The surprising thing about the collapse of IndyMac Bancorp last month was that apparently so few saw it coming. The California-based bank was not among the banks thought to be in imminent danger of bankruptcy. IndyMac's failure now has everyone from industry insiders to individual account holders concerned that other banks may soon follow. Banking attorney Steven Camp of Dallas' Gardere Wynne Sewell says those concerns are not without merit. "There are other significant bank failures that may well occur in the near future," he says. "There's a watch list of banks people are concerned about. IndyMac was likely just the canary in the coal mine." Those with accounts should worry about the security of their deposits, though, because protections are in place to protect accounts up to set limits. To interview Mr. Camp about bank failures, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

Controversy is already swirling around plans under review by the federal Department of Labor to reassess the risks associated with exposure to toxins in the workplace. According to published reports, proposed changes to workplace safety guidelines would reassess the way toxic exposure is calculated for workers. Although details have not been released, the proposal would reportedly address concerns that risks of on-the-job exposure to toxins are overestimated. RICKY RAVEN of Houston's Thompson & Knight says the review is long overdue. "I think under the current rules there is generally an overestimation, even exaggeration, about the levels of worker exposure," says Raven, who defends companies in toxic tort litigation. "The days of industry not being mindful of worker and workplace exposure levels are long over. Businesses fully appreciate the obligations and economic incentives of maintaining a safe workplace without unrealistic, government-mandated standards." To interview Mr. Raven about workplace toxin issues, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.  

It's probably just a matter of time before Texas courts play hose to litigation from the $330 billion auction-rate securities collapse of 2008, says Kenneth Johnston of

Dallas' Kane Russell Coleman & Logan. Just last week, the Texas State Securities Board sent a warning shot over the bow of Swiss banking giant UBS. The board threatened to bar UBS from doing business in Texas and claimed that the company engaged in fraud in the way they peddled auction-rate securities. "Civil charges may demand that these firms pay back profits as well as damages to corporations and consumers,' Johnston says. To interview Mr. Johnston about auction-rate securities, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Some employers are trying to help struggling workers cope with high gas prices by offering gas cards redeemable at the pump. What many don't realize is that the value of the cards is technically taxable income that can result in a painful surprise when it's time to file income tax returns, says Audrey Mross, who leads the Labor and Employment secton of Munck Carter in Dallas. "The IRS has rules regarding employers subsidizing mass transit and there are specific exemptions, but gas cards are not on the list," Mross says. To interview Ms. Mross about gas prices and the implications for employers, please contact Mark Annick at 800-559-4534 or mark@androvett.com.

Sales of the wildly popular Wii and Game Cube controllers threatened to come to a grinding halt in the ongoing patent battle between a tiny Tyler, Texas, technology company and Nintendo. Tyler-based Anascape, which holds patents to technology used in the controllers, has prevailed in the latest rounds in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Most recently, the court ordered Nintendo to either stop selling three types of video controls for the Wii and the Game Cube or put a portion of the sales in escrow. For an idea of the stakes infolved, Nintendo ponied up more than $38 million in escrow in order to keep peddling the gadgets. Attorney DOUG CAWLEYand others from Dallas-based McKool Smith represented Anascape in the patent litigation and helped win a $21 infringement verdict against Nintendo in May that recently was approved by the federal court.

A few recent items out there on the interwebs point to the marketing power of blogs and configuring Web sites and their content for search engine optimization.

A study by eMarketer has some surprising findings regarding the way news reporters use blogs in the news-gathering process. According to this survey, nearly 40

percent of news reporters use blogs as a way to find subjects to write about. Nearly 30 percent use blogs as a way to find quotable experts. Even though there are more than 2,000 law-related blogs out there, this study confirms what many of us have already known, that blogs are an excellent way to improve your professional profile.

On a related note, this law.com story offers a pretty basic primer on the importance of search engine optimization for law firm Web sites. The basic message: spending some time on your website and updating content(including blogs) can pay huge dividends. The piece raises an interesting rhetorical question: if search engine optimization works then why don't more people use it?

The current state of the economy is causing all kinds of expansion and contraction in the legal world. At Munck Carter, P.C., the firm sees an opportunity to boost its

technology and intellectual property practice with three new hires. The Dallas-based firm recently announced the additions of attorneys Dyan M. House, N. Elizabeth Pham and David Roe, all joining the firm's intellectual property section. The move also highlights how intellectual property remains a red hot practice area for many Texas firms.

All three have impeccable credentials. House concentrates her practice in the areas of trademark, copyright, franchising and licensing and counsels clients ranging from restaurants, retail establishments, engineering firms, software companies, wireless service providers and non-profit organizations. Pham focuses on intellectual property portfolio development and patent enforcement, representing clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Roe's practice centers around intellectual property portfolio development and intellectual property litigation. He represents clients in various high-tech industries, including polymer chemistry, medical imaging devices, computer hardware and software, and semiconductor devices.

Munck Carter, P.C. has carved out a practice devoted to trials, transactions and technology. With offices in Dallas and Marshall, Texas, the firm offers full-service counsel in the areas of complex commercial litigation, intellectual property management and protection, corporate transactions and securities, and employment matters. Munck Carter represents clients from start-ups to Fortune 500^TM companies.

