Texas Lawyer Blog

Atlanta-based Constangy, Brooks & Smith opens Dallas office

Labor and employment firm Constangy, Brooks & Smith of Atlanta has opened an office in Dallas with Michael P. Maslanka as its managing partner. Maslanka formerly was managing partner of Atlanta-based Ford & Harrison’s Dallas office. Maslanka, who joined Constangy, Brooks on Jan. 24, says he and Mark Flora, who heads the Constangy, Brooks office in Austin, have been friends for many years and they’ve often talked about practicing together. “I like the values of Constangy, Brooks — the same values that I share," which are client first. Maslanka declines to comment on which clients he is taking with him to the new firm. Other partners in Constangy, Brooks’ new Dallas office are Edel Cuadra and William Hammel, who joined the firm at the beginning of January from Dallas firm Godwin Ronquillo. Donald Godwin, chairman of Godwin Ronquillo, says his firm has other labor and employment lawyers and hopes to grow that practice area this year. “Edel and Billy seem to want to be in an environment similar to what that firm offers,” he says, adding, “They were friends of ours when they were here and continue to be.” Matthew Scott, who earlier this month became the new office administrative partner of Ford & Harrison’s Dallas office, did not immediately return a telephone call. Neither did Cuadra and Hammel. Neil Wasser, chairman of Constangy's executive committee, says the firm opened a Dallas office because of the growth potential of the city and the quality of the new lawyers. "You need a good market and good people and we got both," he says. "We just feel like we struck gold in Dallas." Constangy, Brooks has 130 lawyers in 22 offices, including the new Dallas office. [Editor's note: Maslanka is the author of Texas Lawyer's Work Matters blog.]
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Texas Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee rejects federal expert witness rules

The Texas Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee voted last Friday not to adopt federal discovery rules that require parties to provide written reports about their expert witnesses and extend work-product privilege to drafts a testifying expert witness prepares before testifying in a case. “We talked for about an hour-and-a-half. And the committee voted 2-to-1 not to have it,” says Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, the court’s liaison to the committee. “But we sent it off to draft a rule in case the court wants one.” Nobody liked the written-report requirement, Hecht says, and the committee was “just nervous about creating a new area of confidentiality.” Those changes were part of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26, which took effect Dec. 1, 2010. Here's a letter from Hecht making the court's request for the advisory committee's recommendations, the discovery rules subcommittee's memo to the advisory committee and a letter to the subcommittee.

-- John Council

This week in Texas Lawyer

Thriller: Ed Chernoff (pictured) represents Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Reporter Miriam Rozen explores what a high-profile representation means for a small Houston firm.

Revving up: A Minneapolis litigation firm is opening a Dallas office with lawyers from Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern. Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys eyes the client lists.

Approach the bench: Senior reporter John Council paints a portrait of  97th District Judge Roger Towery (pictured).

A new set of eyes: After a bench changed hands, the occupant vacated a new-trial order his predecessor had signed. Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys finds out what happened in the legal-malpractice case.

Patents and copyrights: The year that was in the IP docket.

Inadmissible. VerdictSearch. Newsmakers. Discipline. Case summaries. Letter to the editor. I like being a lawyer.

Special Report: Litigation and E-Discovery 

Five best practices: Daniel R. Smith discusses how to handle e-discovery issues easily.

The rules of evidence and social media: Joshua A. Norris and Krystal Pfluger Scott explain how to authenticate social networking sites.

Save the date: Barbara Nicholas explains five deadlines every lawyer should calendar.

Need to know: How lawyers can use databases to find key evidence.

Calling for backup: Getting past the fear of backup tapes in e-discovery.

Opinion: Lillian B. Hardwick argues in favor of the revised Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.

In practice: Marla Poirot and Tom Hagemann discuss criminal environmental law prosecution.

