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Environmental
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November 01, 2024
MVP: Latham's Stacey VanBelleghem
Latham & Watkins LLP's Stacey VanBelleghem has won several important battles for clients over the past year, including defending wind energy developer Orsted A/S from green groups' challenges and helping electric vehicle companies fight challenges to federal standards on greenhouse gas emissions, earning her a spot among the 2024 Law360 Environmental MVPs.
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October 31, 2024
EPA Can't Declare La. Deadline Extension Invalid, 5th Circ. Told
A Louisiana neoprene maker on Wednesday told the Fifth Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to invalidate a two-year compliance deadline extension that the state granted to the company, which is being sued by the EPA.
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October 31, 2024
Tribal Nonprofit Says Employees Divulged Trade Secrets
A Native American nonprofit is suing an Oregon environmental consulting firm, alleging that its founder and chief executive officer divulged the trade secrets information of tribes and others and made false accusations to donors that it was mismanaging funds.
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October 31, 2024
Everglades Scientist's Contempt Upheld Over Data Theft
A Florida state appellate panel upheld indirect criminal contempt against an Everglades scientist after a lower court found he violated an order to return data he allegedly took upon resigning from his previous nonprofit job following a falling out with the CEO and went to work for a rival organization.
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October 31, 2024
Valero To Pay 'Historic' $82M Fine For Bay Area Air Pollution
Valero Refining Co. will pay a record $82 million penalty to settle claims that it failed to report cancer-causing emissions from its Northern California petroleum refinery for nearly two decades, state and Bay Area air pollution regulators announced Thursday, saying nearly all of the fine will fund local community projects.
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October 31, 2024
Flint Water Case Paused For 'Advanced' Settlement Talks
Days after a jury trial meant to decide whether a water firm failed to properly warn of the dangers of the city of Flint's water was delayed a second time, a Michigan federal judge paused two bellwether cases because of "advanced settlement negotiations" between individual plaintiffs and the firm.
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October 31, 2024
LA Hits Pepsi, Coca-Cola With Plastic Waste, Deception Suit
Los Angeles County hit PepsiCo Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co. with a California state suit claiming the longtime soft drink rivals are spouting falsehoods about recycling's ability to address their single-use plastic waste and flooding the environment with growing amounts of harmful plastic despite pledges to reduce it.
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October 31, 2024
Enviros Call On EPA To Address Petcoke Plant Water Pollution
A dozen environmental groups filed a petition Thursday demanding the EPA implement national water pollution standards for petroleum coke processing plants, which they said have slipped through the Clean Water Act's protections.
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October 31, 2024
Mineral Co. Execs Allegedly Misled Investors On Gov't Contract
Current and former directors and officers of minerals producer Compass Minerals International Inc. face a shareholder derivative action alleging they hid signs the company wouldn't be able to renew a lucrative supplier relationship with the U.S. Forest Service.
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October 31, 2024
Mexican Shipping Co. Fined For Concealing Discharges
Mexican company Gremex Shipping SA de CV pled guilty in a Florida federal court and was sentenced to pay a $1.75 million fine for falsifying records to conceal unlawful discharges of oily bilge waste, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
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October 31, 2024
FERC Unlawfully Rewrote Grid Hookup Policy, DC Circ. Told
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's revised policy on hooking up new power projects to the grid unlawfully imposes a punitive, one-size-fits-all system on transmission owners, regional grid operators and transmission companies told the D.C. Circuit Wednesday.
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October 31, 2024
Judge Asks If Full 6th Circ. Needs To Settle Emissions Conflict
A Sixth Circuit judge expressed discomfort Thursday with the possibility his panel could be asked to declare that colleagues made conflicting calls in separate suits alleging carmakers deceived consumers about vehicle sustainability, wondering if the full circuit needed to weigh in.
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October 31, 2024
MVP: Baron & Budd's Scott Summy
Scott Summy, head of Baron & Budd PC's environmental litigation group, won what the firm says are the largest and second-largest drinking water contamination settlements in U.S. history — a $12.5 billion settlement with 3M and a $1.185 billion agreement with DuPont — as well as other major water settlements, earning him a spot among the 2024 Law360 Environmental MVPs.
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October 31, 2024
NC City Urges Panel To Rethink Stormwater Ruling
A North Carolina city has urged a state appeals court panel to rethink its decision reviving part of a condo association's suit over damage the city allegedly caused by dumping stormwater onto the group's properties after Hurricane Matthew, arguing that the majority's opinion relies on a factual error.
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October 31, 2024
The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard
Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.
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October 31, 2024
Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot
Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.
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October 31, 2024
IFC Projects Must Do More On Emissions, Report Says
An accountability arm of the International Finance Corp. is encouraging it to bolster its methods to identify and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from financed projects, saying its current approaches are not fully up to date and limit its effectiveness in addressing global warming.
