with Tex Parte and report back what he learns.

-- Mark Donald

A movable suit

The widow of an executed death row inmate has moved her federal suit against Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller from Houston to Austin. The state executed Michael Richard on Sept. 25 after his attorneys were unable to file a motion to stay his execution in the CCA, because the clerk's office closed at 5 p.m. Houston solo Randall Kallinen, attorney for Marsha Richard, says he filed a notice of dismissal in Richard v. Keller, et al. on Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Houston and mailed the suit to the U.S. District Court for the Western District in Austin on Nov. 9.  “I think it will be better in Austin,” Kallinen says. Kallinen says he wants the federal judge and jury to be able to visit the CCA to see where the calls from Michael Richard’s lawyers came in and to see where the judges were when the lawyers were requesting that the court clerk’s office remain open past 5 p.m. to receive Richard’s documents.  “They couldn’t do that if they were in Houston,” Kallinen says.  Keller did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment about the suit.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

The scarlet "E"?

For lawyers seeking jobs in the energy trading business, listing a stint at Houston’s Enron Corp. on a résumé can’t hurt -- or can it? Recruiter Morgan Warren, of Houston-based Warren Recruiting, says some of the East Coast banks and hedge funds currently seeking qualified lawyers to help staff energy trading operations in Houston don’t want to interview job candidates if they once worked at Enron, the Houston energy company that filed for bankruptcy nearly six years ago. That’s the case even though there’s a shortage of qualified lawyers for those jobs in  the energy trading business, which is surging back after a post-Enron decline. Warren says most hiring executives in Houston wouldn’t hesitate to hire a lawyer who once worked at Enron, because so many of them have friends or family who are Enron alumni. “We know that Enron had an extremely talented group of employees,” says Warren, a Houston native and 2000 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law. But some of the East Coast banks or hedge funds are very reluctant to consider former Enron lawyers. “There’s a stigma associated with the Enron name that I think causes them to take pause with how it will fit with their culture,” Warren says. Warren says she tries to convince the hiring executives to look at the former Enron in-house lawyers by talking up their on-target skill set in the energy trading business and stressing that Enron was a really good place to learn the business. “But at some point . . . my advocating skills can only go so far,” Warren notes. “It’s tough.”
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Judge’s HR woes

A former court coordinator for 364th District Judge Bradley Underwood of Lubbock County may be able to prove that she is employed by the county and is not a member of Underwood’s personal staff. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings of the Northern District of Texas denied Lubbock County’s motions for summary judgment on Nov. 6 in an employment discrimination suit former coordinator Elizabeth Overstreet filed against the county in August. In the original complaint in Elizabeth Overstreet v. Lubbock County Texas, Overstreet alleges her employment was terminated on Jan. 29, after she filed a complaint against Underwood, her supervisor, for taking retaliatory actions after she complained to him that a bailiff had touched her inappropriately. Underwood alleged in the complaint that after she told Underwood about the bailiff’s conduct, the judge “called Plaintiff Elizabeth Overstreet and his court reporter into his office and accused Ms. Overstreet of inappropriately touching him.” Overstreet alleges in the complaint that Underwood’s comments are false, defamatory and “intended as retaliation” for her complaint about the bailiff. Defendant Lubbock County sought a summary judgment dismissal under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). The county argued that Overstreet had no employment relationship with the county, but Cummings denied the motion for summary judgment on the ground that Overstreet’s pleadings and evidence show that she may be able to prove that she was employed by the county. Cummings also found that the county cannot use the Title VII “personal staff exception” to prove that it is not liable to Overstreet pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). That issue has not been squarely addressed by another court, Cummings wrote in the order. “Indeed, whether a court coordinator, qua court coordinator, qualifies as a member of a judge’s personal staff for Title VII purposes is at best a difficult question with legal implications which will ripple far beyond the stone which has been cast in this relatively small legal pond,” Cummings wrote. A lawyer for Overstreet, Broadus A. Spivey, of Law Offices of Broadus A. Spivey in Austin, says the ruling is significant. “I promise you every county in the State of Texas, every district judge will read this. It’s going to have a profound effect,” says Spivey. A defense attorney for Lubbock County, Charlotte Bingham, a partner in Crenshaw, Dupree & Milam in Lubbock, did not, before presstime on Nov. 8, return two telephone messages. Underwood referred questions to  Shawn Twing (at left), a partner in Amarillo’s Sprouse Shrader Smith. Twing says he’s reviewing Cummings’ order. Meanwhile, Twing says Overstreet filed a state court suit in October in which she makes similar allegations against Underwood. Twing says he will file an answer and other pleadings by Nov. 9, after presstime, in Elizabeth Overstreet v. Judge Bradley S. Underwood. In the petition, filed in the 72nd District Court in Lubbock County, Overstreet brings harassment and defamation causes of action against Underwood. Twing says, “Once the facts as we believe they are come out, the judge will be fully vindicated from any suspicion he retaliated,” Twing says.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Conference conundrum

