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Environmental

  • July 29, 2025

    Ford Settles Proposed Class Action Over Emissions Warranty

    Ford has settled a putative class action accusing it of violating the unfair competition law by failing to provide an emissions warranty for Golden State drivers whose vehicle transmissions weren't covered for seven years or 70,000 miles, according to a notice filed in California federal court.

  • July 29, 2025

    NC Engineer Says Green Energy Co. Withheld Stock Options

    A former engineer at a North Carolina climate technology company sued his ex-employer, claiming the company and its board refused to let him exercise his stock options after he left for another green energy business.

  • July 29, 2025

    Calif. Allows Retroactive Tax Exclusion For Solar Property

    California will allow the purchaser of a new property a three-year window to apply for a property tax exclusion for solar energy systems under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

  • July 29, 2025

    Judge Wants Docs On Feds' Role In Fla. Detention Center Suit

    A Florida federal judge has said agreements between the federal government and the state concerning the immigrant detention center in the Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" could help the court decide if federal environmental laws are at play in a suit from environmental groups.

  • July 29, 2025

    5 Firms Lead $2.48B Sale Of Piedmont Natural Gas' Tenn. Biz

    Duke Energy on Tuesday announced plans to sell its Piedmont Natural Gas Tennessee local distribution business to natural gas company Spire Inc. in a $2.48 billion all-cash deal that was built by five law firms.

  • July 29, 2025

    Judge Says Tug Operator Estate Liable For $14M Cleanup Bill

    A Washington federal judge ruled that the estate of a tugboat master is jointly and severally liable for about $14.4 million of oil cleanup costs the U.S. government incurred after a derelict fishing vessel being towed ran aground on the California coast.

  • July 29, 2025

    Pot Growers Not Forum-Shopping In $17M Suit, Judge Finds

    A Massachusetts state court judge has rejected claims of forum shopping made by a berry farm accused of contaminating nearby cannabis fields with pesticides, denying a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction.

  • July 28, 2025

    Patent Damages Explode As Practice Areas See Wild Swings

    Damages in plaintiff-won federal patent cases have soared in the past decade while those in environmental cases and some other types of civil litigation have plummeted, a new report from Lex Machina shows.

  • July 28, 2025

    Apache Women Look To Block Arizona Site's Destruction

    A group of Apache women are looking to block the federal government from transferring their Arizona worship site to a copper mining company, telling a D.C. federal court they will be unable to practice and pass down their religion if the site is destroyed.

  • July 28, 2025

    Rincon Band Says NEPA Reform Proposal Is Bad Idea

    The Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians says projects under the FCC's jurisdiction have historically "failed to adequately identify and assess historic properties of cultural and religious significance to Tribal Nations" and a proposal to loosen National Environmental Policy Act rules will make things only worse.

  • July 28, 2025

    Florida's AG Announces 'Climate Cartel' Investigation

    Florida's attorney general announced Monday that he is investigating whether two greenhouse gas emission reduction groups violated state consumer protection or antitrust laws for allegedly coercing companies into disclosing proprietary information.

  • July 28, 2025

    Hawaii Fights Back Against US Bid To Block Climate Suit

    Hawaii on Friday asked a federal judge to throw out the Trump administration's "extraordinary and unprecedented" effort to block the state's climate change lawsuit against major energy companies.

  • July 28, 2025

    BLM Kills Biden-Era Policy Docs For Oil Drilling In Alaska

    The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday rescinded three Biden-era actions that aimed to restrict development activities in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.

  • July 28, 2025

    Utilities Can Join 4th Circ. FERC Grid Policy Fight

    The Fourth Circuit said Friday that environmental groups, municipal utilities and electricity cooperatives, among many others, can intervene in an appeal challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent overhaul of its regional transmission policy.

  • July 28, 2025

    Fla. Says Tribe Can't Join Detention Center Row, Feds Shrug

    The Florida Division of Emergency Management's chief is objecting to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians' effort to join green groups' legal fight against an immigration detention center constructed in the Everglades.

  • July 28, 2025

    Midstream Co. Says Contractor Caused $8M Spill In La.

    A Louisiana midstream company has told a Harris County court that a contractor tasked with controlling operations on a frac tank caused an $8 million oil spill, asking the court to order the contractor to reimburse it for the spill.

  • July 28, 2025

    Insurer Must Cover Runoff Settlement, Auto Co. Says

    An automobile auction company told a Texas federal court that a Liberty Mutual unit must indemnify a settlement reached over underlying claims that the company caused storm water runoff in neighboring properties when it cleared several parcels of land for car and machinery storage.

  • July 28, 2025

    Homeowners, Chubb Settle Water Damage Suit Ahead Of Trial

    Illinois homeowners and a Chubb unit agreed to end their dispute over coverage for damage caused by a burst water pipe during an extreme temperature drop, weeks after an Illinois federal court cleared the case for trial, according to a court filing.

  • July 28, 2025

    KKR Plugs AU$500M Into Australian Renewable Energy Biz

    Private equity giant KKR on Monday said that it has agreed to invest AU$500 million ($326.3 million) into Australian renewable energy company CleanPeak Energy to help it grow its distributed energy platform.

  • July 25, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Private REITs, Farms, Crypto In Escrow?

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney perspectives on private real estate investment trusts, national security concerns raised by farmland and a recent California listing that could lead to the state's largest real estate deal using digital currency.

