Dallas Austin

Does a “follow-form” excess insurance policy mean that it must follow the form of the underlying, primary insurance policy? According to the Texas Supreme Court, not necessarily. In The Ohio Casualty Insurance Company v. Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. et al., the Texas Supreme Court examined whether a follow-form excess insurance policy must cover a policyholder’s defense costs after the primary insurance policies had exhausted. The coverage dispute arose from a drilling-rig incident that led to multiple lawsuits which the policyholder, Patterson, and its insurers settled after extensive lit

Is an empty head, but pure heart a legal defense to using generative artificial intelligence to do your work? For attorneys, the answer has been and continues to be, no. Two recent cases illustrate why. In February 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Dinsmore for the U.S District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Mid Central Operating Engineers Health and Welfare Fund v. HoosierVac, LLC, recommended that Rafael Ramirez, a Texas attorney, be sanctioned $15,000 for relying entirely on generative AI to perform legal research. After the Magistrate Judge was unable to find a case that Ram

What happens when a big four accounting firm is given permission to own and operate a private law firm? We are about to find out. For decades, only lawyers could own law firms. The American Bar Association drafted Model Rule 5.4 providing that, “a lawyer or law firm shall not share legal fees with a nonlawyer…,” and that, “a lawyer shall not form a partnership with a nonlawyer if any of the activities of the partnership consist of the practice of law.” The rule was intended to protect the sanctity of the third branch of government by maintaining lawyers’ independence and preventin

What if you or your company are arbitrating a dispute and the need arises to join parties or individuals who are not parties to the contract that got you into arbitration in the first place or have downstream contracts without arbitration provisions or otherwise conflicting dispute resolution provisions? Texas courts have addressed exactly how to join a non-signatory to an arbitration, though the likelihood of success depends. Generally, only the signatories to an arbitration agreement are bound by the agreement. A corporate relationship is generally not enough to bind a non-signatory to an ar

The California fires and the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration, both occurring in the first quarter of 2025, will have profound impacts on the construction industry. How can you brace for the coming storm of highly variable costs for labor and materials? As Hurricane Katrina and the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, natural disasters can cause immense disruptions to the construction supply chains. In 2005, Katrina caused significant disruptions in the supply of petroleum-based products, drywall, and other construction materials. And, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduced work force and