With law schools searching for ways to increase the diversity of their student body and firms searching for ways to increase the diversity of their attorneys, it’s no wonder that the 3rd Annual National Black Pre-Law Admissions & Preparation Conference and Law Fair, held at the University of Houston on Nov. 2, hosted representatives from 108 law schools and that attorneys from many Texas firms were among its 100 panelists. Certainly the goals of the day-long conference were noble. According to a conference press release, the conference was created as “a proactive response to address the less than positive statistics relating to the number of African-Americans getting into law school and becoming attorneys. Blacks make up only less than 7 % of law students and less than 4 % of all attorneys nationwide.” Although 470 students had registered to attend, conference chairwoman Evangeline M. Mitchell writes in an e-mail that the turnout was lower than expected: “We had almost 200 pre-law attendees from all over the country.” She attributes the reason for the drop-off to the fact that the conference was free, and people didn't have a financial incentive to follow through on their decision to come. Mitchell says that she plans on implementing new registration policies next year when the conference returns to the University of Houston. Although she doesn’t say what these policies will be, an upfront fee for attendees would certainly provide some necessary incentive. And for those who can’t afford the fee, it would seem like scholarships funded by big firms might have positive benefits for both sides.
-- Mark Donald

Asbestos fee agreement turning to dust?

A South Carolina firm wants to end an agreement with a Texas plaintiff's firm to share fees generated through asbestos cases filed by Canadians in U.S. courts. In Motley Rice LLC, et al. v. Baldwin & Baldwin LLP, initially filed in South Carolina state court on March 26 but eventually transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Nov. 7, South Carolina firm Motley Rice says that its predecessor firm contracted in the 1990s with Marshall-based Baldwin & Baldwin to work on asbestos cases filed in Texas state courts involving Canadians. A 1997 change in Texas law affecting jurisdiction prevented further litigation in Texas courts involving the claims, the suit alleges, "amounting to a failure of the essential consideration for any fee-sharing agreement." In two other agreements involving Baldwin & Baldwin and asbestos claims filed by Canadians, the suit alleges that the Texas firm allegedly  made "no substantial contribution." Motley Rice seeks a court declaration to "clarify, reform and/or rescind the terms of the co-counsel/fee-sharing agreements" with Baldwin & Baldwin.
-- Jonathan Fox

Plastic perils and arbitration angst

Two credit-card debtors from Houston have brought a class-action suit against national debt collection firm Wolpoff & Abramson of Rockville, Md., which has three offices in Texas. In Nicks et al. v. Wolpoff & Abramson, filed Nov. 6 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Jeri Nicks and Clarence A. Nicks alleged that Wolpoff & Abramson violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by "falsely and misleadingly representing that arbitration awards subject to the Federal Arbitration Act could be confirmed past one year." In the suit, the Nickses acknowledged that they had two MBNA credit card accounts that fell into default, and as a result Wolpoff & Abramson on June 11, 2004, obtained two arbitration awards totaling $20,792.74 against them. But the Nickses claim that the firm failed to confirm the awards, as required by federal law, by filing suit in Texas within a year of that date. The firm eventually filed two suits in Texas, one in 2006 and another in 2007, to confirm the awards. The Nickses seek to certify a class action consisting of "all persons residing in Texas who were sued in the past year by Wolpoff & Abramson to confirm an arbitration award that was more than one year old at the time of filing." The Nicks seek statutory damages under the FDCPA, costs and attorneys' fees.
-- Jonathan Fox

Go forth and vote

Just a subtle reminder from your friends at Texas Lawyer: Go vote today. Sure, it’s just a constitutional referendum election. But think about what happens if we surrender this sacred right of democracy.
-- John Council

$1 hard drives! Or not.

