Pharmaceutical and medical device companies find themselves in the crosshairs for major matter “bet-the-farm” litigation, and recent research tends to suggest that such large-scale litigation is going to increase, reports litigation consulting firm DOAR in a new article published on its website.

DOAR is offering a presentation of its research and findings to corporate legal departments and the lawyers who represent them. The research is based on a national survey of attitudes toward the pharmaceutical industry that reports on consumer and juror sentiments and the ways in which their views and dispositions may impact litigation strategies.

“In order to best advise our clients as they respond to this shifting landscape, DOAR conducted empirical research designed to identify the key factors that contribute to jurors’ perceptions of product liability and defending companies, and how juror attitudes can be altered,” the company said. “What may be surprising is the vigor and specificity in feedback offered by individuals – as customers and as prospective jurors.”

Read the article.

Prominent trial lawyer Charla Aldous of Dallas’ Aldous\Walker has been named one of 22 recipients of Texas Lawyer newspaper’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. The honorees are described by the legal news publication as lawyers “who have made their mark on the legal profession in the Lone Star State.”

She also was named recently to the Board of Trustees for Austin College in Sherman, where she earned a B.A. in 1982. The Board of Trustees is responsible for all operations of the college located in Sherman. Aldous is recognized among the school’s Distinguished Alumni.

“I am so honored to be able to serve Austin College, the place that set me on the path I’m on today,” she says. “And I will always be grateful.”

In addition to the Texas Lawyer and Austin College recognitions, the publishers of D CEO magazine named her as one of only six personal injury lawyers recognized in the Dallas 500, the inaugural publication devoted to the city’s top business leaders from various industries. The list was compiled by D CEO after more than a year of research that included a review of corporate rankings, input from industry experts and analysts, and a final analysis by the publication’s editors.

In a profile story, Texas Lawyer notes Aldous’ history of commitment to underdogs facing long odds. Among the clients she has championed are:

• A group of 176 North Carolina residents challenging oil giant Conoco over water contamination;
• A whistleblowing physician alleging billing fraud at Parkland Hospital;
• A Muslim physician claiming discrimination by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and;
• Dallas nurse Nina Pham, one of Time magazine’s 2014 People of the Year. Ms. Pham says Texas Health Resources ignored warnings about the Ebola virus and contributed to her contracting the disease from Thomas Duncan, the first U.S. patient to die of Ebola.

“My office rarely lets me meet with new clients, because I want to represent them all,” Ms. Aldous told Texas Lawyer. “They limit me to two crusade cases at a time where we know we’re not going to make any money.”

In a release, the firm said Aldous has tried nearly 200 cases, a record that has earned her admission to the highly selective Inner Circle of Advocates. She is one of only six Texas lawyers among the 100 active members and was the fourth woman admitted.

Aldous\Walker represents clients in general civil litigation, personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability and wrongful death lawsuits.

A Dallas County jury has returned an actual damages verdict totaling more than $5.45 million in favor of local investment firms Gerritsen Beach Investments Ltd. and SSST Riviera Investments Ltd. after finding that Dallas-based Southwest Securities Inc. conspired to defraud investors and lenders out of millions of dollars between 2005 and 2010.

On Nov. 11, jurors in Judge Bonnie Lee Goldstein’s 44th Judicial District Court found that real estate developer Stephen Jemal conspired with Southwest to defraud the two Texas partnerships by misrepresenting the value of his Southwest holdings. The verdict also allows the plaintiffs to seek millions in attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest, and costs, according to a release from the plaintiffs’ law firm.

“Mr. Jemal’s scheme relied on fake brokerage account statements that purported to show he owned tens of millions of dollars in blue chip stocks at Southwest,” says attorney Joel Reese of Dallas-based Reese Gordon Marketos LLP, who, along with partner Adam Sanderson, represented Gerritsen Beach and Riviera. “Lenders and investors, like our clients, relied on those fake statements, which were all tied to real accounts at Southwest.”