More than 25,000 top CEOs, GCs and other in-house counsel have begun receiving this year's roundup of top business attorneys as selected by Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition. Honorees are slected among lawyers nationwide who have already been singled out as Super Lawyers through peer nominations and review by a blue-ribbon panel of lawyers. Texas attorneys feature prominently on the list, including six from the Dallas, Austin and New York offices of McKool Smith, P.C., along with four attorneys from teh Dallas and Houston offices of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP.

At McKool Smith, firm principals Doug Cawley, Ted Stevenson and Robert Manley of Dallas; Gordon White and Steve Pollinger of Austin; and Robert Cote of New York are included for their work in intellectual property litigation.

At Gardere, Dallas partners Kenneth R. Glaser, Andre M. Szuwalski and Peter S. Vogel were recognized for their intellectual property work, while Houston partner Jeffrey S. Davis was featured for his civil litigation defense work.

 

One of Dallas' oldest law firms is moving into new digs this week. Thompson & Knight is filling up six floors totaling 180,000 square feet in One Arts Plaza in the Dallas Arts District. The offices offer impressive and innovative features like a biometrics security system and a number of environmentally conscious design elements that helped the it secure registration with the U.S. Green Building Council. Lead-free glass allows better transmission of light inside the offices and a specially designed "Mother's Room" has lactation equipment and other amenities for working mothers. The firm is pursuing LEED-CI Silver Certification, which recognizes interiors that are healthy, productive places to work and that are less costly to operate and have a reduced environmental footprint. The firm's lease fills out the space at the recently completed One Arts Plaza in the heart of the city's Arts District.

Those waiting for a magic bullet to solve the country's energy woes better settle in for a long wait, says Renato Bertani of Thompson & Knight Global Energy Services. In the meantime, lifting the ban on U.S. offshore drilling is one component that will lead to a diversified energy plan. Despite the promise and excitement of

alternative energy, Bertani says oil production will remain the backbone of the country's energy needs for the foreseeable future.  "Fossil fuels will continue as the main source of energy for at least a few more decades," he says. "Oil and gas resources in frontier exploration areas and the extra-heavy oil and tar sands are economically feasible and very attractive in light of new technologies, better environmental management and the higher energy prices. In the long term, the security of our energy supply will have to be based on a broad mix of sources and mutually beneficial interdependence between energy producers and consumers." To interview Mr. Bertani about energy issues, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Thompson & Knight partner Pauline E. Higgins penned a thoughtful piece for Texas Lawyer on the toll of what she calls "microinequities." Few of us work with someone whose lack of tact compares to Simon Cowell's shtick on "American Idol." You know his trademark phrase, "...I don't mean to be rude, but..." However, Higgins maintains that practically imperceptible communication habits and mannerisms, i.e. "microinequities," can have a profound influence on workplace morale. She cites things like dismissing one employee's idea only to embrace it when it's paraphrased by another or subtly excluding some employees from social activities. It's a well-written piece that's worth a read. She ends with this profound quote from an unknown author:

Be careful of your thoughts; they become your words;
Be careful of your words; they become your actions;
Be careful of your actions; they become your habits;
Be careful of your habits; they become character;
Be careful of your character; it becomes your destiny

We told you previously here about the collosal number of defective Chinese-made tire valve stems rolling down American roads today. The estimated number of these

faulty values has jumped from 6 million to 20 million and is the subject of a nationwide safety alert. That's a chilling prospect for motorists since there's no easy way to identify the valve stems, and when the valves go bad it causes a blowout-like loss of air pressure, says attorney John Cummings of Laird & Cummings P.C. Cummings spoke with Ken Kalthoff at KXAS Ch. 5 about problems with alerting motorists to the hidden danger. Kalthoff's advanced this story with news that some tire retailers are notifying customers about the potential dangers caused by the valves.

The stiff penalties that corporate America faces relating to trade secrets has led to some high-profile self-policing. Hewlett-Packard chose to turn in one of its own vice presidents  for disseminating a confidential IBM memo that he had taken from his previous job at IBM. Atul Malhotra is now a former HP employee facing charges of theft of corporate trade secrets and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Bill Munck of Dallas' Munck Carter says that companies wh want trade-secret protections under federal law must take reasonable measures to protect such proprietary economic information. "What constitutes ‘reasonable' is open to debate, but the territorial scope of the federal Economic Espionage Act is arguably limitless and criminalizes not only theft of trade secrets within the United States, but under certain conditions thefts made in other countries."

Considering that both presumptive presidential candidates are on the record in favor of federal climate-change legislation, many U.S. corporations feel it's only a matter of

time before a company's "carbon footprint" will be subject to public disclosure a la Sarbanes Oxley, which requires companies to disclose business risks in public filings.  Richard O. Faulk, chair of the Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP Litigation Department, says emissions regulation of some type appears inevitable. There's even a clever name for it: Carbox. Faulk predicts a ramp up for law firm climate-change practices as corporate directors and executives work to make sure their companies' have properly disclosed emissiones risks. "Global climate change clearly presents challenges and risks for corporate governance, including Sarbanes-Oxley liability and shareholder suits," he says. "Moreover, companies that go through mergers and acquisitions must undertake due diligence to understand both their own and their negotiating partners' carbon footprints. Uncalculated risks can translate into incalculable liabilities, even criminal prosecution. Wise executives are implementing climate-change strategies now instead of waiting for the government's hammer to fall."