Memo to consumer lawyers: Unintentional pricing errors are not actionable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). In its Nov. 1 decision in Perez v. Luu, the 11th Court of Appeals in Eastland found that a $1 price for hard drives normally sold for $1,195 on the Web site of MicroCache Computers Inc. was a legitimate pricing error. Likely disappointed by this decision is Mario Perez, a computer hobbyist who tried to buy 100 hard drives for $228.25 (including shipping and handling, apparently). Perez sued MicroCache under the DTPA when it returned his money, but the court found that no deceptive act occurred, because MicroCache advised customers on its Web site that MicroCache had the right to correct any pricing error. "Because the $1 purchase price was a mistake and because MicroCache refunded Perez's money as soon as it realized the error, the trial court correctly found that Perez was not deceived," the 11th Court stated.
-- Jonathan Fox

Six for six

Susman Godfrey did about as well as it could with its new crop of associates: All six who started work at the firm this fall are former federal clerks.  Two clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justices, three for U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals judges and one for a federal district judge. “I dare say there is not another firm in the country that can claim that all its new associates served as law clerks for federal judges,” says Stephen Susman in a press release. He's a co-managing partner of the 84-lawyer, Houston-based firm. However, the firm's Web site notes that the firm requires that interview applicants place in the top 10 percent of their class and work on the law review or journal, so the strong clerk representation isn't a complete surprise.  The new associate in Houston is David Peterson, who clerked for 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Priscilla Owen from 2006-2007. The new Dallas associates are Joseph Portera, who clerked for U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the Northern District of Texas, and Stephen Shackelford Jr., who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 2006-2007 and for Judge Michael Boudin of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the previous year.  The firm's incoming class also includes two associates in its Seattle office and one in its New York office.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Chemical reaction

You know how, when you leave two-month-old takeout Chinese food in the office refrigerator, it’s probably going to get thrown away whether you like it or not? Well, along those same lines, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision today that gave a former University of Texas at San Antonio professor a bit of a break, because he allegedly never saw the note telling him to clean out his stuff. According to Stotter v. UTSA et al., the university terminated the contract of tenured chemistry professor Philip Stotter because of his alleged “refusal to improve the conditions of his lab and office, both of which allegedly posed serious health and safety concerns.” After UTSA determined that  Stotter’s office was an “extreme fire hazard” due to an alleged accumulation of paper boxes and trash and that his lab also had problems, Stotter was told repeatedly to clean up his lab and office. But for various reasons, he allegedly didn’t comply with the university’s request. Finally, the university notified him via certified letter that it was closing his lab and that UTSA would clean it out. But Stotter didn’t receive the letter until two days after UTSA had cleaned out his lab, according to the opinion. He claimed the university threw out some of his personal belongings, even though he couldn’t identify those items, according to the opinion. After the university terminated him, Stotter sued UTSA in a San Antonio federal court for due process violations for throwing out his stuff without proper notice, among other things. The district court dismissed Stotter’s case on summary judgment, a decision Stotter appealed. The 5th Circuit found that the university didn’t give Stotter proper notice before depositing the professor’s belongings in the trash, reversing and remanding the district court's decision in part -- but affirming in part, also, on the district court's decision to throw out some of his other claims. It just goes to show that employees have to see the note on the fridge before the moldy food legally can be tossed.
-- John Council

Legal mal insurer wants out

A Kansas-based insurance company wants a declaration that it does not owe a defense to Fort Worth firm Cotten Schmidt in a separate suit filed against the firm. In Westport Insurance Corp. v. Cotten Schmidt LLP, et al., filed on Nov. 2 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Westport Insurance Corp. alleges that a legal malpractice policy that it issued to Cotten Schmidt does not cover a suit brought by Empire Equipment International Inc. and Robert Russell on Sept. 4, 2007, in Tarrant County district court against Cotton Schmidt alleging wrongful levy, execution and sale, and conversion. Cotten Schmidt and two of the firm's partners, Westport's suit alleges, "are not alleged to have committed those wrongful acts in the rendition of legal services. . . . Therefore, the Lawsuit does not involve a 'wrongful act' as required under the terms of the policy."
-- Jonathan Fox

