Congratulations to Sandy Bayne of BayneLaw. Bayne has been elected as a new board member for 2024-25 for HeartGift, a nonprofit assisting children in obtaining life-saving heart surgery. Bayne’s practice involves healthcare law, civil litigation, health insurance, and gestational carrier agreements. Congratulations to Natalie Domanic, who has moved to Bollier Ciccone as an associate in the firm’s family law practice. …
Austin Bar Members Go for the Gold at Bench Bar
Thank you to the nearly 200 people who came out for the 2024 Bench Bar Conference! This year’s conference took place at Kalahari Resorts in Round Rock, and featured plenty of members of the bench. Bench Bar Committee Co-Chair Scott Brutocao kicked off the morning by introducing Corinne Smith, a life coach and Austin attorney. Smith led the crowd in …
Submit Applications for the LGBTQ+ Scholarship Program
The Austin Bar Foundation is now accepting applications for the LGBTQ+ Scholarship program! The program is a joint effort of the foundation and the LGBTQ+ Law Section of the Austin Bar Association. This is the scholarship program’s ninth year, and we have four $5,000 scholarships to award. Applicants must be enrolled at a Texas law school and can include 2024 …
Austin Bar Members Appear Before Texas Supreme Court
Austin Bar Member Paul Matula, Assistant City Attorney’s Office, for Respondents Borgelt v. Austin Firefighters Assoc. IAFF Local 975, No. 22-1149 The main issue in this case is whether a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that allocates a pool of paid leave to further a union’s interests violates any “Gift Clause” in the Texas Constitution (Art. III, Secs. 50, 51, 52(a) and …
American Inns of Court Accepting Applications for 2024-25
The Austin chapters of the American Inns of Court are accepting applications for the 2024-25 terms. The American Inns of Court are designed to improve the skills, professionalism, and ethics of the bench and bar. Information about the American Inns of Court can be found at www.innsofcourt.org. Each inn meets monthly. The deadline to apply is May 31, 2024. Interested applicants should …
Annual Equity Summit Registration Now Open
On behalf of the Austin Bar Association’s DEI Committee, I am excited to invite members of the Austin legal community to our annual Equity Summit. This year’s CLE program will be held on Thursday, May 23, 2024, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus, 1212 Rio Grande St, Austin, TX 78701. The theme for …
Does UT Tyler Health Science Center’s Deal with Private Equity Shield Doctors From Malpractice Suits?
By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune Republished with permission from The Texas Tribune. Michael Simington wasn’t one to see a doctor. But when the 67-year-old retired welder started having trouble urinating, he knew something was wrong. He saw Dr. Ruben Garcia, a urologist in Corsicana in October 2019. A biopsy showed he had prostate cancer. But Garcia didn’t share those …
DOJ Announces White-Collar Whistleblower Rewards Program, Sentencing Enhancements for Corporate Misuse of AI
At the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the formation of a Department of Justice (DOJ)-run rewards program for whistleblowers. “The premise is simple,” Monaco said during her remarks in San Francisco on March 7, 2024. “If an individual helps DOJ discover significant corporate or financial misconduct—otherwise unknown to …
Texas Supreme Court Update May 2024
The following are summaries of selected opinions issued by the Texas Supreme Court in March 2024. These summaries are prepared by court staff as a courtesy and are not a substitute for the actual opinions. The summaries are overviews of particular aspects of the opinions; please review the entire opinions. GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY: Governmental entity contract deemed properly executed until entity …
Meet Attorney & Tech Entrepreneur Karl Seelbach
Austin Lawyer recently sat down with Karl Seelbach, founding partner at Doyle & Seelbach, PLLC. Seelbach is also the co-founder of Skribe.ai, a testimony capture tool. We wanted to learn more about Seelbach: how he got into the law profession, what led him to opening his own firm, and how he manages his time as both an attorney and entrepreneur. …