A Boston attorney's class-action lawsuit against Google is interesting for so many reasons. Advertising with Google AdWords is an inexact science, so Hal K. Levitte's complaint that his Google ads were ineffectively relegated to parked domain pages(pages that have no content except for targeted ads that viewers may inadvertantely stumble upon during keyword searches) or error pages is potentially important. Afterall, 99 percent of Google's revenue comes from ad sales, according to InformationWeek. But here's what jumped out at me in this story, Levitte complains that he got no paying clients from his Google endeavor. But his Google annual pay-per-click budget was just $136(out of a total advertising budget of $887) and he still somehow got 668 clicks to his site. His advertising strategy appears to be little more than trying to direct Internet viewers to his anemic Web site. Kinda makes you wonder what he was expecting to achieve in the first place.

Budweiser and the rest of the Anheuser-Busch empire now belong to a European company few on American soil have ever heard of. The $52 billion acquisition creates

the fourth-largest consumer product company for Belgian brewer InBev. The purchase of this iconic American brand is the latest example of foreign consortiums taking advantage of the weak dollar and gobbling up U.S. companies, says attorney DALLAS PARKER, who focuses on complicated mergers, acquisitions, corporate governance and related matters as managing partner of Thompson & Knight's Houston office.  In this case, Parker says the deal makes good financial sense for InBev not just because of the weak dollar. "Another factor is the value of the basic product. A product such as beer typically retains consumer demand even in an unstable economy," he says. To interview Mr. Parker about M&A trends, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.

Will the next Woodward and Bernstein be citizen journalists who get the news out via blogs? Bloggers at the political Web site, Room 8, have certainly gotten the

attention of New York movers and shakers. As reported by the New York Times and others, prosecutors served a grand jury subpoena to the Web site earlier this year along with a saber-rattling warning that blogging about the subpoena would amount to illegally interfering with an active investigation. The gag order was later dropped after the bloggers threatened to sue. Along the way, the tactics raised serious concerns among free-speech advocates. For Peter Vogel, who focuses on Internet law and technology at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, the case is the latest example of how laws are not keeping pace with rapidly advancing electronic medium. "When the first Internet browser was released as a public utility, no one even dreamed of blogging. The courts simply don't have a body of law on which to base their rulings," he says. "Courts are generally slow to adapt to major social change because existing laws don't necessarily fit the new situation. These complex cases will continue to vex the courts until that body of law develops."

You never know what'll get you on the cover of Texas Lawyer, and it's not always the latest windfall verdict or professional faux pas. Staff writer Jenny B. Davis dug down

Future firm partner

deep for her July 14 feature, beyond the CVs of some of the state's most respected legal minds to find an interesting common denominator: fast food experience in their formative years. Her premise: that those early jobs helped make these individuals the attorneys they are today.

For Thompson & Knight associate Kevin Pennell, scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins at age 14 taught him something about teamwork in a professional context that still rings home. Every time TK partner W. Mark Bennett quickly reads a crowded room or sizes up opposing counsel across a table, he's grateful for the hours he logged at a Chuck E. Cheese in Arlington, wearing a hot and unwieldy rodent costume.

"When you're walking out and you could see the little kid whose birthday it was, you learned how to read a face really fast to know whether they were going to run and hide or run and hug," Bennett told Davis. "Now that's part of my job - to read people, to give clients the best advice we can based on instincts."

That's what I call valuable professional experience. Great journalism? I didn't spit out my Cheerios and yell `Hey Martha!' but the piece made me think a little and sparked some office conversations. And that's more than can be said for many articles that I read. Me? I'm struggling to recall any redeeming life lessons from slinging burgers at Wendy's, except that the long hot and underpaid Austin summer was powerful motivation to finish college. And don't eat the chili.

Just a few weeks ago, we reported here about how wildly popular LinkedIn has become among lawyers and law firms, adding roughly tens of thousands of attorneys to its roles each month in 2008. Here's further proof that LinkedIn has emerged as

the killer ap in the world of lawyer and law firm directories. Martindale-Hubbell, the gold standard of traditional lawyer directories and attorney ratings, has now installed LinkedIn links within its attorney and law firm listings. Every attorney or law firm in Martindale-Hubbell's directory now has a LinkedIn link right beside their name. Hitting the link transports visitors to the attorney's or firm's dynamic online profile, which offers the ability to include expansive material about expertise and background, as well as an interactive social network of connections and peer or client recommendations. Credit goes to Kevin O'Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs for reporting this first. Another reason to join: LinkedIn has also proven to do a powerful job attracting search-engine optimization through Google alogorithms. It's the first of the vast array of social media networking options that has clearly demonstrated its usefullness, and thus appears to be here to stay.   

Finally, a survey of 650 lawyers released last week found that nearly half are already members of some type of online social media network, and more than 40 percent believe online professional networking has great potential. The survey, which was bankrolled by Martindale-Hubbell, concludes that a need exists for a private, online legal network. The survey reports that lawyers are primarily interested in generating client and peer referrals(big surprise there) and are generally frustrated with their ability to stay connected with peers and colleagues. Fifty-four percent of in-house counsel and 41 percent of private-practice attorneys indicated that the ability to link to other attorneys and expand their networks as the most important feature of social media networks like LinkedIn. 

