Texas Lawyer Blog

Here’s your lawyers-on-reality-TV doubleshot

It's a Bachelorette sneak peek and Bachelor casting call! On Monday, Dallas lawyer and reality TV’s resident alpha dog will feel right at home, cuz "The Bachelorette" is goin’ country! That’s right, Deanna is taking her remaindermen to a DUDE RANCH. And yes, a mechanical bull competition is involved. And, strangely, so is Ellen DeGeneres. And for any single lady lawyer out there who feels like national television is a fine place to find a mate, hop a flight to San Diego this Saturday for ABC’s open casting call for "The Bachelor" – click here to preregister. We don’t know of a Texas lawyer who’s been on that show yet. Do you? (Video is courtesy of Zap2it.com.)

-- Jenny B. Davis

Arrr, Thar Be Attorneys

A pirate theme, a "21st century twist on Gilbert & Sullivan," and parodies of current events and the legal profession. That's "Night Court 2008: Law of the Sea," running from June 4 - June 7 at Houston's Wortham Center. The show's press release touts that "[t]he original all-lawyer musical comedy is written by lawyers and performed by lawyers, with an orchestra and crew full of lawyers." Well, that's all I need to know! The organizers expect to raise more than $75,000 for charity. Tickets,   from $15 to $29, are available at www.hba.org.
-- Jonathan Fox

McClellan, I hardly knew ye

Nine years ago this month, I wrote an article called “The Choice Pros” about how then-Texas Governor George W. Bush went about the task of picking judges to populate the state’s benches. My summation was that Bush did a great job. Think back to the mid-1990s, moderate Supreme Court, which was full of Bush appointees --- believe me, plenty of appellate lawyers do, wistfully. But to get access to Bush’s administration to write that story, I dealt with a little-known press secretary named Scott McClellan. I remember him as an earnest Bush loyalist who seemed a lot less dynamic when compared to other governors' press officers I’d dealt with over the years. McClellan sat next to me silently as I grilled the very astute Clay Johnson, who was then Bush’s appointments director, about how the governor went about the process of selecting judges. I got the impression that the reason Bush’s state judicial appointees were so good was due in large part to Johnson. Johnson told me that he essentially ignored political pressure and listened to the local Bar about who was best equipped to become a judge. Imagine what it would have been like if President Bush used Johnson the same way in the White House. Would there have been showdowns with the Senate over Bush’s federal judge nominees that the Bar hated? Would the disastrous Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination have occurred? But my impression about McClellan was that his only purpose in sitting in on the interview was to protect Bush if necessary. Now the former Bush White House press secretary has released “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” a book that McClellan uses to trash Bush. McClellan accuses Bush of relying on “propaganda” to sell the war in Iraq and claims that McClellan was “misled” by former Bush senior adviser Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff for the vice president, about the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. McClellan told White House reporters that the two men were not involved in the scandal. Neither of those revelations are particularly shocking. But the fact that McClellan would break ranks with Bush does shock me. Notice, McClellan hasn’t been a frequent guest on political talk shows like others who’ve held his job. But I’m betting he will be now.
--- John Council

Farmers Branch ordinance enjoined

What Farmers Branch voters embraced on May 13, 2007, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay struck down a little more than one year later. In a memorandum opinion and order issued on May 28, Lindsay imposed a permanent injunction on an ordinance that barred landlords in that suburban city northwest of Dallas from renting to most immigrants who cannot prove their legal residency status. “While recognizing the frustrations of citizens and public officials regarding the lack of enforcement of federal immigration laws, this Court reiterates that the ‘will of the people’ in endorsing the Ordinance does not bestow the imprimatur of Constitutionality on the Ordinance,” Lindsay wrote in his ruling in Villas at Parkside Partners, et al. v. Farmers Branch, et al. “This court is not a rubberstamp to politically popular enactments,” the judge wrote. He noted that the federal government determines who legally resides in this country and that Farmers Branch cannot develop its own classification system for which noncitizens can rent an apartment. He said that the plaintiffs had argued persuasively that the ordinance violates the due process clause of the 14th amendment.
-- Miriam Rozen

Taking the show on the road

Texas Lawyer's video blog, Reversed & Remanded, went on location to New Orleans for last Thursday's much-anticipated oral argument of In Re: Volkswagen before an en banc 5th Circuit. What’s the case about? Well, if you’ve got a federal civil case pending in the Eastern District of Texas you’d better find out, because it might not be there much longer. Tune in and take a gander. Turns out my tiny $150 Canon SD1000 camera worked, so you’ll get to hear from one of the lead counsel arguing that case about why you should care.
--- John Council

Starring Stodghill, part deux

Dallas litigator Steve Stodghill’s silver tongue has landed him on the silver screen, with a speaking role in the thriller "Karma Police." In the movie, which debuted last month at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, a do-gooder everyman named Charles West gets recruited by the world’s largest secret organization – yup, the Karma Police – to make sure good people are rewarded and not-so-good people are punished. Gripping drama unfolds. Stodghill’s role: co-worker in an office scene. “I wouldn’t call it a star turn, but it was fun to do,” says Stodghill, a Fish & Richardson principal whose real life is already plenty interesting (Mark Cuban is a client). Even more fun, though, is the back story on just how Stodghill scored his speaking role. When the movie’s producers were scouting locations, Stodghill says they heard about his swank, cribtastic office spread in downtown’s Comerica Bank Tower and approached him about filming a large portion of the movie there on nights and weekends. Ever the lawyer, Stodghill responded, “Yes . . . but.” The quid pro quo, he says, was a speaking role in the film. But when he saw the script, he noticed the character had no name. Ever the lawyer, Stodghill objected. “I need to have a real name, and ‘co-worker’ doesn’t do it for me,” he recalls telling producers. Fine, they said, give us a name. Stodghill obliged, pulling the moniker “Buddy Love” from film’s way-back machine. (A virtual Oscar to the first poster who correctly names the origin of the name!) Filming Love’s scene took about 30 minutes, involving, he says, “several takes, just different angles.” The role is actually Stodghill’s second screen cameo. In 2005 he worked the method technique to play a lawyer in "The Wendell Baker Story,” a romantic comedy starring Will Ferrell, Eva Mendes, Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson. And Stodghill hopes this time won't be his last. “I'm trying to branch out for my next role,” he jokes. “I'm trying for a romance triangle with Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba.” Who knows -- his office really is something.
-- Jenny B. Davis

