Texas Asks Justices To Uphold Bar On Nuclear Waste Site

By Madeline Lyskawa

The state of Texas called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's attempt to upend a Fifth Circuit decision barring the agency from licensing a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in the state. 

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California Fires Back At Red State Attacks On Climate Torts

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

California and a contingent of blue states told the U.S. Supreme Court that their climate change torts against fossil fuel companies are on solid legal ground and that an effort by Alabama and other red states to undercut them must be rejected.

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2 AGs Push Justices To Stay EPA Power Plant Emission Rule

By Tom Lotshaw

Ohio and Kansas are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a challenged U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, arguing the unlawful rule forces plants to risk billions of dollars on unproven control technologies or shut down.

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Kenya's Justices May Ax Part Of Tax Act That Set Off Unrest

By Kevin Pinner

The Supreme Court of Kenya agreed to stay a lower court's ruling declaring unconstitutional the government's entire 2023 tax package, which sparked deadly nationwide protests, but it looks likely to scrap at least part of the law next month, attorneys told Law360 on Thursday.

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Brief

Pa. Welders, Attys Get Final OK On $970K Drive Time Deal

By Matthew Santoni

A Pennsylvania state court gave final approval Thursday to a $970,000 settlement, including $355,000 in attorney fees, to resolve workers' claims that Great American Welding Co. owed them pay for the time they spent shuttling between satellite parking lots and Shell's petrochemical cracker plant in southwestern Pennsylvania.

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Calif. Justices Revive PwC's $2.5M Sanction Against LA

By Gina Kim

The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously restored a $2.5 million sanction sought by PwC against the city of Los Angeles for pervasive discovery misconduct in an underlying utility billing fight, finding that the trial court had the authority to impose monetary sanctions under the state's Code of Civil Procedure.

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Local Property Tax Exemptions A Must For Solar, Va. AG Says

By Maria Koklanaris

Localities are required under state statute to provide an exemption for the taxation of property used for solar photovoltaic systems, or systems that use solar panels to create energy, the Virginia attorney general said in an opinion.

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Mining Firm USA Rare Earth Inks $870M SPAC Merger

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Mining and magnet firm USA Rare Earth LLC, advised by King & Spalding LLP, on Thursday announced plans to go public at a pro forma enterprise value of $870 million by merging with White & Case LLP-led special purpose acquisition company Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. II.

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Apache Carry Petition To High Court With A Prayer Journey

By Crystal Owens

Members of an Apache nonprofit fighting to save an Indigenous worship site from destruction are making stops to visit other tribes throughout the country for prayers and support as they deliver a petition to the Supreme Court that seeks to undo a Ninth Circuit ruling and block a mining project.

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Brief

Ga. Mineral Co., Insurer Strike Deal In Talc Coverage Suit

By Madeline Lyskawa

Phoenix Insurance Co. reached a contingent settlement with a Georgia-based mineral products company in litigation seeking to force the insurer to defend the company against an underlying suit claiming it supplied asbestos-containing talc products.

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Sheppard Mullin's Latest Energy Duo Joins From Locke Lord

By Andrea Keckley

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP is continuing to grow its talent in the energy space, announcing Wednesday that it has hired two Locke Lord LLP attorneys.

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Fisher Phillips Brings Smith Gambrell Atty To DC Gov't Team

By Jack Rodgers

Fisher Phillips' new D.C.-based agriculture employment partner has practiced several types of law throughout his career, and told Law360 Pulse Thursday that his employment law career started unexpectedly after a managing partner at one of his first firms called out sick before an interview.

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King & Spalding Grows New York Real Estate Group

By James Boyle

An attorney specializing in transactional work and fund formation moved his practice this week to King & Spalding LLP's New York office after four and a half years with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

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Series

Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.

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Client Wants Atty's Wife Held In Contempt In Malpractice Case

By Daniel Ducassi

A couple awarded a $1.2 million default malpractice judgment against their former lawyer have asked a Colorado state judge to hold the attorney's wife in contempt after she said in a deposition she failed to check whether she and her husband had joint bank accounts or to bring documents, as required by a subpoena. 

