Month: December 2015

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] [/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Natalie Posgate 

(Jan. 31) – Legendary tax lawyer and Hughes & Luce co-founder Vester T. Hughes, Jr. passed away in late January. He was 88 years old.

A Lion of the Texas Bar, Hughes was known for a multitude of achievements, including his work on re-writing the tax code for federal estate and gift tax law, arguing important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts and advising some of Dallas’ most prominent leaders on their estates. He was also known as a trusted source to top senators and congressmen as they formed their views on tax policy.

Hughes helped rewrite the tax code for federal estate and gift tax law. He was a founder of Hughes & Luce, one of the most prominent law firms in Texas history. At one time, he reportedly handled estate planning for a few of the five wealthiest Americans.

“He was a legend at our firm and the entire legal community, not just Dallas but nationally,” said John Garda, the administrative partner of K&L Gates’ Dallas office. “What he provided more than anything else was a spirit of good will throughout our firm, and he had an incredible impact on the lives of all of us.

“He will obviously be sorely missed, but we will be celebrating his life for generations to come.”

Craig Budner, a partner in K&L Gates’ Dallas office and the firm’s Global Integration and Strategic Growth Partner, said Hughes made an impact on others beyond the legal circle.

“He was a person of incredible grace and wisdom,” Budner said. “He had a kindness about him that allowed him to be an incredible counselor to all sorts of people – clients, friends, partners and family members.

“He never had children of his own, but he had an amazing impact on children and had an incredible connection with them; my kids were just as shaken by the news as I was,” said Budner, who told The Texas Lawbook that he received a text message from his son yesterday afternoon breaking the news of Hughes’ passing.

He clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He argued two cases before the Supreme Court. He has, of course, been active in a number of charities.

“Never lived a finer man or lawyer than Vester Hughes,” said fellow Lion Darrell Jordan, a former Hughes & Luce colleague. “He was the best example of professionalism I ever saw. He was gracious to people, he was totally dedicated to his clients and he was a great mentor to many young lawyers wanting to be tax practitioners.”

For someone who has represented some incredibly affluent people, including Ross Perot, Jr. and Marshall Sammons, Hughes sure saw some not so prosperous times.

Born in 1928 in San Angelo, Hughes was brought into the world at the onset of the Great Depression. He grew up in the West Texas town of Mertzon, which has a population of 781.

One of Hughes’ earliest memories was President Franklin Roosevelt’s March 3, 1933 inauguration because the government closed the bank that day. Hughes was not yet five years old.

Hughes’ father ran the bank in Mertzon, but also had a ranch. Hughes remembers going to the ranch that day with his father, which he remembers as out of the ordinary because it was a weekday. His father was usually at the bank during the week.

“It was a time of difficulty for many people,” Hughes said during a 2003 interview with the Texas Bar Foundation when he received the Outstanding Fifty Year Lawyers Reward. “No one was in very good shape, but everyone was working to try to survive and a great deal of effort was given to help other people.”

Hughes’ father’s bank fortunately never closed for lacking funds. A bigger concern was the possibility of Hughes’ kidnapping since the Bonnie and Clyde era was occurring and his father was associated with the bank.

“It didn’t take very much money… for the criminal element to be interested in what they could jar loose from a financial institution,” Hughes said.

Hughes went on to receive degrees in math and physics from Rice University in 1949. In 1952, he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. Hughes missed the World War II draft since he graduated high school the year the war ended.

But he was old enough when the Korean War came along.

Hughes, not yet admitted to the bar, was clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, when the local draft board in San Angelo contacted him. The board said it would defer his deployment if he returned to his family’s ranch, but it would not defer for his clerkship at the Supreme Court.

“Unlike the way people thought about Vietnam and other [situations], I didn’t think it was honest to go back to the ranch if I didn’t intend to be a rancher,” Hughes said in the 2003 interview.

Until very recently, Hughes still came into his 28th floor office at K&L Gates. Leaders at the firm said he will be greatly missed.

Hughes went from the Supreme Court to the Pentagon to see if any lawyers were needed. He got a commission in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the U.S. Army, thus was admitted to the bar on a motion. A rule at the time allowed law graduates to be admitted on motion before the second bar exam if they were members of the Armed Forces.

“Instead of going down Massachusetts Avenue from where I lived in Washington to go to the Supreme Court, I started going down Rock Creek Parkway to the Pentagon, where the Judge Advocate General’s Office was,” Hughes said.

During his service, Hughes spent time in Europe to work on Marshall Plan-related military aid and economic aid contracts with the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Hughes returned to Texas after the war to look for a job. He had offers from Baker Botts, Vinson & Elkins and Fulbright & Jaworski.