Thumbs down on insurance disclosure

The State Bar of Texas board of directors, meeting June 26-27 at the Bar’s annual meeting in Houston, will hear a recommendation that it reject a rule requiring lawyers to disclose whether they carry professional liability insurance. In a close vote May 21, a task force appointed by State Bar President Gib Walton voted against recommending the disclosure rule. David Beck, the task force’s chairman and a partner in Houston’s Beck Redden & Secrest, says, “We discussed the arguments for and the arguments against. At the end of the day, the vote was 6 to 5.”  It’s still up to the Bar board whether it wants a disclosure rule, Beck says. If the board decides disclosure is best, the task force recommended that lawyers be required to report whether they carry the insurance on the Bar’s Web site, he says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Wait your turn, judge

When a lawyer argues before the Texas Supreme Court, it’s really more of free-for-all Q&A with nine judges, because an attorney usually cannot complete an opening sentence before a justice asks a question. But the procedure is a bit different for arguments before the full 5th Circuit. There, Chief Judge Edith Jones allows lawyers to reserve as much as 15 minutes of time to make an argument without being interrupted by questions. Both attorneys arguing Gomez-Gomez v. United States before an en banc 5th Circuit on May 22 wisely reserved that time. An assistant U.S. attorney was arguing why judges categorically should consider prior rape convictions to be a crime of violence when they sentence immigrants who illegally re-enter the country. Fifth Circuit Judge Priscilla Owen couldn’t help herself and asked the AUSA a question. Before the prosecutor could fully answer Owen, Jones asked, “Did you open yourself up for questions?” When the prosecutor said “no,” Owen said, “I’m sorry” and let him finish his argument. Owen can be forgiven for her misstep. After all, she did serve 10 years on the Texas Supreme Court.
--- John Council

Dallas lawyer kicking butt (so far) on "The Bachelorette"

Welcome to the first installment of Tex Parte's "Bachelorette" post-show post mortem, slated to last as long as Dallas lawyer Jeremy Anderson does. Readers who are only just now joining us can read about the ex-Hunton & Williams hottie here. Last night, the show’s “big twist” was revealed: Instead of living large in the show’s cheesy rented McMansion, the 15 remaindermen would be relegated to a barracks-style bunkhouse (hunkhouse?) with constructive-eviction-style plumbing. But wait, there’s more: Our gal Deanna (that’s pronounced De-ahhh-nuh) gets the McMansion, but at various points in the season, she’ll let three suitors live there with her. The trio getting the pass this episode includes – RATTATATUM – Jeremy! (Thanks no doubt to that first-impression rose she gave him during the premiere.) More stuff happens, but then it's Jeremy's time to shine -- and shine he does. First off, he hits six home runs during the baseball-themed group date. As a result, he wins some Deanna alone time. Although they did not discuss real estate law, Jeremy did display shyness and sensitivity, which resulted in some definite future interest. Not only did Jeremy snag the group date rose, he also got a rose during the big ceremony and the opportunity to stay in the McMansion. (Frankly, we expected no less from a real estate attorney.) He even got a kiss! At this point, all the other bachelors are jealous of Jeremy’s awesomeness and start busting on him – that is, until Jeremy busts in on them busting on him. So Jeremy does what any intelligent SMU-trained man of law would do: He challenges them to a push-up competition. Testosterone raging, all the guys drop it down and give it their all. Save for Jeremy, who wisely decides to lose the competition –- you know, so as not to intimidate the others with his greatness, since it looks like he may be in this to win this. Ahh, moot court taught you well, grasshopper.
-- Jenny B. Davis

Dearest Bloomberg News: I’m sorry

If you’ve been reading the other media accounts of the arguments in In Re: Volkswagen at the 5th Circuit, you may have noticed the fine reporting Bloomberg News has done on the case. And you may have noticed that in its coverage they misspelled the name of 5th Circuit Judge Fortunato “Pete” Benavides. Whose fault is that? Mine, probably. During arguments, I was sitting in a section of the crowded courtroom where all of the court's 25-year-old law clerks had parked themselves. So I was surprised when the woman next to me, who was taking copious amounts of notes along with me, asked if I knew the name of one of the judges. I told her that was Benavides and responded the best I could when she asked how to spell his name (we were way too far away to read the placard on the bench where he sat). While I’ve covered the 5th Circuit for 10 years and know all of the judges' names by heart -- as well as their judicial philosophies and writing styles -- I’m really bad at spelling their names and constantly have to look them up when writing an article about the court. So it didn’t occur to me until later that the woman sitting next to me was likely a Bloomberg reporter. And that may be why they tortured Benavides’ name in print.

--- John Council

For the sake of the little sticky fingers, work out the patent problem

My resourceful 8-year-old daughter, Gina, loves to make herself jelly sandwiches, but getting the jelly from the jar to the bread is an adventure. She slops glops of strawberry jam on the counter, on the jar and on the kitchen cupboards. So lately, I’ve been buying Smucker’s Squeeze Strawberry Fruit Spread, and my daughter makes much less of a culinary mess. She can squeeze the fruity concoction directly onto her bread. She’s happy. Mom’s happy. Everyone in the family is happy. But then I heard about a patent infringement suit filed on May 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against the J.M. Smucker Co. Mack-Ray Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., alleges in Mack-Ray Inc. v. J.M. Smucker Co. that Smucker is infringing on its patents for a “Spreader” used on squeezable food dispensers. I’m not taking sides here – even though I grew up just a few miles from Smucker’s headquarters in rural Orrville, Ohio – I’m just crossing my jelly-free fingers that Mack-Ray and Smucker work out their differences. Our kitchen is a lot less sticky when Gina isn’t using a knife to get jelly out of a jar.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

This Week in Texas Lawyer

It's bugging them: The 5th Circuit hears oral arguments in a Volkswagen case that could limit U.S. district judges' discretion regarding §1404(a) motions to transfer venue. John Council heads to the Big Easy to get the story.

