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Texas Pulse
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Mid-Law Mergers On Track In 2024 To Match Recent Years
Thus far in 2024, law firm mergers have been in keeping with prior years, industry observers said, with leaders at midsize firms considering mergers driven by a number of factors including the rise of artificial intelligence, aging firm leadership and effort to meet client demand.
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Texas Attorney Serving 15-Year Sentence Is Disbarred
The State Bar of Texas announced Monday that it has yanked the license of a criminal defense attorney who was sentenced in 2021 to more than 15 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of cheating big-time Colombian drug trafficking clients.
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Paul Hastings Adds Cyber Ace In Dallas From Akin Gump
Paul Hastings LLP announced Monday that it has strengthened its global data privacy and cybersecurity practice with a partner in Dallas who previously served as co-head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she practiced for more than two decades.
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Split SCOTX Revives Judge's Same-Sex Wedding Challenge
A split Texas Supreme Court revived a judge's lawsuit against the state judicial ethics commission over sanctions for her refusal to officiate same-sex marriages, with the majority finding the judge's claims are not barred because she did not go through the administrative process.
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Texas Judge Who Axed DACA To Retire In January 2025
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen — a controversial Republican appointee best known for twice ruling against President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy — has announced that he will take senior status on Jan. 2, 2025, allowing the next president to name his replacement.
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
Susman Godfrey LLP, Hausfeld LLP and Langer Grogan & Diver PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury awarded $4.7 billion to two classes of DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers in an antitrust trial against the National Football League and its teams.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
The legal industry marked the end of June with another action-packed week of BigLaw hires and three straight days of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
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Litigation Pro Joins Bradley Arant From Houston Boutique
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has strengthened its litigation practice in Texas with a partner who came aboard from Houston corporate law firm BoyarMiller.
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Ogletree Deakins' Well-Being Leader On Mental Health Effort
Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC is no stranger to the needs of employers, focusing its legal efforts on representing management. But the law firm recently launched an effort to prioritize its own employees' mental health.
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Paxton Attys To Testify In Federal Probe, 5th Circ. Indicates
A federal grand jury impaneled to weigh Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's alleged abuses of office is set to continue hearing witness testimony next week, a recently published Fifth Circuit opinion indicates.
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Texas DAs Escape Defendant Class Cert. In Abortion Case
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid to force state prosecutors to become a certified class of defendants in a suit aimed to curb retaliation against advocates who help women get an abortion outside the state, saying there was no risk of varying adjudications.
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Law Firm Real Estate Report
Leasing activity remained strong for several large firms throughout June as Lathrop GPM moved its Chicago office into a smaller space, and Polsinelli PC planted its second flag in Utah three years after launching its Salt Lake City office and three months after relocating its St. Louis team.
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How Attorneys Are Celebrating Pride Month In 2024
This June, LGBTQ+ attorneys around the country at law firms big and small shared with Law360 how they — and their firms — are celebrating Pride Month.
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New Holland & Knight Diversity Atty Hopes To 'Reimagine' DEI
Holland & Knight LLP's new diversity partner, O'Kelly E. McWilliams III, never sought out opportunities to serve in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, but the chance to serve in those roles presented themselves throughout the years.
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Spencer Fane Lobbying Pro Joins Holland & Knight In Austin
Holland & Knight LLP has brought on a veteran lobbyist and lawyer in Austin, who previously led the government affairs group at Spencer Fane LLP, to helm the firm's new Texas government advocacy team.
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Most New Attys Don't See 'Flashy Lawyer Salary'
While some new attorneys earn top dollar right out of their Juris Doctor program, that isn't actually the norm, according to a new study from Georgetown University, which found that when factoring in student loan debt, the median earnings for all law graduates land at just $72,000 four years after graduation.
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Texas Planning To Use New Bar Exam In 2028, Justices Say
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday announced that it expects to adopt a new bar examination beginning in July 2028 after considering public comments.
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The Case For BigLaw Being More Transparent About Suicides
While BigLaw's suicide prevention efforts emphasize open communication around mental health, firms are largely less transparent about how they'd respond to the suicide of an employee.
