Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

September 07, 2009 | Texas Lawyer

Upset over amendments to Texas' barratry statute that require lawyers, doctors and others to wait 31 days before soliciting individuals involved in accidents, a Houston lawyer with a traffic ticket/warrant practice and an Austin chiropractor are seeking a federal court order to declare the amendments unconstitutional.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

April 26, 2002 | Texas Lawyer

Some areas of the deals business, like initial public offerings, may be suffering, but Vinson & Elkins and seven other Texas firms landed a respectable share of the nation`s deals work in 2001 - despite the dark cloud hanging over the economy. Eight Texas-based firms are among the nation`s leading transactional firms included in the annual Corporate Scorecard published by The American Lawyer, an affiliate of Texas Lawyer. The scorecard lists the firms nationwide that did the most work, or the highest-value

By BRENDA SAPINO JEFFREYS

9 minute read

January 22, 2007 | Law.com

It's been nearly 16 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect. Lawyers with disabilities say it's still tough to get big-firm jobs, despite the ADA and despite advances in technology that help them handle legal work. "Most attorneys who are blind or visually impaired work for the government or work in solo practice," says Chris Prentice, a solo in Texas who is legally blind. Prentice says he would like to leave solo practice and work at a firm for financial reasons.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

14 minute read

January 10, 2008 | Texas Lawyer

As an e-mail brouhaha involving Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal intensified, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett today announced that county officials have asked the Texas Office of the Attorney General to investigate Rosenthal to see if his actions may be grounds for removal from office. "We are clearly in a situation where Mr. Rosenthal has become a distraction to the office of district attorney," Emmett said.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

January 23, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

Lawyers trying the nation's next Vioxx suit, which begins Tuesday in Texas, will work with a less-than-favorable trial schedule calling for only four days in the courtroom a month. Because Judge Alex Gabert sits in three different counties, he set a trial schedule for the suit that allows for his travel around the district. That poses big challenges for lawyers on both sides, who will jockey to leave the jury with favorable evidence to ponder during the extended breaks in the trial.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

October 17, 2002 | Texas Lawyer

Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that became the first target of the federal government's investigation into the downfall of Enron, was given the maximum sentence Wednesday of a $500,000 fine and five years probation. In June, a Houston jury found Andersen guilty of obstruction of justice for destroying Enron-related documents after the SEC had begun an investigation into Enron's financial reporting.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

6 minute read

March 13, 2006 | Texas Lawyer

Vinson & Elkins answered the prayers of big-firm associates all over Texas by hiking its associate salary scale, raising first-year base salaries to $135,000 in Texas. Within hours of V&E's announcement to its associates, Andrews Kurth notified its associates that the firm will increase its associate salary scale, but make the new, higher salaries retroactive to Jan. 1.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

September 03, 2007 | Texas Lawyer

General counsel at 45 of Texas' largest companies made an average of $2,057,385 last year, considerably more than their counterparts at BigTex firms, where profits per partner averaged $773,000 in 2006. James D. Ellis, senior executive vice president and general counsel at AT&T Corp., heads the list of best-paid general counsel in Texas.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

6 minute read

April 08, 2005 | Law.com

A Texas judge signed a judgment on Wednesday ordering Baker Botts and Wells Fargo Bank Texas to pay $71 million in damages to a former estate-planning client. The judge ordered the defendants to pay the money into a new trust that he used his "equitable powers" to create. "As far as I can tell, it's unprecedented in Texas law for a judge just to create a trust out of whole cloth," said defense attorney Dean Fleming. The firm and the bank will appeal the judgment.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

2 minute read

August 17, 2009 | Texas Lawyer

In a federal class-action suit filed on Aug. 6, the plaintiffs allege two Texas lawyers conspired with others to defraud debtors who sought help because of credit-card and unsecured debt and to "evade" Texas laws that regulate consumer debt management services, attorney-client solicitation and lawyer advertising. Charles E. Ames (pictured) represents the plaintiffs.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read