Environmental

  • February 04, 2025

    White House Lacks Authority To Issue NEPA Regs, Judge Says

    The White House Council on Environmental Quality has no authority to issue binding National Environmental Policy Act regulations, a North Dakota judge has ruled, scrapping challenged regulations the Biden administration had enacted.

  • February 04, 2025

    6th Circ. Urged To Back $600M Train Derailment Deal

    Norfolk Southern and East Palestine, Ohio, residents defended a $600 million class settlement in Sixth Circuit briefs Monday, saying the deal provides meaningful relief to people and businesses impacted by a 2023 train derailment and release of toxic chemicals.

  • February 04, 2025

    Wash. Gov. Orders Look At Data Centers' Tax Revenue Impact

    Washington's governor issued an executive order directing the state's Department of Revenue to create a work group to examine the impact of data centers on the state's tax revenue and economy and recommend policies to address tax revenue needs in relation to other priorities.

  • February 04, 2025

    US, Osage Nation Fight Bid To Stay $4.2M Wind Farm Order

    The U.S. government is fighting a bid by Enel Green Power North America to stay a $4.2 million judgment and permanent injunction that requires it to remove 84 wind turbines from the Osage Nation's reservation, arguing that the company is unlikely to prevail in a Tenth Circuit appeal.

  • February 04, 2025

    Environmental Group Of The Year: Keller Rohrback

    Keller Rohrback LLP attorneys secured a $160 million settlement for the city of Seattle in a lawsuit accusing Monsanto of forever-chemical contamination, and they won $126.4 million in damages against PacifiCorp for its role in igniting the 2020 Oregon wildfires, earning the firm a place among the 2024 Law360 Environmental Groups of the Year.

  • February 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Block SC Mixed-Use Housing Project

    The Fourth Circuit refused to temporarily block the development of a nearly 4,000-acre mixed-use Charleston, South Carolina, development project, ruling that the conservationists challenging the project failed to show that the federal government violated federal law after issuing a Clean Water Act permit for the project.

  • February 03, 2025

    DOJ Poised To Prosecute Threat-Makers Against DOGE

    A federal prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump offered Elon Musk his office's support to "protect" the work of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency headed by the billionaire businessman, including "legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people."

  • February 03, 2025

    Faulty LA County Wildfire Alerts Probed By Congress

    A group of U.S. House of Representatives members from Los Angeles County launched an investigation Monday into false-alarm evacuation warnings accidentally sent to nearly 10 million people during last month's deadly wildfires, saying the incident "raises serious questions" about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mobile alert system.

  • February 03, 2025

    Texas Appeals Court Wipes Exxon's $2.5M Oil Cleanup Verdict

    A Texas appeals court has wiped a more than $2.5 million verdict for ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., finding that successive owners of its pipeline hadn't agreed to assume the cleanup costs of an oil spill.

  • February 03, 2025

    Exec Cops To Crashing Drone Into Plane Fighting LA Fires

    The former president of Skydance Media's video game division has admitted to crashing his drone into a water-scooping airplane that was fighting Los Angeles' deadly and destructive Palisades Fire last month, according to a plea agreement in California federal court.

  • February 03, 2025

    Blank Rome Adds Ex-Babst Calland Litigator In Pittsburgh

    Blank Rome LLP has expanded its Pittsburgh office with the recent addition of a business litigator who moved her practice after three years with Babst Calland Clements and Zomnir PC.

  • February 03, 2025

    Environmental Group Of The Year: Sidley Austin

    Sidley Austin LLP attorneys over the past year have helped protect a large offshore wind energy project from multiple lawsuits, helped Cummins Inc. resolve a major federal investigation and helped force Alexandria, Virginia, to stop discharging coal tar into the Potomac River, earning the firm a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Environmental Groups of the Year.

  • February 03, 2025

    Relief In Tribal Casino Fight Would Be Uncommon, Court Told

    An Oregon tribe at the center of a dispute over the federal government's decision to approve a land-into-trust application for the state's first off-reservation casino says any attempt to void the process is moot, telling a federal court that an unfavorable ruling in the case would be unprecedented.

  • February 03, 2025

    Power Cos., States Ask DC Circ. To Dispose Of Coal Ash Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted arbitrarily and well beyond its authority when it enacted a new rule to strengthen federal regulations for coal ash, a score of electric utility entities and Republican-led states told the D.C. Circuit.

  • February 03, 2025

    US Steel, Nippon Say Election Politics Blocked $14.9B Deal

    Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. on Monday filed their opening brief in a suit against former President Joe Biden and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States over a blocked $14.9 billion mega-merger, alleging the deal was blocked purely due to election-year politics and not national security as claimed.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Judge Joins RI In Blocking Trump Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing a freeze on federal spending while a group of nonprofits sue over the move, ruling the pause appears to "suffer from infirmities of a constitutional magnitude."

