A chance call from a teacher led to a 25-year lawyer/client relationship between Chris Tritico and the Houston Federation of Teachers. Tritico is now the union’s general counsel and Tritico Rainey is one of the union’s go-to firms.

The 5th Circuit has dismissed an unusual civil rights case in which the plaintiff alleges that several law enforcement officials — including the Brown County District Attorney — failed to protect her from a predator and used her as “sexual bait” to strengthen their prosecutorial case.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission failed to prove a Dallas company’s hiring policy discriminated against African-Americans and males, a federal judge ruled on Aug. 9 when granting a summary judgment in a Title VII lawsuit.

Reese Gordon Marketos, a firm less than three years old, won one of the nation’s largest verdicts so far this year, and got a summary judgment affirmed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a fraud and breach-of-contract suit. Those are heady results for the six-lawyer firm.

Attorney fee disputes are usually tense, messy affairs that are best left to quality outside counsel — especially when the defendant ex-client has enough cash to afford his pick of trial lawyers for representation.