Failed law firm Sedgwick asked a California bankruptcy judge to approve a nearly $1.6 million claw-back settlement with 45 former partners who received equity payouts as the San Francisco-based firm slowly failed throughout 2017, reports Bloomberg Law.

The firm also said there may be viable breach of fiduciary duty claims against other ex-partners who are not part of the proposed settlement, according to Bloomberg’s Roy Strom.

“The partial compromise comes more than eight months after Sedgwick filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and a year-and-a-half after the 85-year-old firm ceased operations. The firm said confirmation of the deal could lead to the end of its bankruptcy case,” Strom writes.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The Texas Supreme Court has denied motion for rehearing of its opinion in a case that addresses deductibility of oil and gas post-production costs in the context of an overriding royalty, writes John McFarland for the Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog.

Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company v. Texas Crude Energy may, however, have implications for post-production-cost deductions in oil and gas royalty clauses, according to the post on the website of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody.

The dispute involved alleged breaches of a development agreement between the parties, including the deduction of post-production costs from Texas Crude’s overriding royalties.

The trial court ruled that post-production costs in the case were not deductible. But the Texas Supreme Court “reversed and remanded, holding that the language of the overriding royalty assignments permits deduction of (some?) post-production costs,” explains McFarland.

Read the article.

Two separate decisions in the United States Court of Federal Claims contain lessons that are generally helpful in all projects involving notice of contract changes, reports G. Scott Walters for Smith, Currie & Hancock.

“Prudent construction professionals, particularly those doing business with the government, should understand and comply with all notice provisions in their contract. Even if strict notice may not be required, it should be given early and often. Moreover, when notice is received, the prudent contractor must endeavor to understand what it means,” Walters writes.

“The court’s decisions on the notice issues may, at first, appear to contradict each other or to favor one party over the other,” he explains. “A closer look at these two decisions reveals that notice requirements, in the context of federal government construction contracts, can come in multiple forms and notice is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition.”

Read the article.

A recent decision by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Pro Done, Inc. v. Basham, provides an illustration of the benefits in a private equity deal of an independent covenant not to sue in addition to a release agreement, writes Glenn D. West in Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ Global Private Equity Watch.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the trial court and held that there was “no reason why we should treat parties who suffer damages as a result of a breach of an express promise not to sue differently from those who suffer damages for a breach of other types of contractual terms.”

Read the article.

The Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s grant of a motion to compel individual arbitration in a case that “tests the outer limits of what constitutes a ‘reasonably conspicuous’ provision” in an online contract, according to Ballard Spahr.

The article says Holl v. United Parcel Service, Inc. “contrasts with prior Ninth Circuit rulings, arguably involving less extreme facts, which denied motions to enforce online arbitration clauses. Holl, however, was decided on a petition for mandamus, a remedy that requires the petitioner to establish clearly and indisputably that ‘extraordinary circumstances’ exist to overturn the district court’s decision.”

The class action complaint in Holl alleged that UPS systematically overcharged its retail customers.

Companies with online terms of use that include an arbitration clause must still exercise great care in designing the website so that users become contractually bound to arbitrate, the firm advises.

Read the article.

Boeing has assembled a deeply connected defense team to respond to a federal criminal investigation related to the 737 MAX, reports The Seattle Times.

One of the members of the defense team represented Vice President Mike Pence in the Russian interference investigation, another has served as the nation’s deputy attorney general, and a third played a central role in the Russian probe and the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, according to Times reporter Steve Miletich.

Federal prosecutors are using a grand jury in Washington, D.C., to examine the design and certification process of the 737 MAX, after one crash on Oct. 29 off Indonesia and another in Ethiopia on March 10 killed 346 people and led to worldwide grounding of the plane.

Read the Seattle Times article.

The ABA Board of Governors is scheduled to discuss on Friday whether to move the 2021 ABA Midyear Meeting from Orlando, Florida, to Atlanta.

The ABA Journal reports that 243 ABA members urged the board of governors in a letter not to select Atlanta as an alternate site “in light of Georgia’s new draconian anti-choice legislation.”

The ABA originally was planned the meeting for Orlando, but that venue would have required the organization to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more in food and beverage fees than necessary. When the original plans were made, the midyear meeting had a larger footprint, reports the Journal‘s Amanda Robert.

The Standing Committee on Meetings and Travel decided to recommend Atlanta in late April. But then in May Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law that would ban abortion as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Intemperate statements in court and — in one case — allegations of unwanted sexual advances have led to difficult times for three judges, two in Illinois and one in Florida.

The Chicago Tribune reports that a state board that oversees judges said in a complaint that Judge Mauricio Araujo of Cook County made unwanted sexual advances toward a court reporter, made inappropriate sexual comments about a prosecutor and tried to kiss a police officer — a pattern of harassing behavior toward women. The board asked the Illinois Courts Commission to take “appropriate” action against Araujo.