  • February 03, 2025

    ADNOC, OMV Merger Talks Move Ahead In 'Positive Manner'

    The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. says talks with Austria's OMV to create a new global polyolefins group, potentially valued around $30 billion, are proceeding "in a constructive and positive manner."

  • January 31, 2025

    Funding Freezes 'Commonplace,' Feds Tell DC Judge

    The Trump administration is asking a D.C. federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging a freeze on federal spending outlined in a since-rescinded memo from the White House budget office, telling the court that the withdrawal moots the litigation.

  • January 31, 2025

    Trump's Funding Moves Create Heartburn For Energy Cos.

    The Trump administration's about-face on a federal funding freeze hasn't assuaged energy companies' fears that grants and loans they've been awarded may be in jeopardy, presenting legal and practical risks for projects counting on government cash.

  • January 31, 2025

    Ohio Businesses Hit Norfolk Southern With Derailment Suits

    Norfolk Southern was hit with a slew of new lawsuits over the February 2023 train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio, including by two landlords who claim they lost tenants because of the environmental contamination.

  • January 31, 2025

    January's IPO Market Was Active Despite Tepid Debuts

    Capital markets lawyers kept busy in January thanks to a sizable increase in initial public offerings, but the largest IPOs performed weaker than expected, likely sobering market participants' expectations going forward.

  • January 31, 2025

    Texas Demands Jury Trial In 'Forever Chemical' Suit

    The state of Texas called on a federal judge to grant it a jury trial in litigation against 3M, DuPont and others for alleged "misrepresentations and key omissions" they made about so-called forever chemicals.

  • January 31, 2025

    LA Fire Claims Tracker Reports More Than $4.2B In Payments

    More than $4.2 billion in claims has been paid in connection with the devastating Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires in Los Angeles County that erupted in early January, according to data from a California Department of Insurance tracker.

  • January 31, 2025

    Full DC Circ. Will Not Review White House NEPA Power Ruling

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected petitions for en banc review of a panel's ruling that the White House does not have the legal authority to promulgate regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act.

  • January 31, 2025

    Supreme Court Eyes Its 'Next Frontier' In FCC Delegation Case

    A case about broadband subsidies will give the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle that attorneys say could upend regulations in numerous industries and trigger a power shift that would make last term's shake-up of federal agency authority pale in comparison. And a majority of the court already appears to support its resurrection.

Expert Analysis

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight

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    Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.

  • 'Greenhushing': Why Some Cos. Are Keeping Quiet On ESG

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    A wave of ESG-related litigation and regulations have led some companies to retreat altogether from any public statements about their ESG goals, a trend known as "greenhushing" that was at the center of a recent D.C. court decision involving Coca-Cola, say Gonzalo Mon and Katie Rogers at Kelley Drye.

  • 5 Credibility Lessons Trial Attys Can Learn From Harris' Run

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    In launching a late-stage campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris must seize upon fresh attention from voters to establish, or reestablish, credibility — a challenge that parallels and provides takeaways for trial attorneys, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules

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    A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Nuclear Waste Storage Questions Justices May Soon Address

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    The petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to review U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas stands out for a number of reasons — including a deepening circuit split regarding the NRC's nuclear waste storage authority under the Atomic Energy Act, and broader administrative law implications, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Conservation Rule Already Faces Challenges

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    The Bureau of Land Management's interpretation of land "use" in its Conservation and Landscape Health Rule is contrary to the agency's past practice and other Federal Land Policy and Management Act provisions, leaving the rule exposed in four legal challenges that may carry greater force in the wake of Loper Bright, say Stacey Bosshardt and Stephanie Regenold at Perkins Coie.

  • Opinion

    Big Oil Climate Ruling Sets Dangerous Liability Precedent

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    The recent Maryland court dismissal of Baltimore's case seeking to hold BP responsible for climate damage mischaracterized the city's injuries as divorced from the conduct that caused them, and could allow companies that conceal the dangers of their products to escape liability, says Randall Abate at George Washington University Law School.

  • Opinion

    3rd. Circ. Got It Right On Cancer Warning Claims Preemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent, eminently sensible ruling in a failure-to-warn case against Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, holding that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts state law claims, provides a road map that other courts should adopt, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • 5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges

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    Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • ESA Ruling May Jeopardize Gulf Of Mexico Drilling Operations

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    A Maryland federal court's recent decision in Sierra Club v. National Marine Fisheries Service, vacating key Endangered Species Act analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, may create a gap in guidance that could expose operators to enforcement risk and even criminal liability, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

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