Do what we tell you: The Supreme Court expands its interlocutory mandamus jurisdiction. Mary Alice Robbins parses the split decision.

Until they pry the check out of my cold, dead fingers: Is a difference of opinion on the value of services ($5,000 vs. $28,000) really worth 10 years of litigation? Mary Alice Robbins finds out that, apparently, it is.

In his debt: One of the big debt-collection firms is embroiled in a fee fight with one of its former lawyers. Brenda Sapino Jeffreys checks out the dispute.

Bench buffoonery: The State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued warnings to two judges for conduct involving butt-slapping and slavery-chatting. Mary Alice Robbins shines a light on the judiciary.   

Relationship counseling: Want to make partner? Start building relationships now. Columnist Dionne Carney Rainey explains how.

Convicted doctor gets more time for threat to murder prosecutor

An incarcerated Houston doctor who solicited a fellow inmate to kill a federal prosecutor and later pleaded guilty to the charge of threatening to murder a law enforcement officer was sentenced on Thursday to 30 months in federal prison for the offense, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. Ira Klein, a 62-year-old former gastroentinologist, admitted in his guilty plea that while in federal custody in May 2006, he solicited a fellow inmate to arrange to have Sam Louis, an assistant U.S. Attorney, run over by an 18-wheeler. He also solicited the inmate to throw acid in the face of FBI Special Agent Jayme Poteet, who investigated the health-care fraud case. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of the Southern District of Texas ordered that Klein serve 12 of the 30 months consecutively to a 135-month federal prison sentence imposed on Aug. 2, 2007, for health-care fraud and mail fraud violations. The remaining 18 months will be served concurrently. In his guilty plea, Klein also agreed to a criminal forfeiture of $250,000.
-- Jonathan Fox

Former SG gets his name on the door

Litigation boutique Yetter & Warden, which has offices in Austin and Houston, is changing its name to Yetter, Warden & Coleman. The Coleman is Gregory S. Coleman, who served as the Texas solicitor general from 1999 until late 2001. Formerly a partner in Weil , Gotshal & Manges, Coleman joined Yetter & Warden as a partner in Austin on March 26, 2007.  Coleman says the firm already has filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to change the name. “As far as the state is concerned, we’re official,” he says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

$200 electric bill for a 4,200 square foot house?!

Greenberg Traurig shareholder David L. Ronn doesn’t just practice climate change law, he lives it: His home was the first in Houston to achieve official green status under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) residential certification program. Ronn’s 4,200-square foot, 4-bed/3-bath, 2 half-bath Memorial-area home garnered a gold -– the third highest of four possible ratings -- on the LEED for Homes Green Building Rating System. That’s thanks to ecofab features like solar panels, recycled denim insulation and flooring made from bamboo and recycled tires. Yet nothing about it “screams green,” Ronn says of the house he and his family moved into last year. In fact, just walking in, he says, “you’d never know it was built any differently than a bricks-and-sticks home.” Ronn knew from the get-go that he wanted his new home to be as eco-conscious as possible, both to hold down energy bills and to “show people that someone could actually build an energy-efficient home in Houston.” When he and designer Kathleen Carrier Reardon of Evergreen Design Studio launched the project back in 2006, they found it wasn't so easy being green. “We had to educate ourselves,” he says. “Now in 2008 there are a lot of people who are doing it, but back then it was a little tougher.” Throughout the construction, they held open houses, inviting architects, designers and the like to check out what was going on (or, rather, up). Ronn says it was a way to educate people, start discussions and yes, “spread the gospel” about building green. Ronn remains a believer: Since moving into the house last year, his highest electric bill has been about $200, and it’s added "a little bit” of additional eco-cred to his energy and natural resource law expertise. But it’s also piqued his interest in yet another area of law. “As a heavily real-estate firm across the country, we have a lot of LEED-certified attorneys, and I’d like to get into that,” he says. Thanks to this build, he says, “I know as much as anyone about the LEED residential real estate program.” (Photography by Dennis DeSilva of www.BlueLemonPhoto.com.)
-- Jenny B. Davis

Movie night for politics buffs

Does art imitate life? Former U.S. secretary of state and Baker Botts senior partner James A. Baker III gets to answer that one this week. British actor Tom Wilkinson plays Baker in the HBO movie "Recount," which will be broadcast Sunday at 8 p.m. The movie tells the story of the 36 days that led to the conclusion of the 2000 presidential election. Wilkinson, as Baker, watches then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris' first news conference after the ballots were cast and remarks: "This woman is hopeless. We're going to need some help on this." On May 21, Baker, as Baker, hosted a showing of the movie at the Baker Institute at Rice University. So does that mean the quote was accurate?
-- Miriam Rozen

When is a ranch not a household?

When is a ranch not a household? Maybe when it’s the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Lawyers across the state are devouring a nine-page memorandum opinion issued by Austin's 3rd Court of Appeals on May 22 that says Texas lacked the authority to take custody of some children from the ranch, which is located near Eldorado and operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A three-justice panel of the court agreed with a group of 38 mothers that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not meet its burden under Section 262.201 of the Texas Family Code, and should not have been awarded temporary custody of the children. [See Texas Lawyer's story here.] One lawyer who read the opinion closely, Barbara Nunnely of Hurst’s Family Law Center, says the opinion hinges on the definition of household. In seeking temporary custody in April of more than 450 children, the department had argued the entire ranch is a household. But in a footnote, the 3rd Court panel states there isn’t sufficient evidence to support that notion. That distinction is significant, Nunnely says, because under the Texas Family Code, a court can consider, when ordering removal, whether a child is in a household where sexual abuse has occurred. But the children of the mothers seeking the writ of the mandamus did not live in the same household as the five female children the department identified as having become pregnant between the ages of 15 and 17, the court stated. Therefore, Nunnely says, the appeals court must have determined that the children of the 38 mothers were not at sufficient risk to be removed from their parents.

-- Miriam Rozen and Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

I'll take lawyers on TV for $500, Alex.