WBEZ Chicago has a report about an associate judge in Cook County who was denied reappointment to the bench in a vote by the county’s circuit judges. Richard Schwind, an  associate judge since 2012, had been criticized for racially insensitive comments. He was disciplined last year after WBEZ reported that he told a black defendant, “You were never a slave.”

And in Florida, the state supreme court publicly reprimanded Broward County Circuit Judge Dennis Daniel Bailey for conduct during a criminal trial last year, according to the Miami Herald. Bailey ordered a courtroom deputy to remove a defense attorney during a sidebar conference, in the presence of the jury.

Thompson & Knight attorneys helped Randa Accessories acquire Dallas-based Haggar Clothing Co. The deal officially closed May 31, 2019.

Randa, a privately-held company founded in 1910, produces belts, wallets, headwear, slippers, luggage, neckwear, jewelry, and other accessories under 50 brands, including Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Columbia Sportswear, Dickies, and Kenneth Cole. Randa distributes its products globally through more than 20,000 stores and employs over 4,000 associates at 26 offices located in 10 countries.
Since its beginnings in a one-room office in Dallas in 1926, Haggar Clothing Co. has grown from a manufacturer of men’s fine dress pants and slacks into one of the most recognized apparel brands in the market.

Haggar also owns Montreal-based Tribal. Tribal was founded in 1971 and is the largest women’s sportswear supplier to the specialty boutique market in North America, with more than 2,400 active accounts.

Haggar has more than 80 branded brick-and-mortar retail locations, a dedicated direct-to-consumer ecommerce platform, and its products are sold in over 10,000 stores throughout North America. Haggar will remain in Dallas and will be managed by Haggar’s current leadership team.

Thompson & Knight said in a release that Randa is funding the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and committed financing provided by Wells Fargo Bank, National Association and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

The Thompson & Knight deal team was led by Michael C. Titens and included senior counsel Sharon M. Fountain, partners Jeremiah M. Mayfield, Brandon L. Bloom, Jessica S. Morrison and associates Susan Fisher and Catharine A. Hansard.

Brendan Miller has been named legal operations advisor of Barnes & Thornburg.

The firm said Miller’s legal practice has focused on complex business and commercial litigation, including disputes involving contracts, warranties, business torts, class actions, multidistrict claims, trade secrets, antitrust, product liability and tax. He is experienced in the various phases of litigation and the dispute resolution process – from pre-suit negotiations to prosecution and defense of claims, discovery, motion practice, preparation for trial and the preservation of issues for appeal.

Miller was vice chair of the firm’s eDiscovery and Knowledge Management team, and he has advised clients on all facets of e-discovery and management of electronically stored information in connection with litigation and investigative inquiries. When the firm launched its LPM initiative in 2015, Miller served as one of the original LPM trainers.

Prior to his legal career, Miller worked for a decade in the nonprofit sector, where he worked with clients to achieve organizational and community outcomes. He remains active with several philanthropic and community organizations, including the Indiana 211 Partnership (past board member) and United Way of Central Indiana (volunteer), among others. He earned his J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law, his M.S.W. from Indiana University, and his B.A from Manchester College.

NAVEX Global will host a master class webinar designed to help participants learn how a proactive program that comprehensively addresses risk and drives improved culture prioritizes ethics beyond compliance.

The 2.5-hour complimentary event, “Ethics Beyond Compliance: Performance Drivers,” will be on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific / 10:30 a.m. Central / 11:30 a.m. Eastern / 4:30 p.m. British.

Participants will be among the first to see findings from the inaugural 2019 Definitive Corporate Compliance Benchmark Report.

Presenters will include:

• Bob Schuettler, Vice President Compliance, Vista Outdoor Inc.
• Carrie Penman, Chief Compliance Officer & SVP, NAVEX Global
• Erin Fair Taylor, MPH, JD, Chief Legal Officer, CareOregon
• Fernanda Beraldi, Senior Director, Ethics & Compliance, Cummins Inc.
• Jolene Wall, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance, Risk & Litigation, REI
• Mary Bennett, President, Right Compliance Consulting
• Michael Duran, Assistant General Counsel & Compliance Director, 3M

Get more details or register.

West Mermis, PLLC, a Houston-based law firm, secured a take-nothing defense verdict for its client, a national highway construction contractor, in South Texas. Plaintiffs’ counsel asked the jury to award $40 million to the decedent’s family. Following a two-week trial, the jury rendered a complete defense verdict.

According to the firm, the lawsuit arose out of a two-vehicle accident that occurred within a road construction project in Duval County, Texas. Vincent Vargas’ vehicle rear-ended an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer within the construction contractor’s highway construction zone. Vargas suffered fatal injuries as a result of the accident, and his parents filed a lawsuit against the construction contractor.

