Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

March 23, 2007 | National Law Journal

Gregory S. Coleman, head of Weil, Gotshal & Manges' national appellate litigation practice, has left the firm's Austin, Texas, office to join 23-lawyer litigation boutique Yetter & Warden. Coleman joined Weil Gotshal's Austin office in 2001. Before that, he was Texas' first solicitor general, a post he assumed in 1999 after having been an associate at Weil Gotshal in Houston. He said that during the time he led the national appellate practice, he built the group to about 10 full-time appellate lawyers.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

January 26, 2007 | National Law Journal

Houston's Vinson & Elkins, longtime outside counsel for Enron Corp., has been dismissed from a massive shareholder securities class action. In an order signed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon of Houston noted that many class members may be angered by the dismissals of V&E and Enron executives, including the estate of former Chairman Kenneth Lay. However, she wrote that the court recognizes the right of the lead plaintiff to streamline the trial and pursue the "deepest pocket."

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

December 15, 2005 | Law.com

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay used a public speech Tuesday to exhort other former Enron employees to come forward to "speak the truth" about Enron as witnesses at his criminal trial. Lay said the Enron Task Force has identified 100 individuals as unindicted co-conspirators, an action that makes them fearful of testifying at trial or even talking to defense lawyers in the case. But Lay's lead criminal defense attorney says he believes some will come forward before the trial begins on Jan. 17, 2006.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read

July 24, 2006 | National Law Journal

The Texas legal community was saddened and shaken by the death last week of Michael Shelby, a respected former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas who, after years of public service, had recently left his post to become a litigation partner in Fulbright & Jaworski. "Mike Shelby could talk for an hour on any topic, and if he knew something about it, he could talk for two hours," says Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal. Shelby suffered from bone cancer that had recently recurred, his friends say.

By John Council and Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

6 minute read

October 20, 2008 | Texas Lawyer

During an emotional three-day hearing, Susan L. Wright — convicted of murdering her husband Jeffrey Wright — heard one of the attorneys who defended her during her 2004 trial testify why he didn't call some witnesses who Wright alleges might have helped her win an acquittal or a lesser sentence.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

March 24, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

A handful of Texas trial lawyers spent years helping the United Nations evaluate claims from businesses, governments and individuals who allege they suffered damages as a result of Iraq's unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990. The new war in the Persian Gulf could mean more work for the United Nations Compensation Commission and more opportunity for Texas lawyers.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read

September 11, 2006 | Texas Lawyer

A U.S. Army veteran who alleges he developed silicosis from exposure to silica dust while working in a quarry for the Army has filed a breach of fiduciary duty and fraud civil suit in state court in Houston against lawyers who formerly represented him in an unsuccessful silicosis products liability case.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

July 12, 2004 | Law.com

Muslim investors are not allowed to earn interest on their money or pay interest. So working on deals involving Muslims isn't the easiest practice area. Nevertheless, Bracewell & Patterson finance and real estate partner Alfred G. "Al" Kyle is developing a niche practice of representing banks in deals financed in part with money from Muslim investors.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

8 minute read

April 09, 2007 | National Law Journal

Beginning in 2004, partners at Jenkens & Gilchrist who left the firm also left behind their capital contributions due to the firm's "contingent liabilities." Those attorneys may never see a penny of it, or they may recoup some of it, depending on what's left over after the firm covers its financial obligations since its closing last month. Roger Hayse, a former executive at Jenkens who returned to take the job of president as it liquidates, says "job one" is making sure all of the firm's creditors are paid.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

10 minute read

December 01, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

Nearly two years after Enron Corp. filed a Chapter 11 in the wake of a massive drop in its stock price, a bankruptcy examiner's fourth and final report concludes that outside lawyers at Vinson & Elkins and Andrews & Kurth may have been negligent or may have aided and abetted Enron officers in breaching their fiduciary duties to the battered company.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys and Miriam Rozen

11 minute read