 

 

Attorney Kathleen Campbell Walker has long been an important voice in the national debate over immigration reform through more than 20 years working as an El Paso

attorney focusing on immigration law and cross-border business issues, as well as her work as immediate past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Walker, a partner in Brown McCarroll's El Paso offices, is a widely published authority on this important issue and has frequently testified before Congress and state lawmakers. She now has a new role in the policy arena serving on an independent task force on immigration policy for the distinguished Council on Foreign Relations. She's in important company, sharing membership wtih the likes of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty, among others.

In a potentially important victory for employee privacy, San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came out with a big ruling limiting the ability of employers to obtain transcripts of employee e-mail and text messages. The ruling focused on electronic communications that are stored off-site by third-party services(as most text messages are) and e-mails maintained on external servers and found that the Ontario(Calif.) Police Department violated an officer's privacy by retrieving the content of his text messages without a warrant. But Thompson & Knight attorney David Furlow cautions that the case's impact may be limited, and more-conservative courts may choose to ignore the ruling. "Anyone using an employer's e-mail should still assume that his or her boss may read even the most private text or e-mail message," Furlow says.

Those tiny wireless RFID chips that are revolutionizing the way shipping companies and retailers monitor inventories have also proven extremely useful for hospitals tracking expensive medical equipment(some hospitals are even implanting chips in patients that allow medical staff to instantly view a patient's medical history). But the Journal of the American Medical Association now warns that those radio frequency identification chips are potentially hazardous to patient care by interfering with electronic medical equipment. According to the Journal report, Danish researchers conducted 123 tests and found that the chips caused interference in one out of every six tests. Two of those instances were classified as having a "significant" adverse impact. "What an irony it is turning into that something that is designed to help may actually be adversely affecting patients," says Peter S. Vogel of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP. "This revelation may lead to new personal injury litigation heretofore not identified. It is likely that courts will have trouble sorting the health benefits of RFID with the new-found risk to patients."[[page_break]] To interview Mr. Vogel about RFID issues, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.  

Whether you're the guy with the name on the door or the one who sorts the mail, chances are you use the Internet connection at work for personal matters, according

to a new academic study. While the report concludes what most of us expected, researchers say that this trend is not necessarily bad for business productivitiy. Labor and employment attorney Audrey Mross of Dallas-based Munck Carter PC agrees, saying workplace Internet access has changed the way employees work and handle personal matters, and employers should "pick their battles" rather than implementing restrictive policies for on-the-job Internet use. Moreover, employers who use a knee-jerk reaction rather than a consistent policy are exposing themselves to potential litigation. "Most workers will strike a balance without the need for restrictive policies," she says. "There will always be a few rogue abusers who can be addressed individually, rather than handcuffing an entire organization with overbroad policy statements." To interview Ms. Mross about workplace Internet trends and recent court decisions, contact Robert Tharp at 800-559-4534 or at robert@androvett.com.

A distinguished crowd was on hand as Thompson & Knight partner Jorge G. De Presno-Arizpe was inaugurated as President of the Inter-American Bar Association during a

ceremony in Lima, Peru, last month. Mr. De Presno, a partner in the firm's Mexico City offices, is only the fourth Mexican lawyer to lead the Washington D.C.-based organization, which represents lawyers and jurists from 17 nations across the Western Hemisphere. His swearing-in took place before a crowd that included Peru's vice president, the Mexican ambassador to Peru, several members of the Peruvian judiciary, and more than 500 lawyers from countries throughout North, Central, and South America; the Caribbean; and Spain.

Mr. De Presno focuses his practice on advising corporations on labor, employment, and Social Security law, including privatization procedures for public corporations. He also has broad experience in collective bargaining negotiations and strike procedures, labor litigation, and counseling at both the state and federal levels.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has opened an investigation into faulty replacement tire valves made in China that are now the focus of a nationwide recall. The

trouble could just be beginning, warns Fort Worth personal injury and wrongful death attorney Steve Laird of Laird & Cummings. More than 30 million tire valves could be affected and at risk of cracking prematurely, causing tires to lose air quickly and leading to tire failure, according to Consumer Reports. "Most drivers will have a hard time figuring out if they have a defective valve on their tires," says Laird. "That's because once the valve stem is installed, the only way to check is to take the tire off and inspect it from the inside."

According to Consumer Reports, Robert Monk of Orlando, Fla. died when the right rear tire of his 1998 Ford Explorer failed, triggering a rollover crash. The failure of the tire, which was installed in the fall of 2006, has been linked to a cracked Dill TR-413 valve stem manufactured by a subsidiary of Shanghai Baolong Industries for Dill Air Control Products. In March, the Monk family filed suit against Dill Air Control Products, alleging that the defective tire valve stem caused the crash.

To interview Mr. Laird about tire safety issues, contact Bruce Vincent at 800-559-4534 or bruce@androvett.com.

An enormous ruling came out of the Rhode Island Supreme Court this week, protecting manufacturers of lead paint from liability for creating a “public nuisance.” The Wall Street Journal praised the ruling in a lead editorial(subscription required). Beginning with the headline, “Another bogus legal theory gets the boot,” the WSJ editorial goes on to say “…the state Supreme Court stopped cold an attempt to turn lead paint into the next tobacco or asbestos." The ruling capped nine years and two jury trials and reversed a verdict that some estimated would have cost paint companies $2 billion.

