Texas Lawyer Blog

Fashion Fridays: spring 2012 makeup trends, from runway to office

Office make-up tends to be neutral; subdued shadows, sheer foundation and natural lips are a safe staple year-round. There’s a good reason for that: keeping partners, clients and opposing counsel focused on the issue at hand. No savvy lawyer wants that focus blurred by something like bright coral lipstick, no matter how many fashion magazines declare it to be perfectly on-trend. But at the same time, many female attorneys still desire to show a little personality at the office, rather than blending into the brown eye-shadow woodwork. So, how can the lovely lawyer translate trends from this season’s runway for the office?

• Red lips: A bold red lip invokes the glamour and sophistication of eras gone by and was showcased in fall’s Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent spring shows, among others. The colors on the catwalk ranged from a bright orange-red to a matte chocolate red, hitting almost every color in between.  However, models merely have to pout and walk, while attorneys spend a large portion of every day talking and interacting with others. Red lipstick’s downside is its tendency to make teeth look less-than-sparkling white, and it wears off quickly. Female attorneys can bring a modified version of this trend to the office with red-hued lip butters or lip tints. These products are easy to apply and won’t overwhelm the face or rub off on teeth.
• Cat’s eye eyeliner: Models from shows like Dolce & Gabbana and Badgley Mischka sported cat’s eye eyeliner for the spring season, ranging in application from deeply dramatic to barely there. The practicing attorney should think more Audrey Hepburn than Amy Winehouse and should use only liquid liner. Powder or pencil liner won’t make the smooth, clean line needed. A liner with a pointed applicator works best. After a little practice, application is a cinch. Start with a thin line where the lashes begin, near the inside center of the eye. Trace outward in a subtly thickening line to the corner of the eye, and then flick gently out and up. Keeping the tilt small will open up the eye without being too noticeable.
• Bold brows:Bold brows come in every few seasons, but for spring 2012 they’re back with a bushy vengeance. Models at shows like Jil Sander and Burberry Prorsum flaunted thick brows along with the spring styles. This one’s easy to do; just step back from the tweezers for a while. Thicker doesn’t have to mean shapeless, but it can mean a more flattering frame for the face. For the chronically over-plucked, a little eyebrow correcting powder can work wonders.
• Metallic eyeshadow: Chanel models gazed out from under cool silver-white lids for the spring season yet managed to keep the look soft and ladylike. This trend unmodified is likely a bit much for a professional office, but subtle glimmer eye shadows (such as those by mineral brands) can still achieve the same look. A golden pink, pearl or cream keeps the look understated but appropriate.

--Erica D. Lovett

State Bar warns lawyers: Email purportedly from Bar that seeks usernames and passwords is not legit

The State Bar of Texas is warning lawyers that someone is sending emails in the Bar’s name, seeking lawyers’ usernames and passwords for texasbar.com. The message is not from the Bar.

John Sirman, web manager and strategic planning director for the State Bar, says four or five lawyers in the Austin area received the email and called the Bar yesterday.

Sirman forwarded a copy of the email. It says the recipient’s Texas Bar account has been suspended and directs the attorney to click a link and complete a form to restore the account.

The message is signed “Technical Support State Bar of Texas,” but the “from” email address reads “demurors@comcast.net.”

“Don’t click on the link. Don’t provide any information in response to it. We don’t ever ask attorneys to verify their account information in this manner,” says Sirman.

This is the first time Sirman says he has seen a phishing effort that targets lawyers and asks for disclosure of personal information like passwords.

“Hopefully, people are savvy enough when they see something like this they can tell it’s a fake,” he says.

-- Angela Morris

First-year Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr associate brings high school students from law-magnet program into firm for a look at life in law

