Following the Nov. 3 election ushering in a number of Democrats across Texas, Bell Nunnally Partner Heath Cheek was quoted in the Texas Lawyer article, “‘People Wanted Change’: Blue Wave Reshapes Texas Courts”, the Law360 article, “Attys Consider Corporate Implications Of Blue Texas” and The Texas Lawbook article, “Civil Litigation Experts: 2026 SCOTX, 15th COA and Texas AG Elections Will Have ‘Monumental Impact’”. The coverage examines the election’s potential effects on Texas courts, businesses and the state’s regulatory environment.

From the Texas Lawyer article:

On the Results:

Totally jaw-on-the-floor shocked. Nobody saw this complete sweep coming on either side, I don’t think.

On the Texas Business Court’s Future:

If you asked me yesterday to bet what was going to happen with the business courts, I was going to bet on a pretty big expansion of it. Now I don’t know if it’s going to be an expansion, regression or stay the same.

On the Incoming Attorney General’s Social-Issue Positions:

On the social issues, it’s going to be a 180 flip.

From the Law360 article:

Potential Effects on the Regulatory Climate and Business Litigation in Texas:

There’s many draws to Texas for business, but one of them is this low regulatory environment, and I cannot see a scenario where regulation does not increase in some way as a result of this.

On the Upcoming Texas Legislature’s Priorities:

I don’t foresee, right now, that they’re going to have a lot of room on their legislative calendar to do just fundamental wholesale changes of the law. They’re going to pick their priorities, and there’s probably going to be four or five priorities that get passed.

On the Texas Business Courts:

It’s one of the best things we’ve done as a state.

On the incoming attorney general’s review of cases involving corporate defendants:

Whenever Nathan Johnson gets into the OAG office and starts looking around, I think there’s a lot of cases he’s going to keep.

He added:

I think [that lawsuit is] (against OpenAI, alleging the company breached consumer protection laws by unleashing a ChatGPT version that often gives harmful advice and is addictive to children) something that the Democrats would probably continue.

From The Texas Lawbook article:

On the Importance of Protecting the Texas Business Courts and the Y’all Street Momentum

One of the purposes of the Texas Business Courts was to create a body of corporate law decisions through the 15th Court of Appeals. That goal is going to face uncertainty as a result of the election.

I think most practitioners expected the 15th COA to be the last stop — practically speaking — on the appellate chain because the Texas Supreme Court and 15th Court of Appeals had a similar ideological make-up. Now, I expect a lot more 15th COA decisions will be appealed to the 5-4 Texas Supreme Court over the next two years.

To some degree, the TBCs were the key that unlocked the floodgates to the corporate relocations and Y’all Street movement. We cannot lose that forward momentum.