Austin's revolving door

Lisa Kaufman, the go-to person on state Sen. Robert Duncan’s staff for the past decade, will start the new year with a new job.  George S. Christian, president of the Texas Civil Justice League, has announced that Kaufman will become the legal reform group’s executive director and general counsel on Jan. 1, 2008.  Kaufman has served as general counsel for Duncan, R-Lubbock, and as committee director of the Senate Committee on State Affairs, which Duncan chairs.  Before joining Duncan’s staff in 1997, Kaufman was senior investigative counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and special counsel for the U.S. House Government and Oversight Committee.  “She has a well-deserved reputation for hard work, intelligence and integrity,” Christian says of Kaufman in a new release.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Arbitration nation

Save the dates, arbitration fans and foes: The Texas Supreme Court will hear cases on Jan. 16 and Jan. 17 that will determine how much authority intermediate appellate courts have to decide arbitration matters. On Nov. 2, the high court accepted for review East Texas Salt Water Disposal Co. Inc. v. Richard Leon Werline, a case that will determine whether a trial court’s order vacating an arbitrator’s award and directing a rehearing gives the intermediate court of appeals interlocutory jurisdiction; Bison Building Materials Ltd. v. Lloyd K. Aldridge, a case involving the appealability of a trial court’s order vacating in part an arbitration award without a rehearing; and In Re: Gulf Exploration LLC, et al., a case that will determine whether the court of appeals had jurisdiction to review a trial court order compelling arbitration and, if so, whether the appeals court erred by vacating the order on grounds that claims were outside the scope of the arbitration clause. The high court may be going a little arbitration crazy in January, but plenty of Texas lawyers are so upset with the process -- which all but forbids appellate review -- that the intense scrutiny is warranted.
-- John Council

To continue this call, please deposit $2.3 million

AT&T Corp. allegedly allowed one of its customers run up a $2,255,007.46 bill. Now AT&T wants payment in full. In AT&T Corp. v. Toppan Photomasks Inc., filed Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, AT&T alleges that Toppan Photomasks Inc., a Round Rock-based company that makes components used in semiconductor manufacturing, in 2001 ordered AT&T voice and data telecommunication services and signed at least two agreements with AT&T. AT&T provided service for several 1-800 numbers for Toppan, but Toppan allegedly failed to pay the $2,255,007.46 associated with its 1-800-006-8256 number (which is no longer in service). AT&T is suing for breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
-- Jonathan Fox

Executions on hold

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal says his office will not seek execution dates for individuals convicted of capital crimes until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a Kentucky case in which the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection is at issue.  The DA’s office also will ask that the Feb. 26, 2008, execution date scheduled for Derrick Sonnier, who was convicted of murdering a Humble woman and her son, be withdrawn.  “We find it strategically better to have the date withdrawn than to have the case get a stay,” Rosenthal says. On Sept. 25, the nation’s highest court granted certiorari in Baze v. Rees, a Kentucky case involving two condemned men who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections in that state.  The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to Texas death row inmate Carlton Turner Jr. on Sept. 27 and, more recently, granted a stay to prevent Mississippi from executing Earl Berry on Oct. 30.  For all practical purposes, there appears to be a moratorium on executions in this country.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Quilt-making smackdown

Who knew quilt-making was such a cutthroat industry? A quilt-maker is suing a rival for allegedly infringing on its copyrighted design. In Ten Bears LLC v. American Hometex Inc., et al., a complaint filed Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, quilt-maker Ten Bears of Denton County alleges that Hometex of Irving is infringing its copyrighted "Western" quilt design. According to its complaint, Ten Bears' attorney sent a cease-and-desist notice to Hometex; afterward, Hometex stopped selling the allegedly infringing quilt design on its Web site. But then Hometex allegedly turned to "less traceable, more surreptitious methods of unfair competition, including direct contact with TEN BEARS' customers," according to the complaint. Hometex sold its alleged knockoffs at a cheaper price then Ten Bears, the complaint claims. Ten Bears wants the alleged knockoffs destroyed and wants Hometex to pay Ten Bears for all gains realized through alleged copyright infringement.
-- Jonathan Fox