Erreka Campbell (pictured), a first-year real estate associate with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr in Dallas, says she had not seen the inside of a law firm until she was interviewing for a job as a law student. “It was the first time I was in buildings I was driving past every day,” says Campbell, a 2010 graduate of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas. Campbell wanted to give some high school students a different experience — a chance to see the workings of a law firm up close and personal early in their educations. So today, 55 students from a law magnet program at Dallas ISD’s L.G. Pinkston High School spent about four hours visiting the firm’s Dallas office. “These kids have already said, ‘I want to know more about the law,’ ” Campbell says. “I’m hoping this will just kind of continue to inspire them.” Campbell visited the high school in November 2011 during a Dallas Bar Association “Lawyers in the Classroom” event and worked with teachers and members of her firm to bring the students to Munsch Hardt’s office. Campbell says firm tours include meeting the professionals a firm needs to function, in addition to lawyers, such as computer programmers and marketers. “So many things go on here that are essential for the law firm to run,” she says. Firm chairman and CEO Glenn Callison and executive director Charles Gillis were slated to speak to the students today, and about 20 of the firm’s lawyers offered to help with the event, which included lunch, Campbell says. She hopes the get-together will become an annual firm affair. Campbell and associates Robert Daniel, Becky Niederstadt and Joe Theriot were to participate in panels during which students were encouraged to ask questions about career choices. Campbell says she hopes the students learn about what lawyers really do. “If they have an interest in the kind of work we do, we want to say, ‘Hey, this is what it means to be a lawyer. It’s not just what you see on TV. This is what we do every day.’ ”
-- Jeanne Graham

Morning docket

The Man Behind the Texas Anti-Affirmative Action Suit (The Texas Tribune)

AP Interview: Texas DA seeks death penalty review (Associated Press)

Judge ruling on Anadarko liability may move settlement talks (FuelFix)

Mary Pearl Williams, Travis County’s first female judge, dies (Austin American-Statesman)

-- Angela Morris 

Nigerian company off the hook for a default judgment, says Texas Supreme Court in per curiam opinion

Nothing says “dead in the water” to a defendant’s case like a default judgment. And the pain must be even worse for a litigant handed a default judgment by a trial court, even though it had retained an attorney and filed an answer to the petition. So, imagine the relief at Nigerian-based Mabon Limited after the Texas Supreme Court’s Feb. 17 ruling in Mabon Limited v. Afri-Carib Enterprises, which saved the company from the heartache of a $2 million default judgment. The company had hired a Texas attorney who filed an answer in a state-court contract dispute. "When the case was called to trial, neither Mabon nor its counsel appeared," resulting in the default judgment. But the high court ruled the company was off the hook. Why? Mabon later proved that it had “no notice of the trial setting or the default judgment.” The decision also found that Mabon’s “lack of notice was not because of its own fault or negligence.” Read all about the procedurally complex case here.
--- John Council

Patton Boggs, former non-equity partner Kate Moseley resolve their dispute; Moseley's Rule 202 petition dismissed

Patton Boggs and Kate Moseley (pictured) — a former non-equity partner of the firm who sought to depose two firm leaders and to obtain certain documents — have resolved their dispute, according to lawyers for both sides who decline to disclose further details. On Feb. 17, Moseley, now a partner in Alston + Bird, filed a notice of a nonsuit with prejudice of the Rule 202 petition she previously had filed in the 298th District Court. On Feb. 20, 298th District Judge Emily G. Tobolowsky ordered a dismissal of the petition. The Rule 202 petition sought oral or written depositions prior to the filing of suit against her former firm. The legal battle between Moseley and her former firm had continued for months. Moseley left Patton Boggs' Dallas office in May 2010. In December 2010, she filed a charge of discrimination against the firm with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging she was discriminated against because of her gender, paid less than her male counterparts and denied equity partner status. On Jan. 7, 2011, she filed her Rule 202 petition, which Tobolowsky granted on July 7, 2011. But on Dec. 29, 2011, Dallas' 5th Court of Appeals conditionally granted Patton Boggs' petition for writ of mandamus, which sought to overturn Tobolowsky’s decision. But the appeals court sided with Moseley in determining Patton Boggs could not compel arbitration of her claims pursuant to her partnership agreement. Rogge Dunn, a partner in Dallas' Clouse Dunn who represents Moseley, and Rod Phelan, a partner the Dallas office of Baker Botts, who represents Patton Boggs, confirm the two sides have resolved their differences. But they both decline to give further details of the deal.

-- Miriam Rozen

Morning docket

New class action says all appellate briefs and trial papers are copyrighted (The Supreme Court of Texas Blog)

Critics Call San Antonio’s Unusual Animal Court a Waste of Taxpayer Money (ABA Journal)

Law Prof’s Upcoming Book Chronicles Oversupply of New Lawyers, Proposes Flexible Legal Ed System (ABA Journal)

-- Angela Morris

Lubbock lawyer Kevin Glasheen discusses his win in disciplinary suit filed against him by State Bar of Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline

A state district judge ruled from the bench on Feb. 16 that the State Bar of Texas failed to meet its burden of proof regarding its allegations that Lubbock lawyer Kevin Glasheen (pictured) committed attorney misconduct while representing two exonerated prisoners.