Now for the Texas connection: a law review article on such public nuisance litigation co-authored by Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP partners Richard O. Faulk and John S. Gray had an enormous effect on the court’s ruling. You won’t find Alchemy in the Courtroom? The Transmutation of Public Nuisance Litigation and the Michigan State Law Review on the news rack at Barnes & Noble, but the Supreme Court justices were obviously very familiar with it. The justices referenced the paper on four different occasions in their ruling. Faulk, who chairs Gardere's Litigation Department, calls the ruling a conclusive defeat for the expansion of public nuisance torts that will likely influence a wide range of other industries. "Advocates pursuing public nuisance lawsuits in other contexts, such as climate change, should take special notice of the court's rejection of an activist approach," he says.

The airline industry's woes are trickling down in ways that the mainstream media are just beginning to report. Consider WFAA-TV reporter Jason Whitely's July 1 story on how airline cost-cutting will result in the loss of commercial service for nearly 100 airports across the country. An even greater number of airports will see significantly reduced commercial air service. All of this will surely have an impact on surrounding economies that rely on revenue from the steady stream of passengers and ancillary services, as well as economic development efforts to attract new businesses, Whitely reports. And as Dallas aviation attorney David Norton explains in the piece, the industry is experiencing a paradigm shift caused by the relentless rise of fuel prices, and the commercial air service will probably never return. "I think that's over," says Norton, a partner at Dallas-based Shackelford Melton & McKinley. "I don't really ever see that coming back, not in the form that we've had it. There might be some changed system, but not like it used to be."

Who wouldn’t have pitied little Anascape Ltd. of Tyler, Texas, when it went up against Nintendo of America Inc. nearly two years ago, seeking to protect its patents for technology used in Nintendo game controllers including the GameCube, Wavebird, Wii Classic and Wii Remote. Anascape’s attorneys at Dallas-based McKool Smith, PC, were unfazed by the prospect of battling an army of corporate attorneys with unlimited resources. Following a trial in the Eastern District of Texas that ended May 14, a jury awarded the small company $21 million for its patent infringement claims. And just last week, the Hon. Ron Clark of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Lufkin Division, denied the defendant's motion for a reduced verdict, finding that the jury's award is supported by the evidence. The McKool Smith team included firm principals  Doug Cawley, Sam Baxter and Ted Stevenson, and firm associates Chris Bovenkamp, Steven Callahan, Jason Cassady, Anthony Garza, and Jamie Shouse.

Even the noble act of performing volunteer work in off-time can have unintended risks for attorneys, writes attorney Jane Taber in a published piece singled out by the State Bar of Texas as an example of exemplary legal writing. The reason: lawyers who volunteer their time with non-profits often find themselves mulling requests for them to sit on the organizations' boards. Taber, a founding partner of Dallas' Taber Estes Thorne & Carr PLLC, penned the 3-piece installment with attorney Chris Robison in 2007 for the Dallas Bar Association's Headnotes newsletter. Focusing on potential hidden liabilities, Taber's article offers practical tips for attorneys considering accepting a seat on a non-profit board. Among her key tips are investigating the position, exercising the duties of care and loyalty, and fully disclosing potential conflicts of interest. Taber writes from experience, having served on various non-profit boards, including the Lakewood Service League and the Developmental Learning Center at Dallas' First United Methodist Church.

Minority attorneys of any political stripe can learn something from Barrack Obama's candidacy, writes attorney Kathleen Wu in her second and final installment analyzing the Democratic candidates from the perspective of a motivational coach. While Wu's earlier piece on the Hillary Clinton campaign offered parallels specifically for female lawyers, her latest essay concludes that Obama's campaign has something to offer everyone, regardless of party affiliation. Wu, a partner at Andrews Kurth in Dallas, notes the simple("Dress better than you have to") to the profound ("Don't let lowered expectations equal lowered performance") in the Obama story. "Obama offers a useful road map to success, whatever one's political ideology: Early struggles do not rule out future successes," Wu writes. "Others' limited ideas about one's potential are not insurmountable barriers to achievement." For those waiting for Wu's take on John McCain, don't hold your breath. "He's undoubtedly a statesman and may well be our next president," she writes. "Still, he's white and he's male; I just don't know anything about being either of those two things."

 

A tight-knit staff and a supportive, family friendly environment are big factors that helped Houston- and Dallas-based legal recruiting firm MS Legal Search secure the honor of being among the "Best Places to Work" identified in this week's Houston Business Journal. Firm founder Elaine Makris Williams says the 13-year-old firm is committed to supporting employees and providing a collaborative environment, which pays off with happy and productive employees. The award is based on an anonymous employee survey. MS Legal is operated by former practicing lawyers who have helped place experienced attorneys in leading law firms and corporations since 1995. The firm is owned and operated by women and is a certified Women's Business Enterprise. To learn more about MS Legal Search, visit www.mslegalsearch.com.