Today, Austin associate Paul Walcutt is sitting in a conference room of a Dallas hotel with a group of about 40 other people, waiting for his name to be called. When it is, he’ll be ushered into another conference room, where he’ll be peppered with questions -– questions he’s expected to answer correctly, with each answer framed in the form of a question. That is, after all, the cardinal rule of Jeopardy! Today, show staffers will be looking for potential contestants who can “avoid the deer-in-the-headlights thing" and think under pressure, he speculates. “I think at that point you’re not even guaranteed to be on it.” Yet Walcutt wanted to come out “just for the experience.” That, and he’s been a fan for nearly 20 years –- since he was 14 -- and he’s always dreamed of being the one behind the buzzer. He reached today’s invitation-only tryout after taking a contestant application test posted on the show’s Web site. “I thought I did fairly well,” he says of the test, but he didn’t know how well until he got the e-mail callback about a month ago. To prepare for today’s audition, he did some good ole cramming in his weakest areas, “the Bible, opera and anything to do with English literature.” (His strongest? “Geography, history and the law . . .  hopefully.”)  What he didn’t do was practice his presentation skills: “Given my occupation,” says the criminal defense lawyer, “I have a little bit of training.” He’ll also have a fan base in his boss, Betty Blackwell. “I am thrilled that he got this far,” she says. “He’s so smart and so capable.” Walcutt may also be happy to know that getting time off won’t be a problem. Says Blackwell: “I am so thrilled for him, he can have as much time off as he needs; this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
-- Jenny B. Davis

Reality TV: A TexLaw tradition?

Leave it to TexParte readers to know their guilty pleasures! Following our post on Jeremy Anderson, the former Hunton & Williams associate currently competing for love on the fourth season of ABC’s "The Bachelorette," two trivia-lovin’ readers (thanks, Christi Feeney!) wrote in to remind us that Anderson is in fact the SECOND Texas J.D. to appear on the show. The first? Brian Patrick Ching, a 1999 graduate of South Texas College of Law. That was back in early 2003. It was the show’s very first season, the one starring physical therapist-slash-cheerleader Trista Rehn. And obviously Ching didn’t win: You were probably one of the 17 million-plus viewers who tuned in to watch Rehn marry meaty firefighter Ryan Sutter. We caught up with Ching at his Dallas office, where he’s a partner in a commercial real estate firm and a residential real estate developer building houses in swanky hoods like Highland Park. Ching confirmed his appearance on the show with a less-than-enthusiastic “that was me,” but the dish stopped there. He did, however, reveal that he wasn’t actually practicing law when he appeared on the show – “I was with a mortgage company. I practiced law between 2000 and 2001, but kept my license active,” he says. Then, Ching begged off the phone, because he was “in a meeting.”

Tell us how you really feel, judge

There’s always one mouthy one in the room. This morning in his Dallas courtroom, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade took the honors. According to an account in The Dallas Morning News, Kinkeade “dared” former Dallas City Councilman James Fantroy, who was convicted in February of stealing around $20,000 from Paul Quinn College, to "stand in front of the courthouse or sit in that chair and admit what you did was wrong. I don't think you have the guts to do that. It's up to you." If Fantroy doesn't, the judge told him, the former city politician — who has been sick — is going to serve prison time, rather than just house arrest. "You've been on lots of TV interviews, and they've all been lies," the judge told Fantroy, according to the article. "I'll be watching." Fantroy hasn't responded to the judge's dare yet. His lawyer, Dallas solo David Pire, expressed astonishment to the Morning News reporter (he didn't immediately return Texas Lawyer's call seeking comment).  But behind Kinkeade's Southern drawl and charm has always lurked a let's-get-down-to-brass-tacks New York attitude.
-- Miriam Rozen

UPDATE: David Pire, a Dallas solo who represents James Fantroy, called after we posted this blog item. Says Pire: "I've never seen this happen before in a federal case." On Monday he plans to meet with his client to determine how to proceed, Pire says.

STCL student wins Fulbright

Angela Ban will explore ways to use Taiwanese law to help preserve Taiwanese folk art, and she will study under the supervision of the curator of the Museum of Religion in Taipei, according to a South Texas College of Law press release. The Fulbright Program is a scholarship and grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that seeks to increase understanding between the United States and other nations. Ban, a first-generation American who grew up in Houston, also plans to take intensive language classes to improve her Chinese, the release notes. She'll be in Taiwan from August 2008 until June 2009.
-- Jonathan Fox

Law students make superior hog wrestlers

That’s right folks, h-o-g wrestling. In March, two then-2Ls at the Baylor University School of Law  – Stuart White and Carson Runge – won the World Hog Wrestling Championship in Sabinal, according to a Waco Tribune-Herald story posted on the school’s Web site. The two competed as a team and bare-handedly forced a feral hog into a sack and then dragged the sack across a finish line. Apparently, the two future attorneys accomplished the feat in just 7.41 seconds to beat about 25 other teams. Perhaps the two will have similar success in the future when it comes time to start rounding up clients.
-- Jeanne Graham

A fitting tribute

I’m sorry I’m just now reporting this, but earlier this month a big contingent of federal officials and lawyers met in front of the U.S. courthouse in Tyler to rename it. The new sign on the building at 211 W. Ferguson now designates it as the William M. Steger Building and United States Courthouse. As well it should. Steger served as a district judge in that courthouse for 35 years until his death on June 4, 2006. He also served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Texas as a Republican in 1960. I met Steger three years ago when I found out he grew up in a house located two blocks away from mine on Gaston Avenue in Dallas. His wife, Ann, was also a proud resident on Gaston, who grew up in a house across the street from Steger. They even got married on Gaston in Ann’s parents' house on Valentine’s Day 1948 --- not really for the sake of romance; they originally wanted to get married a day earlier but discovered that date was Friday the 13th. It made for a nice story -- especially for the Feb. 14, 2005, edition of Texas Lawyer. I’m thinking about nailing a sign to 5716 Gaston naming it the “William M. Steger boyhood home” but the nice neighbors who live there now might become really unfriendly if I did that.
--- John Council

