Texas Lawyer Blog

Howrey first-years: more time learning, less time billing

New first-year associates at Howrey, which has a 54-lawyer office in Houston, will spend more time learning to be litigators and less time on billable hours during their first two years on the job. However, the firm will pay them less than the law school graduates who started work as first-year associates last fall at the $160,000 market rate. Washington, D.C.-based Howrey today announced its Tier 1 Associate Program, which will apply to the 23 new associates in the Class of 2009 slated to start work on Sept. 28. The program calls for first-year associates to spend one-third of their time on billable work, and the rest of it on pro bono work and training. They will be paid a $100,000 annual salary and receive a $25,000 acceptance bonus. During their second year on the job, the associates will spend about half of their time on billable work, and the training offerings will include client secondments and judical externships. The second-year associates will earn an annual salary of $125,000 and a $25,000 bonus at the end of that year. The firm will also adjust its billing rates for the first-year associates in the Tier 1 program to about $150 an hour, down from about $275, and for second-year lawyers to about $200 from about $300, says Bob Ruyak, the firm’s chairman and chief executive officer. “The idea is to make them more valuable to clients,” Ruyak says about the heavier emphasis on training. “About a year ago, I started talking to clients and other lawyers in the firm about whether we should change the method of how we initiate lawyers into the practice. . . .” he says. “Part of our goal here is to select really good people and really train them to be trial lawyers.” The Tier 1 Associate Program will not affect the compensation of current Howrey associates, although the firm did move away from a lock-step system last year. Ruyak says 98 percent of its practice is trial work.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

MALDEF's take on Voting Rights Act case

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder is a big victory for those who want to preserve the Voting Rights Act of 1965, says Nina Perales, Southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). The 8-1 decision maintains the intent of the act but allows a broader range of political entities to apply for exemptions from federal oversight when they change how elections are conducted. Perales argued the last big voting rights case the high court heard -- League of United Latin American Citizens, et al. v. Perry, which led to a 2006 decision that forced a change in Texas' congressional map because the map diluted the strength of minority voters in a Texas congressional district. “I think LULAC v. Perry had a bigger impact on this court’s consideration of the case [Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1] because they had fresh in their minds a decision that they had rendered finding discrimination in a covered jurisdiction in Texas,” Perales says. “And so their direct experience in ruling in LULAC v. Perry, I believe, had an impact on their consideration in this case.”

-- John Council

This Week in Texas Lawyer

Ugliest courthouses: Senior reporter John Council treks around the state in search of Texas' least easy-on-the-eyes halls of justice.

It's alive: Senior reporter Mary Alice Robbins learns that an issue some lawyers may have thought was dead -- whether attorneys should have to disclose their lack of malpractice insurance to client -- is alive and kicking.

Grading the boss: How did the State Bar president do? Senior reporter Mary Alice Robbins talks to lawyers about Harper Estes' term.

Inadmissible: Border crossing attempts down. Living legend Louise Raggio turns 90. A lawyer only 41 percent of Raggio's age takes the bench.

Access Houston: Shouldn't technology increase access to court information? Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys checks out a news service's suit over documents.

It's hard out there for a grad: Reporter Miriam Rozen talks to three recent and soon-to-be grads about their efforts to break into the legal biz.

Lawyers doing good: Meet this year's winners of awards from the State Bar of Texas Legal Services to the Poor in Civil Matters Committee.

Special focus report: immigration law
    Haseena J. Enu examines visa, travel documents and work-site enforcement.
    Robert F. Loughran warns of immigration liability that can arise from mergers and acquisitions.
    Elise A. Healy discusses how to ensure clients don't become targets of an ICE raid.

Winning on the papers: David Bissinger and Martin Siegel teach new lawyers how to achieve victory through depositions and dispositive motions.

Truths of tennis: Kathleen Wu shares lessons for lawyers that work on the court and in the courtroom.

