Shrader & Associates has filed a petition in Texas state court alleging a former office manager, who was indicted for allegedly taking more than $200,000 from the firm, provided “confidential, proprietary, and privileged information” from the firm’s computer server to a Houston lawyer and firm.

The law firm consolidation trend continued this week, with Womble Carlyle absorbing a three-lawyer South Carolina shop and Baker Donelson executing its third merger in less than four months by picking up a seven-lawyer Houston firm. And the urge to merge is not exclusive to the U.S. See more information on the Baker Donelson merger, from the Tex Parte Blog.

A federal district court judge in Houston has acquitted John O’Shea, the former general manager of the U.S. subsidiary of global manufacturing giant ABB, of charges that he bribed officials at a Mexican state-owned utility.

Legal recruiting firm MS Legal Search has sued Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell of Houston to collect an unpaid placement fee after the firm allegedly hired a job candidate MS Legal referred to the firm. MS Legal seeks 20 percent or 25 percent of the attorney’s beginning annual compensation.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has entered the Texas market by merging with Houston’s Spain Chambers. With its new Houston office, Baker Donelson has 17 offices in six states, plus Washington, D.C., and about 600 lawyers firmwide.