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You know that feeling when you call the customer service line and an automated voice, says “press 1 if you’re calling about a new application, press 2 if you’re calling in response to a letter you received, press 3 if . . .” “I’m not calling about any of those things,” you shout, to no one in particular. “I just want to talk to a real person!” You just want to explain your specific situation. That’s what it feels like when you’re trying to explain to a judge why the Pattern Jury Charge (PJC) question doesn’t work for your particular […]

Like my man Cole Porter said, in olden days a glimpse of stocking, was looked on as something shocking, now Heaven knows . . . anything goes. Especially when a company sues a former employee who took documents containing the company’s alleged “trade secrets.” In a case like that, can the company get a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring the employee not to use the documents? Can the judge also make the employee immediately “return” the documents to the company? After handling cases like this for over a decade, I can tell you the practical answer is simple: in a […]

Quick, can you name the number one song of 2014? I’ll help you out. It was “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. But to be honest, I was not so happy in early 2014. I had just lost my job working for a Houston law firm. Fortunately, I had a good paying client who was being sued for violation of a non-compete. And the rest is history. At the time I’m writing this (the end of 2024), my Texas law practice has focused on the defense of lawsuits involving claims for violation of non-competes and/or alleged misappropriation of “trade secrets” for about […]

On April 23, 2024, the FTC voted 3-2 to approve its final rule banning non-competes for U.S. workers. Unless the federal courts block the rule (more about that later), it will go into effect on September 4, 2024. (Update: The federal courts did block the rule. Sort of. See Texas Federal Court Enters Limited Preliminary Injunction Staying FTC’s Noncompete Clause Ban from my friends at Morgan Lewis.) My law practice focuses on defending non-compete and trade secret claims, so as you might imagine, that was a busy week for me. You can imagine the text messages from clients. “Hey, did […]

The McLaughlin Group There was a sketch on Saturday Night Live where Dana Carvey played news talk show host John McLaughlin. The recurring gag was that McLaughlin would ask the guests a serious political question, each would give a thoughtful answer, and McLaughlin would shout “WRONG!” I think about that a lot when I’m doing deposition preparation with clients in trade secrets lawsuits. Let’s go over some common ways defendants in trade secrets lawsuits go wrong in their depositions. We’ll use our old hypothetical friend Dawn Davis as an example 1. Are the things defined as “confidential information” or “trade […]

Court Holds the Weekley Homes Standard Applies The Houston Court of Appeals (14th) has held that the plaintiff in a trade secrets lawsuit is not automatically entitled to a forensic examination of a defendant’s device that was allegedly used to take the defendant’s alleged trade secrets. In re 4X Industrial, LLC, 683 S.W.3d 916 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2024) (orig. proceeding). Rather, to obtain an order for “direct access” to the defendant’s computer or electronic storage device, the plaintiff must satisfy the requirements established by the Texas Supreme Court in In re Weekley Homes, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2009). Those […]

I was watching a Ford truck commercial—you know, the kind that airs during Monday Night Football—and the theme was how good solid blue-collar Americans who own small welding businesses and wear plaid flannel shirts always give 100%. Cue Bob Seger, “Like a Rock.” Oh wait, that was Chevy. But you get the idea. Anyway, Ford has obviously gone soft. Anyone who follows sports or business figures on social media knows that giving 100% is for losers. Winners give 110% every day. I know this from watching Shark Tank and that Michael Jordan documentary. This idea is not limited to athletes and […]

This post may ruffle some feathers, but I’ll get right to the point: Texas judges are granting too many TROs in civil litigation, and they’re not doing enough to police the requirements for an ex parte TRO, i.e. a Temporary Restraining Order granted without anyone present for the responding party. Admittedly, I base this on anecdotal evidence from my own practice, but I don’t think my experience is unusual. And to clear away one potential objection right off the bat, let me stress that I am not talking about TROs addressing domestic violence. If there was ever an appropriate case […]

I recently saw the summer blockbuster Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so new characters are on my mind. Nothing against Paula Payne and Dawn Davis, but I thought it was time to introduce some new characters to the FMLU (the Five Minute Law Universe). So, meet Bobby Bluecollar. Bobby works for Vinny’s Valves, which started as a mom-and-pop operation but now has offices throughout Texas and the Gulf Coast, providing equipment to hundreds of customers in the oilfield exploration and production industry. Vinny himself doesn’t work much anymore. His daughter Vanessa now runs the […]

What do clients need to know about mediation? I’ve narrowed it down to five key practical points. Five Minute Law. Five key points. Get it? But before my five key things clients need to know, some basics. Mediation is not arbitration. A lot of non-lawyers get confused about mediation versus arbitration. I will now dispel that confusion and allow you to wow your friends by explaining the difference. Just remember this: Arbitration = binding, more formal Mediation = non-binding, less formal Think of going to arbitration as going to court, but with an arbitrator (or sometimes three arbitrators) instead of […]