At trial, West Mermis highlighted the safety measures the construction contractor utilized during the road construction and the professionalism with which it performed its work, the firm said on its website. The defense team, led by Lawrence J. West and assisted by Francis D. McWilliams, emphasized to the jury that the evidence did not support the plaintiffs’ allegations.

Read details of the case.

Duane Morris will present a complimentary webinar on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) on Thursday, June 20, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time.

Led by an interdisciplinary team of Duane Morris attorneys, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 Webinar Series offers an in-depth discussion and analysis of the CCPA, along with timely and practical strategies to prepare your business for compliance with this complex rule, the firm said in a release.

The CCPA of 2018 is the strictest privacy law in the United States and has national impact for anyone doing business in California. The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2020, and gives consumers greater control over their personal information while establishing stringent rules and significant penalties for the companies that handle consumer information.

The second session topics include:

– Brief CCPA overview
– Examination of the CCPA requirements for privacy policies and third-party agreements
– Practical strategies for reviewing and updating your privacy policies and third-party agreements to comply with the CCPA

The first session of the series, Understanding the New California Consumer Privacy Act: Why The CCPA Applies to You and Practical Steps You Can Take Now to Comply, can be viewed on the firm’s website.

Register for the June 20 webinar.

Louis J. Jenull has joined Thompson & Knight LLP’s Houston office as a partner in the Tax Practice Group.

“We are excited to welcome Louis to our Tax team,” said Todd Keator, chair of the firm’s Tax Practice Group. “His wide range of transactional and partnership tax experience, particularly in the oil and gas industry, will be of great value to our clients.”

The firm said Jenull represents clients in most phases of federal income taxation with an emphasis on oil and gas, tax credits, real estate lending and development, mergers and acquisitions, renewable energy, and the structuring and formation of complex partnerships with tax-exempt, U.S. taxable, and foreign investors.

Jenull received an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University in 2004, his J.D., cum laude, from Tulane University in 2003, and a B.B.A, cum laude, in Marketing and Organizational Behavior & Business Policy and B.S., cum laude, in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University in 2000. Immediately prior to joining the Firm, he was a Partner at Jones Day.

Neal Gerber Eisenberg announced that it signed the American Bar Association’s Well-Being Pledge, a national campaign devoted to advancing health and wellness throughout the legal industry.

This effort is designed to support lawyer well-being and address the profession’s troubling rates of substance use and mental health issues.

The Being Well initiative will take a multi-dimensional approach, focusing on physical, mental, social and financial well-being among all employees, the firm said in a release. Attorneys and staff will be offered resources, activities and training workshops on topics ranging from substance abuse, heart health and stress management, to digital wellness, meditation and sleep programs. The initiative will kick off with speaker Patrick Krill, who is the lead author of the 2016 national study on the prevalence of attorney addiction and mental health problems and architect of the framework of the ABA Well-Being Pledge.

Commercial litigators Jay Brown, Stephen Wedemeyer and Bruce Wilkin are among a group of seven lawyers helping to launch the newly established Houston office of Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, LLP, the firm announced in a release.

Brown, Wedemeyer and Wilkin join as partners along with Hilary Borow, Matthew Foytlin and Amparo Guerra. Associate Cameron Dernick is also joining the firm. All are from Winstead PC. Derek Flynn, a Shackelford partner formerly based in The Woodlands, is moving to the Houston office at 717 Texas Ave., 27th Floor.

The firm has offices in Dallas, Frisco, Fort Worth and Austin, as well as Nashville, Tennessee.

“We have been working toward this opening for some time but needed to bring in the right group of attorneys with a focus that complemented what we are already doing,” said firm founder John Shackelford. “The overriding factor in everything we do is how it will benefit our clients. Those benefits are obvious with this talented and respected group of lawyers.”

Brown notes that the team has been practicing together for a long time. “As a group, we were impressed with Shackelford’s structure, its people and its sharp-eyed focus on helping the client. We are planting a sizeable footprint for Shackelford in Houston and helping grow the office with other disciplines to complement the full-service nature of the firm,” he said.

A Chambers USA-recognized attorney, Brown is an insurance specialist also known for his work in complex, high-exposure energy industry disputes, the firm said. Board certified in Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, he has been recognized by Texas Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America. He is a fellow in the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel.

Wedemeyer represents individuals, corporations, small businesses, insurers and insurance adjusters in state and federal courts in commercial disputes, as well as catastrophic accidents including personal injury, property damage and business interruption. He is the former chair of Winstead’s insurance/reinsurance litigation practice group.

