Texas Lawyer Blog

Morning docket

Senate votes to deny U.S. terrorists’ legal rights (Houston Chronicle)

Marine hero sues contractor (San Antonio Express-News)

Facebook settles with FTC over privacy violations (The National Law Journal)

Audio helped sway judge to give Jackson doc jail (Associated Press in the San Antonio Express-News)

Abbott asks U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on congressional redistricting map (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Where are the faces of the Enron trial? (FuelFix Blog)

The 2011 Patent Litigation Survey: Despite judges reining in damages awards, patent litigation shows growth (Corporate Counsel)

Women -- Still a Blip on the New Partner Radar (The Careerist)

-- Angela Morris 
 

Survey of chief legal officers explores priorities, budgets

Priority one in 2012 for chief legal officers is controlling costs. That’s according to results of the Chief Legal Officer Surveyconducted in October by consulting company Altman Weil. A total of 176 chief legal officers at U.S. companies responded to the 12th annual survey, which was made public today. Of those 176, 67.2 percent work at public companies, with the rest employed by private companies, partnerships, nonprofits and government agencies. Those responding did cite some other priorities for 2012, including efficient delivery of legal services, support for business goals of their company, quality legal service, compliance, risk management, lawyer staffing and managing outside counsel. While they said they want to control costs in 2012, 55.8 percent of the chief legal officers who responded to the survey said their legal department budget was higher in 2011 than in 2010; that’s compared to 50.6 percent who reported last year that their department’s budget increased in 2010 compared to 2009. Also, 45.8 percent of the legal departments increased outside counsel expenditures in 2011, the chief legal officers reported. In one area to watch, 10.3 percent of chief legal officers said they sent some legal work offshore in 2011, and 12.6 percent used offshore vendors for some work they may have given to firms in the past, such as e-discovery, document review, due diligence and legal research.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Author of open-records request seeks to intervene in State Bar of Texas suit against Texas AG

Julie Oliver, executive director of the Texas Coalition on Lawyer Accountability, is seeking to intervene in an Aug. 29 suit the State Bar of Texas filed against Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott over an open-records opinion. Abbott has denied the allegations in the suit. Oliver filed a Plea in Intervention on Nov. 22 asking the 250th District Court in Travis County to uphold the AG’s Aug. 12 opinion, in which he found that the Bar must release some records to Oliver, pursuant to her request under the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA). Oliver’s plea also alleges the State Bar “has adopted a policy under which the Bar and its officials and employees do not retain or produce . . . email and text messages that concern official Bar business but that are sent using private email or text message accounts.” Oliver claims the policy is “inconsistent” with the TPIA. She asks the court to determine if the Bar is withholding those private emails and texts and to issue a declaratory judgment that the Bar must release the records. She says in an interview that she requested State Bar records related to the February 2011 referendum on changes to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. The Bar released many of the records. “It just seems like there were gaps, or there were people missing in the discussions,” Oliver says. She says she learned about a publication that sued a city, claiming the city had withheld records from elected officials’ personal email accounts. She then wondered if the Bar had also withheld records from personal accounts. Jennifer Riggs, who represents the State Bar in the open-records suit, says the State Bar may file a motion to strike Oliver’s plea in intervention and a plea to the jurisdiction. “What she’s done here is try to expand the scope of the case. Under the TPIA, she can’t expand it beyond her initial request and the attorney general’s ruling. Really, her complaint about emails or text messages isn’t ripe yet. There’s no particular emails she’s requested that she claims she hasn’t received. It’s kind of speculative at this point,” says Riggs, president and shareholder of Riggs Aleshire & Ray in Austin. Tom Kelley, spokesperson for the Texas Office of the Attorney General, says the office hasn’t received Oliver’s plea and he declines comment about it. He says it’s up to the court to litigate the matter. “It’s a very common thing for a requester to do this, and she has every right to. We wouldn’t take a position on it one way or the other,” says Kelley. State Bar General Counsel Don Jones didn’t return a telephone call or email seeking comment.

-- Angela Morris

Dr. Conrad Murray sentenced

On Nov. 29 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor sentenced Dr. Conrad Murray to four years in the Los Angeles County Jail, the stiffest possible sentence. On Nov. 8, a jury convicted Murray of one count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of pop star Michael Jackson. At the sentencing hearing, he was flanked by his defense lawyers, including Ed Chernoff of Houston Stradley Chernoff & Alford, who led Murray’s team. The doctor listened as Pastor told Murray he had shown “a longstanding failure of character” and that “one can’t help but be offended by the circumstances of this case.” Pastor specifically cited as influencing his tough sentencing decision Murray’s participation in a documentary about the trial that aired on network television.