Stanford indictment unsealed today

Robert Allen Stanford, chairman of Stanford Financial Group of Houston, three other SFG executives, and a former bank regulator in Antigua were indicted on fraud and obstruction charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy to defraud investors who bought about $7 billion in certificates of deposit sold through the Stanford International Bank Ltd. The indictment returned on June 18 by a grand jury in the Southern District of Texas and unsealed today also names Laura Pendergest-Holt, chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group, who was earlier charged with obstruction; Gilberto Lopez, chief accounting officer of SFG; Mark Kuhrt, global controller for Stanford Financial Group Global Management, an affiliate of SFG and Stanford International Bank; and Leroy King, former administrator and chief executive officer of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission, an Antiguan regulatory agency. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Stanford was arrested in Virginia on June 18 and will make an initial appearance today in Richmond, Va.; Lopez and Kuhrt were arrested this morning and were to make initial appearances in Houston today; and Pendergest-Holt, who pleaded not guilty in May to a two-count indictment charging her with conspiring to obstruct and substantively obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, will make an initial appearance on the new charges in the near future. Each defendant is charged in the indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; seven counts of wire fraud; 10 counts of mail fraud; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. It also charges Stanford, Pendergest-Holt and King with one count of conspiracy to obstruct an SEC investigation and one count of obstruction of an SEC investigation. Stanford’s defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, writes in a statement today that Stanford will fight false allegations against him, and his client is confident he will be found not guilty of the charges. In the statement, DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson, wrote that despite the government’s allegations that the Stanford companies were fraudulent and no more than a Ponzi scheme, the present insolvency of the Stanford companies was caused by the SEC. Pendergest-Holt’s criminal defense attorney, Houston solo Dan Cogdell, could not be reached for immediate comment. The names of attorneys representing Kuhrt, Lopez and King were not available on the district clerk’s Web site for United States v. Robert Allen Stanford, et al. On Feb. 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Stanford, two colleagues and three of his companies for allegedly engaging in a $9.2 billion investment fraud. SFG and related companies have been under federal receivership since then. Separately, James M. Davis, the chief financial officer for SFG who is cooperating with federal authorities in the investigation, was named in an information also unsealed today. The information charges Davis with one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of obstructing an SEC investigation. His attorney, David Finn of Dallas' Milner & Finn, writes in an e-mail that Davis will continue to cooperate with the investigation. “We’ve been answering questions posed by the Department of Justice and FBI as recently as today,” he says. Finn says Davis has and will continue to accept full responsibility for his actions. Finn says Davis realizes that a lot of people have been hurt by what happened at Stanford Financial, “and at Stanford's trial the jury, and the entire world, will see that the orchestrator and prime beneficiary of the Stanford fraud was Sir Allen Stanford himself. His name is on the door, and the jury will follow the money."

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

U.S. House votes to impeach Sam Kent

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this afternoon in favor of a resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent of the Southern District of Texas, and send the matter to the Senate for a trial. If the Senate removes Kent from office, the $174,000 yearly salary he continues to receive while in prison will stop. The only way to stop Kent’s salary is impeachment or resignation. This afternoon, the House voted in favor of four articles of impeachment that allege Kent, who was appointed to the bench in 1990, is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that warrant his removal from office. The first two articles of impeachment relate to the “sexual assault” of two of his staff members at the federal courthouse in Galveston; the third involves obstruction of justice; and the fourth is linked to his false statements to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. In February, Kent pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and, in a factual statement he signed as part of the plea, he admitted to nonconsensual contact with his former court administrator Cathy McBroom and his former secretary Donna Wilkerson. On Monday, Kent reported to the Federal Medical Center Devens in Massachusetts to begin serving a 33-month sentence. During House debate on the impeachment today, Rep.Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Kent may have suffered personal tragedies and illness, but he doesn’t have the right to continue as a judge and collect a taxpayer-funded salary while serving time in prison. “Every day that Judge Kent remains on the bench is one day too long,” Smith said. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said that while Kent has said he will resign in a year, “what it really amounts to is an attempt to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from the American people.” And Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who threatened to seek Kent’s impeachment if he did not resign after sentencing, said allowing Kent to retain his position would create “grievous and irreparable damage” to the federal judiciary. “This man does not deserve his pay, he does not deserve his position, he does not deserve his pension,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. Kent’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson in Houston, says in a written statement, “Given that Judge Kent’s efforts to accept responsibility for his conduct have been deliberately distorted by some members of the task force [that considered articles of impeachment against Kent] we will have nothing further to say in response.” McBroom’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, of Rusty Hardin & Associates, says, “Cathy very much appreciates Congress moving so expeditiously.” Terry W. Yates, of Terry W. Yates & Associates of Houston who represents Wilkerson, could not be reached for immediate comment.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Religious ministry for former prisoners cannot be zoned out

