Texas Pulse


  • No Ruling On Zeta DQ Bid After Second Marathon Hearing

    A Houston judge declined Wednesday to decide whether to disqualify Transocean's counsel from Hurricane Zeta litigation following the second hearing on a former Arnold & Itkin LLP law clerk-turned-defense-lawyer's work with the plaintiffs' firm, indicating she needed time to figure out when the parties reasonably should have learned of the potential conflict of interest.

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    BCLP Adds Ex-Seattle Mayor, US Atty As US White Collar Head

    After a short break focused on pro bono work and chairing a Washington State Bar Association task force on emerging technologies and the practice of law, former Seattle mayor Jenny A. Durkan is returning to private practice at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.

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    Barnes & Thornburg Names 19 New Partners In Reduced Class

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP has promoted 19 attorneys to partners in states including Georgia, Texas, California and New York beginning Jan. 1, marking a decrease from its 2024 and 2023 class sizes, though the new partnership class outpaces promotions in preceding years.

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    Gibson Dunn Lands Trump Impeachment Prosecutor, 4 Others

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP announced Wednesday that it had hired away former President Donald Trump's impeachment prosecutor from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP to co-chair its global litigation practice group in New York, as well as four other former federal prosecutors from that firm.

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    Seyfarth Launches Energy Deals Group With Polsinelli Trio

    Seyfarth Shaw LLP has launched an energy transactions group in Texas with the addition of three attorneys from Polsinelli PC, as part of Seyfarth's strategic plan to enhance its corporate and transactional capabilities, the firm announced Wednesday.

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    Lewis Brisbois' Leader On Steering The Firm Forward

    Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has seen major leadership changes over the past year. Law360 Pulse caught up with managing partner Greg Katz to discuss the firm's vision moving forward, the impact of recent leadership transitions, and the strategies being implemented to navigate the competitive legal landscape.

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    Pervasive Bullying In Law Is Impacting Young Attorneys

    A report released earlier this month cataloging the experiences of more than 6,000 Illinois lawyers found that one quarter say they have experienced bullying within the last year. Among the youngest lawyers, that number jumps to 39%.

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    Lewis Brisbois Assistant GC Joins Nossaman As Legal Chief

    Nossaman LLP has hired the former assistant general counsel of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP as its new general counsel.

  • DQ'd Zeta Atty Using MDL Info In Other Cases, Plaintiffs Say

    A group of crew members aboard a Transocean drilling rig during Hurricane Zeta asked a Harris County judge Monday to sanction the company and its former law firm, writing that a former attorney has continued to use information he obtained while working on the case despite being disqualified in 2023.

  • GOP Rep. Roy Opposes Efforts To Stop 'Judge Shopping'

    A Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is threatening to withhold support for legislation bolstering the operation of the federal courts if the Administrative Office of the Courts doesn't stop considering measures aimed at ending "judge shopping."

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    Greenberg Traurig Adds Bradley Arant Banking Ace In Dallas

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has brought on a former Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP counsel to its Dallas office to meet client demand, bolstering the firm's expertise in guiding banks on financial regulatory compliance and enforcement matters with a former senior attorney for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the firm announced Tuesday.

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    Share Of New Partners Who Are Women Decreased This Year

    More than 80 major law firms had new partner classes in 2024 made up of at least 50% women, according to an analysis released Tuesday by a think tank focused on diversity and workplace flexibility. However, the analysis also found that the proportion of new U.S.-based partners who are women decreased.

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    Approach The Bench: Judge Rosenthal Praises Zoom Hearings

    While U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal calls the pandemic a disaster that "discombobulated" the federal courts, she thinks there was also a silver lining to the experience.

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    How Certifications Became Ubiquitous For Privacy Attorneys

    As privacy has become a more prominent and popular practice area, many attorneys have turned to certifications offered by the International Association of Privacy Professionals to market their skills, with those in the field saying that the popularity is the result of privacy's rapid evolution and the ubiquity is unlikely to diminish.

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    The Psychology Of Top Firms' Growing Partner Pay Spreads

    Dan Binstock, a legal recruiter who works with top law firms, recently said to me about partner pay, "You can never please everybody."

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    3 Factors Attorneys Should Keep In Mind When Using AI

    Attorneys who hope to leverage new artificial intelligence programs in their legal work should stay mindful of three rules of conduct from the American Bar Association dictating attorney competence, client confidentiality and billing procedures, according to a recently published paper from the International Association of Defense Counsel.

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    Simpson Thacher Taps Atty Duo As 1st Banking Team Leaders

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP has named two longtime New York City-based partners, including the co-head of its global banking and credit practice, as the first co-leaders of its global investment banking practice, the firm announced Monday.

  • Maynard Nexsen Creates Business Advisory Services Team

    Maynard Nexsen PC has launched a new business advisory service aimed at privately held and family-owned businesses that will help steer clients through succession planning, mergers, risk management and other needs from both a legal and business perspective, according to a Monday announcement.

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    Texas Firm Reynolds Frizzell Finds Strength In Being Small

    While it makes room to physically accommodate a growing roster, Houston trial boutique Reynolds Frizzell LLP is not angling to shed its small law firm status.

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    Kennedys' New Head Steps Up In 'Evolving' Insurance World

    Meg Catalano, who was named Kennedys’ new global managing partner this week, joined Law360 Pulse to discuss her vision for the role and how the firm looks to stay on top of client needs in a volatile world under her leadership.

  • Woman Accused Of Threatening To Kill Judge Kacsmaryk

    Prosecutors have indicted a woman who allegedly threatened death on a Texas federal judge a week after he blocked federal approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, saying the woman sent communications promising murder and assault around April 2023, according to an unsealed indictment.