 

Intellectual property attorneys at Dallas-based McKool Smith, PC have reached an $83.3 million settlement on behalf of Dallas-based inventory management software

company i2 Technologies. The hefty settlement resolves litigation filed in 2006 related to seven software patents related to the company's supply chain planning technology. McKool Smith attorneys charged that Germany's SAP AG and its U.S. subsidiary SAP Inc., had infringed on Patent Numbers 5,764,543; 5,930,156; 5,983,194; 6,055,519; 6,167,380; 6,188,989; and 7,085,729. The McKool Smith team representing i2 included firm principals Ted Stevenson, Sam Baxter, and David Sochia, and firm associates Jill Bindler, Chris Bovenkamp, Steve Callahan, Bo Davis and Scott Hejny.

For more information, please contact Bruce Vincent at 800.559.4534 or bruce@androvett.com.

 

It was so easy to snicker at this seemingly ridiculous story out of Quebec with the headline, "Court overturns father's grounding of 12-year-old," when the article had just a few graphs and no context. Consider:
A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said

Wednesday.
The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.
But it's rarely so black-and-white and now a little more difficult to beat up on the judge after Canada's Globe and Mail filled in some of the details that explain this judge's head-scratching ruling. Some of the `complicating factors' can be found here, but suffice to say Canada's family laws are perhaps even more complicated than the ones we enjoy here, and apparently adults going through divorce act just as crazy north of the border.

It's been a long 16 months and a wild and bumpy ride for stockholders of Sirius and XM since the two satellite radio companies began merger talks. Recent news

that the FCC's chairman is backing the proposed $7.5 billion merger puts one huge hurdle behind the deal, but it doesn't mean the deal is a forgone conclusion, says merger attorney Marcello Hallake of Thompson & Knight's New York office. "While the Justice Department found the deal was not anticompetitive, there continues to be opposition to the merger from conventional broadcasting companies, as well as politically motivated concerns," says Hallake, who represents international telecommunications companies in mergers and acquisitions. Shareholders of both companies, as well as the Department of Justice, have already endorsed the proposed merger, and an FCC ruling is all that now stands in the deal's way. While the FCC chairman has endorsed the deal, Hallake says that four of the FCC's commissioners, including the panel's two Democrats, may seek more conditions or concessions.To interview Mr. Hallake about merger considerations, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.  

 

While folks at The Legal Intelligencer have reported an interesting non-story related to the relentless rise in fuel prices – that lawyers in an unscientific

poll are not changing commuting habits as a result of fuel costs – there are some important considerations for businesses trying to help employees during these tough times. Some employers clearly are trying to ease the pain of $4 per gallon gas with shortened workweeks, carpooling incentives and public transportation discounts. Labor and Employment attorney Rachel Steely of  Gardere Wynne Sewell in Houston advises employers to be careful they don’t cut employees’ work hours to the point that they lose insurance or other employee benefits. "Offering flextime is a great way to keep your loyal workers satisified, and during rocky economic times retaining your skilled workers is one of the best business strategies," she says. "The cost to replace and retrain someone is much higher." To interview Ms. Steely about employee flextime, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram city hall reporter Mike Lee exposes an interesting byproduct of the Barnett Shale natural gas boom that's seen drilling operations literally going though and under congested metropolitan areas in and around Tarrant County. The latest wrinkle has production companies creating spinoff pipeline operations, which are able to obtain the same kind of eminent domain powers typically reserved for municipalities and public utilities. Armed with these powers, Lee describes how multiple gas companies are installing their own competing pipelines though Tarrant County, acquiring property by condemnation along the way. It may seem counterintuitive that a private company can have the same powers as a public utility, but Dallas attorney Charles Fiscus, who focuses on real estate and eminent domain issues at Shackelford Melton & McKinley, tells Lee that such a pipeline can serve just one company and still be considered a utility, much like trucking companies that lease all their trucks to just one customer are still considered "common carriers" in the government's eyes.

The painfully high price of oil has really limited the bailout options for airlines on the brink of bankruptcy, says Steve Stapleton, a bankruptcy and aviation industry attorney at Cowles & Thompson. "Airlines have already taken extreme measures and cut their expenses to the bone, but they're still losing money," says Stapleton,

who authored a chapter on aviation bankruptcy trends for an upcoming book. "Chapter 11 bankruptcy, however, may not be the perceived panacea it once was. The domestic credit crisis, the escalating price of oil and the weakening dollar have created the perfect storm for the industry, requiring a wholesale reevaluation of its business model." Stapleton predicts that bankruptcy liquidation rather than reorganization will become more attractive as oil prices continue to soar. In the meantime, passenger headaches from increasing fees and fares, reduced services and discontinued routes will continue. To interview Mr. Stapleton about aviation bankruptcy trends, contact Robert Tharp at 800-559-4534 or robert@androvett.com.  

Stanford Law School soon joins the University of California and Yale University in abandoning traditional A-Fs. The new law school grading method will use a quota system both to recognize academic performance and shift students and professors away from obsessing about grades.

"It reduces the pursuit of grades as the chief concern of students - they're learning for the sake of learning, without choosing courses based on worries whether a professor is a tough grader or not," Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer told the San Jose Mercury News. "Students were too focused on grades, and choosing courses based on grades."

But don't expect most other law schools to follow suit, says legal recruiter Elaine Makris Williams of MS Legal Search. "Only the very top schools can afford to do this," says Williams. "Because Yale, Stanford and Berkeley are among the country's top schools, their graduates are highly recruited by employers. A graduate of a top-tier school is usually more sought after by employers than a ‘top grades' graduate of a lower-tier school." To interview Ms. Williams about trends in legal recruiting, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 or barry@androvett.com.  

