John Council

March 06, 2006 | Texas Lawyer

The Dallas office of Houston-based Baker Botts threw its annual client appreciation party Feb. 25, complete with new wave band The B-52's, five open bars, chocolate poured from three fondue fountains and a guy greeting partygoers in a giant lobster suit.

By John Council

7 minute read

September 15, 2008 | Texas Lawyer

It wasn't long ago that Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O'Neill's name most commonly was affixed to dissenting opinions, as she flailed against a conservative majority on the court that often outvoted her. So it came as a surprise to several appellate lawyers when they learned that O'Neill (pictured) — once a member of a moderate group of justices who often controlled the court nearly a decade ago — topped her colleagues with 12 signed majority opinions.

By John Council

20 minute read

April 11, 2011 | Texas Lawyer

Dallas' Shamoun & Norman is suing former client Albert G. Hill Jr., alleging he failed to pay the firm a multimillion-dollar "performance incentive bonus," but Hill alleges he never signed a contract agreeing to it. Rod Phelan (pictured) represents Hill in Shamoun & Norman v. Albert G. Hill Jr., et al.

By John Council

7 minute read

May 26, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

Even though a main witness pleaded guilty to a federal charge of planting evidence in other cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously denied relief in a controversial habeas corpus appeal on May 14. The case, Ex Parte Manuel Rodriguez Garcia, is one of the last of the so-called Dallas fake drug cases pending before the court in which incarcerated defendants are requesting post-conviction relief by alleging there is newly discovered evidence that drugs were planted in their cases.

By John Council

9 minute read

October 25, 1999 | Law.com

What started out a decade ago as an effort by a handful of family lawyers to recover suspicious filing fees collected by Dallas County, Texas has ended up as a class action settlement that could pay out small dividends to more than 80,000 people. Litigants who filed civil suits between 1996 and 1998 have until mid-November to claim their $30 as part of the settlement between Tim Kelley and the county. For Kelley, 75, a former Dallas Bar Association president, the case has been a personal crusade.

By John Council

7 minute read

December 15, 2003 | Texas Lawyer

The State Bar of Texas' discipline case pending for more than three years against Dallas lawyer Catherine Shelton settled last week when the Bar offered her a three-month active license suspension and three years' probation.

By John Council

6 minute read

December 19, 2005 | Law.com

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently blessed a consumer bankruptcy lawyer's unusual way of securing his fees, but frowned on another of his methods. The circuit ruled that Texas attorney Robert E. Barron did nothing wrong in accepting advance payments in the form of deposits, which clients forfeited if they decided not to file for bankruptcy. But the court also said Barron violated local bankruptcy rules by accepting postpetition fees directly from clients.

By John Council

7 minute read

July 04, 2011 | Texas Lawyer

Dallas' 5th Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded a $22 million arbitration award after finding the arbitrator failed to disclose that a lawyer representing a party in the dispute had given him a ticket to an NBA basketball game, a wine basket and paid for expensive meals, among other things.

By John Council

6 minute read

September 02, 2010 | Law.com

As a child in a small Texas town, Judge Gracie Lewis heard about a white man who killed an African-American man who was dating his daughter. The man went unpunished. "And that sparked the desire in my heart to be an attorney," says Lewis, now judge of Dallas Criminal District Court No. 3.

By John Council

8 minute read

December 08, 2009 | Texas Lawyer

Earlier this year Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban persuaded a judge to dismiss a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission insider-trading case against him. Now, that same judge has issued a rare ruling that allows Cuban to take depositions in an effort to show that the government should pay his attorneys' fees. Cuban says the judge should award him attorneys' fees because the SEC allegedly acted in bad faith when it investigated the Dallas Mavericks owner and filed the suit against him last year.

By John Council

4 minute read