This looks like a pretty sweet deal for the Williams Company, Texas’ largest highway construction contractor.
Texas’ Largest Highway Contractor Cuts a Deal
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Category Archives: Legal – General
Martha Watch
My wife is reading this daily.
O.K., I admit it, I’m reading it daily, too. ;^)
As to this report from the Martha trial, I can only shake my head, for a variety of reasons.
Clarett Beats NFL
Maurice Clarett, the talented running back who led Ohio State to a thrilling victory over Miami in the 2003 National Championship game, sued the National Football League several months ago in this complaint alleging that the NFL was violating anti-trust laws by not allowing Clarett to become eligible for the NFL Draft until 2005. Today, the District Court issued this decision ruling in Clarett favor and enjoining the NFL from not allowing Clarett to be eligible for the 2004 NFL Draft.
Although this decision may seem surprising, it is not to those of us who follow professional sports and anti-trust law. As a matter of fact, the NFL’s record in past anti-trust cases is not all that great. Part of the reason for the NFL’s phenomenal growth and business success over the past 40 years is that it has avoided investing the money necessary to capitalize a minor league football system similar to what exists in Major League Baseball. Rather, through rules such as the one Clarett challenged, the NFL has shifted the financial risk of minor league football to Division I-A college football teams.
The Clarett decision probably will not result in many high school football players moving directly from high school to the NFL similar to what often occurs with regard to high school basketball players moving directly to the NBA. As a general rule, high school football players simply are not ready physically for the rigors of the NFL. However, a few such as Clarett probably are, and the decision in Clarett’s case correctly gives them the opportunity to pursue that goal if they prefer that goal over a subsidized college education.
Port of Houston Wins Big Case at Fifth Circuit
The Chronicle reports today on a big case involving several large gas pipeline companies, the Port of Houston and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In this opinion, the Fifth Circuit recently overturned federal District Judge Lynn Hughes’ summary judgment in favor of the pipeline companies that shifted a substantial amount of the relocation cost of some pipelines to the Port.
Gadzooks, Inc. files Chapter 11
In a development that concerns my two teenage daughters greatly, Gadzooks, Inc., a Carrollton, TX-based retailer of teenage girl’s clothing, filed a reorganization case under chapter 11 on Tuesday in the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. The case landed in Bankruptcy Court of Judge Harlan D. “Cooter” Hale, who gets my vote for having the best nickname of any Bankruptcy Judge in the country. Here is the initial docket in the case and the list of 20 largest creditors.
Isn’t This an Interesting Way to Become Friends?
Based on this Houston Chronicle story, a budding friendship appears to be one of the results of the recent well-publicized murder trial of Robert Durst in Galveston.
Dick DeGuerin, Durst’s attorney, is another of the unusual number of excellent Houston-based criminal defense attorneys, which was also noted in this earlier post. Among the many others in that formidable Houston criminal defense bar–many of whom were mentored by Racehorse Haynes and the late Percy Foreman–are Dick’s brother, Mike DeGeurin (yes, the brothers spell their last name differently), Mike Ramsey, Jack Zimmerman, Rusty Hardin, David Berg, Joel Androphy, Robert Scardino, Mike Hinton, Dan Cogdell, Tom Hagemann and Robert Sussman. Houston’s criminal defense bar compares favorably with the criminal defense bar of any city in the country.
Lawyers Need Lawyers
Many of my friends in business complain regularly (and with much validity) about how often they are required to consult attorneys. They will derive much pleasure from this NY Times article, which explains that now law firms are hiring general counsel to advise their lawyers on the difficult client issues that many firms face in the post-Enron world.
Volcano Knight Ready to Erupt
Based on this article from the Lubbock Avalanche, it looks like Bobby Knight is ready to implode again. Knight’s mercurial career as basketball coach at the University of Indiana ended as a result of incidents similar to this one.
For all his faults, Knight is not the poster boy for the hyprocrisy of college athletics. An undeniably great basketball coach, his ill-tempered personality has everyone around him walking on egg shells for fear of provoking an outburst. On the other hand, he genuinely cares for his players, and the percentage of players from his teams who graduate from college is one of the highest of any other major college program in the United States.
Knight is the subject of one of the most interesting sports sociology books of the past 20 years, John Feinstein’s “A Season on the Brink.”
Wrong Type of Research, Docs
The Houston Chronicle reports today that the FBI has commenced an investigation into teen porn websites that certain individuals at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston apparently visited on a regular basis. The UT Health Science Center is home to the University of Texas Medical School, one of two medical schools (Baylor Medical School is the other) in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center.
The Kirkendall family has long and deep ties with the UT Health Science Center. My late father–Dr. Walter M. Kirkendall–was a longtime and loved Professor of Medicine at the UT Medical School at Houston from 1972 until his death in 1991, and the school still holds an annual lectureship in his name. I also have a brother (Matt of Dubuque, Iowa) and sister (Mary of Boerne, TX) who graduated from the UT Medical School at Houston.
More on Garden Ridge Chapter 11 Case
The Houston Chronicle reports on yesterday’s Garden Ridge Corporation chapter 11 filing.
The first major motion in the Garden Ridge case–i.e., it’s Motion for Approval of Post-Petition Financing (in other words, a “Judge, let us borrow money so that we can stay alive” motion)–provides Garden Ridge management’s analysis of what caused the company’s financial problems. Earlier today, the Court approved Garden Ridge’s motion on an interim basis in this order.