New sheriff in town at the UPLC

The Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee’s work is never done, but chairman Rodney Gilstrap's decade-long labor is, as of May 3. “I thought 10 years was a good long round number, and I thought it was time to let someone else do it, ’’ says Gilstrap of Marshall’s Smith & Gilstrap, who says he’ll remain on the UPLC board. The Texas Supreme Court appointed Leland De La Garza, a partner in Dallas’ Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, to replace Gilstrap on May 3. A case that’s spanned a good part of Gilstrap’s chairmanship --- Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee v. American Home Assurance Co. Inc. and Travelers Indemnity Co. --- may not be totally dead yet. In March the Texas Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in that case (click here for the majority and here for the dissent) that an insurer may use staff counsel to represent insureds in some circumstances, thwarting an almost 10-year effort by the UPLC to stop the practice. On May 15, the UPLC filed a motion for rehearing. Mainly the committee wants some clarification from the high court about what exactly constitutes a conflict when an insurance staff counsel represents an insured, Gilstrap says.
--- John Council

Justice Medina's wife pleads not guilty

Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina accompanied his wife, Francisca, to court in Houston this morning, where her lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf to three felony charges of arson. The charges stem from a June 2007 fire that damaged the couple’s house in Spring and a neighbor’s house. Francisca Medina didn’t speak at the brief hearing in 176th District Judge Brian Rains’ court, says her criminal-defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson of Houston. DeGuerin says he waived the formal reading of the grand jury indictment. Francisca Medina remains out on bond. DeGuerin maintains the DA’s office doesn’t have evidence to prove the charges against her. “We don’t believe they have anything at all,” DeGuerin says. He says David Medina gave a brief statement following the hearing. “He said my wife is innocent and I’m here to support her,” DeGuerin reports.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

What a difference a week makes

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced a $58 million settlement with Merck & Co. Inc. in a suit that 29 states and the District of Columbia filed against the pharmaceutical company in 2005 over its marketing of the pain medication Vioxx. Judge Martin Lowy of Dallas County’s 101st District Court today signed the settlement in State of Texas v. Merck & Co., Inc. Texas’ share of settlement funds will exceed $4 million. Among other things, Texas alleged in its original petition that Merck began marketing Vioxx in May 1999 “with an aggressive and deceptive promotional campaign directed at both consumers and health care professionals.” The settlement requires Merck to submit all television advertising campaigns for any Merck product to the federal Food and Drug Administration for pre-review. Bruce Kuhlik, Merck’s executive vice president and general counsel, writes in the company’s statement, “Merck remains committed to communications that help patients and their physicians chose medications based on accurate, fair and balanced information.” The picture was a little rosier for Merck last week: On May 14, San Antonio’s 4th Court of Appeals reversed a $7.75 million judgment favoring a plaintiff in a suit that alleged that Vioxx caused the death of a 71-year-old man. But that was then, and this is now.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Pricey gas? No hearing.

Are high gas prices having an impact on how courts conduct business? U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District in San Antonio decided that high prices at the pump made it unnecessary for him to hold a hearing May 19 in LULAC of Texas, et al. v. State of Texas and Texas Democratic Party, a suit challenging the way Democrats distribute Texas delegates to the party’s national convention. Biery wrote in a May 16 order in LULAC that he saw no reason to hold the hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary injunction, when plaintiffs and defendants had filed briefs on the issue.  “Moreover, numerous gallons of $4.00 a gallon gasoline would be expended for a significant number of persons to appear with the result being an oral presentation of the already written arguments,” Biery wrote. Gilbert Rodriguez, Biery’s office manager, says Biery could decide the case by May 22.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

The Strong Arm is recovering

Brian  Loncar -- a Dallas lawyer who frequently advertises on daytime TV, urging people to call the “Strong Arm” if injured in a car wreck -- is on the mend. He was in seriously injured after his 2008 Bentley collided with a fire truck on May 15. “We are pleased to report that Brian is receiving exemplary care and has already made tremendous progress,” states a release from Loncar & Associates. “Brian suffered internal contusions and non-compound fractures of a few ribs and pelvis. His internal injuries required surgery which was successful.  Thankfully, there were no injuries to his head or spine. He is now in stable condition with a prognosis of a full recovery, resumption of his activities and return to work in the near future.” We hope so. And it might be a good idea him for him to trade the Bentley for the tank featured in his advertisements.
--- John Council

Cowtown clerk's office controversy

Tom Wilder, the district clerk for Tarrant County, will most likely be visiting another courthouse soon. On May 13, Peter Lee Hinojosa and Bobby Don Cook, two former employees of the Tarrant County District Clerk's office, each filed a complaint against Wilder and Tarrant County in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth. In their complaints, Hinojosa and Cook allege that the district clerk targeted their positions for elimination "under the guide of reduction in force and/or reorganization" after Hinojosa opposed Wilder in the Republican primary in 2006 and after Cook supported Hinojosa's political campaign. Wilder has not yet filed a response. He is meeting with the Tarrant County commissioners on Tuesday May 20 to discuss his response, he says. Based on his attorneys' advice, he says he opts not to comment at length about the complaints. But Wilder notes: "Just because people file a law suit doesn't mean the allegations are true." And who knows that verity better than a district clerk?
-- Miriam Rozen

Politics v. practice

Tom Loeffler, the co-founder and partner in the Austin-based Loeffler Group and former U.S. congressman, until last weekend served as the national finance co-chairman of U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. On Sunday, CBS News reported that Loeffler had resigned from his post after the campaign announced that all staff members had been asked to end their lobbying activities and registrations. How could Loeffler, who opened his shop in 2001 after leaving the Hill and has subsequently become a formidable lobbying presence in D.C. and Austin, have done anything else but bow out under those terms?
-- Miriam Rozen

Who's really making money?