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October 31, 2024
Firms Fight Bid To Revive Malpractice Suit Over Liability Case
Two firms are asking the Delaware Supreme Court to affirm the dismissal of a malpractice suit filed by parents over damages sought for their child's "catastrophic injuries," allegedly caused by contamination from a chicken plant.
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October 30, 2024
'Vague' Witness Sinks Green Materials Co. Investor Suit
A California federal judge dismissed an investor suit Tuesday filed against a maker of sustainable materials alleging it failed to disclose a change in direction in its manufacturing plans and a delay in building a new plant, saying the suit relies heavily on statements of a confidential witness that are "fatally vague."
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October 30, 2024
Calif. Panel Axes $10.6M Abex Asbestos Verdict
A California appellate panel has thrown out a $10.6 million asbestos verdict against Pneumo Abex LLC and ordered a new trial, finding that the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict that rejected the now-bankrupt braking lining manufacturer's sophisticated user defense.
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October 30, 2024
No Ruling On Zeta DQ Bid After Second Marathon Hearing
A Houston judge declined Wednesday to decide whether to disqualify Transocean's counsel from Hurricane Zeta litigation following the second hearing on a former Arnold & Itkin LLP law clerk-turned-defense-lawyer's work with the plaintiffs' firm, indicating she needed time to figure out when the parties reasonably should have learned of the potential conflict of interest.
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October 30, 2024
DOI Invests $46M In Klamath Basin Restoration
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday unveiled nearly $46 million in investments from the bipartisan infrastructure law for ecosystem restoration activities in the drought-prone Klamath River Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California.
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October 30, 2024
Ax Green Groups' Suit Over 'Resiliency' Definition, FEMA Says
The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit brought by environmental advocacy and consumer groups alleging the agency missed its deadline to define "resilient."
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October 30, 2024
Ariz. Tribe Will Get Back 3,200 Acres In US Land Exchange
The Yavapai-Apache Nation will receive 3,200 acres of its ancestral homelands in exchange for six parcels of land located within four national forests in Arizona as part of an agreement with the U.S. National Forest Service and Department of Agriculture that has been decades in the making.
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October 30, 2024
Brookfield Scoops UK Wind Farms Assets In $2.3B Deal
Brookfield has agreed to buy a minority stake in four of Danish multinational energy company Orsted's operational U.K. offshore wind farms in a deal valued at £1.745 billion ($2.27 billion), Orsted announced Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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How Corner Post Affects Enviro Laws' Statutes Of Limitations
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board has helped to alter the fundamental underpinnings of administrative law — and its plaintiff-centric approach may have implications for some specific environmental laws' statutes of limitations, say Chris Leason and Liam Martin at Gallagher and Kennedy.
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2 Vital Trial Principles Endure Amid Tech Advances
Progress in trial technologies in the last 10 years has been transformative for courtroom presentations, but two core communication axioms are still relevant in today's world of drone footage evidence and 3D animations, say Adam Bloomberg and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Nuclear Power Can Help Industrial Plants Get To Net-Zero
In the race to fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, the industrial sector currently faces immense challenges — but the integration of nuclear energy is a promising solution, so companies should consider the financial and regulatory issues, opportunities, and risk-mitigating factors, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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6 Factors That Can Make For A 'Nuclear' Juror
Drawing from recent research that examines the rise in nuclear verdicts, Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies identifies a few juror characteristics most likely to matter in assessing case risk and preparing for jury selection — some of which are long-known, and others that are emerging post-pandemic.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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Class Action Law Makes An LLC A 'Jurisdictional Platypus'
The applicability of Section 1332(d)(10) of the Class Action Fairness Act is still widely misunderstood — and given the ambiguous nature of limited liability companies, the law will likely continue to confound courts and litigants — so parties should be prepared for a range of outcomes, says Andrew Gunem at Strauss Borrelli.
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3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture
Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.
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Rebuttal
Cancer Research Org. Is Right To Avoid Corporate Influence
While a previous Law360 guest article criticizes the International Agency for Research on Cancer's processes, its reliance on peer-reviewed literature is proper and its refusal to allow corporate influence is sound science, say Lance Oliver and Ridge Mazingo at Motley Rice.
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Attorneys Can Benefit From Reverse-Engineering Their Cases
Trial advocacy programs often teach lawyers to loosely track the progression of a lawsuit during preparation — case analysis, then direct examination, then cross-examination, openings and closings — but reverse-engineering cases by working backward from opening and closing statements can streamline the process and also improve case strategy, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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How Courts' Differing Views On Standing Affect PFAS Claims
Two recent opinions from New York federal courts — in Lurenz v. Coca-Cola, and Winans v. Ornua Foods North America — illustrate how pivotal the differing views on standing held by different courts will be for product liability litigation involving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, particularly consumer claims, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.
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New State Carbon Capture Laws: Key Points For Developers
Multiple states have introduced or expanded legal frameworks for carbon capture and sequestration this year, and while there are some common themes, many of these state laws include unique approaches and requirements — which developers and investors should be aware of when considering potential projects and investment risks, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents
Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.