Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

January 05, 2006 | Texas Lawyer

A week after their former co-defendant Richard Causey negotiated a plea bargain that received a considerable amount of public attention in Houston, former Enron Corp. executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling on Jan. 4 filed a motion re-urging U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to grant a change of venue.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

August 22, 2005 | Law.com

A Texas jury awarded $253.4 million in damages Friday to plaintiffs in the nation's first civil Vioxx trial against Merck & Co., finding that negligence on the drug maker's part was a proximate cause in Robert Ernst's death in 2001. Merck says it is examining bases for appeal, focusing on the testimony and evidence allowed by the judge. In impassioned argument Wednesday, plaintiffs lawyer W. Mark Lanier told jurors, "You hold them accountable, you'll be the first jury in America to say, 'Time out, Merck.'"

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

September 14, 2001 | Law.com

With America under attack by terrorists, lawyers involved in the trial of a bitter, highly personal fee fight agreed the dispute was trivial and reached a settlement. Former associate Kendall Montgomery sued Houston plaintiffs' lawyer John O'Quinn seeking $105 million in fees and damages based on a 25 percent share of the firm's net fees from several suits, including the $17 billion settlement in Texas tobacco litigation.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read

March 09, 2005 | Law.com

Finding Baker Botts breached its fiduciary duty in connection with estate-planning work done for a wealthy Texas widow, a jury returned a $65 million verdict against the Houston-based firm and other defendants. Kathleen C. Cailloux alleged the defendants conspired to convince her to disclaim her rights to her husband's estate and transfer more than $60 million to the Cailloux Foundation -- ostensibly to save more than $30 million in taxes -- without informing her of other estate-planning options.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

September 08, 2004 | Corporate Counsel

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read

December 18, 2007 | Law.com

Partners in Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis and Dallas-based Hughes & Luce voted Monday to combine the two firms as of Jan. 1, creating a 1,539-lawyer firm in 23 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Peter Kalis, chairman and managing partner of the 1,390-lawyer K&L Gates, says all of the firm's 313 equity partners voted in favor of the deal. Edward O. Coultas, managing partner of the 149-lawyer Hughes & Luce, says his firm's partners voted nearly unanimously in favor.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

October 18, 2010 | Texas Lawyer

R. Allen Stanford and two other Stanford Financial Group executives are cut off from insurance money to pay their legal bills. On Oct. 13, U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas issued an order finding that two insurance companies holding directors-and-officers policies for SFG are not required to pay for the defense of three former SFG executives in a criminal case, United States v. Robert Allen Stanford, et al.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

August 28, 2000 | Law.com

In what is likely to be the first depositions in a tire-tread suit for Firestone since the company recalled 6.5 million tires, plaintiffs' lawyers got the go-ahead to depose four high-ranking Bridgestone/Firestone executives. The suit, which goes to trial Oct. 16 in Texas, seeks damages on behalf of surviving relatives of a married pair of teachers killed in an accident in their Ford Explorer last year.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

December 10, 2010 | The Legal Intelligencer

Hastings Law Firm of The Woodlands sued two Houston-based drilling companies on Dec. 1, alleging they "consciously and willfully" disregarded the firm's fee interest when settling a personal injury suit lodged against them by the firm's former client.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

July 14, 2000 | Law.com

Marilyn Eickenhorst was a fourth-year lawyer at a Houston trial firm when an unglamorous task fell to her -- rooting through records at the Arkansas Public Service Commission. She never filed suit in that case. But she did stumble onto troubling information that led to the suit of a career and a $93.2 million judgment -- the largest-ever affirmed judgment in an Arkansas state court.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read