In its eighth year tracking minority-lawyer representation, the Dallas Diversity Task Force issued a report Oct. 9 that shows some progress but also significant setbacks among top Dallas firms. “We’re going backwards. It’s a little disappointing. I don’t know how to sugarcoat this,” says DDTF’s 2013 chairwoman Rosa Orenstein.

Attorney W. Mark Bennett explains how to move boxes of documents from the all-too-collapsible dolly to the iPad, and hopefully take away some of the fear along the way. Beyond freeing lawyers from backbreaking boxes, this simple process saves clients’ money and eliminates the costs of making countless paper copies.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Kenneth Magidson says that 90 percent of the administrative staff in the Southern District is staying home on furlough. All of his criminal prosecutors are working without pay, and so are appellate attorneys who handle criminal appeals.

A former client and his company sued Andrews Kurth on Oct. 10, alleging the Houston-based firm engaged in legal malpractice and breached a fiduciary duty when representing the plaintiffs in a family business dispute.

In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has turned away a First Amendment challenge to Texas laws that restrict receipt and delivery of voter-registration applications during voter-registration drives.