Officially, D CEO calls its 2008 roundup of lawyers with the top courtroom skills, "The Advocates." We liked the headline on the cover of the glossy Dallas publication, "The Hit Men," featuring local attorneys Marty Rose of Rose•Walker, Frank Branson of The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson and Mark Werbner of Sayles Werbner looking all-business. Those three attorneys plus Jeff Tillotson of Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox and Mike McKool of McKool Smith each receive in-depth profiles inside the publication. As D CEO writer John G. Browning puts it, "They are apex predators at the top of the litigation food chain, moving as effortlessly and efficiently in the courtroom as great white sharks gliding through their watery habitat. Their courtroom exploits throughout Texas and the rest of the country have earned them princely sums and larger-than-life reputations in the legal community."

There's plenty of buzz about law firms creating practice groups devoted to the expected increase in litigation related to climate change and carbon-trading policies. The Dallas boutique litigation firm of Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox doesn't have such a formal practice group, but the firm and particularly name partner Trey Cox have steadily become key players in the booming wind-energy industry. Cox's defense win of a legal challenge to the $1 billion Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center was a huge victory for the industry. Since then, Cox authored a white paper on wind farm development and litigation strategies and has become a sought-after speaker on the subject. Most recently, he was the featured speaker at Wind Law III, in Sweetwater, Texas.

Staying abreast of the latest social networking sites can be so daunting that it has spanwed a form of anxiety that has its own media-given name: "social networking fatigue."

So what's an attorney to do? Should you care about Twitter and the opportunity to keep a network of contacts apprised of daily happenings in no more than 140-character messages?. Should a business litigator stoop to the level of Facebook or MySpace?

A confluence of recent news reports indicate that at least one social networking site has emerged as a dominant and potentially useful networking tool that no law firm

should ignore. That would be LinkedIn. Consider:

• According to legal blogger Steve Matthews, LinkedIn is adding tens of thousands of attorneys to its membership rolls each month.

• Kevin O'Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs reports that there are now more attorneys in the LinkedIn directory than in Martindale.com, lawyers.com and findlaw.com. Many law firms have separate LinkedIn profiles as well.
• Finally, there was news Tuesday that LinkedIn had secured $53 million in venture capital and will likely be rolling out new services in the coming months.

According to the New York Times, LinkedIn is now valued at $1 billion and has seen its membership swell in the last year to 23 million members. The Times reports: "...The average age of a LinkedIn user is 41, the point in life where people are less likely to build their digital identities around dates, parties and photos of revelry. LinkedIn Gives professionals, even the most hopeless wallflower, a painless way to follow the advice of every career counselor: build a network. Users maintain online resumes, establish links with collegues and business acquaintances and then expand their networks to the contacts of their contacts."

Reporters and editors at the Dallas Business Journal recently set out to answer a variation of one of the eternal questions that inevitably surfaces when two or more attorneys are present at a cocktail party: Who's the best business-litigation defense attorney out there?

The 2008 list of "The Defenders"(subscription only) in this week's edition was compiled based on outside nominations followed by an internal vetting by the DBJ staff.

Congratulations to this year's honorees:

Rodney Acker, Fulbright & Jaworski
Chris Akin, Carrington Coleman
Jerry Beane, Andrews Kurth
George Bramblett, Haynes and Boone
Trey Cox, Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox
David Elrod, Elrod PLLC
Gregory Huffman, Thompson & Knight
Kenneth Johnston, Kane Russell Coleman & Logan
James Jordan, Munsch Hardt
Lewis LeClair, McKool Smith
Tom Melsheimer, Fish & Richardson
Retta Miller, Jackson Walker
Yvette Ostolaza, Weil Gotshal & Manges
Joel Reese, Winstead PC
Marcos Ronquillo, Godwin Pappas & Ronquillo

 

The latest fight brewing in the Barnett Shale oil patch just west of us is not about who can round up leases and mineral rights the fastest. The law firms of Sayles Werbner, PC, and Provost Umphrey, L.L.P., are suing one of the big players in the Barnett Shale drilling bonanza, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., charging that Chesapeake disingenuously sidled up with ICC Energy Corp. because of its status as a minority contractor. According to Sayles Werbner cofounder Mark Werbner, once Chesapeake secured the 18,000-acre lease with the promise of as much as one trillion cubic feet of natural gas below, the comany left Dallas-based ICC Energy high and dry.

ICC Energy is the largest African-Amderican-owned marketer of natural gas in Texas and had invested more than $3 million in the bidding process. The lawsuit charges that D/FW Airport's longstanding policy of awarding contracts only to companies that commit to utilizing minority-and women-owned businesses made Chesapeake's association with ICC Energy vital to securing the drilling lease, among other things.

There's a certain amount of truth to the cliché that most lawyers have a secret ambition to pen a courtrom thriller. Like (ahem)former newspaper reporters, most lack the discipline to sit down and start, let alone finish their Great American Novel. But some do manage to get something done in their spare time. Dallas lawyer Mark Werbner has been named as a finalist in the 2008 Texas Bar Journal Short Fiction Writing Contest, for his short story, "The Test." Werbner's tale recounts a big-shot civil attorney's somewhat bumbling representation of a thuggish client in a gritty murder case. And it wouldn't be fair if the story didn't have an unexpected plot twist.