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Baker McKenzie Promotes 66 To Partner In 2024
Baker McKenzie said Wednesday that 66 lawyers are being promoted to partnerships in 2024, its smallest yearly intake of newly elevated partners in a decade, though it has also hired nearly 50 partners over the past year.
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Stone Hilton Brings On Litigation Pro From Austin Boutique
The newest partner to join the roster of boutique litigation, appellate and government relations firm Stone Hilton PLLC came aboard from Austin boutique Ewell Brown Blanke & Knight LLP and also boasts experience at BigLaw outfits like Vinson & Elkins LLP and Covington & Burling LLP.
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Kroger Using Annual Meeting To Stress Value Of Merger
As grocery chain The Kroger Co. prepares to defend its proposed merger with Albertsons Cos. later this summer, it's using its virtual annual meeting on Thursday to trumpet its value to shareholders, to communities and to workers.
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Schouest Bamdas Opens Dallas Office With 6-Partner Hire
Schouest Bamdas Soshea BenMaier & Eastham PLLC has expanded its footprint in Texas by launching a new office in Dallas with six new partners from Hartline Barger LLP, it said in an official announcement Tuesday.
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Small Firms Put Unique Spin On Summer Associate Programs
As the competition for sought-after BigLaw summer associateships continues to ramp up, some small firms and boutiques are seeing an opportunity to develop their own programs to attract law students looking to gain valuable experience.
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Legal Office Leasing Stayed Strong In Q1, Cushman Says
Cushman & Wakefield said in a report Tuesday that the legal sector continued to take on real estate at a strong clip in the first quarter of 2024 after reaching records among office leases in both 2022 and 2023.
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Approach The Bench: Judge Nazarian Touts Mentorship
Judge Douglas Nazarian of the Appellate Court of Maryland has given a lot of thought to clerkships since he took the bench more than 11 years ago.
Expert Analysis
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Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career
Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.
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Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use
ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.
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Opinion
We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds
Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.
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Law Firms Cannot Ignore Attorneys' Personal Cybersecurity
Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.
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Why Writing CLE Should Be Mandatory For Lawyers
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Though effective writing is foundational to law, no state requires attorneys to take continuing legal education in this skill — something that must change if today's attorneys are to have the communication abilities they need to fulfill their professional and ethical duties to their clients, colleagues and courts, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona.
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How To Find Your Inner Calm When Client Obligations Pile Up
In the most stressful times for attorneys, when several transactions for different partners and clients peak at the same time and the phone won’t stop buzzing, incremental lifestyle changes can truly make a difference, says Lindsey Hughes at Haynes Boone.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Support Gen Z Attorneys?
Meredith Beuchaw at Lowenstein Sandler discusses how senior attorneys can assist the newest generation of attorneys by championing their pursuit of a healthy work-life balance and providing the hands-on mentorship opportunities they missed out on during the pandemic.
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Law Firm Cybersecurity Should Not Get Lost In The Cloud
A recent data leak at Proskauer via a cloud data storage platform demonstrates key reasons why law firms must pay attention to data safeguarding, including the increasing frequency of cloud-based data breaches and the consequences of breaking client confidentiality, says Robert Kraczek at One Identity.
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Advice For Summer Associates Uneasy About Offer Prospects
There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.
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How Law Firms Can Cautiously Wield AI To Streamline Tasks
Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.
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Opinion
Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI
National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
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Keys To Managing The Stresses Of Law School
Dealing with the pressures associated with law school can prove difficult for many future lawyers, but there are steps students can take to manage stress — and schools can help too, say Ryan Zajic and Dr. Janani Krishnaswami at UWorld.
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Can Mandatory CLE Mitigate Implicit Bias's Negative Impacts?
Amid ongoing disagreements on whether states should mandate implicit bias training as part of attorneys' continuing legal education requirements, Stephanie Wilson at Reed Smith looks at how unconscious attitudes or stereotypes adversely affect legal practice, and whether mandatory training programs can help.
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Ditch The Frills And Start Writing Legal Letters In Plain English
To become more effective advocates, lawyers need to rethink the ridiculous, convoluted language they use in correspondence and write letters in a clear, concise and direct manner, says legal writing instructor Stuart Teicher.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Negotiate My Separation Agreement?
Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey discusses how a law firm associate can navigate being laid off, what to look for in a separation agreement and why to be upfront about it with prospective employers.