The state Supreme Court concluded today that a zoning ordinance that effectively prevented a halfway house ministry for men who have been in prison from operating inside the city limits of Sinton violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The decision in Barr, et al. v. City of Sinton marks the first time the Supreme Court has interpreted the TRFRA, which the Texas Legislature enacted in 1999. Justice Nathan Hecht, author of the opinion in Barr, wrote for the unanimous court, “TRFRA does not immunize religious conduct from government regulation; it requires the government to tread carefully and lightly when its actions substantially burden religious exercise.” The Supreme Court found in Barr that Ordinance 1999-02 substantially burdened Pastor Rick Barr’s free exercise of his religion. As noted in the opinion, the ordinance prevents Barr from operating his halfway house ministry in two homes he owned adjacent to his church. But, because Sinton is such a small city, there is no evidence of any alternate location in Sinton where the ordinance would have allowed Barr to operate his ministry, Hecht wrote. The city failed to show it has a compelling interest in having the ordinance or that the ordinance is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest, according to the opinion. Read my story on oral arguments in the case here.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Clark, Thomas & Winters to pay former client $4.1 million

Austin-based Clark, Thomas & Winters has agreed to pay Pedernales Electric Cooperative $4.1 million to settle an unusual billing dispute. The dispute centers on about $510,000 for which Clark, Thomas had billed the PEC between 1998 and 2003 and in December 2004, according to a Dec.15, 2008, report by Navigant Consulting of Austin following its forensic investigation of various allegations of corporate abuses and wrongdoing at the PEC. As noted in Navigant’s report, Clark, Thomas then paid the money that the firm received from the PEC to two outside consultants related to two PEC officials. Jimmy Williamson (pictured), the PEC’s attorney, says the PEC agreed to the Navigant investigation as part of a settlement of a class action suit -- Worrall, et al. v. Pedernales Electric Cooperative -- that members of the cooperative had filed against the PEC, its board and management in 2007 in a Travis County district court. Clark, Thomas and the PEC announced their settlement of the billing dispute on June 18. Martha Dickie, who represents Clark, Thomas, says the firm and the PEC reached an agreement following a mediation that began in April. Dickie, a partner in Austin’s Akin & Almanza, says Clark, Thomas’ “whole interest here was to do right by a client, and I’m convinced they did that and more.” Williamson, principal in Houston’s Williamson & Rusnak, says, “If they had not reached a settlement with us, we would have definitely filed suit and pursued our legal remedies.” The firm and the cooperative announced the settlement the day after a Blanco County grand jury handed up indictments against Bennie Fuelberg, the PEC’s former general manager, and Walter Demond, a former Clark, Thomas shareholder who had been the PEC’s outside counsel. According to a June 18 online article published by the Austin American-Statesman, the grand jury charged Fuelberg and Demond with misapplication of fiduciary duty in excess of $200,000, theft of property in excess of $200,000 and money laundering between $100,000 and $200,000. Chris Gunter, an attorney with Austin’s Gunter & Bennett who represents Fuelberg, did not immediately return a telephone call for comment. Austin solo E.G. “Gerry” Morris, Demond’s attorney, says, “Anyone who knows Walter Demond knows he’s never taken a nickel he didn’t earn and never given anybody any client’s money that wasn’t entitled to it.” 

UPDATE: Chris Gunter, attorney for Bennie Fuelberg, PEC’s indicted former general manager, just returned my telephone call. Gunter, a partner in Austin’s Gunter & Bennett, says the allegations in the indictment against Fuelberg are not true. “He did not commit a crime as alleged,” Gunter says.  Gunter says that for the past two years, Fuelberg has endured innuendoes and suggestions that he was involved in wrongdoing. “We’re happy that we’re going to have an opportunity to see this supposed evidence and we’re going to respond to it.”
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Father's Day, Texas Lawyer style

Ah, Father’s Day — filled with neckties, golf clubs and Brut soap on a rope. But there’s more to this important day than gift-giving and cookouts; it’s really about honoring and remembering your father. So Texas Lawyer asked some attorneys to reflect on the lessons they learned from their lawyer-dads. Click here to see what they said.
-- Colleen B. McGushin

Looking for U.S. attorneys

If you see a number of criminal law-minded attorneys parading in and out of the Dallas office of Haynes and Boone on Friday, that’s because a committee handpicked by Texas’ two Republican U.S. senators will be reviewing some candidates for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas, according to one of the committee members. The committee, known as the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, usually has an influential role in selecting candidates for not only U.S. attorneys, but also U.S. District Court judges and U.S. marshals in Texas, when the White House is held by a Republican. But its role is much less clear now that Democrat Barack Obama is president. U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn have insisted on keeping their roles in selecting candidates for those positions in Texas and expanded the membership of the evaluation committee to include more Democrats. But one of them, Paul Coggins, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas who is now a partner in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson, says he’s not sure what role the committee will play in selecting U.S. attorneys in Texas. “That’s what I will be interested in hearing tomorrow,” he says.