Texas Lawyer’s Annual Report on Firm Finance has been out for three weeks, and insiders have been scrutinizing the numbers and the rankings, trying to figure out how their firm really stacked up in 2007. Some say profits per partner is the real measure of financial success, while others look at revenue per lawyer. But we suggest the profitability index, calculated by dividing PPP by RPL. It shows whether equity partners are taking home more or less than the average revenue brought into the firm. Houston firm Baker Botts had the highest profitability index at 1.59 among the 25 highest-grossing firms in Texas in 2007, while Clark, Thomas & Winters had the lowest at .77. Using the index as the measure, 19 of the Texas firms were profitable in 2007, and six weren’t. You be the judge.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

The Profitability Index

Rank    Firm    2007    2006

1    Baker Botts    1.59    1.47

2    Susman Godfrey    1.43    1.73

3 (tie)    Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld    1.41    1.54

3 (tie)    Thompson & Knight    1.41    1.41

5    Beirne, Maynard & Parsons    1.40    1.44

6    Vinson & Elkins    1.39    1.40

7    Godwin Pappas Ronquillo    1.32    .85
   
8    Haynes and Boone    1.27    1.18

9    Kelly Hart & Hallman    1.25    1.36

10    Locke Liddell & Sapp*    1.24    1.20

11    Andrews Kurth    1.23    1.10

12 (tie)    Porter & Hedges    1.22    1.04

12 (tie)    Munsch, Hardt, Kopf & Harr    1.22    1.10

14 (tie)    Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin    1.18    1.09

14(tie)    Jackson Walker    1.18    1.13

16 (tie)    Bracewell & Giuliani    1.17    1.14

16 (tie)    Gardere Wynne Sewell    1.17    1.19

18    Fulbright & Jaworski    1.12    1.16

19    Hughes & Luce**    1.11    1.09

20    Winstead    .99    1.00

21    Cox Smith Matthews    .95    .95

22    Strasburger & Price    .94    .85

23    Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal    .89    .89

24    Brown McCarroll    .79    .90

25    Clark, Thomas & Winters    .77    .74

*The numbers are fiscal full-year for Locke Liddell & Sapp, which merged with Chicago’s Lord Bissell & Brook in October 2007 and now is named Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.

** The numbers are for the full fiscal year for Hughes & Luce, which combined with New York’s Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis on Jan. 1, 2008.

Another SMU law grad looks for love on national TV

Gather your friends! Set your TiVo! Tonight marks the return of the ABC reality hit, "The Bachelorette." Even better than watching the jilted become the jilter – this season’s DeAnna Pappas was the last woman standing when last year’s bachelor made the shocking decision to exit the stage alone -- will be watching a Texas lawyer vie for love. That lucky guy is one Jeremy Anderson, a newbie real estate lawyer and SMU law grad from Dallas, who’s one of 25 hopefuls in a good-looking bunch that also includes a professional snowboarder, an actor, a high school football coach and an oyster farmer. But Pappas shouldn’t save the date for her potential new beau's firm holiday party just yet; Anderson resigned from his first-year associate gig at Hunton & Williams before starting on the show, says partner-in-charge Patrick E. Mitchell. “Jeremy is a good guy,” Mitchell says. “I knew he was leaving to do a reality show, but we didn’t know which one, because he wasn’t able to talk about it at the time.” Mitchell doesn’t know if anyone at the firm is getting together to watch tonight, but he notes that the TV will be on at his house – his wife’s a fan. Perhaps she knows that Anderson isn’t the only SMU law grad in the realityTV-o-sphere. Rewind to 2003, when ex-Marine hunk Rob Campos starred as the single dude du jour on NBC’s "For Love or Money," a Bachelor-style elimi-mating ritual that ended with a surprising twist: The last woman standing got to choose between a man and a million bucks. Sadly, Campos didn’t end up with the girl – she went for the cash. Then The Smoking Gun exposed some intel on his JAG career. Then the firm where he officed, citing the bad PR, asked him to clear out his desk. Will Jeremy fare any better? Stay tuned.
-- Jenny B. Davis

OMG! It's Justice Stevens!

Last night I had the honor of rubbing elbows with Justice John Paul Stevens as he accepted an award from the American Inns of Court on his home turf, Chicago. In addition to my reporting post with Texas Lawyer, I also am the author of "The U.S. Supreme Court Coloring & Activity Book" -- so you KNOW I made a beeline for the bow-tied jurist to give him a copy. When he didn't immediately yell for security, I decided to press my luck and ask him to autograph my own copy of the kiddie book, and he graciously obliged. Nope, no hyperlink to eBay here -- the page already has a place of honor in my study.
-- Jenny B. Davis 

You know your case is in trouble when . . .

Here's yet another reason for parents to monitor their children’s online activities more closely. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a suit against MySpace.com after a 13-year-old girl allegedly was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old boy after meeting him on the social networking Web site. The 5th Circuit quotes some vintage U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, who took issue with the plaintiffs lawyer whose client allegedly went to great lengths to defeat the security measures that protect MySpace users from harm. Sparks: “I want to get this straight. You have a 13-year-old girl who lies, disobeys all of the instructions, later on disobeys the warning not to give personal information, obviously, [and] does not communicate with the parent. More important, the parent does not exercise the parental control over the minor. The minor gets sexually abused, and you want somebody else to pay for it? This is the lawsuit that you filed?” Counsel for the Does: “Yes, your Honor.” Suits against Web-based service providers  are usually unsuccessful because of the federal Communications Decency Act, which provides broad immunities for publications on their Web sites by third parties. However the plaintiffs in Jane Doe et al. v. MySpace Inc. had a different take. They sued MySpace, claiming that the company was negligent not in its capacity as a publisher but rather because it did not provide enough safety features to prevent the 13-year-old from meeting the 19-year old. Sparks granted MySpace’s summary judgment motion dismissing the case, finding that the CDA prohibits the plaintiff’s suit. The 5th Circuit agreed with Spark’s reasoning on May 16, finding that the CDA bars the Does' claims against MySpace.
-- John Council

This week in Texas Lawyer:

Donating their bodies to science: When lymphoma struck a Gibbs & Bruns associate, Jonathan Fox reports, three partners decided to raise money for cancer research with a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon — back to back.

Oh, Canada: The Harris County DA’s office is trying to pry a former Texas lawyer off his organic farm in Canada, discovers Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, so he can answer charges pending in Texas since 1995.

Cherry picking: In a fight between a judge and the Office of the Attorney General over child-support orders, Mary Alice Robbins and Miriam Rozen survey the battle lines.

Pain reliever: Lawyers for a successful Vioxx plaintiff will be reaching for some aspirin after a reversal at the 4th Court. Mary Alice Robbins takes a closer look.

The writing life: Ben Fountain quit his big-firm associate job to be a stay-at-home dad and work on his fiction. Jonathan Fox checks in on the road less traveled in Life After Law.

Cert denied: A woman who wants to get pregnant post-divorce can’t use embryos she and her ex created.

