On Dec. 11, 2010, the State Bar of Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline forwarded a disciplinary petition against Lubbock attorney Kevin Glasheen to the Texas Supreme Court seeking assignment of a state district judge to hear the case. The high court is responsible for assigning a trial judge who sits outside Lubbock County to hear the disciplinary suit against Glasheen. In the petition the commission alleges that Glasheen, a partner in Glasheen, Valles & Inderman , charged “an illegal fee or a fee prohibited by law” to two former prison inmates who had been “declared innocent” and had hired Glasheen to pursue claims for damages against the state. Specifically, the commission alleges that Glasheen did not explain to the exonerated men that his contingent fee was for his “involvement in a purely administrative process which required no legal skill or advocacy beyond filling out a form” to receive compensation from the state. Glasheen denies the allegations and says he worked hard for his former clients, including preparing their cases for trial in case they decided to sue the government instead of going the administrative route, and pushed the city of Dallas to lobby the Texas Legislature to increase the compensation levels for the wrongly imprisoned. “This is a fee dispute with a client. And if the Bar wants to jump in and try to prove that my contingency fee contract was excessive they’re going to have a hard time,” Glasheen says. “[A]nd my clients were ready to go forward with litigation until I got the compensation increased. And we used that threat of litigation to get that compensation increased,” Glasheen adds. The two former clients filed grievances against Glasheen, says Maureen Ray , special administrative counsel for the State Bar Chief Disciplinary Counsel’s Office. “And as a result of those complaints, the commission is alleging that Mr. Glasheen committed misconduct as set forth in the petition,” Ray says.
The Cruz Campaign
It’s official. On Jan. 19, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz filed the paperwork to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison , who won’t seek re-election. Cruz, a partner in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Houston and Washington, D.C., says he’ll keep his day job while running his Republican statewide campaign. “I’m continuing to practice law, and I’m continuing to head up our U.S. Supreme Court and national appellate litigation practice,” Cruz says. Cruz had hoped to run for Texas attorney general in 2009 but didn’t once it became clear that Hutchison would not resign from the Senate, which meant Texas AG Greg Abbott could not run for Hutchison’s seat. Abbott won re-election as attorney general in 2010, so Cruz has turned his attention to Washington, D.C. “The reason I’m running for Senate is that’s where the real battle is,” Cruz says. “The central fight right now, in my judgment, is whether this nation remains a free market economy or whether the federal government keeps playing a bigger and bigger role in the economy and our everyday lives.” The GOP primary campaign for Hutchison’s seat promises to be crowded, as several state Republican officeholders have expressed interest. But that doesn’t concern Cruz. “The team that came together in that attorney general campaign was an incredibly deep statewide team and will provide the foundation for this statewide Senate campaign,” Cruz says. He’s not worried about keeping his appellate practice going. “During the attorney general race, I continued practicing law throughout that race. And my partners were very supportive and very encouraging,” Cruz says. “It just entails a whole lot of late nights.”