-- John Council

DA to Ryan Leaf: after Thursday all bets are off

James Farren, the Randall County criminal district attorney, says he will give Ryan Leaf, a former NFL quarterback, until June 18 to return to Canyon to face charges of burglary of a habitation and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. “If he’s not here bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Thursday morning, were going to ask authorities in British Columbia to find him,” Farren says of Leaf, who once played for the San Diego Chargers, among other teams, and was an assistant coach at West Texas A&M University in Canyon. Farren says, “There are lots of ways to find folks.” In May, a Randall County grand jury handed up indictments against Leaf on the burglary and drug charges, according to an Associated Press article. Farren says that Leaf’s attorney, Canyon solo William E. “Bill” Kelly III, told Randall County prosecutors that Leaf has been in a drug rehabilitation program in British Columbia, a Canadian province. “We have been told several times he’ll be back here,” Farren says of Leaf. “He’s never made an appearance.” Kelly did not immediately return a telephone call for comment. Farren says he would prefer that Leaf return on his own accord to avoid the cost Randall County would incur in extraditing him. But Farren says  that after Thursday all bets are off.

UPDATE:
Fugitive former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf is in custody in Whatcom County, Wash. James Farren, Randall County’s criminal district attorney, says U.S. Customs agents arrested Leaf  on Randall County warrants as Leaf crossed the U.S.-Canada border this afternoon. Farren says Leaf’s arraignment is set for 3 p.m. PST in Washington. “If he [Leaf] waives extradition, we’ll pick him up right away,” Farren says. “If he doesn’t it will take about 30 days.” Canyon solo William E. Kelly III, Leaf’s attorney, says Leaf "was on his way down here to turn himself in." Kelly says that Leaf will not waive extradition so that he can bond out in Washington and head down to Canyon. Kelly says Leaf will enter a not guilty plea when he returns to Canyon "and we'll go from there." 

-- Mary Alice Robbins

Baker Botts: no conflict in representing Stanford receiver

R. Allen Stanford, Stanford International Bank and two other Stanford-related entities are seeking to disqualify Baker Botts from representing receiver Ralph Janvey in a civil suit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed against Stanford, two of his colleagues and three of his companies.  In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Stanford International Bank, et al., the SEC alleges Stanford and his co-defendants engaged in “a massive ongoing fraud” that involved misleading investors about the financial products they sold. In the motion to disqualify filed on June 16, Stanford, Stanford International Bank LTD, Stanford Financial Group Co. and Stanford Group Co. allege that from 1985 to 1987, Baker Botts represented Stanford and his father, James Stanford, in organizing Stanford International Bank (formerly Guardian International Bank) on the island of Montserrat, and the firm was further involved in “setting up the basic business model of the Bank from the beginning.” Stanford and the Stanford companies seek the disqualification due to the alleged conflict of interest. “Clearly, the Plaintiff is adverse to the Defendants who previously employed Baker Botts to organize their businesses and who previously consulted Baker Botts concerning the legality and propriety of selling CDs and reinvesting the money in financial instruments issued by other institutions,” they allege in the brief in support of the motion to disqualify. Michael Cinelli, associate director of public relations at Houston-based Baker Botts, says in a written statement that the firm has no record of ever representing Stanford, Guardian International Bank or Stanford International Bank and “we did not represent anyone in the formation of Stanford International Bank.” Cinelli writes that a former associate, who was supervised by a partner who also left the firm many years ago, did represent a related party from October 1985 through February 1986 on the issue of doing business in the Caribbean. According to Cinelli, the work involved 5.5 hours of time and the fee was $850. “The prior work bears no relationship to the work we are doing for the Receiver. We do not have a conflict of interest,” Cinelli writes. Janvey, a partner in Krage & Janvey in Dallas, could not be reached for immediate comment. The suit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Courthouse News Service takes on Harris County clerks