  • July 25, 2025

    Calif. Air Board Faces New Suit Over Carbon Fuel Standard

    Environmental and public interest groups hit the California Air Resources Board with another lawsuit in Golden State court Friday, alleging that the state's recent amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard will have the perverse effect of incentivizing large-scale factory farms, which pose significant environmental and public health risks.

  • July 25, 2025

    Solar Developer Claims NC County's Permit Denial Was Biased

    A "needlessly and excessively combative" board of county commissioners in North Carolina unconstitutionally blocked a solar energy developer's project based on personal issues, according to the company's lawsuit.

  • July 25, 2025

    9th Circ.: Gila River Tribe-Farmer Water Fight Not Over

    The Ninth Circuit has ruled a federal judge prematurely sided with the Gila River Indian Community in a water rights dispute, finding future fact-finding is needed before ordering Arizona farmers to shut off wells that allegedly draw water from the river.

  • July 25, 2025

    Feds Redirect First Phase Of Atomic Bomb Waste To Texas

    Radioactive waste from the development of the first atomic bomb will no longer be sent to a landfill in Wayne County, Michigan, after a group of nearby communities sued to block the landfill from accepting 6,000 cubic yards of the material. 

  • July 25, 2025

    Fluoride Fans Tell 9th Circ. To Preserve Drinking Water Use

    A pro-fluoride group is supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's fight to overturn a California federal judge's ruling that current limits on the chemical in drinking water aren't protective enough.

Expert Analysis

  • Calif. Air Board Offers Early Hints On Climate Reporting

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    As initial reporting deadlines for California's new climate reporting laws approach, guidance provided by the California Air Resources Board in a virtual public workshop sheds some light on rulemaking to come, and how to prepare for compliance during this period of uncertainty, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Supporting A Trial Team

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    While students often practice as lead trial attorneys in law school, such an opportunity likely won’t arise until a few years into practice, so junior associates should focus on honing skills that are essential to supporting a trial team, including organization, adaptability and humility, says Lucy Zelina at Tucker Ellis.

  • Opinion

    Address Nationwide Injunction Issues With Random Venues

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    Many of the qualms about individual district court judges' authority to issue nationwide injunctions could be solved with a simple legislative solution: handling multiple complaints about the same agency action filed in different district courts by assigning a venue via random selection, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • FAR Rewrite May Cloud Key Gov't Contract Doctrine

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    The Trump administration's government procurement overhaul, under which sections of the Federal Acquisition Regulation are eliminated by default, is bound to collide with a doctrine that allows courts to read omitted clauses into government contracts if they represent long-standing pillars of federal procurement law, say attorneys at Rogers Joseph.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Attorney To BigLaw

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    When I transitioned to private practice after government service — most recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — I learned there are more similarities between the two jobs than many realize, with both disciplines requiring resourcefulness, zealous advocacy and foresight, says Zach Terwilliger at V&E.

  • Opinion

    Aviation Watch: A Supersonic 'Boom' Going Nowhere Fast

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    Legislation recently introduced in Congress to repeal the Federal Aviation Administration's ban on supersonic flight over U.S. territory appears to benefit a single company with an uncertain business plan, and is not truly in the public interest, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Measuring The Impact Of Attorney Gender On Trial Outcomes

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    Preliminary findings from our recent study on how attorney gender might affect case outcomes support the conclusion that there is little in the way of a clear, universal bias against attorneys of a given gender, say Jill Leibold, Olivia Goodman and Alexa Hiley at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • The Ins And Outs Of Consensual Judicial References

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    As parties consider the possibility of judicial reference to resolve complex disputes, it is critical to understand how the process works, why it's gaining traction, and why carefully crafted agreements make all the difference, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit

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    The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.

  • House Bill Tax Tweaks Would Hinder Renewable Projects

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    Provisions in the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would rapidly phase out clean energy tax credits, constrain renewable energy financing arrangements and impose sweeping restrictions on projects with foreign ties, which may create compliance and supply chain issues for many developers, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • What Gene Findings Mean For Asbestos Mesothelioma Claims

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    Recent advances in genetic research have provided substantial evidence that significant numbers of malignant mesothelioma cases may be caused by inherited mutations rather than asbestos exposure — a finding that could fundamentally change how defendants approach personal injury litigation over mesothelioma, say David Schwartz at Lumanity and Kirk Hartley at LSP Group.

  • Series

    Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Oft-Forgotten Evidence Rule Can Be Powerful Trial Tool

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    Rule 608 may be one of the most overlooked provisions in the Federal Rules of Evidence, but as a transformative tool that allows attorneys to attack a witness's character for truthfulness through opinion or reputation testimony, its potential to reshape a case cannot be overstated, says Marian Braccia at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

  • Energy Order Brings Risks For Lenders And Borrowers Alike

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    A recent executive order directing the attorney general to submit a report next month with recommendations for halting enforcement of state laws the administration says are hampering energy resources presents risks for lenders and borrowers using state-generated carbon credits, but proactive steps now can help insulate against adverse consequences, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What's At Stake As Trump Admin Targets Carbon Markets

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    Trading in greenhouse gas emissions and reductions has long been touted as a way to leverage market forces to tackle climate change cost-effectively, and that theory may be put to the test amid momentous progress and fresh challenges, particularly as the Trump administration takes aim at climate initiatives, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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