--Miriam Rozen

Morning docket

American Airlines parent seeks Ch. 11 protection (Associated Press in Newsday)

In Apparent Trend, Associates Increasingly Leave BigLaw to Become Small Firm Entrepreneurs (ABA Journal)

Judge gets probation, resigns in bribery case (Associated Press in the San Antonio Express-News)

Abbott: Elections Should Use Legislature's Maps (The Texas Tribune)

A Prosecutor’s Comment on a Defendant’s Failure to Testify (Liberty and Justice for Y’all)

Law Firms, Associates Weigh the Benefits of Deferrals (The Legal Intelligencer)

Bonus Season: The Most Nerve-Wracking Time of the Year (Daily Business Review)

-- Angela Morris 

Dec. 9 scheduled for presentation of revisions to draft motion-to-dismiss rules

The process is underway to create a motion to dismiss in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Nov. 18 discussed draft rules to create a motion to dismiss, pursuant to a provision in the 2011 loser-pays bill, House Bill 274. The subcommittee that created the draft rules plans to present revisions on Dec. 9, which will reflect the advisory committee’s suggested changes, says subcommittee chairman David Peeples. “It was a very helpful discussion,” says Peeples, presiding judge of the 4th Administrative Judicial Region in Bexar County. He notes that the Nov. 18 discussion lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. H.B. 274 called for creation of a motion to dismiss for claims that have “no basis in law or fact.” Peeples says much of the advisory committee’s discussion focused on how to define that phrase. The subcommittee’s draft rules say, “A claim has no basis in law when it is not warranted by existing law or by a reasonable argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law.” They continue, “A claim has no basis in fact when no reasonable person could believe that the material allegations are true.” The subcommittee plans to tweak that section of the draft rules, says Peeples. “We’re going to go back to the drawing board on that part of it,” he says. There was more discussion at the meeting on the definition for “no basis in fact” than on the “no basis in law” portion, he says. The draft rules also addressed the timeline to file a motion to dismiss, a party’s right to amend its pleading, and the court’s award of costs and attorney’s fees to the prevailing party, among other things.
-- Angela Morris

Morning docket

Jury Convicts Texas Judge in Bribery Case; Campaign Donors Allegedly Expected Favorable Rulings (ABA Journal)

State's lawyer taking redistrict battle to Supreme Court (Houston Chronicle)

Would Adjunct Faculty Fix the High-Cost Problems of Law Schools? (Corporate Counsel)

Police want to stay out of Occupy story (The Washington Post in the San Antonio Express-News) 

 -- Angela Morris

Man alleges IVF was performed with his sperm but without his consent

A Long Island, N.Y., man filed a suit Nov. 21 that alleges a Houston fertility clinic “obtained” his sperm without his consent or knowledge and performed in vitro fertilization in 2007 on a woman “purporting to be his wife when she, in fact, was not.” The in vitro fertilization resulted in the birth of twins, Joe Pressil alleges in a petition in Pressil v. Advanced Fertility CTR-Texas, et al., filed in the 157th District Court in Harris County. Pressil alleges he’s suffered mental and economic injuries as a result of the actions of Advanced Fertility CTR-Texas and Omni-Med Laboratories LLC. He lists the addresses of both as being on the Katy Freeway in far west Houston. In February, Pressill alleges, he “found” a receipt from Omni-Med for cryopreservation of a sperm sample, “even though he had never been to Omni-Med nor ever sought treatment for male infertility” or been a patient at Advanced Fertility. He alleges in the petition that he contacted Omni-Med and was referred to Advanced Fertility, where he learned that Advanced Fertility had obtained his sperm sample from a woman purporting to be his wife and had performed the in vitro fertilization on her in 2007. “Advanced Fertility impregnated the woman with Pressil’s sperm without his knowledge, much less his consent,” Pressil alleges in the petition. He alleges in the petition that Omni-Med continues to keep his frozen sperm sample without his consent. Pressil’s attorney, Jason Gibson of The Gibson Law Firm of Houston, says Pressil loves his twin sons and provides for them but was shocked to learn in February that they were conceived through in vitro fertilization. Pressil does not identify the woman in the petition. Pressil brings negligence, conversion, Texas Theft Liability Act, conspiracy and respondeat superior causes of action against the defendants. He seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages, interest and costs. A message left for the office administrator at Advanced Fertility was not immediately returned. The registered agent listed in the petition for Omni-Med, Lisa Benjamani, was reached at the telephone number for Advanced Fertility. She declined comment on the relationship between Advanced Fertility and Omni-Med. She said she would have a lawyer call back with comment, but that did not occur before presstime. A LinkedIn listing for Lisa Benjamini of Houston identifies her as chief executive officer of Advanced Fertility and Omni-Med.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Morning docket

Ethics and the Law: Shine a Light - By Robert Pelton (Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association Voice for the Defense) 

Visual Storytelling: 3 Powerful Attorney Bios (Shatterbox) 

Evangelicals Challenge Texas Election Law (Courthouse News Service)

ABA Committee Readies Law School Placement, Salary Questionnaire (ABA Journal)

The Costs of Legal Scholarship: $575M in Tuition and Grads Who Don’t Know How to Practice (ABA Journal)  

For Google GC, Job Just Gets Bigger (The Recorder)

-- Angela Morris

Morning docket

San Antonio courthouse intruders get break (Houston Chronicle)

Austin's bill for outside lawyers: $6.8 million over nearly six years (Austin American-Statesman)

Texas attorney general blasts federal court’s redistricting maps (Associated Press in The Washington Post)

Inside Intelligence: Trimming the Branches (The Texas Tribune)

-- Angela Morris