Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

January 03, 2008 | National Law Journal

After spending a week in contemplative silence at a retreat, Jennifer Klein decided to leave her job as an associate at Strasburger & Price in Austin, Texas, give up the trappings of a lawyer lifestyle and devote her life to a music ministry. "I decided to share the Word [of God] through song," she says. Klein says she took pride in her work as a lawyer but came to realize law isn't her passion. And she says other lawyers considering a career change shouldn't be fearful of giving up a lawyer's income.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

12 minute read

November 24, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

State District Judge Dean Rucker says he really enjoys his job hearing family law and criminal cases as a judge in Midland, but he's already anticipating his second career as a composer of ballads and piano music.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

12 minute read

May 24, 2007 | Texas Lawyer

Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp and Chicago-based Lord, Bissell & Brook have agreed to a merger that will create a 700-lawyer firm with offices in 11 cities.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

October 06, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

When 78-year-old William Hilgers and 63-year-old Thomas Watkins showed up for work on Oct. 1, it was the first time either had practiced at a firm that didn�t bear their names. On that day, they and 27 other lawyers from their 26-year-old Austin-based firm, Hilgers & Watkins, joined Austin's Brown McCarroll, creating a 199-lawyer firm with offices in five cities in Texas.

By Mary Alice Robbins and Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

July 31, 2008 | Law.com

Houston-based Beirne, Maynard & Parsons lost a discovery dispute recently in its quest to obtain $1.2 million in unpaid legal fees for defending U.S. Silica in silicosis litigation. The 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana, Texas, denied the firm's petition for writ of mandamus and also vacated a temporary stay of the proceedings. Discovery can proceed in the underlying case, in which the firm is suing U.S. Silica's insurer, TIG Insurance, and Riverstone Claims, which handled TIG's claims management.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

5 minute read

September 08, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

A Houston jury found O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle underpaid former lawyer Samuel R. Palermo for work he did on five suits while at the personal-injury firm in Houston, and awarded Palermo $500,000 in damages and attorneys' fees.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

8 minute read

December 14, 2009 | Texas Lawyer

On Dec. 10, Gardere Wynne Sewell of Dallas took the plunge and announced a new first-year associate compensation plan that will pay a starting salary of $120,000 effective Jan. 1, 2010 — down from the current $140,000. The new compensation plan is largely a result of feedback from clients, says Steve Good, the 275-lawyer firm's managing partner.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

4 minute read

October 06, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

General counsel compensation at large Texas corporations took a dip in 2002, with pay packages averaging 20.1 percent less than in 2001.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

12 minute read

January 25, 2006 | The Legal Intelligencer

Lawyers trying the nation's next Vioxx suit, which began yesterday in Starr County, Texas, will need to find ways to work with a less-than-favorable trial schedule calling for four days in the courtroom per month.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

7 minute read

December 18, 2007 | National Law Journal

Partners in Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis and Dallas-based Hughes & Luce voted Monday to combine the two firms as of Jan. 1, creating a 1,539-lawyer firm in 23 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Peter Kalis, chairman and managing partner of the 1,390-lawyer K&L Gates, says all of the firm's 313 equity partners voted in favor of the deal. Edward O. Coultas, managing partner of the 149-lawyer Hughes & Luce, says his firm's partners voted nearly unanimously in favor.

By Brenda Sapino Jeffreys

3 minute read