Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

October 03, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

Lawyer Marc Murr pleaded guilty in federal court in Austin on Oct. 3 to one count of mail fraud and accepted a plea agreement that calls for him to serve six months in prison and five years of probation.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

June 18, 2002 | Law.com

Arthur Andersen's obstruction of justice trial wasn't about shredding or David Duncan after all. Jurors who returned a verdict Saturday in Houston say they found the accounting firm guilty of obstruction because an in-house lawyer wanted to alter an internal memo about Enron's third quarter earnings report. That gave the jury a reason to find Andersen acted with the intent to keep information from the SEC.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

8 minute read

September 27, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

After listening to a tearful Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer at Houston's Enron Corp., express remorse for his actions that led in part to the downfall of the energy company, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt of Houston on Tuesday sentenced Fastow to six years in federal prison and two years of supervised release. The sentencing came nearly three years after Fastow pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

March 22, 2004 | Law.com

A state district judge in Beaumont approved a nationwide settlement, valued at up to $149 million, between Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and consumers who allege in a class petition that their Firestone tires had a tendency to fail.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

November 01, 2010 | Texas Lawyer

Alan M. Utay had reason to have a few butterflies in his stomach the day he started work as general counsel at Alliance Data Systems Corp. in Plano. Sept. 17, 2001, wasn't just his first day on the job at the credit-card processing and marketing company; it also was the day the U.S. stock markets re-opened following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

October 22, 2007 | Law.com

When a claim of patent infringement is a necessary element of a legal malpractice suit, those suits should be tried in federal court, the Federal Circuit has ruled in a case of first impression. The appeals court upheld a ruling that denied a request by Akin Gump and a Corpus Christi, Texas-based firm to remand a malpractice suit to state court. The opinion may lead to all sorts of legal malpractice suits being filed or tried in federal courts instead of state courts.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys and John Council

12 minute read

May 05, 2008 | Texas Lawyer

For deals work of many kinds, nine Texas firms are among the nation's leading transactional players in 2007, showing up in rankings on The American Lawyer's Corporate Scorecard 2008, an elite listing of the firms with the most robust corporate practices. Houston firms Andrews Kurth and Vinson & Elkins posted the best results on the Corporate Scorecard charts.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

14 minute read

November 12, 2002 | Law.com

Jean-Michel Malek is as much a troubleshooter as a general counsel at Camac Holdings Inc., a privately owned energy company in Houston. Malek does routine GC work in Russia, Ireland, Nigeria and South Africa, but he's also a take-charge problem-solver whose tasks range from conducting due diligence in a country where he's not familiar with the legal system to getting a stranded company airplane out of Algeria.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read

March 30, 2011 | Legaltech News

Bellaire, Texas lawyer Michael W. Weston and his firm, Weston & Associates, have filed a defamation suit alleging that a former employee and her spouse posted a "false review" about the firm on Citysearch.com. Claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars of potentially lost business, the firm is suing for $1.25 million in damages. So what did the defendants say to anger Weston?

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

September 05, 2011 | Texas Lawyer

A Baker Botts partner an Aug. 26 Texas Supreme Court opinion in a Vioxx case marks a win for his client Merck & Co. Inc. and clarifies requirements in Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Havner. In a 7-0 opinion, the court held that requirements it set out in 1997's Havner apply but were not met. Because of that, the evidence was legally insufficient to prove causation.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read