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Girardi Says High Court Holding Should Gut His Fraud Case

By Craig Clough

Tom Girardi has urged a California federal judge to toss the majority of the wire fraud charges he is facing ahead of closing arguments in his trial, saying a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case demonstrates he was charged for nothing more than receiving legally required wire transfers.

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Ex-Reed Smith Atty Wants Pay Data In Bias Suit Against Firm

By Jake Maher

A former Reed Smith LLP attorney suing the firm for gender discrimination has told a New Jersey state court that the firm must turn over pay data for nonequity partners stretching back years for her to make her case.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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DOJ Sues RealPage For Helping Fix Rental Rates

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit Friday accusing RealPage of helping residential landlords across the country fix rental prices through the use of its revenue management software.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Fillmore Law Firm LLP, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center and the Business Roundtable lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Texas federal judge blocked a Federal Trade Commission ban on noncompete agreements in employment contracts.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

The past week in London has seen Google sue several Russian media outlets in response to challenges to the tech giant's response to international sanctions, easyGroup bring an intellectual property claim against delivery company Easycargo, and e-money business Nyavo challenge action by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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On Final Night Of DNC, Prosecutors Ruled The Stage

By Courtney Bublé

Vice President Kamala Harris invoked her experience as a prosecutor and an attorney general in her speech Thursday night in Chicago accepting the Democratic nomination for president.

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Messner Reeves Commercial Litigator Jumps To Gordon Rees

By Madison Arnold

A former Messner Reeves LLP partner has jumped to Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP in San Diego to bolster its services in product and general liability matters, catastrophic brain injury cases and commercial litigation.

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Ohio Judge Dinged For Public Posts About Guardianship Spat

By Emily Sawicki

The Ohio Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded a probate court judge for allowing staff to make inaccurate comments to the press about a guardianship case and for posting comments about the case on the court's Facebook page, including accusing a man of elder abuse without evidence.

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Client Says Negligence Led To NJ Firm's Ransomware Attack

By Adrian Cruz

A client of The Wacks Law Group LLC hit the New Jersey firm with a proposed class action claiming that its negligence in properly securing its data storage led to the theft of hundreds of clients' personal information in a March cyberattack.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A U.S. court in Texas has agreed with tax company Ryan LLC's general counsel that the Federal Trade Commission's ban on noncompete agreements is illegal. And women still hold fewer than 26% of law firm equity partnerships, according to Law360 Pulse's 2024 Women in Law report.

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NJ Panel Backs Dismissal Of Whistleblower Suit

By James Boyle

A former New Jersey assistant prosecutor did not provide a clear enough link between complaints he filed against his boss and an alleged retaliatory disciplinary action, a New Jersey appellate panel ruled Friday when it dismissed his whistleblower suit.

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Attys Fight Over Fee Award In Conservative Group's IRS Win

By Jared Foretek

A prominent conservative lawyer says like-minded election integrity group True the Vote owes his firm over $500,000 in attorney fees for a suit against the Internal Revenue Service that was settled years ago, telling a D.C. federal judge Friday that it's time for TTV to pay up.

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Georgia Cases To Watch In The Last Half Of 2024

By Kelcey Caulder

The prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and his election interference case codefendants, along with Atlanta rapper Young Thug's bid to have the judge overseeing his racketeering trial removed from the case, will take center stage in Georgia's courts as we enter the second half of 2024.

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ABA Guides Lawyers On Avoiding Criminal Transactions

By Emily Sawicki

Just over a year after the American Bar Association formalized long-standing due diligence rules for attorneys' interactions with clients, an ABA committee on Friday released its first ethics opinion providing guidance on interpreting the rules amendment.

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Brief

2 Veteran Public Defenders Tapped For Mass. Bench

By Julie Manganis

Two longtime public defenders have been nominated as associate justices in Massachusetts state court, Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday.

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LegalShield Used AI To Record Clients, Suit Says

By Nadia Dreid

Online legal service company LegalShield has been letting a call center software company use artificial intelligence to intercept, analyze and record its customer calls and chats, according to a lawsuit recently pulled into California federal court.

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