The Hilltop Docket

In plain terms. When two companies sue each other in Texas over governance disputes, mergers, fiduciary duties, or major commercial contracts, the case may proceed in a specialized court — if the statutory jurisdictional requirements are met — called the Texas Business Court (opened September 2024). The Hilltop Docket reads every ruling that court issues, summarizes it in lay language, and explains why it matters for companies, boards, and investors. We publish as warranted — typically weekly during the research preview.

A concrete example. In the court’s first written opinion, Energy Transfer LP v. Culberson Midstream LLC, 2024 Tex. Bus. 1 (Oct. 30, 2024), the parties tried to move an already-pending lawsuit into the new court. The court held it could not hear cases filed before its September 1, 2024 opening — a clean answer to a question every early litigant faced. In our issues, you would see (1) what the case is about, (2) what the judge decided, (3) what it means for similar disputes going forward — with a direct link to the signed opinion on the court’s public website.

Where we look. The Texas Business Court is the primary beat. We also follow its appeals in the Fifteenth Court of Appeals and related cases in the Texas Supreme Court — counted separately, never mixed into Business Court totals. And we cover important corporate-governance developments in other states, mainly Delaware and Nevada — for example, the Delaware Court of Chancery litigation over Dropbox’s move from Delaware to Nevada.

Who reads it. General counsel and outside counsel tracking disputes that might land in the Texas Business Court. Boards of directors at Texas-incorporated companies. Investors trying to understand the legal environment in Texas. Journalists, academics, and policymakers studying how the new court is shaping commercial law in real time.

What it is not. Not legal advice. Not advocacy. Not commentary that takes sides for or against either party. The publication exists to make a new court’s output legible to people who do not spend their days reading court orders.

Scope. The Hilltop Docket covers the Texas Business Court as its primary beat, including appeals and related original proceedings in the Fifteenth Court of Appeals (Tex. Gov’t Code § 25A.007(a) (2025)) and related cases in the Texas Supreme Court. Fifteenth Court of Appeals matters are counted separately and never folded into Business Court totals. It also follows relevant corporate-governance and reincorporation developments in other states, principally the Delaware Court of Chancery, Delaware Supreme Court, Nevada Business Court, and Nevada appellate courts — for example, the Delaware Court of Chancery litigation over Dropbox’s reincorporation from Delaware to Nevada. Architected on a sequential per-year citation scheme, an append-only corpus, a primary-source URL on every claim of fact, and structured complaint summaries.

1. Primary sources only.

Every case treatment links to the signed opinion, order, or filing of record; statutory analysis links to enacted text; where a source is unavailable or login-gated, the limitation is labeled. Footnote URLs target primary sources, not commentary. Practitioner blogs may appear as scholarship cites but not as URL targets.

2. Human review of every opinion summary before publication.

Case-level work in each edition is structured to permit but not require AI assistance. No opinion summary ships without a human editor having read both the court’s order and the publication’s treatment of it. This remains true for as long as The Hilltop Docket publishes under the SMU CGI imprint.

3. Independence.

The Hilltop Docket is a research publication of the SMU Corporate Governance Initiative; interpretations are the authors’ own and not institutional positions.