Guy Choate and F.R. “Buck” Files in State Bar of Texas prez-elect race

So far, 21,000 Texas lawyers have voted in the State Bar of Texas referendum on proposed changes to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, State Bar president Terry Tottenham told the SBOT board of directors during a meeting today in Austin. The deadline to vote is Feb. 17. The referendum has garnered some controversy over proposed changes to rules governing confidentiality and conflicts of interest, among other things. Tottenham says in an interview he doesn’t know whether 21,000 voters is a higher-than-normal number of members participating at this point in a referendum, but he adds, “We hope we have a big turnout, that’s what it’s all about.” Bar spokeswoman Kim Davey says there are more than 85,000 State Bar members. Also at today’s meeting, the board approved candidates for the 2011-2012 State Bar president-elect race.  The candidates are Guy Choate, a partner in personal-injury law firm Webb, Stokes & Sparks in San Angelo, and F.R. “Buck” Files, a shareholder in criminal-defense firm Bain, Files, Jarrett, Bain & Harrison in Tyler.
-- Jeanne Graham

At Susman Godfrey, partnership comes with a new pair of boots

Partnership comes with many benefits – firm ownership, prestige, higher billing rates. But at Houston-based Susman Godfrey, partnership also comes with a new pair of western boots. “You attend your first partners’ meeting and after that some of the partners retire for drinks,” says Daniel H. Charest of Dallas, who attended his first Susman partners’ meeting in Houston on Jan. 15.  “Then a partner in Houston, Neal Manne, gathers the new partners together and brings you over to the boot store and tells the manager to ‘hook them up.’ Charest says there are five new Susman partners this year including himself. Charest’s brown leather Lucchese boots (pictured left) arrived this week.  “It’s really cool, because it’s a Texas firm at heart, but also draws people from all over,” Charest says of Susman Godfrey. Charest -- who grew up in West Buxton, a small town in Maine -- says the new boots are not his first pair, but they are his “best ones for sure.” Manne does not remember when he first started buying boots for new partners. “I just thought it would be fun,” he says. “The key thing is we have offices in Dallas, Houston, New York, Seattle and L.A. and it seems like, especially the new partners in California, Seattle and New York, when they come in for partners’ meetings, they always wear the boots they got the year before or eight years before.”  Manne says after their first partnership meeting, he takes the new partners to different stores in Houston so that each lawyer can find the boots they prefer in the right size.  Manne notes that Charest called him when his boots arrived this week. “He was feeling mighty good with his boots on,” Manne says. 
-- Jeanne Graham

Naman Howell Smith & Lee opens San Antonio office with five Ball & Weed lawyers

Naman Howell Smith & Lee of Waco has expanded its reach in Texas with a new office in San Antonio staffed by five lawyers who left Ball & Weed. Roy Barrett, president of 62-lawyer Naman Howell, says his firm’s growth strategy has been along the I-35 corridor, and an office in San Antonio supports the plan. “San Antonio was a good opportunity to further that strategy and have a footprint in not only another major metropolitan area, but also a gateway to South Texas,” Barrett says. On Jan. 11, Larry Warren, J.K. Leonard and Darrell Smith joined Naman Howell as members and Mark Cooper joined as an associate. On Jan. 24, another former Ball & Weed lawyer, Michael Myers, joined Naman Howell as a member, Barrett says. Barrett says the new attorneys, who do civil litigation, are well-known to some lawyers at his firm and their practices “mesh well.” The transition from Ball & Weed to Naman Howell may have been easier than most firm moves, since the new Naman Howell lawyers are practicing out of the same offices they were in at Ball & Weed. That’s a temporary arrangement, Barrett says. “We currently have a transition agreement with Ball & Weed under which we are subleasing not only office space, but also furniture and equipment and we continue to work on options regarding those matters as time goes by,” he says. Calls to Ball & Weed were referred to shareholder Cynthia Grimes, who could not be reached for comment. According to the Ball & Weed website, six lawyers currently work at the firm.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

347th State District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos nominated to federal bench in Corpus Christi

President Barack Obama yesterday nominated 347th State District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to become a U.S. district judge in Corpus Christi, replacing U.S. District Judge Hayden Head, who took senior status in 2009. In a prepared statement U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the nomination. “Judge Ramos has strong Texas roots. She has an outstanding educational background from Texas State University and the University of Texas School of Law, and her valuable experience as a civil ligation lawyer and State District Court judge will surely help her serve the Texas public well,” Cornyn wrote. Ramos did not immediately return a call for comment. The nomination likely also will please U.S. District Judge Janice Graham Jack of Corpus Christi, who has expressed concern to Texas Lawyer about the lack of movement in replacing federal judges in Corpus Christi. Jack plans to take senior status in June.
— John Council

