Corporate law departments are increasingly separating new matters into one of two buckets of legal work: routine/basic and higher value/risk. There is a clear division: black and white?no shades of gray.

A Bad Boss can be incompetent, insecure, frightened and micromanaging. But there will always be difficult senior partners, practice group leaders and managers. Having the skills to deal with them will go a long way.

A Harris County grand jury has no-billed 311th District Judge Denise Pratt, a family law judge, the Harris County District Attorney’s office announced. “The allegations of misconduct against Judge Pratt were extensively reviewed by a team of prosecutors and investigators assigned to the Public Integrity Division,” the DA’s office wrote in the release.

Marilea Lewis, has become managing shareholder and chief operating officer of Godwin Lewis in Dallas, effective Dec. 1. Plus more new positions, appointments, awards and honors.

If there’s never a second chance to make a first impression, as the cliche goes, what’s the first impression to be made in appellate advocacy? Easy: the required statement of issues presented for review.