Houston-based Baker Botts is opening an office in Rio de Janeiro. The 725-lawyer firm has not yet issued a formal announcement, but Mike Cinelli, the associate director of public relations, confirms the move in an email. “Yes, we have plans to open a Rio office. Nothing official, yet, still working on it. Not much we can say at the moment,” Cinelli writes. He says that, so far, two lawyers from the firm’s London office are scheduled to go to Rio: John White, a partner, and Hannah Longley, a senior associate, who will become a partner Jan. 1, 2013. White will be the partner-in-charge of the new Rio office, Cinelli says. On the firm’s website, White lists as a client Petrobras, the Brazilian-based oil company. Once the Rio office opens, the firm will have 15 offices worldwide, including in Austin and Dallas.
Eschew Verbosity
Appellate attorneys need to write tight or risk rejection. Dec. 1 was the effective date for new word limits for appellate filings in the state’s 14 intermediate appellate courts, the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Lawyers must include a certificate of compliance with each document stating its word count. If a document exceeds its word limit, a court may strike it and require a party to re-file. If the document is still too wordy, the court may “prohibit the party from filing further documents of the same kind,” according to the Texas Supreme Court’s order that approved changes to the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. After proposing the changes on Aug. 10, the Supreme Court accepted public comment and made revisions. The changes were minor, says Supreme Court Rules Attorney Marisa Secco. The high court approved the final version on Nov. 13. The new rules include the following word limits: direct appeal death-penalty brief and response to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 37,500 words; petition and response to the Supreme Court and CCA, 4,500 words; reply to a response to the Supreme Court and CCA, 2,400 words; brief and response in an appellate court, 15,000 words; reply brief or response to a petition in an original proceeding in an appellate court, 7,500 words; motion for rehearing and response in an appellate court, 4,500 words; aggregate of all of a party’s briefs in a civil case in a court of appeals, 27,000 words. Some sections of the document won’t count toward the word limit, such as the index, table of contents, identity of parties and counsel, and more.
