On May 5, Thompson & Knight laid off for economic reasons 17 lawyers and 25 support staff in all of its U.S. offices, including Dallas, Houston, New York, Fort Worth and Austin. “It’s no fun,” says managing partner Peter J. Riley . All of the lawyers are associates — only two of them are first years — who practiced in real estate or other business-related areas that require bank money to operate. “It was mostly mid-level associates in business areas. And I’d say it was a one-third real estate and two-thirds more corporate general business,” Riley says. “These are good lawyers. It’s like a rifle shot went through all our law firms, and the financing groups just stopped. We are doing transactions, but man, it’s nothing like it was.” But not all the firm’s’ practices are doing badly by a long shot, Riley says. “There are areas of our firm like IP litigation that are going crazy. But the business model has been changing, and we have been changing with it,” he says. “This economic change that occurred in the fall is affecting certain types of business; it’s really affected financing. We just made a very hard decision that it was going to take too long for the financing business to come back,” he says. Like many other Texas firms, Thompson & Knight is also pushing back its first year class from starting in October and November to starting on January 19, 2010, Riley says.
Ready to Rumble?
Dallas County’s George Allen Courthouse is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving. On May 6, 44th District Judge Carlos Cortez “was physically assaulted by Judge Eric Moyé. The incident was witnessed by a deputy sheriff who is employed at the courthouse,” according to Cortez’s lawyer, Roger Mandel , a partner in Dallas’ Stanley, Mandel & Iola . Cortez declines comment. But 14th District Court Judge Eric Moyé insists there was no assault. The disagreement, Moyé says, is the result of some e-mails that Cortez sent Moyé. “There was no assault; there was no pushing. I went to visit with Judge Cortez to talk about some inappropriate e-mails that he sent,” Moyé says. “He became profane, and I told him emphatically not to be profane. I pointed at him, and he pushed my hand, and that was it.” Moyé says the matter has been turned over to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office for investigation because he received a call from the DA investigator after the incident. Terri Moore , the first assistant Dallas County District Attorney, confirms that her office is investigating the incident.