Trial evidence showed that Southwest provided easily altered brokerage statements that Jemal then used to deceive lenders and investors. Witnesses testified that Southwest assisted in the deception by lying about the value of the accounts, the firm reports.

“After five years of hard-fought litigation, our clients are pleased to finally receive justice,” says Reese. “Considering all the witness testimony and the incriminating documents, Southwest should have expected this result.”

Southwest recently was acquired by Dallas’ Hilltop Holdings Inc. and renamed as Hilltop Securities. The case is Gerritsen Beach Investments Ltd., et al. v. Southwest Securities Inc., et al., No. 10-10673.

As China’s big banks expand in the U.S., they are testing how far U.S. judges can go in demanding account records located in China, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“In a closely watched case, Kering SA’s Gucci and its other luxury brands allege that some of their most troublesome counterfeiters have accounts with Bank of China Ltd. and have issued subpoenas for information about their transactions,” report Nicole Hong and Lingling Wei.

The Bank of China has responded that turning over account records would violate Chinese law.

Read the article.

Above the Law examines a recent malpractice verdict against Andrews Kurth that carries a $200 million jolt for the Texas firm.

“The proposed order seeks an award of more than $196 million in actual damages, $20.7 million in prejudgment interest, and an additional sum, to be determined, in postjudgment interest.” David Lat reports in the blog.

The report offers a reminder to lawyers: “be careful about what you say in those internal emails. You might view them as protected by attorney-client privilege, but if your client ends up suing you, the emails could be discoverable.”

Read the article.

Contract terms and purchaser assent to those terms, conditions, intended use and warning information provided with a purchased product are known fertile ground for defending product claims, write Amy Alderfer and Sara Poster in Cozen O’Connor’s Products Liability Prevention & Defense blog.

The authors point out that consumers often turn to the internet to purchase products, particularly during the holiday season. The paper examines the enforceability of online contracts and corresponding reliance upon virtually provided product documentation.

By following the guidelines in the article, the authors write, “manufacturers and sellers can place themselves in a stronger position to successfully enforce the terms and conditions on their websites in court, and hold consumers accountable for having received, reviewed and accepted the warnings and product related information so diligently provided.”

Read the paper.

Lawyers with Dallas-based Gruber Hurst Elrod Johansen Hail Shank won a $33 million verdict in a gas transportation contract dispute and a $28 million verdict in a fraud/fiduciary breach claim in the oil patch in recent weeks.

A Minnesota federal court has entered a $32.9 million judgment on behalf of Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited Partnership, a Houston-based interstate natural gas pipeline company, finding that an Indian conglomerate violated the company’s contract to provide natural gas transmission services. The judgment was entered on September 16 by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, following a jury trial in Duluth.

“This case has been resolved after more than six years of attempts by the defendants to avoid the simple principle of honoring a written contract,” says attorney David W. Elrod of Gruber Hurst Elrod Johansen Hail Shank, who represented Great Lakes throughout the litigation. “Given the issues involved and the size of this judgment, the case offers important precedents for determining an appropriate discount rate in future litigation involving long-term contracts, as well as federal court jurisdiction.”

In the other case, a Texas jury has awarded more than $60 million to two groups of oil and gas investors who were defrauded of significant profits from oil and gas production leases covering thousands of acres in West Texas. The Aug. 19 verdict includes more than $28 million awarded to Lowry Hunt of Mansfield’s L.W. Hunt Resources and Richard Raughton of Fort Worth, and is believed to be the largest ever in Fisher County and the surrounding counties.

The 3½-week trial heard in Judge Glen Harrison’s 32nd District Court included evidence that attorney Kerwin Stephens of Stephens & Myers in Graham and Abilene oilman Chester Carroll of Alpine Petroleum concocted a fraudulent scheme to cut existing partners out of an oil and gas partnership and take the profits for themselves.

Exterro and General Counsel News are offering for complimentary download a new e-discovery case law white paper to review three must-know e-discovery cases from 2015.

