Dallas Austin

May a general contractor rescind an offer of employment to a project engineer on the basis that the prospective employee used medical marijuana? A Federal Judge recently held that the prospective employee could proceed with his claims of discriminatory hiring practices under Pennsylvania state law. In Davis v. The Albert M. Higley Company, LLC, Albert M. Higley Company (AMHC), a construction general contractor, offered Brian Davis employment as a project engineer. The employment offer was contingent upon a pre-employment drug test. According to Davis’s lawsuit, Davis was diagnosed with anxie

Are inside sales representatives working for a construction supply company entitled to overtime pay? The United States Supreme Court, in declining further review, has let stand a federal appellate court’s decision that the employees were misclassified as exempt and are entitled to overtime pay. In Su v. FW Webb Company, a wholesale plumbing and HVAC supply company, F.W. Webb Company (Webb), classified its Inside Sales Representatives (ISRs) as administrative employees. After concluding an investigation that began in 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division filed su

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 happens when a plaintiff mistakenly dismisses his lawsuit, but then seeks to reopen it later? The U.S. Supreme Court recently visited this issue and held that a court can reopen a dismissed proceeding under certain circumstances. In Waetzig v. Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Gary Waetzig filed a lawsuit in the federal court in the U.S. District Court of the District of Colorado against his former employer Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. arguing that he was terminated illegally on the basis of his age. Specifically, Waetzig alleged his termination was in violation of the Age Discrimin

The Texas Legislature went into Session on January 14th until June 2nd.  There are numerous bills filed which have a general interest such as ad valorum tax revisions and school finance.  This review of recently filed bills will focus on potential legislation which could be of interest to the construction industry. Administrative Law  HB 606 – De Novo Review and Interpretation of State Laws and Agency Rules by Reviewing Court Judges Summary: HB 606, filed by Rep. Brian Harrison (R – Midlothian), would require a judge or administrative law judge (ALJ) to interpret a statute, rule, or ot