But Hughes wanted the chance to work with Paul Jackson, a tax lawyer in Dallas who had great respect on the East Coast – especially in Washington, D.C., where the government knew him from cases he had argued in the Supreme Court

Thus, Hughes joined the firm that became Jackson Walker. He worked closely with Jackson for five years, until he passed away after being terminally ill from cancer.

Hughes greatly credits his career’s success to Jackson.

“He was a person who had a penetrating [insight] into the whole business and what it means, what you do and how you do it,” Hughes said in a 2015 interview with The Texas Lawbook. “He taught me [everything] in the years he was alive. He was a remarkable human.”

Hughes stayed at Jackson Walker until 1976, after a year-long courtship with Tom Luce and other younger attorneys he had assembled to start a new firm. The group was having trouble getting a tax lawyer on board.

They told Hughes every tax lawyer they talked to told them, “You work hard, you do a good job and maybe in five or 10 years you can be another Vester Hughes.”

Hughes, nevertheless, was flattered. He decided to take the plunge, and joined what became Hughes & Luce. The firm thrived until 2007, when it merged with the international law firm K&L Gates.

“I was perfectly happy at Jackson Walker, but the Dallas firms had been run in an old-fashioned way. They would get things to clients when it was convenient,” Hughes said in the 2003 interview. “In New York, Houston and other places, often the law firms had learned that the client really was the person who called the shots. So I decided that it would be interesting to try to build a practice in the new way, but to maintain the old values of law practice.”[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] [/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Mark Curriden

(Dec. 1) – The star witness for the Texas Beef Group told jurors in Amarillo that Oprah Winfrey had stacked the deck in a 1995 episode that was critical of beef safety measures.

The show, the epidemiologist testified, was nothing short of a “lynch mob.”

Then Chip Babcock stepped to the lectern to conduct his cross-examination to defend Oprah from allegations of defamation.

“Do you understand the meaning or importance of a lynch mob and how the word lynching impacts Ms. Winfrey?” Babcock asked.

The Jackson Walker partner proceeded to explain to the witness that lynchings are named after Virginian Charles Lynch, who in the late 1780s gave a speech he titled, “How to Control Your Nigger.”

Babcock read horrific descriptions of a lynching while playing a video of the Oprah program showing a room full of women laughing.
“Is that how it was?” Babcock asked again and again.

The witness broke down into tears and turned to the talk show host.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Winfrey,” the witness said. “I didn’t mean that.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers never recovered and the jury ruled for Oprah.

The trial cemented Babcock’s national reputation as one of the legal profession’s best media and First Amendment lawyers.

A 1976 graduate of Boston University School of Law, Babcock’s interest in the news media started early.  His father worked for the New York Herald Tribune. In high school, young Babcock worked part-time as a sports writer for the Miami Herald and later for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

After clerking for U.S. District Court Judge Robert Porter, he was hired by Dallas-based Jackson Walker, which represented the Dallas Times Herald. In an interesting twist, many of the editors he knew in Philadelphia moved to Dallas and worked at the Times Herald.

“My first day on the job, a partner brought a stack of files into my office and dumped them on my desk,” Babcock says. “The partner said he heard I liked media law cases.”

Babcock’s first libel case came in October 1978, when the firm represented General Electric in a defamation case involving one of its employees. He served second chair at the trial and the jury ruled in GE’s favor.

In the 37 years since, Babcock has defended the nation’s largest media companies against allegations of libel and defamation, including CBS News, The Dallas Morning News, the Chicago Tribune, Google, Capital Cities/ABC News and Random House. His individual clients include Dr. Phil McGraw, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, Houston TV journalist Wayne Dolcefino and multibillionaire Warren Buffett.

“In these cases, you must look at every angle,” he says. “Our clients want us to be there to win trials, of course, but they also seek legal counsel advising them on ways to avoid litigation.”

In 1988, Legal Aid of North Texas called with a possible pro bono case. The client was a young woman who worked at a local bank who had two sons who were five and seven years old.

“The woman told me that her husband had kidnapped the children, but she had not reported it to the police because he had threatened to kill her,” Babcock says. “I tracked down her children. They were with their dad in a crack house.”

Babcock obtained a court order that terminated the parental rights of the father, awarded full custody to the mother and convinced the sheriff to go get the children.

“The case didn’t just change me as a lawyer, it changed me as a person,” he says.

In 2006, Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht hired Babcock to challenge allegations that he violated the Code of Judicial Conduct. A three judge panel ruled in Babcock’s favor.

In 2009, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller turned to Babcock to defend her against efforts by the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission to oust her from office. The commission sought the sanctions after allegations that Judge Keller intentionally thwarted efforts by lawyers in a death penalty case to file an emergency appeal after the courthouse hours. Babcock convinced the trial judge in the case to dismiss all charges.