In 2010, the Bar’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline filed a petition against Glasheen in a state district court. In the Dec. 12, 2011, First Amended Disciplinary Petition, filed in the 99th District Court, the Commission for Lawyer Discipline alleges Glasheen charged "an illegal fee or a fee prohibited by law" to two former prison inmates -- Steven C. Phillips and Patrick Waller -- who had been "declared innocent" and had hired Glasheen to pursue claims for damages against the state. Specifically, the commission alleged that Glasheen did not explain to the exonerated men that his contingent fee was for his "involvement in a purely administrative process which required no legal skill or advocacy beyond filling out a form" to receive compensation from the state.

Judge Robin Darr of the 385th District Court in Midland ruled in Glasheen’s favor at the end of a four-day bench trial.

Glasheen says the judge saw his point of view in the case: Glasheen had signed up the clients intending to litigate federal civil rights cases for them yet didn’t have to after he helped lobby the Texas Legislature to increase funding to exonerated prisoners. He says he previously filed civil rights cases for other clients but didn’t need to do so for these clients after the Legislature took action.

“These fee arrangements — between statutory compensation and our federal civil rights cases — were intertwined. . . . [Y]ou had to understand the case in light of those facts,” Glasheen says.

As to his theory as to why he did not commit misconduct: “It was an election-of-remedies case,” he says.

Linda Acevedo, chief disciplinary counsel for the State Bar of Texas says the commission is considering whether to appeal the trial court’s ruling in the case.

--- John Council

Another key hire announced for UNT Dallas College of Law

The UNT Dallas College of Law won’t open its doors until 2014, but that hasn’t stopped it from making key hires. Today, University of North Texas System Chancellor Lee F. Jackson announced that Michael Hunter Schwartz (pictured), a Washburn University School of Law professor, will serve as associate dean for academic affairs starting in May 2013. Asked about his move to Texas from Washburn in Topeka, Kansas, Schwartz says: “From my perspective, this is the most exciting opportunity I can imagine. There is a lot of room for a law school that isn’t focused on teachers but focused on students.” Schwartz says Jackson and other UNT Dallas College of Law developers embrace that student-focused philosophy and that’s why he was compelled to accept his new job. According to a Feb. 22 statement released by Jackson’s office, Schwartz “will be responsible for administering all aspects of academic life . . . he will help develop new curriculum and assist in the hiring of faculty. . . .” In addition to his teaching duties at Washburn Law, Schwartz, 49, serves as co-director of the Institute of Law Teaching and Learning, a clearinghouse for ideas to improve the quality of legal education. Schwartz conducts workshops across the country on topics such as “What the Best Law Teachers Do” and “Developing the Next Generation of Lawyers.” Last month, Jackson announced that Senior U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson will become the founding dean of UNT Dallas College of Law in April 2013.

-- Miriam Rozen

2011 numbers for Baker Botts' gross revenue, net income, PPP and RPL

Baker Botts posted a 2011 gross revenue of $581.5 million, up 4.8 percent from $555 million in 2010. Net income at the Houston-based firm was $257.5 million, an increase of 4.7 percent compared to $246 million in 2010. Andrew M. “Andy” Baker (pictured), who takes over as Baker Botts’ managing partner in April, says the “terrific story” for the firm has been an increase in equity partners to 183 in 2011, up from 179 in 2010. The firmwide lawyer headcount remained stable at 703 in 2011 and 2010. Baker says that growth in equity partners stems in large part from the firm's expansion in Washington, D.C., where it acquired lateral partners, in particular some with antitrust practices, from the now-defunct Howrey. Overall, Baker says, Baker Botts had a “very good year” in 2011. He notes that the energy sector “was strong all year.” Because of the increase in equity partners, Baker Botts’ profits per partner averaged $1,390,000 in 2011, up 1.5 percent from $1,370,000 in 2010. Revenue per lawyer averaged $825,000 last year, an improvement of 4.4 percent from 2010’s $790,000. In 2011, the number of Baker Botts lawyers outside Texas continued to grow and Baker expects that trend to continue. “Texas is important to us but we are going to keep our eyes on where we need to be, the needs of our clients wherever they are,” Baker says.

-- Miriam Rozen