Fees awarded in Texas Rangers Baseball Partners bankruptcy

On Jan. 25 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge D. Michael Lynn issued a stipulation and agreed order granting $4.471 million of the fees and expenses that Weil, Gotshal & Manges had sought for its work representing the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners (TRBP). Weil Gotshal represented TRBP, the former owner of the Arlington-based baseball team, in a bankruptcy case filed in May 2010. Weil Gotshal had sought $5.47 million in an Oct. 12, 2010, fee application with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth. The firm noted in that fee application, which covered work it did from May 24, 2010, though Aug. 12, 2010, that it played a "significant and an important role in the sale process" and in TRBP's "expeditious emergence from chapter 11." But on Nov. 15, 2010, lenders' representative GPS Finance and the Office of the U.S. Trustee filed objections to Weil, Gotshal's fee application in In Re: Texas Rangers Baseball Partners. All those parties and Weil Gotshal signed Lynn’s order on Jan. 25. Martin Sosland, a partner in Weil Gotshal’s Dallas office who represents TRBP, did not immediately return a call seeking comment, nor did Holland O’Neil, a partner in Dallas’ Gardere Wynne Sewell, who represents GPS, or Lisa Lambert, lead trial counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trustee.

-- Miriam Rozen

Bowman and Brooke to open Dallas office with six lawyers from Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern

Minneapolis litigation firm Bowman and Brooke plans to open an office in Dallas on Feb. 1 staffed by six lawyers from Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern. Kurt Kern, a founder of Hartline, Dacus, will manage the Bowman and Brooke office. Five other Hartline, Dacus lawyers who will join Bowman and Brooke as partners on Feb. 1 are J. Karl Viehman, David Stone, Suzanne Swaner, Jose Luzarraga and Cary Slobin, the firm announced today. Kern says Bowman and Brooke is a “great fit” for his group’s practice. “We have had the opportunity to work with various Bowman and Brooke offices and lawyers around the country over the last 15-plus years, so our paths are somewhat interwoven, and so we have developed a strong association with a number of their partners,” he says. David Graves Jr. (pictured), Bowman and Brooke’s chairman, says his firm is interested in the Dallas market because Texas has a lot of litigation and his firm has work in Texas. Graves says his firm and the lawyers opening the Dallas office have mutual clients including Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Kern says his group also does work for clients including Kia Motors Corp., Mercedes-Benz USA, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Toyota Individual Equipment Manufacturing Inc. At the new firm, they will do products liability and mass tort and commercial litigation. Graves says that while he’s not yet prepared to identify any of them, he expects additional lawyers to join Bowman and Brooke in Dallas before the office opens on Feb. 1. Kern, who was a founder of Hartline, Dacus 17 years ago, says the group’s pending departure is amicable, and he is hopeful some associates will join them at their new firm. Larry Grayson, Hartline, Dacus’ managing partner, did not immediately return a telephone message left at his office. The 150-lawyer Bowman and Brooke has other offices in Phoenix, Detroit, San Jose, Calif., Los Angeles, Richmond, Va., and Columbia, S.C.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Two more lawyers join Dewey & LeBoeuf from Baker & McKenzie

Two former Baker & McKenzie partners, Shon Ramey and Cristopher Farrar, today are joining Dewey & LeBoeuf’s oil and gas practice in Houston, about two weeks after former Baker & McKenzie partners Karl Hopkins (pictured) and Steven Otillar also made the move to Dewey & LeBoeuf,says Hopkins. The former chairman of Baker & McKenzie’s oil and gas industry group says he and the other three lawyers had worked together at Baker & McKenzie for 11 years. The group’s move “is a commercial opportunity that will allow us to do things in emerging markets that we all wanted to do and focus, in my case, on the Middle East,” Hopkins says. Hopkins says he will be splitting his time between the firm’s London and Houston offices. “We will be helping Dewey expand its footprint in the Middle East,” he says. The recent addition of the former Baker & McKenzie lawyers increases New York City-based Dewey’s Houston office to about 20 lawyers, Hopkins says. Hopkins and Otillar are Dewey partners, and Ramey and Farrar are senior counsel, he says. Baker & McKenzie has 3,750 lawyers in 68 offices in 40 countries; Dewey & LeBoeuf has more than 1,100 lawyers in 26 offices in 15 countries, according to the firms’ respective websites. Hopkins declines to name his clients but says the list includes governments and national oil companies. Hopkins notes that Baker & McKenzie is “a good firm with good people” and that it is difficult to describe his decision to make the transition. “It felt right,” he says. Lisa Meyerhoff, managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Houston office, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
-- Jeanne Graham