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The latest from Texas Lawyer

• The Law of The Streets
• Inadmissible
• Commentary: Three Lessons From Two Trials for One Great Performance
• Commentary: Should Firms Take Ownership in Patents?
• When It Comes to Buying Power, Dallas Beats New York
• Texas Appeals Court Sides with Online Booking Sites in Houston Suit over Hotel Taxes
• The Roles of Lead and Local Counsel
• Jenner & Block Partner Is Tapped as New GC for FBI
• Discipline
• Newsmakers
• Handling Clients With Personality Disorders
• Let "Jersey Shore" Pick Your Practice
• Law Clerks Offer Big Opportunities for Small Firms
• I Like Being a Lawyer!
• Commentary: Keep Lawyering at the Office, Not at Home
• Commentary: Obtaining the Benefits of Chapter 95
• Commentary: 10 Ways to Make It Easy for Clients to Find You
• Commentary: Workplace Privacy Issues in Texas
• Commentary: Five Myths About Mediating Employment Disputes
• Differentiate Your Firm From Competitors
• Ten Key Supreme Court Decisions of the 2010-2011 Term

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The Law of The Streets	Top
Lawyers representing Occupy protesters and several Texas cities have had their hands full in recent weeks, but they say their objective is the same: to minimize conflict. In Texas, lawyers are working with protesters to help them avoid arrests, while city attorneys are balancing free-speech rights with municipal codes that bar overnight camping in downtown areas and forbid sidewalk obstruction. Dallas lawyer Jonathan Winocour represents three protesters.
Inadmissible	Top
Commentary: Three Lessons From Two Trials for One Great Performance	Top
Perception is not reality, writes F. Daniel Knight. Sadly, Texas has experienced a sharp decline in civil jury trials over the past 20 years. According to an Office of Court Administration report, the percentage of cases resolved by jury verdict was 0.4 percent in district courts and 0.6 percent in county courts in 2010.
Commentary: Should Firms Take Ownership in Patents?	Top
McKool Smith has declined opportunities to take an ownership position in the patents the firm litigates, write Mike McKool and Ryan Hargrave. While the law is unsettled as to the ethical boundaries, they say their firm has avoided such investments because of potential ethical concerns, as well as strategic considerations related to the attractiveness of the case to the jury.
When It Comes to Buying Power, Dallas Beats New York	Top
It's no secret that new associates at large firms in big cities earn the highest salaries, but a $160,000 annual paycheck doesn't tell the whole story. National Association for Law Placement Executive Director Jim Leipold says the NALP decided to make its buying-power study available for free on its Web site this year.
Texas Appeals Court Sides with Online Booking Sites in Houston Suit over Hotel Taxes	Top
Municipalities across the country fighting to collect hotel occupancy taxes from online booking companies may have taken their lumps in recent rulings, but plaintiffs in Texas have been able to point to a major victory. In July a federal judge in San Antonio upheld a $20 million 2009 jury verdict for a class of Texas cities and ruled that the online companies were obligated to collect and pay occupancy taxes going forward.
The Roles of Lead and Local Counsel	Top
The Eastern District of Texas is a hotbed for patent infringement litigation, but many of the lawyers filing those patent suits live outside the district or out of state, and their firms do not have offices there. Texas Lawyer asked some lead patent lawyers to explain what they expect from their local counsel in the Eastern District of Texas and asked local counsel for tips on getting such work.
Jenner & Block Partner Is Tapped as New GC for FBI	Top
Andrew Weissmann, the former director of the U.S. government's Enron task force, has left his post as co-chair of Jenner & Block's white collar defense and investigations practice to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation's new general counsel. At the FBI, he will oversee a 300-lawyer department and oversee the agency's legal affairs.
Discipline	Top
One lawyer was suspended for two years, another was publicly reprimaned, and another was placed on probation, the State Bar of Texas announced recently.
Newsmakers	Top
Handling Clients With Personality Disorders	Top
In contemporary law practice, particularly in litigation, the expert witness in psychology — psychiatrists, forensic psychologists, psychotherapists and so on — increasingly is a member of the teams on opposite sides of a courtroom. Litigators need at least a passing sense of some of the language used by experts in this field, writes James Dolan.
Let "Jersey Shore" Pick Your Practice	Top
For the benefit of recent law school graduates, Kip Mendrygal has created a personality test to help new lawyers match themselves to the right fields. For the test, he picked a platform the intended audience would relate to: MTV's "Jersey Shore," the heartwarming tale of eight soft-spoken and introspective men and women brought together to live in a house and, mostly, fight and party.
Law Clerks Offer Big Opportunities for Small Firms	Top
In this difficult economy the legal job market is an increasingly competitive place, says Raymond L. Panneton. There are more law students seeking clerk positions than the larger firms can handle or want. Small firms might not have the financial resources to hire a full-time associate, but they may need additional manpower in the office to stay on top of the caseload. Although the notion of hiring a part-time clerk may be daunting, the benefits received by both parties make the experience more than worth it.
I Like Being a Lawyer!	Top
Commentary: Keep Lawyering at the Office, Not at Home	Top
The best tools deployed by lawyers are discourse and argument developed so arduously in law school and professional life: the ability to argue to a win, says James Dolan, a professional coach and psychotherapist. But there is a sad truth: There can be nothing more destructive to a marriage than the lawyer who comes home and practices law there.
Commentary: Obtaining the Benefits of Chapter 95	Top
As part of tort reform, the Texas Legislature enacted Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code to limit a property owner's liability for injuries to contractors and subcontractors, or their employees, under particular circumstances, writes Barbara S. Nicholas. It is the plaintiff's burden to establish that the defendant owner exercised or retained some control over the manner in which the work was performed and had actual, as opposed to constructive, knowledge of the dangerous condition that resulted in injury.
Commentary: 10 Ways to Make It Easy for Clients to Find You	Top
Two immutable facts: You want clients and you are in the service business. Stacy West Clark, president of a firm that helps law firms grow their businesses, says that, in spite of these two well-known facts, she is constantly shocked at how hard firms and lawyers make it for clients to reach them. She offers some ideas on how to change that situation.
Commentary: Workplace Privacy Issues in Texas	Top
Despite the Texas Supreme Court's general recognition of the importance of privacy in Billings v. Atkinson, there is no specific statute relating to a private employee's privacy in Texas, writes Art Lambert, a director in Kane Russell Coleman & Logan's labor and employment section in Dallas. However, counsel should still be cognizant of when employee privacy claims are actionable and how to succeed in such cases.
Commentary: Five Myths About Mediating Employment Disputes	Top
A substantial portion of employment-related suits ultimately are resolved by settlement, typically during or soon after mediation. Despite the prevalence of mediation, several myths exist that disrupt the process and diminish the chances of resolving the case. Vianei Lopez Robinson, a partner in Buck Keenan, a litigation boutique in Houston, writes about five of those myths.
Differentiate Your Firm From Competitors	Top
For many lawyers, the world has never appeared to be as hostile, bewildering or unstable as it does today, says Joel A. Rose. These feelings result from the complexities and uncertainties of the changing economic, professional and competitive environment in which most law firms find themselves.
Ten Key Supreme Court Decisions of the 2010-2011 Term	Top
Texas is among the nation's largest and most economically vibrant and diverse states. So it's no surprise the state's highest civil court enjoys a regular diet of significant legal controversies, write James C. Ho and Ashley E. Johnson. They chose 10 of those decisions to highlight from the 2010-2011 term.

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