Texas Lawyer Video Blog, May 19, 2008

Texas Lawyer's John Council and Betsy Branch of McCurley Orsinger McCurley Nelson & Downing discuss the difficulty of determining parent-child relationships in the FLDS cases, the credibility of birth certificates for children of polygamists, parent reunification plans, extradition attempts to get a former Houston lawyer back to Texas, and the Supreme Court's refusal to hear a case involving frozen embryos.

Car crash injures the Strong Arm

Brian Loncar, a Dallas car-wreck lawyer, was in critical condition yesterday from injuries received during a car wreck. According to The Dallas Morning News, Loncar was in his 2008 Bentley on Thursday night when a fire truck with “lights and sirens blaring” passed through an intersection and struck Loncar’s vehicle on the passenger side. According to the article, Loncar was taken to Parkland Hospital, but officials at the hospital would not confirm he was there. Loncar & Associates is a frequent advertiser on daytime television, and his Web site urges people to call in the “Strong Arm” if they are injured in a car wreck.
--- John Council

Committed to being uncommitted

Boyd Richie, a solo from Graham, is the Young County attorney and the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party since 2006. But it's his other role, as a still-uncommitted super delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, about which Boyd is not coming to the phone. Instead, Boyd -- whose wife Betty is also an uncommitted super delegate, giving new meaning to the term "power couple" -- refers all inquiries to Hector Nieto, the Texas Democratic Party spokesman. Nieto says Boyd has told him that he will not choose between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton until after the June 6 to June 8 Texas Democratic Convention. "His policy until then is to remain uncommitted," says Nieto. Five other Texans, including Robert Strauss, the former U.S. ambassador and founder of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and U.S. Representative Nick Lampson (D-Houston) are listed on a blog tracking the uncommitted. Neither Strauss nor Lampson returned calls about any selection they've made between Obama and Clinton either.
-- Miriam Rozen

Disney in dissent

This is no Mickey Mouse deal.  To express his dissent in In Re: McAllen Medical Center Inc., Texas Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright quotes the lyrics from 1992’s Academy Award-winning song, “It’s a Whole New World,” from the Disney animated film “Aladdin.”  At issue in McAllen Medical Center is whether the state’s Supreme Court has jurisdiction over the interlocutory petition for a writ of mandamus in a med-mal case. In the May 16 decision, the high court’s majority determines it has jurisdiction.  Wainwright disagrees, writing, “A whole new world in mandamus practice . . . is here.”
-- Mary Alice Robbins

In whose space will MySpace litigate?

On April 30, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis remanded a case against MySpace Inc. that was originally filed in Dallas' 298th District Court. Back on Dec. 6, 2007, parents of 15-year-old "Julie Doe" filed the case in the 298th, after their daughter committed suicide after being sexually assaulted by Kiley Ryan Bowers, a man whom she met and corresponded with through MySpace. In their original petition, the parents allege that Bowers has been convicted of the sexual assault, sentenced to the federal penitentiary and currently is serving his term in Seagoville. In February, Bowers, who is a defendant in the civil case along with MySpace, persuaded 298th District Judge Emily Tobolowsky to send the case to federal court. But Solis ruled that removal was improper. So now it's back in the 298th.
-- Miriam Rozen

The Special Olympics needs lawyers

Well, actually, they just need people -- about a thousand of them, as soon as possible -- to help out at the 2008 Summer Games next weekend, May 23-25, at the University of Texas Arlington campus. And would you believe, as of Thursday, there was NOT A SINGLE LAW FIRM IN TEXAS THAT'S SIGNED UP TO HELP! That's according to volunteer coordinator Andi Kelley, who says the organization is about a thousand volunteers shy of their goal of having a volunteer for every one of the 2,800 developmentally disabled athletes participating in these games, the largest of all the state competitions. Kelley says help is needed in every area of the games. Volunteering couldn't be easier -- from now until Monday, you can choose where you want to pitch in. Just log on to the site and click on the "volunteers needed link" on the right side of the page. After Monday, you can still sign up online; check the site for available spots. And Kelley says that you can even show up, day-of, and she'd be happy to put you to work.
-- Jenny B. Davis

UPDATE: A tale of two settlements mea culpa

There was an error in my earlier post on this item. Scott Summy says he left Cooper & Scully in February 2002. My apologies.

-- John Council

Skool daze

If you're like me, you’ve frittered away another perfectly good hour surfing Abovethelaw.com. (Unlike you, however, it’s actually my job to read blogs. Heh heh!) Anyway, the latest post boasts the law schools with the highest and the lowest attrition rates, based on information available from the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Here’s what the ABA says about total attrition rates at Texas law schools:

Baylor University School of Law: 7.23 percent
University of Houston Law Center: 1.79 percent
SMU Dedman School of Law: 1.81 percent
South Texas College of Law: 4.45 percent
University of Texas School of Law: 2.13 percent
Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law: 6.99 percent
Texas Tech University School of Law: 2.99 percent
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law: 10.15 percent

Want to check out a different school? (Maybe your managing partner’s?) Click here.
-- Jenny B. Davis

Temp to perm

After serving almost a year as interim dean of St. Mary’s University School of Law, Charles Cantu has the job on a permanent basis.  University President Charles L. Cotrell announced today that Cantu is the law school’s seventh dean.  Cantu, who received a JD from St. Mary’s, has been a faculty member there for 42 years.  He should know his way around the campus.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Lat attack!