The paper covers:

• How courts are applying traditional principles (e.g. reasonableness, cooperation) in an e-discovery landscape transformed by new types of technology (e.g. mobile, social media).
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Download the paper.

A Houston federal jury has returned a verdict in favor of National Oilwell Varco, L.P., (NYSE: NOV), finding no wrongdoing in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by eight African Americans who sought $120 million in damages.

Houston-based NOV, an oilfield equipment supplier, argued that these employees were not treated differently because of their race. The jury heard 12 days of testimony in the trial before Judge Lee H. Rosenthal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The plaintiffs were represented by high-profile civil rights lawyer Angela M. Alioto of San Francisco’s Law Offices of Mayor Joseph L. Alioto and Angela Alioto in their claims of racial discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation.

Read more about the case.

An article in Kane Russell Coleman & Logan’s new Energy Law Today blog reports on a case before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that raises the question: “When will an anti-indemnity statute bar an often well-crafted legal indemnity term in a master-service agreement?”.

The case is Tetra Techs., Inc. v. Continental Ins. Co., No. 15-30446.

“In Tetra, the commercial fight was between Tetra, which sought to enforce an indemnity clause against its subcontractor, Vertex Services.  Continental, Vertex’s insurer, tried to block any indemnity payment, relying, in large part, on the LOAIA,” writes Andrea (A.J.) Johnson.

“The district court held that the decommissioning of a platform in a salvage operation did not come under the LOAIA, and, thus, Tetra’s claim for indemnity was enforceable. In opposition, appellant Continental contends that the trial court too restrictively interpreted the [Louisiana Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act].”

Read the article.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is exploring a rulemaking to eliminate the use of certain arbitration agreements in consumer contracts that block consumers from participating in class-action lawsuits, report Bill Mayberry and Jodie Herrmann Lawson of McGuireWoods. They write that, if the new rule is enacted, it will impact companies that fall within the CFPB’s broad interpretation of businesses that provide financial products and services for consumer purposes.

“The announcement comes on the heels of the CFPB’s publication of a three-year study on arbitration that concluded that consumers generally are better served through litigation. According to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, arbitration clauses amount to ‘a free pass to sidestep the court and avoid accountability for wrongdoing,” they write.

The article is on the firm’s Subject to Inquiry blog.

Read the article.

A 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Northbound Group, Inc. v. Norvax, Inc. indicates that courts will not add parties to a contract after the contract has been negotiated, writes Stephen M. Proctor, a principal in Masuda Funai Eifert & Mitchell Ltd.

The article, published on Lexology.com, describes the case: “Norvax agreed to acquire the assets of Northbound and, for this purpose, formed an acquisition vehicle called Leadbot LLC. The result was an asset purchase agreement executed in February 2009 by and between Northbound and Leadbot LLC. Norvax was not a party to the asset purchase agreement. Northbound was to be paid through an “earn-out” calculated as a percentage of the monthly net revenue of Leadbot LLC.”

Northbound later sued Norvax and Leadbot, claiming a breach of contract.

“Once a contract is negotiated, a party will likely be unsuccessful in persuading a court to rewrite the contract or to add provisions that may not have been considered, are erroneous or, in hindsight, seem unfair,” Proctor writes.

Read the article.

A West Texas jury has awarded more than $43 million to a group of oil and gas investors after finding that their business partners had breached fiduciary duties by crediting themselves for financial contributions they never made and by excluding the investors from a lease acquisition project after it became apparent that the project would be tremendously successful.

Dallas attorneys Frank L. Branson, Eric T. Stahl and Debbie Branson of The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson represented one of the investor groups, consisting of Dallas-based Tiburon Land and Cattle LP and Trek Resources Inc. on behalf of the Three Finger/Black Shale Prospect Partnership. The Fisher County trial was heard in 32nd District Court in Roby.

“In Fisher County a deal is a deal,” said Branson in a report on the firm’s website. “It was very clear to the jurors that the defendants did not honor their word and took opportunities that did not belong to them, and that’s a very serious matter in West Texas.”

Read the article.