On June 12, Courthouse News Service has filed a federal suit alleging Harris County district clerk Loren Jackson and chief deputy clerk Wes McCoy are violating its constitutional rights by making it difficult for its Houston-based reporter to get immediate access to civil court filings. CNS, a legal newswire service headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., alleges its reporters have reviewed civil court filings at the Harris County Civil Courthouse since May 1999, but new procedures that the clerk’s office instituted in October 2008 significantly reduced CNS’s Houston reporter’s ability to look at newly filed petitions on a timely basis. CNS alleges more procedural changes in March 2009 further limit the reporter’s timely access to petitions by requiring him to look at most newly filed petitions after they are posted on the “eDocs” section of the office’s Web site, which can be delayed by several days. CNS alleges that since March 30, its Houston reporter has only been able to see an average of five or six petitions on the same day they are filed, which is roughly 5 percent to 10 percent of all petitions filed. “By publishing docket information on new petitions and the petitions themselves before Courthouse News is even allowed to see them, Defendants are effectively “scooping” Courthouse News and any other competing news service,” CNS alleges in Courthouse News Service v. Loren Jackson, et al., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. CNS seeks temporary and permanent court orders to prevent the defendants from denying it access to new civil petitions and other case-initiating documents on the same day they are filed, and seeks a declaratory judgment under 28 U.S.C. §2201 that denial of same-day access to those documents, except when the filing party is seeking immediate relief, is unconstitutional under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and violates Texas common law and Rule 76a of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Calls to Jackson and McCoy were referred to Ed Mahar, the federal trial division chief for the Harris County Attorney’s Office, who could not be reached for immediate comment. John K. Edwards, a Houston partner in Jackson Walker who represents Courthouse News, says the suit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon. He hopes to schedule a hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction within the next 10 days.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

Lawyer, 37, named 1st Court of Appeals justice

Gov. Rick Perry’s recent appointee to Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals will be the youngest justice on the state’s appellate courts. On June 15, Perry announced his appointment of 37-year-old Michael C. Massengale (pictured), a partner in Baker Botts in Houston, to replace Justice Tim Taft. As of March 1, the youngest justice in the state’s appellate court system was 38, according to Profile of Appellate and Trial Judges published on the State Office of Court Administration Web site.  Massengale, who has a general commercial and securities practice at Baker Botts, says he probably will not report for duty at the 1st Court until Aug. 1 to give him time to finish projects in the works at his firm. Taft says May 31 was his last day as a member of the 1st Court, but he has stayed as a visiting judge. Massengale, a 1997 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, says he developed an interest in becoming a judge while serving as a law clerk for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harold DeMoss Jr. After working as a law clerk for two years, Massengale joined Baker Botts in September 1999 and made partner in January 2007. Michael Cinelli, spokesman for Baker Botts, notes in an e-mail that Massengale will become the fourth lawyer from the firm to serve as a justice on the courts of appeals in Houston.
-- Mary Alice Robbins

Recognition for St. Mary’s University School of Law

The Texas Access to Justice Commission (TAJC) is giving its 2009 Law School Commitment to Service Award to St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio for educating its students about access to justice issues. The school will receive the honor during the November new lawyer induction ceremony in Austin. “Teaching students to serve their community is the best education – both Catholic and legal – we can provide,” St. Mary’s law Dean Charles E. Cantú wrote in a statement about the award. The TAJC accepted nominations for the recognition from law school deans, clinic professors, law students and legal service organizations. The honor is given to one of Texas’ nine American Bar Association- accredited law schools. The Texas Supreme Court created the TAJC in 2001 to improve civil legal services for low-income Texans.

-- Jeanne Graham

Bill creates new offense: online harassment

Using the name or persona of another person on a social networking site, without the person’s consent, would be a third-degree felony under a bill awaiting Gov. Rick Perry’s signature. H.B. 2003, authored by state Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, also would make it a Class A misdemeanor to use another person’s identifying information to send an e-mail, text message or similar communication without the person’s consent and with the intent of harming the person. H.B. 2003’s prohibition against online harassment sounds like a good idea. But is the bill enforceable?  What happens if the person who uses someone else’s name on a site such as Facebook lives in another state or another country?
-- Mary Alice Robbins

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to scale border fence case

Those hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court would help the citizens of El Paso slow down fence construction along the Texas-Mexico border had to be disappointed today when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear County of El Paso v. Napolitano. The case originally was filed against Michael Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s predecessor, alleging Chertoff improperly waived 37 federal laws that could have slowed down or blocked construction of the border fence. While the case worked its way through the federal courts, most of the fence in El Paso County was built.

