Author: kevin@kevincullen.me
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Ray Guy ‘Would Not Change a Thing’ about his Impressive Career
By Mark Curriden (Nov. 14) – Ray Guy remembers clearly the day he decided to become a lawyer. Guy was a senior at the University of Texas. The 22-year-old was home for spring break when his parents walked into his bedroom. They knew he was debating whether to get a job using his engineering degree…
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Nina Cortell: A Lion with the Bloodline of Albert Einstein
By Mark Curriden (Oct. 24) – Nina Cortell rose from the counsel table to make her first oral argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1981. The young lawyer felt comforted, as opposing counsel had presented his side in the complex securities dispute without much push-back from the three-judge panel.…
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Nina Cortell: A Lion with the Bloodline of Albert Einstein
By Mark Curriden (Oct. 24) – Nina Cortell rose from the counsel table to make her first oral argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1981. The young lawyer felt comforted, as opposing counsel had presented his side in the complex securities dispute without much push-back from the three-judge panel.…
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Billie Ellis – A Pioneer in Private Equity & Corporate Real Estate Dealmaking
By Mark Curriden (Nov. 1) – Billie Ellis was a baby lawyer just out of law school in 1978 when his bosses at Vinson & Elkins asked him to represent a long-time firm client in buying a $2 million mansion in River Oaks. The transaction seemed simple enough, except Ellis’ client almost killed the deal…
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The George Bramblett Dividend – Updated
By Mark Curriden (Dec. 6) – Forty-eight years ago, George Bramblett picked his first jury and tried his first case. Out of law school only a little more than a year, Bramblett represented an insurance company refusing to compensate an extraordinarily sympathetic victim of a car crash, for his injuries. The facts were simple: A…
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Phil Hardberger – Trial Lawyer, Judge, Mayor, Pilot & Senior Statesman
By Mark Curriden (Aug. 21) – Phil Hardberger was only a few years out of law school when he agreed to represent Jimmy Robinson in a West Texas million-dollar medical malpractice case. The trial was big news in San Antonio. After all, $1 million was big money in 1972. Robinson was an addict with a…
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Harold Kleinman – A Pioneer of M&A in Texas – Updated
By Mark Curriden (Feb. 13) – Harold Kleinman was on the job at Thompson & Knight only a couple weeks when he was assigned a case involving a corporate officer of a firm client who had invested in a project that claimed to produce sows with extra ribs. The dispute was whether a sow was…
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Mike Boone is a ‘Counselor in the True Sense’ – Updated
By Mark Curriden (April 26) – Michael Boone was 24 years old and sitting through a corporate securities class at SMU Dedman School of Law when the professor asked him to stay after class. “I thought I was in trouble,” Boone says. “I had no idea what he wanted, but he completely shocked me.” Professor…
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The More Complex the Deal, the More Fun for Gil Friedlander
By Mark Curriden (June 14) – In the world of business transactional law, Gil Friedlander has done it all. He’s represented high-profile corporate clients in some of the largest and most complex transactions ever. He handled the $4.9 billion leveraged buyout of 7-Eleven during a stock market crash and the $1.3 billion sale of Chuck…
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Nathan Hecht’s Supreme Judicial Career – Updated
By Mark Curriden (Jan. 23) – Nathan Hecht has been on the Supreme Court of Texas for more than 10,000 days over the past 29 years – longer than any other justice in state history. And he’s promising he will not put down the gavel for at least eight more years. Now chief justice, Hecht…