Werbner, cofounder of Dallas-based Sayles Werbner, is a veteran trial attorney who has handled some of the country's most notable cases during his 30 years of practicing law. His courtroom victory in a $200 million contract dispute between members of the de Boule mining family was been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the top defense victories last year. I can see a screenplay-in-the-making for his efforts to strike a blow against terrorism by going after their financing sources, a case that has already received national media attention.

Federal climate-change legislation may be dead in the water this year following today's Senate vote, but attorney SCOTT DEATHERAGE says it's now only a matter of time before Congress passes such a cap-and-trade system for U.S. industries to limit carbon emissions. Deatherage, who leads the Climate Change

and Renewable Energy Practice at Thompson & Knight, says such far-reaching legislation typically get's off to a slow start but the time has come for such restrictions. The proposal, which failed to get enough votes to end a Republican filibuster, would cap production of of greenhouse gases and force industries to buy permits to emit carbon dioxide. "Cap-and-trade is already developing in other countries. Without a combination of free market and regulatory incentives, the U.S. could fall behind not only in energy conservation but in the development of valuable environmental technologies," Deatherage says. Deatherage notes that both presidential candidates have expressed support for such legislation, so prospects are good for similar legislation next year.

Even outsiders sensed that the state's child welfare system was wholly unprepared to handle the seizure of hundreds of children following the raid on a polygamist ranch in Eldorado. Recently released e-mails between Texas child welfare, law enforcement and other government officials following the raid paint a picture of a state system in disarray, says attorney BETSY BRANCH of Dallas-based McCurley Orsinger McCurley Nelson & Downing. Branch and other attorneys at the Dallas family law firm

are among those volunteering to represent children as guardians at litem following the raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch. While it seemed obvious at the time that authorities were disorganized and unprepared, Branch says e-mail communications paint a clearer picture of a child welfare system ill equipped for the challenge. "The more discovery we do, the more this looks like a ‘Keystone Cops' approach to the whole thing," Branch says. "This is a Gordian knot of a mess to be untied." Branch says all parties would be better served if the children's cases are treated individually instead of lumped together as a single case.

When Kenedy Ranch patriarch John G. Kenedy Jr. died childless more than 50 years ago, his will left control of one of the state’s legendary ranches to his widow and sister. But what if there was an unacknowledged heir to the dynasty now valued at between $500 million and $1 billion? Since 2000, the family of former Kenedy maid Ann Fernandez has maintained in court filings that Ms. Fernandez secretely gave birth to Mr. Kenedy’s daughter in 1925. A definitive answer could finally be on the way after the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi, Texas, ruled that the dispute can proceed. Marcos Ronquillo lead trial counsel for the Fernandez family and Managing Partner of the Dallas-based law firm of Godwin Pappas & Ronquillo PC, says the Fernandez family is not interested in taking money away from the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation and the John G. Kenedy Jr. Charitable Trust, which control funds generated by La Parra Ranch. "This family is not interested in coming in and dismantling the good work that these groups do," he says. "This is about family heritage. What the family wants is the rightful recognition of Mrs. Fernandez and her children."

Location scouts for "Karma Police" were searching for the quintessential big-city law office for filming when they approached attorney STEVEN H. STODGHILL, widely known for the ecclectic collection of art and memorabilia he maintains in his downtown office. By the time the discussions wrapped up, Steve had negotiated his way into a speaking part in the movie, his name in the closing credits and even got to name his character, Buddy Love, in honor of his all-time favorites, Jerry Lewis's character in "The Nutty Professor." This marks Steve's second role in a feature film. In the 2006 movie, "The Wendell Baker Story," starring Luke and Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Eva Mendes, Steve played the part of a lawyer, Otto Brinker. In real life, Steve embraces the role of a successful attorney. He is a principal in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson P.C., where he represents companies and individuals in a variety of complex commercial litigation and intellectual property matters.

Dallas sports attorney DARYL WASHINGTON has some sobering advice for the young and gifted collegiate football players soon to be offered piles of money and a chance at NFL stardom. The massive windfalls that the select few collegiate players receive may seem like plenty of dough, but studies show that only a fraction of pro football players end their careers with their fortunes intact, says Washington of Dallas' Shackelford, Melton & McKinley. "When they finally hang up their cleats, some 80 percent of professional football players are heavily in debt or broke, on drugs or facing other major life hurdles, usually because they've never been taught how to manage their lives," he says. "The NFL should require business internships and teach them about collective bargaining. They should teach players how to win in life, not just on the field." To interview Mr. Washington about professional athletes, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.

Rising oil prices and corresponding increases in jet fuel are behind the shakeup affecting struggling air carriers, says airline bankruptcy expert STEVE STAPLETON of Dallas' Cowles & Thompson. "While the legacy airlines have cash cushions and all carriers are hedging their fuel costs with some success, there will still be pressure, particularly on the low-cost carriers and the start-ups," he says. As in the recent case of Frontier, much of the pressure likely will come from vendors like credit card companies, travel agencies and others concerned with the unprecedented economic pressures facing the travel industry. "They will likely be flexing whatever muscle they have to ensure the carriers meet their continued obligations." To interview Mr. Stapleton about the airline industry, contact Rhonda Reddick at 800-559-4534 or rhonda@androvett.com.