Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

September 14, 2009 |

Jury selection begins today in a case that pits intellectual property litigator Eric Albritton against tech company Cisco Systems. Albritton alleges in his June 16, 2008, federal court complaint that Richard Frenkel, a one-time in-house lawyer at Cisco, defamed him in anonymous postings on Frenkel's Patent Troll Tracker blog in October 2007. The suits have attracted considerable attention due to the popularity of the Patent Troll Tracker blog, which is currently "open to invited readers only."

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

July 24, 2007 |

An arbitration panel has ordered the firm of Houston plaintiffs lawyer John M. O�Quinn to pay $35.7 million in damages to a class of 3,450 former breast implant clients who allege the firm overcharged them for expenses.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

6 minute read

May 09, 2003 |

If an in-house lawyer has anything to say about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it's usually a complaint. But when faced with potential wrongdoing at her small Texas-based company, Karen Austin found that the year-old corporate governance law was her new best friend.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

May 25, 2006 |

A federal court jury in Houston Thursday morning found former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay guilty of all six charges against him and former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling guilty on 19 out of 28 charges that he faced. Jurors found Skilling not guilty of nine insider-trading charges against him.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

2 minute read

March 23, 2007 |

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

3 minute read

January 26, 2007 |

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

2 minute read

December 15, 2005 |

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 |

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 |

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 |

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

8 minute read