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    National Footprints Scramble Partner Pay's Link To Location

    Law firm partners' increasing pay often varies based on where those attorneys are located, a fact reinforced by a new study out Thursday, but experts say the relationship between compensation and location has become more complicated as more firms operate on a national scale. 

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    Insurers Have Long Used AI; Now Litigation Funders Want In

    As State Farm waded into the nascent field of "artificial intelligence" tools in the mid-1980s, its mainframe computers began to overheat under the strain of calculating the values of claims.

  • How An Ex-US Atty's Kirkland Team Aids Trafficking Victims

    After becoming a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in 2021, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox is now in the third year of an effort by firm attorneys to seal or expunge the criminal records of human trafficking survivors who have convictions or arrests connected to their victimization, with the initiative roughly doubling its work year to year.

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    Ex-Judge Can't Hide Bank Records In Romance Cash Probe

    A Texas bankruptcy court on Friday shot down a former judge's bid to shield his banking records from a U.S. Trustee's Office inquiry into his concealed romantic relationship with a former Jackson Walker LLP partner, giving Bank of America NA one week to provide six years of the former judge's bank statements.

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Expert Analysis

  • Why You Should Leverage AI For Privilege Review Author Photo

    While many lawyers still believe that a manual, document-by-document review is the best approach to privilege logging, certain artificial intelligence tools can bolster the traditional review process and make this aspect of electronic document review more efficient, more accurate and less costly, say Laura Riff and Michelle Six at Kirkland.

  • Persuading The Court With Visual Aids In Written Argument Author Photo

    Robert Dubose at Alexander Dubose describes several categories of visuals attorneys can use to make written arguments easier to understand or more persuasive, and provides tips for lawyers unused to working with anything but text.

  • BigLaw Vs. Mid-Law Summer Programs: The Pros And Cons Author Photo

    There are major differences between BigLaw and Mid-Law summer associate programs, and each approach can learn something from the other in terms of structure and scheduling, the on-the-job learning opportunities provided, and the social experiences offered, says Anna Tison at Brooks Pierce.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Take Time Off? Author Photo

    David Kouba at Arnold & Porter discusses how attorneys can prioritize mental health leave and vacation despite work-related barriers to taking time off.

  • Law Firms Must Prioritize Mental Health In Internal Comms Author Photo

    The traditional structure of law firms, with their compartmentalization into silos, is an inherent challenge to mental wellness, so partners and senior lawyers should take steps to construct and disseminate internal action plans and encourage open dialogue, says Elizabeth Ortega at ECO Strategic Communications.

  • Our Current Approach To Trial Advocacy Training Is Lacking Author Photo

    The key to trial advocacy is persuasion, but current training programs focus almost entirely on technique, making it imperative that lawyers are taught to be effective storytellers and to connect with their audiences, says Chris Arledge at Ellis George.

  • How Women In Law Can Advance Toward Leadership Roles Author Photo

    Female attorneys in leadership roles inspire other women to pursue similar opportunities in a male-dominated field, and for those who aspire to lead, prioritizing collaboration, inclusivity and integrity is key, says Kim Yelkin at Foley & Lardner.

  • The Case That Took Me From Prosecutor To Defense Attorney Author Photo

    Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza, now at Wilkinson Stekloff, recalls the challenges of her first case as a civil defense attorney — a multibillion-dollar multidistrict class action against Allergan — and the lessons she learned about building rapport in the courtroom and with co-counsel.

  • The Importance Of Legal Macroeconomics Education For Attys Author Photo

    Most legal professionals lack understanding of the macroeconomic trends unique to the legal industry, like the rising cost of law school and legal services, which contributes to an unfair and inaccessible justice system, so law school courses and continuing legal education requirements in this area are essential, says Bob Glaves at the Chicago Bar Foundation.

  • What ABA Student Well-Being Standards Mean For Law Firms Author Photo

    While the American Bar Association's recent amendments to its law school accreditation standards around student well-being could have gone further, legal industry employers have much to learn from the ABA's move and the well-being movement that continues to gain traction in law schools, says David Jaffe at the American University Washington College of Law.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Build Rapport In New In-House Role? Author Photo

    Tim Parilla at LinkSquares explains how new in-house lawyers can start developing relationships with colleagues both within and outside their legal departments in order to expand their networks, build their brands and carve their paths to leadership positions.

  • What Attys Should Consider Before Taking On Pro Bono Work
    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Piper Hoffman and Will Lowrey at Animal Outlook lay out suggestions for attorneys to maximize the value of their pro bono efforts, from crafting engagement letters to balancing workloads — and they explain how these principles can foster a more rewarding engagement for both lawyers and nonprofits.

  • 7 Ways Attys Can Improve Their LinkedIn Summaries Author Photo

    Lawyers can use LinkedIn to strengthen their thought leadership position, generate new business, explore career opportunities, and better position themselves and their firms in search results by writing a well-composed, optimized summary that demonstrates their knowledge and experience, says Guy Alvarez at Good2bSocial.

  • How Law Firms And Attys Can Combat Imposter Syndrome Author Photo

    Imposter syndrome is rampant in the legal profession, especially among lawyers from underrepresented backgrounds, leading to missed opportunities and mental health issues — but firms can provide support in numerous ways, and attorneys can use therapeutic strategies to quiet their inner critic, says Helen Pamely at Rosling King.

  • The Law Firm Qualities Partners Seek In Lateral Moves Author Photo

    In 2022, partners considering lateral moves have new priorities, and firms that hope to recruit top talent will need to communicate their strategy for growth, engage on hot issues like origination credit and diversity initiatives, and tailor their integration plans toward expanding partners’ client base, says Gloria Sandrino at Lateral Link.

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