Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

July 07, 2003 |

Paul Kruse, 48, is general counsel of a family-run, privately owned company in the rural community of Brenham, located about an hour's drive from Houston. He's the only lawyer on staff and he earns about $100,000 a year, plus bonus, he says.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

August 10, 2006 |

By the time Davis Petroleum Corp. hired Rhett Campbell and a team of bankruptcy lawyers at Thompson & Knight in February, the Houston-based oil and gas exploration company had a big need for cash and little time to get it. On March 9, a bankruptcy judge confirmed a reorganization plan that called for a private equity group to invest $150 million in Davis Petroleum, only two days after the company filed the prepackaged reorganization plan that Campbell's team put together in three grueling weeks.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

8 minute read

July 29, 2004 |

Muslim investors are not allowed to earn interest on their money or pay interest. Nevertheless, Bracewell & Patterson partner Alfred G. "Al" Kyle is developing a niche practice of representing banks in deals financed in part with money from Muslim investors. No one knows how much money from the Middle East is waiting in the wings to be invested in the United States, but estimates are as high as $200 billion.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

March 26, 2007 |

Plaintiffs lawyer Bill Lerach says that Enron shareholders will ask the Supreme Court to review a March 19 opinion from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that put the brakes on the trial in Mark Newby, et al. v. Enron Corp., which was set to begin on April 16 in U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon's Houston court.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

December 14, 2009 |

A prosecutor in Denton County has sued the county, the Denton County Criminal District Attorney's Office and three assistant DAs, alleging she has been subjected to a hostile work environment at the DA's office and has been harassed and discriminated against because of her race. Nadiya Williams-Boldware, who handles criminal misdemeanor matters, has been a Denton County assistant DA since February 2007.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

March 14, 2006 |

Michael Ramsey, Kenneth Lay's criminal-defense attorney, hammered hard on witness Andrew Fastow's credibility and honesty during his March 13 cross-examination of Fastow, the former chief financial officer of Houston's Enron Corp. who has pleaded guilty to two criminal charges in connection with the investigation into the tragic collapse of the former high-flying energy company.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

October 21, 2002 |

Federal prosecutors who won a conviction against Enron Corp. accounting firm Arthur Andersen for obstruction of justice say the stiff sentence sends a message to corporate executives. Leslie Caldwell, head of the Enron Task Force, says corporate executives need to know they have a responsibility to the public, and she suggests they think twice before engaging in action that would obstruct justice.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

January 20, 2003 |

Accurate depiction or not, the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas can't shake its reputation as a paradise for plaintiffs lawyers and hostile territory for the defense. Lawyers on both sides of the docket practicing in the Valley maintain it's pure exaggeration to say plaintiffs walk into a courtroom with an advantage that defense lawyers can't overcome. Morris Atlas says tort reform has had an impact on Valley litigation.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

8 minute read

October 08, 2007 |

Tired of waiting for the State Bar of Texas Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee to respond to a complaint he filed in May, Corpus Christi plaintiffs personal-injury lawyer Thomas J. Henry began running television advertisements on Sept. 28 questioning the credentials of Mauricio Celis, a partner in CGT Law Group International in Corpus Christi, which also represents plaintiffs.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

9 minute read

November 17, 2003 |

The defense strategy in the Robert Durst murder trial was quite simple, Durst�s lawyers say. It was a matter of constantly reminding the jury that Durst was only charged with murdering Black � and not on trial for cutting up his body or fleeing from prosecution.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys and Kelly Pedone

12 minute read