March 2024

The following are summaries of selected civil opinions issued by the Third Court of Appeals during January 2024. The summaries are overviews of particular aspects of the opinions; please review the entire opinions. Subsequent histories are current as of Feb. 7, 2024.  ORIGINAL PROCEEDING: Court grants relief where trial court denied discovery of plaintiff’s medical history.  In re Westside Roofing,

The following are summaries of opinions issued by the Fifth Circuit in January 2024. The summaries are overviews of particular aspects of the opinions; please review the entire opinions. TRADEMARK: Antique Rolex watches with added diamonds, modified bezels, or replaced bands did not qualify for refurbishment exception to trademark infringement. Rolex Watch USA, Inc. v. BeckerTime, L.L.C., No. 22-10866, 2024

The first years of legal practice can be intimidating and isolating, especially for lawyers in small/solo firms or offices without other young lawyers. Imposter syndrome is extremely common, and AYLA wants to do something to help!  The Freshquire program was started thanks to a grant from the Texas Young Lawyers Association. The program provides a community for lawyers in their

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a county jail outside of Amarillo sent a letter soliciting help. As a result of the new pandemic regulations, the entire prison library had been shut down, and the inmates no longer had access to books—one of their few solaces. So the Amarillo County jail contacted a nonprofit organization started by Austin activists, the Inside Books

Congratulations to Jackson Walker Austin partner Ali Abazari, who has been named a “leader in environmental law” by Lawdragon. Abazari’s practice focuses on environmental permitting and compliance assistance, defense of environmental enforcement actions, and environmental aspects of real estate and corporate transactions. He obtained his J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law, his LL.M. from Tulane University Law School,

A prison speech-and-debate program has relaunched in Houston after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus. The Houston chapter of the Rikers Debate Project (RDP) will return to the Harris County Jail to teach inmates how to effectively argue. The Houston chapter was founded in 2019 by Caitlin Halpern, a commercial litigation associate at a Houston law firm. Halpern is a former public defender

The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism has released statistics on hate crimes and extremism movements in Texas, along with recommendations on how to address such crimes and movements. In 2022, there were 212 antisemitic incidents, up from 112 in 2021, according to “Hate in the Lone Star State: Extremism & Antisemitism in Texas.”1 In 2021 and 2022, there were two

In October 2022, the Texas Supreme Court directed the Texas Access to Justice Commission (TAJC) to study existing rules and recommend actions that would accomplish two goals: 1. Allow qualified non-attorneys to provide limited legal services directly to low-income Texans; and 2. Allow non-attorneys to have economic interests in entities that provide legal services to low-income Texans while preserving attorneys’

The opinions expressed in Entre Nous are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Austin Bar Association membership or the Austin Bar Association board of directors. Every culture has its scary legends, usually designed to frighten children into behaving as adults wish—or face horrible consequences. Fear of unnatural and unknowable forces has dominated the