Isn’t it always the case: You turn your back on your firm for two minutes, and suddenly it’s the starring post on a snarky legal tabloid Web site. That’s what happened to Chris LaFollette, partner-in-charge of Akin Gump’s Houston office, who was in the midst of a business trip when she got an e-mail announcing that an internal firm memo offering its lawyers 22 Summer Program Do’s and Don’ts had been posted – and embellished, natch -- on blawger David Lat’s AboveTheLaw.com. Thankfully, LaFollette did not adopt the stance of one big firm recently skewered by ATL for actually recording an, ahem, motivational firm theme song – that is, she didn’t freak out (click here for an ABC news video account of NixonPeabodyGate). Although LaFollette says she has yet to read the post, she returned TexParte’s call immediately and called the entire incident “just kind of a non-event.” Indeed it sort of was – even Lat concedes the firm’s advice-filled memo is “pretty sound.” LaFollette says the list of “common sense reminders” was compiled using suggestions submitted by actual associates, the kind of stuff that’s just helpful to remember in the wake of incoming 1Ls and 2Ls. So what do the 15 summer clerks who started on Monday think of their firm’s newly established cybercred? Says LaFollette, “You know, I have been in Denver since Sunday, and I haven’t even had the chance to say ‘Good morning’ to them.”
-- Jenny B. Davis

A tale of two settlements

On May 7, Dallas-based Baron & Budd secured a $422 million settlement -- the largest ever involving a water pollution case -- for 153 public water providers. But the settlement has another Dallas firm interested in the result. Baron & Budd’s clients had sued various oil companies in what became federal multidistrict litigation in the Southern District of New York. Since 2003, Scott Summy, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, and five other Baron & Budd lawyers devoted almost all of their time and energy working the case, in which their clients accused the oil companies of contaminating drinking water with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). “The damages we were suing for was the cost to take it out of the water supply before it was served to the public,” says Summy, who heads Baron & Budd’s water contamination group. In late 2003, Summy moved from Dallas-based Cooper & Scully to Baron & Budd. That same year Cooper & Scully sued Summy, a former shareholder, as well as Baron & Budd shareholders Russell Budd and Fred Baron, and their firm, alleging the defendants caused Cooper & Scully at least $14 million in damages after Baron & Budd hired Summy. Summy helped develop Cooper & Scully's environmental litigation practice, according to the third amended petition in Cooper & Scully v. Summy, et al. Cooper & Scully alleged that the defendants took possession of money from settlements that belong "to Cooper & Scully and have improperly withheld that money" – allegations the defendants denied. The parties in that case reached a confidential settlement on Jan. 27, 2006. “I got all of these cases after I left [Cooper & Scully]. These cases were not part of that dispute,” Summy says of the recent MTBE settlement. As for the Cooper & Scully litigation, Summy says: “That dispute was settled amicably. I wish them well. . . .”  But R. Brent Cooper, a partner in Cooper & Scully, notes, “All I can say is we saw the information on the New York settlement, and we are reviewing it in light of our settlement.”
--- John Council

May it please the -- who are you?

When lawyers get ready to argue a writ of mandamus in Clear Channel Communications Inc. et al. v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., et al. on Friday before the Texas Supreme Court, they’ll see two unfamiliar faces staring back at them from the bench. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Austin 3rd Court of Appeals Justice G. Alan Waldrop and 157th District Court Judge Randall W. Wilson of Houston to hear the case after high court Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson and Justice Dale Wainwright recused themselves. The issue is whether a $22 billion loan dispute between Clear Channel and several banks will be litigated in Texas or New York. The justices rarely explain the reasons for the recusals and didn’t this time. But Jefferson really didn't have to explain his reasons; the chief justice's brother Lamont Jefferson of Haynes and Boone represents the bank defendants in the case. Wainwright’s connection to the case is a little less clear. By tradition, justices at the high court recuse themselves from any case that was handled by a firm while they were still working at that firm or if they have a financial interest in the case. Wainwright worked at Haynes and Boone from 1996 until 1999. But he’s been away from the firm for so long it’s doubtful that’s the reason he’s declining to hear the mandamus.
-- John Council

Don't read this if you're feeling insecure

Stephen Shackelford Jr., an associate with Susman Godfrey in Dallas, earned the highest score on the February bar exam, just finished clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and twice earned the highest grade point average in his class at Harvard Law. Plus, he's not just book smart, he's penny-wise: He works for a firm where last year's profits per partner totaled more than $3 million.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

O’Quinn, firms prevail in legal-mal appeal

Sometimes when you lose, you win. And that’s what happened May 8 to a group of firms -- including one founded by plaintiffs lawyer John O’Quinn -- in a legal-malpractice case decided by Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals. In Grider v. O’Brien, et al., Rebbeca Dunn Grider sued O’Quinn and various firms over the way they handled her medical-malpractice suit, which Grider had lost at trial and on appeal. In her legal-mal suit, Grider alleged, among other things, that her lawyers in her med-mal suit advised her not to appeal the verdict and failed to calculate correctly the due date for her notice of appeal. A trial court dismissed Grider’s legal-malpractice suit on summary judgment and the 1st Court affirmed, because the firms that represented Grider were not the “proximate cause” of her loss in the med-mal case. Wrote Hanks, “Our review of the merits of Grider’s underlying medical malpractice case reveals that she would not have prevailed at the appellate level. Grider thus cannot prevail on her legal malpractice claim against the law firms because the law firms’ negligence did not proximately cause her damage.”

-- John Council

Never underestimate the power of a political firestorm

Timothy O'Hare, an SMU-trained lawyer who opened the Offices of Timothy O'Hare & Associates in 2001, is the newly elected mayor of Farmers Branch, winning 64 percent of the vote on Saturday. As mayor pro tem, O'Hare has led Farmers Branch's fight to keep illegal immigrants from renting housing. In April, he reported raising $47,000 for his election campaign. The city has spent $727,607 to date on legal fees defending the rental ban, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Could it be that all the free media coverage generated by the controversy helped his margin of victory more than the $47,000?
-- Miriam Rozen

Katrina cases blow into Beaumont

Beaumont-based Provost Umphrey has gained about 200 clients who are suing State Farm related to the insurer's handling of their Hurricane Katrina-related claims, according to a May 10 article in the Sun Herald newspaper of Gulfport, Miss. The hiring of Provost Umphrey came after  the December 2007 indictment of Mississippi plaintiffs attorney Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs and his subsequent guilty plea, the article states; Scruggs had to give up the Katrina cases after federal authorities charged him with conspiring to bribe a judge. State Farm then successfully petitioned to have attorneys who had worked with Scruggs dismissed from the case. The article states that Don Barrett, one of those dismissed attorneys, wrote to his ex-clients to suggest that they hire Provost Umphrey. Barrett, of the Lexington, Miss.-based Barrett Law Office, told the Sun Herald that he knows the firm's managing partner Walter Umphrey from the 1990s, when they worked on Mississippi's tobacco litigation together.
-- Jonathan Fox