First up is an appellate team led by lawyers at Alston & Bird and Alexander Dubose & Jefferson that got a major win at the Texas Supreme Court last week in the court’s first substantive look at a force majeure clause in an oil and gas contract. The decision, which reversed an interim appellate court, was a win for their client Point Energy Partners Permian. The court held that MRC Permian’s loss of its lease from Point Energy due to a failure to meet a drilling deadline in 2017 was the result of MRC’s own calendaring error—not, as MRC claimed, an event of “wellbore instability” which it argued constituted a force majeure event that would extend the deadline. Former Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Alston & Bird’s Rob Vartabedian handled oral argument for Point Energy. The team also included Conrad Hester, Connor Bourland, Alix Allison and Emily Fitzgerald of Alston & Bird, Scott Brister of Hunton Andrews Kurth, Craig Haynes of Holland & Knight, and solo practitioner Greg Holly.
Ashok Ramani, David Lisson and their team at Davis Polk & Wardwell get a runner-up spot for knocking out patent claims that client Comcast faced for integrating Netflix and other over-the-top apps into its X1 platform. After a week-long trial in the Middle District of Florida, U.S. District Judge Judge William Jung granted their motion for a judgment as a matter of law finding Comcast didn’t infringe a patent held by WhereverTV for an interactive program guide. WhereverTV, which was funded by Longford Capital, had been seeking $177 million. The Davis Polk team also included associates Serge Voronov, Kathryn Bi, Alena Farber, Micayla Hardisty and Elaine Andersen, with Weil, Gotshal & Manges providing appellate advice to Comcast and Traci McKee of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath serving as local counsel.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
