In its 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits covered employers from discriminating against employees based on their transgender…
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/ Civil Rights, Health, Labor & Employment Law
As expected, a Texas federal court issued a ruling on August 20, 2024, declaring that the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) new rule purporting to ban nearly all noncompete agreements shall not “take effect on its effective…
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/ Administrative Law, Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Business Organizations, Commercial Law & Contracts, Labor & Employment Law
As lawyers, we work with words. We bend them, conjoin them, manipulate them, and often seek to redefine them. Working in certain legal fields, we often take for granted the common vernacular used in those fields. Terms such as a…
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/ Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Law Practice Products & Services
In July 2024, Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) awarded over $95 million in housing tax credits to help finance the development and rehabilitation of more than 60…
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/ Real Estate - Commercial, Taxation
In most cases, the grind of litigation moves forward under the careful scrutiny of courts and within the applicable rules of civil procedure. Settlement, on the other hand, is often separate and secretive; hammered out after…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Business Torts, Civil Procedure
For good reason, many companies focus their legal and compliance work on matters that require immediate attention, like active litigation and pressing regulatory issues. But matters that come to the company’s attention before a…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Commercial Law & Contracts
Most states have an offer of judgment provision, and many of them are patterned after Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68. Unlike Fed. R. Civ. P. 68, some states allow either party—not just the defendant—to make an offer of…
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/ Civil Procedure, Civil Remedies
By now, attorneys practicing in the Fifth Circuit should know that if a case is in federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, they must ensure that the record supports the diversity of citizenship requirement, lest…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Mergers & Acquisitions
In a highly-anticipated ruling, a Texas federal court concluded on July 3, 2024, that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) exceeded its authority by enacting its rule in April 2024 that purports to ban nearly all noncompete…
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/ Administrative Law, Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Commercial Law & Contracts, Labor & Employment Law
In a 6-3 ruling, the United States Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overruled the longstanding precedent that federal courts were to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous federal laws…
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/ Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Environmental Law
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo,[1] the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a forty-year-old precedent that placed a thumb on the scale in favor of federal agencies’ interpretations of federal laws. In doing so, it instructed…
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/ Administrative Law, Business Organizations, Constitutional Law
A corporate deposition authorized by Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6), and similar state rules[1] is a powerful discovery device with far-reaching implications. Entities served with such a notice face significant burdens to select and…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Procedure
For sellers of goods, it is all but impossible to escape the reach of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) because its Article 2 applies to sales of goods. The UCC contains several buyer friendly provisions (including certain…
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/ Business Organizations, Commercial Law & Contracts, Products Liability
The legal world is undergoing a seismic shift. Technological advancements and a changing social landscape force the legal profession to adapt, but are law schools keeping pace? In this episode, Jody Sanders and Todd Smith visit…
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/ Law Practice Products & Services
Wearable technology compiles extensive information on our bodily systems—including activity levels, menstruation and fertility, exercise activity and attainment, food consumption, weight, sleep, noise exposure, heart rate, skin…
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/ Civil Procedure, Personal Injury, Science, Computers, & Technology