-- John Council

5th Court says no depo for Bush

On June 12, the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas granted a writ of mandamus overturning a decision by 68th District Judge Martin Hoffman in which Hoffman ordered that former President George W. Bush give a deposition in a civil suit involving Southern Methodist University's purchase of condominiums, allegedly to make room for the Bush presidential library. In an 11-page opinion penned by Justice Jim Moseley and joined by Justices Michael O'Neill and Molly Francis, the 5th Court concluded that the trial court had "abused its discretion in compelling the deposition." John Martin, a partner in Thompson & Knight who represents Bush and the George W. Bush Foundation in In Re: President George W. Bush and the George W. Bush Foundation, says the 5th Court's opinion is "the right result. My clients were pleased with the outcome." Plaintiff Gary Vodicka, a condo owner and SMU-trained lawyer who is representing himself in the civil suit against SMU -- Gary Vodicka, et al. v. Southern Methodist University, et al. -- says the mandamus opinion doesn't show that the 5th Court justices even read his arguments. "It was totally a results-oriented opinion," Vodicka says, adding that he will file an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court. "Since they are a little more removed from the Dallas social scene, maybe they will read my brief," Vodicka says of the high court justices. Hoffman declines to comment except to note that members of the public interested in attending future hearings in Vodicka can request information by e-mailing afrench@dallascourts.org. "We want people to get information," says Hoffman.

CORRECTION: Justice Molly Francis wrote the opinion in In Re: President George W. Bush and the George W. Bush Foundation.
-- Miriam Rozen

Happy birthday, Louise!

Not everybody gets a letter from the president on their 90th birthday. But legendary Dallas family lawyer Louise Raggio (pictured), who enters her ninth decade today, received that very thing -- hand delivered to her by a member of Congress, to boot. Yesterday, the Raggio clan and others gathered at Louise's son Tom’s home in University Park for a 200-person party, which included U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, who gave Louise the letter from President Barack Obama. “It congratulated her on her lifetime achievement, for helping women and children, and thanking her for her many contributions to our society,’’ says Grier Raggio, another of Louise’s sons and a partner in Raggio & Raggio in Dallas. Her accomplishments are too voluminous to list here, but marriage equality in Texas begins with Louise Raggio, who wrote the Marriage Property Act of 1967. She chaired the State Bar of Texas' first Family Law Section from 1965 until 1967. And she's the author of "Texas Tornado: The Life of a Crusader for Women's Rights and Family Justice."
-- John Council

Conservative judges give plaintiff a little love

When I talk with lawyers who’ve just argued at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first thing I ask them is: “Who was on the panel?” The panel membership is never really indicative of how the 5th Circuit will rule, but it is fun to see how nervous a plaintiffs lawyer will get when he or she draws a panel made up of really conservative judges. So I’m betting the plaintiff lawyer in Pretus v. Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., et al. was drenched in sweat when he tried to save his Jones Act case in front of a panel made up of Judges W. Eugene Davis, Jerry Smith and Priscilla Owen, three of the court’s leading conservatives. The plaintiff was arguing that the Jones Act claim was not time-barred and should not have been dismissed by a U.S district court judge in the Eastern District of Texas. Sure enough, on June 12 the 2-1 panel in Pretus agreed that the severity of the shipworker's illness --- the lung condition initially looked like nothing worse than the common cold but several years later turned into a chronic medical condition --- could not have been discovered within the three year statute of limitations in the Jones Act. The words “reversed and remanded” probably never sounded so sweet to the plaintiff. However, Smith disagreed, finding the majority’s considerations where “deeply flawed.” You can’t win them all.
-- John Council

This Week in Texas Lawyer

Lobbying scorecard: What recession? Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys and reporter Miriam Rozen look at how much money Texas firms with lobby shops made during the last three regular sessions.

Winners and losers: Senior reporter Mary Alice Robbins tallies up the victors and the vanquished of the 81st regular session.

The ex parte's over: Psst! Senior reporter Mary Alice Robbins gets the scoop on what a new ethics committee opinion means for administrative lawyers and talks to Randy Chapman (pictured), the man whose question prompted the pondering.

Inadmissible: Foster Quan heads to D.C. The 5th Circuit ponders the e-world. How much process is due on inmate trust accounts?

The road less gaveled: Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 4 Judge Ken Tapscott (pictured) hits the jackpot. Senior reporter John Council gets the skinny on a jurist who knows how to frame an issue -- or a house.

Earth shattering or no big deal?: Senior reporter John Council finds out what Caperton means for Texas.

Tax lawyers, beware: Senior reporter Brenda Sapino Jeffreys looks over a 78-page indictment.

The Literate Lawyer: Mike Maslanka screens the best movies for the legal set.

Junior J.D.: Anthony Lowenberg on responding to and propounding the dreaded "fishing expedition" objection.