But Babcock’s true love is media law.

In 2005, Dr. Phil hired Babcock when the TV talk show host was sued for defamation by Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, who were reportedly suspects in the disappearance of American high school student Natalie Holloway in Aruba.

For a decade, Babcock did battle in the California courts. He scored a decisive victory in April 2015 when the California state court judge dismissed the entire case.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] [/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Janet Elliott

(Dec. 3) – The January 1967 launch pad fire that claimed the lives of three Apollo astronauts was America’s first space program disaster. That same year a young attorney named Ronald Krist opened a law office in Clear Lake not far from NASA headquarters.

Several years had passed when Betty Grissom, the widow of astronaut Gus Grissom, showed up at Krist’s office.

“Betty happened to come by my office and visit with me about her case and the fact that no one had ever done anything about it,” says Krist. “We were two weeks short of four years when we undertook to assert her case and it worked out fine.”

Grissom told the Houston Chronicle shortly after the January 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster that she would have received no financial judgment for her husband’s death if Krist had not filed a last-minute lawsuit that resulted in a $350,000 award from shuttle contractor North American Rockwell.

“It was a different story with respect to the Challenger,” says Krist, who secured confidential settlements for families of three of the seven astronauts who died when the space shuttle exploded on liftoff almost exactly 19 years after the Apollo fire. “We didn’t have a statute of limitations problem and, consequently, the recoveries were considerably larger.”

Krist’s firm also was involved in litigation following the Columbia shuttle re-entry disaster in 2003.

“It’s interesting to see how the space industry reacted to these cases over almost half a century,” he says. “It all got smoother and easier and people stood up to their responsibilities much quicker and better in the later cases.”

While the space program cases settled, Krist is best known for his ability to connect with jurors over five decades of trying personal injury and other cases. His son, who now owns The Krist Law Firm, says it all begins with his dad’s empathy with his clients.

“He truly expresses what they have been put through and why this defendant ought to be held responsible,” says Scott Krist. “Some lawyers rely on mass preparation. Ronny is just a very naturally gifted trial lawyer.”

Son Kevin Krist also is practicing personal injury law in Houston.

“I’m comfortable speaking to juries,” says Ron Krist in a phone interview from Centerville, where he was in trial in late October. “I try to put myself in the client’s position and try to commiserate with their circumstance, and I think it shows in my presentation that I sincerely do care.”

Krist, a 1962 University of Texas School of Law graduate, secured one of the first million-dollar verdicts in Texas and at one point held the record verdict simultaneously in Brazoria, Dallas, Galveston and Travis counties.

A pioneer in the development of products liability law in Texas, Krist represented the plaintiff in Turner v. General Motors, the 1979 Texas Supreme Court case that established the doctrine of crashworthiness.

“The states were evenly divided at the time on recognizing crashworthiness,” says Krist. “It will probably go down as one of the most important products liability cases in the history of Texas because it created a cause of action where one didn’t exist before.”

The outcome at the Texas Supreme Court was less favorable for another of Krist’s high-profile cases. Known as the “sex tapes case,” Krist represented a female college student who was secretly taped having sex with her boyfriend. The court in 1993’s Boyles v. Kerr refused to recognize her claim for negligent infliction of emotional damages and remanded the case for a new trial.

Krist says the case against the male student and three of his friends who participated in the taping was settled for $1 million, the amount of the initial verdict. Some time later, Krist received a tip that seven lawyers from a firm that represented the defendants had impermissibly viewed the tape after the case was concluded.

“They were drinking and hooting and hollering. One of their secretaries was incensed and called me about it,” says Krist. “They had to pay us $100,000 per ticket for a total of $700,000.”

In addition to his personal injury work, Krist has represented corporations such as ConocoPhillips and BP. “If I think a company or a person is being taken advantage of and has a decent case, I’d take it on,” he says.

The Leon County trial was the last for Krist, 78, who says he doesn’t want to stay in the game so long he loses his skills. He represented a small Tyler-based oil company in a dispute involving a well allegedly destroyed by defective drill pipes. The jury placed fault on defendants who had settled but Krist said he still was able to secure some money for his client due to a pre-trial agreement.

Many of Krist’s cases over the years came through referrals from lawyers who knew his reputation. Now, he says, inexperienced lawyers advertise on TV about how tough they are, even though they most likely are not.

“It used to be you’d get out of law school and go to work for a law firm trying smaller cases in JP or county court or second-chairing district court for the first couple of years. It was kind of like an internship,” he says.

“Now you’ve got a kid right out of law school who starts running these ridiculous ads and getting a ton of business with an unearned reputation. And they are settling cases for a small percentage of their true value. It’s not good for the public. It’s not good for the profession. It’s terrible.”[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]