Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will pay $60 million to settle charges that it paid millions in bribes to foreign officials, federal authorities announced Tuesday. Pfizer will pay roughly $45 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that the company, along with fellow pharmaceutical firm Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired a few years ago, violated…
In this sluggish economy, where jobs are hard to find, one American industry is thriving: for-profit colleges and trade schools. Enrollment at for-profit trade schools expanded about 20 percent a year the last two years, more than double the pace from 2001-7, according to the Career College Association. These privately owned institutions charge tuition that…
As a general rule, a person seeking to bring a lawsuit must show that they have been personally injured. For example, someone failed to perform their contract with you and that cost you money, or someone ran a stop sign and damaged your car. The right to bring a lawsuit is called “standing” and standing…
The Texas Supreme Court has recently taken another look at the sometimes-puzzling distinction between contract remedies and tort remedies, a world that has been referred to as “contorts.” El Paso Marketing, L.P. V Wolf Hollow I, L.P., 55 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 877 (June 15, 2012).
In Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Simmonds, 132 S.Ct. 1414 (2012) the Supreme Court recently considered whether the deadline to file insider trading suits (“short-swing profit” claims) is put on hold until the insider publicly discloses the trades.
Heygood, Orr & Pearson is representing the City of Brownsville (and the City’s Public Utilities Board) in a lawsuit against AEP Texas Central Company (“TCC”) arising from the purchase of an electric power plant. Among other claims, the City contends that TCC breached a purchase and sale agreement by failing to close the sale in…
A Heygood, Orr & Pearson attorney defended Jean Boulle, a well-known international businessman, in a lawsuit arising out of the discovery of the world’s largest nickel deposit. In the suit, the plaintiff alleged that he had an agreement whereby he was to receive 5% of the net revenue generated by certain projects the he and…
Most non-lawyers believe that trial lawyers actually “pick” who will be on their jury. In reality, the lawyers pick who will not be on their jury and the remaining, non-excluded jurors make up the jury. This is done through a process known as voir dire, a Latin word that means “to seek the truth.” Voir…