Kansas City Jury Awards Firm Client $15M
May 26, 2009 — The Kansas City Business Journal reports that a federal jury has awarded firm client Dovetail Builders 2 LLC "nearly $15 million for a breach of contract claim involving a Junction City apartment development."
According to the report, the real estate dispute involved a joint agreement that Dovetail entered into with David Christie of D.J. Christie Inc. and former associate Alexander Glenn. Dovetail's lawsuit claimed that Christie "abandoned the joint venture after the Junction City Commission indicated it would offer incentives for the project. Christie completed the project without Dovetail Builders."
“We applaud the jury’s decision and finding that our clients were unjustly removed from this real estate development deal,” said William Brewer, an attorney with Dallas-based Bickel & Brewer.
To read the full article, click here.
Dallas Morning News: Closing Arguments Heard in Irving Voting Rights Trial
February 21, 2009 – The Dallas Morning News reports that closing arguments were held in a trial over whether the Irving City Council’s at-large voting system suppressed the votes of Hispanics and violated the Voting Rights Act.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis said he hoped to decide within a month whether to require the council to create single-member districts.
Brewer Storefront represented plaintiff Manuel Benavidez, who filed the federal lawsuit claiming that the city’s at-large voting system blocked the votes of Hispanics.
David Ely, an expert for Benavidez, testified that he found several possible districts where eligible voters were mainly Hispanic.
Dallas Morning News: Voting Rights Trial Set to Begin Today
February 17, 2009 – The Dallas Morning News reports that a trial was set to open in federal court in which plaintiff Manuel Benavidez sued the City of Irving, alleging that its at-large voting method for City Council elections effectively denies representation to Hispanics.
Bill Brewer, who represented Benavidez, called the city’s defense claims “silly” and pointed out that they were ignoring data, including expert reports identifying ways to draw majority-Hispanic single-member districts.
“Notice Irving doesn’t defend its case by pretending that the system is fair or it’s time for a change hasn’t come,” Brewer said.
The article noted that Irving’s mayor and eight council members were white, even though white residents only comprised about 35.6 percent of the city’s population, while Hispanic made up about 40.6 percent of the population.
AP: Texas Attorney Fights Illegal Immigration Rules
February 8, 2009 – The Associated Press reports on attorney William “Bill” Brewer’s successful work representing landlords in Farmers Branch, Texas, fighting the city’s efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from renting apartments and houses.
In November 2006, the Farmers Branch City Council passed a city ordinance requiring landlords to check the immigration status of renters.
“What they’re doing in Farmers Branch is highly illegal, inappropriate and unconstitutional,” said Brewer.
The article described Brewer’s dedication to civil rights work and advocacy on behalf of the Latino population.
“Generating an antagonism between Anglos and Hispanics is not the way to go,” Brewer said. “This is a state, if it’s not already, will soon be, a state where the majority of the people in our community ... are of Hispanic origin.”
Brewer also described the advocacy of Bickel & Brewer Storefront (now Brewer Storefront), offering pro-bono services.
“The goal here was to do something a little different and it was – and is – to bring the resources that are available to our corporate clients to community impact cases.”
Speaking further on the growth of the Hispanic population in Texas, Brewer said that “The most important time in the history of Texas is right now in how we handle this shifting demographic. And it is an opportunity, it’s not bad, it’s all good.”
Read more here.
The Wall Street Journal Reports on Firm's "Old-School Power Attire"
February 5, 2009 — The Wall Street Journal's Style Section reports on the firm's affinity for formality in the article "Inside a Bastion of Old-School Power Attire." The report states that, at Bickel & Brewer, "even the mailroom clerks wear suits and ties."
"I think people expect high-powered lawyers to look like high-powered lawyers," said Managing Partner William A. Brewer III. "Anything else is sending the wrong signal."
Read the full article here.
Austin American-Statesman Reports on Settlement in Hydro-Quebec Battery Dispute
October 11, 2008 — In an article titled “Battery Deal Gives UT Royalty Payments,” The Austin American-Statesman reports that The University of Texas and Bickel & Brewer client Hydro-Quebec have "settled a 7-year-old lawsuit that clears the way for the development and sale of battery-powered products that would use technology created at the Austin campus."
The report states that, according to the terms of the settlement, the UT System and Hydro-Quebec will be paid $30 million by Japanese communications giant NTT Corp.
The report states that "NTT Corp. will license the battery technology patents to Hydro-Quebec and the university system, giving H-Q free rein to try to sell the technology in a range of electronic devices. The settlement also allows the utility to sublicense the technology to other companies."
Dallas Morning News: Studies – Hispanic Candidates Blocked
July 11, 2008 – The Dallas Morning News reports that new studies released as part of a federal voting rights lawsuit brought against the City of Irving found that the city’s at-large voting system allowed white voters to block the election of Hispanic-favored candidates.
“It is clear that whites vote as a bloc, and given they vote as a bloc, it effectively negates any chance a Hispanic has at being elected,” said attorney Bill Brewer, who represented plaintiff Manuel Benavidez in the lawsuit.
The Brewer firm commissioned the studies on Irving City Council elections in 2002, 2005 and 2008. The article noted that they were conducted by an expert on election systems and minority voters and the founder of a database management firm specializing in Census data.
The lawsuit requested that a U.S. district court declare that Irving’s at-large method violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and asked the city to develop a new system of electing council members.
Vanity Fair: Oil in the Family
June 2008 – A profile story in Vanity Fair, “Oil in the Family,” profiles the story of the Hunt dynasty and legal actions dividing the family. The publication writes, “In 1935 oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, known as the richest man in America, created what would become a multi-billion-dollar trust for his descendants. Three generations later, a lawsuit by his free-spending grandson is shaking the foundations of that mighty family fortune.”
“At stake, according to family documents, is an oil-and-gas fortune worth between $2.5 and $4 billion,” according to the article.”
Bill Brewer, who represents Al Hill III, and his client “both maintain that the exchange of charges and countercharges between the warring camps has obscured the core issue: the family’s plan to sell Hunt Petroleum and to break no just one but two trusts that own the company, and then to seize the proceeds, much sooner than the family ever would have been able to had the trusts remained intact,” writes author Alan Peppard.
Read the article here (subscription required).