The firm said Wilkin has trial and appellate experience, including leading arguments before the Supreme Court of Texas in commercial, energy, environmental and first-party insurance disputes. He also authored a major treatise on business litigation in federal courts.

Hughes Hubbard & Reed announced that it has added to its Latin America practice Diego Durán de la Vega as partner and James K. Alford as counsel.

Durán joins from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Alford joins from Stinson. Durán will be based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, while working with members of the Latin America practice group throughout the firm; Alford will divide his time between Washington, D.C. and Miami.

Earlier this year, international disputes lawyer Luis O’Naghten joined the Miami office and serves as chair of Latin American Disputes; Durán will now serve as co-chair.

Three years ago, the firm entered a strategic cooperation agreement with Saud Advogados, a Brazilian law firm based in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, Hughes Hubbard also added as partner Ruben Diaz, the former general counsel of Grupo Pellas, a conglomerate of financial, industrial and commercial companies based primarily in Central America, who now serves as co-chair of the Latin America practice.

In a release, the firm said Durán’s practice focuses on international disputes, including white-collar defense matters, internal investigations, commercial litigation, and international arbitration cases. He mainly advises and represents non-U.S. clients in U.S. litigation, and U.S. clients that are facing litigation abroad.

Durán has represented government agencies, international corporations and high-profile individuals. He has argued cases before U.S. courts and all levels of the Mexican judiciary, including the Mexican Supreme Court, and participated in cases before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and its Court of Justice.

The firm said Durán is also experienced in Mexican criminal and constitutional law. Prior to Hughes Hubbard and Quinn Emanuel, he was a defense lawyer at one of the top criminal law firms in Mexico, where he defended and helped prosecute dozens of cases.

Durán holds Master’s Degrees from University of Pennsylvania School of Law and Universidad Panamericana; a Wharton Business and Law Certificate from University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton Business School; and a Juris Doctorate from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

For more than 30 years, Alford has assisted U.S. and foreign private and public sector clients to design, develop, finance, and implement clean and renewable energy and infrastructure projects, corporate operations and transactions worldwide, with a particular focus on Central and Latin America and Mexico.

He also advises clients on overseas market entry strategies and the legal structures to achieve them, from teaming arrangements and strategic alliances to public-private partnerships, equity joint ventures and stand-alone operations.

As part of his project finance practice, Alford advises private and public sponsors of international turn-key energy and infrastructure projects on the acquisition of feasibility funds, projects and structured financing, political risk insurance, guarantees, and other financing enhancements from private sources and Washington-based U.S. and multilateral agencies, including the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and the Inter-American Investment Corporation.

Alford holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University, and a Juris Doctorate from New England School of Law. He was named by Latin America as one of the top 100 lawyers in North America with respect to his Latin America practice, and has been recognized by Latin 250 publication as one of the leading business lawyers in Latin America.

Dan Markel, a Florida State University law professor and one of America’s most eminent legal scholars, died at the hands of hired killers, prosecutors say.

Miami New Times reports the accused triggerman and his girlfriend will soon face trial in Tallahassee on first-degree murder charges.

Reporter Steve Miller of the New Times writes that police believe Markel’s ex-mother-in-law and her son paid $100,000 to have Markel killed.

“According to law enforcement, they hoped to free Wendi to move with her two pre-school-aged sons to South Florida, where she grew up. But almost five years after the murder, neither has been criminally charged,” writes Miller.

Read the Miami New Times article.

Hugh Culverhouse Jr.,  a lawyer and the University of Alabama’s largest donor, has called for a boycott of Alabama — school and state — over the state’s latest near-total abortion ban law, according to a report on AL.com.

Abbey Crain writes that the UA System and Culverhouse have been in an ongoing dispute over the millions he has donated to the law school unrelated to the abortion legislation, vice chancellor for communications Kellee Reinhart said. In an emailed statement, Reinhart said Culverhouse asked the school to return $10 million, “repeating numerous demands about the operations of the University of Alabama School of Law.”

A university spokesperson said the dispute over Culverhouse donations is unrelated to the recent abortion legislation. But Culverhouse said, “All foreign and U.S. international firms that do business in Alabama should boycott. It would get the law changed quickly.”

Read the AL.com article.

Bloomberg Law reports that a federal judge has ruled that Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. may have discriminated against an in-house attorney who had portions of both legs amputated after developing vascular disease.

The case now will go to a jury trial.

Nationwide pointed to Kevin Greenwood’s documented performance problems, but there’s evidence a non-disabled attorney with similar performance deficiencies wasn’t discharged, the court said, and there’s also evidence the other attorney was given more than a year to do better while Greenwood only got a few months before and a few weeks after receiving accommodations to improve his performance.

Greenwood testified that a reason he was behind in one of Nationwide’s performance criteria was because it took him longer to get to and from court following his leg amputations, the court said.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.