Three partners with a REIT (real estate investment trust) practice left Locke Lord to join Dentons in Dallas as partners. Toni Weinstein, Donald Hammett Jr. and X. Lane Folsom, who all do public securities and transactional matters in the REIT and real estate area, joined Dentons’ corporate practice as partners on Feb. 23. Associate Jonathan Olsen also joined the group at Dentons. Weinstein said they talked to several firms, but decided that Dentons has the resources to help them serve their clients better. “It’s the vision of its leadership, the vision of growth,” Weinstein said. Weinstein said she has worked closely with Hammett for about 20 years, and they work as a team for many clients. She also said she’s worked with Folsom for about 10 years. Weinstein declined to identify clients she and the others represent. In a written statement, Julie Gilbert, chief marketing officer at Locke Lord, said that Bryan Goolsby, who started Locke Lord’s REIT practice in 1991, remains at the firm, along with others in the practice group. Goolsby, longtime head of the REIT practice, is a partner in Dallas. “A few national and international law firms outside Texas have been moving into and trying to compete in our strong Texas legal market for several years now by working with recruiters to lure away partners to join them. Locke Lord is quite proud that very few of our partners have left to join these firms,” Gilbert wrote. In a Feb. 26 press release announcing the lateral hires, Mike McNamara, the U.S. managing partner for Dentons, said the lateral group in Dallas expands the firm’s corporate strength and “advances the firm’s growth strategy in the real estate sector.” Dentons’ Texas offices are in Dallas and Houston.
Ebola-related ‘Oops!’
“Dallas,” “Ebola” and “mistake” are three words that Dallas never wants to see in the same sentence again. But that’s exactly what they’re seeing after a clerical error led to the filing of an abatement order by 68th District Judge Martin Hoffman in the Ebola-related negligence lawsuit filed by Nina Pham against Texas Health Resources. THR is the parent company of the hospital that employs Pham, a nurse, who contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Duncan, the first person to die in the United States from the disease. On March 3, the online records show that Hoffman issued an order abating and closing the case based on the understanding that the defendant had filed for bankruptcy. But THR did not file for bankruptcy, and apparently only a clerical error had led to the abatement order. So the same day, Hoffman vacated the abatement order. Charla Aldous of the Aldous Law Firm, who represents Pham, declined to comment. Wendell Watson, a spokesman for THR, confirmed that THR has not filed for bankruptcy and the mistake happened only at the courthouse. Hoffman did not return a call to his office.
