DC Circ. Judges Disagree On Standing In Drilling Permit Suit

By Nadia Dreid

The judges of the D.C. Circuit stepped on each other's toes Thursday during oral arguments over a challenge to the approvals of thousands of drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming, appearing to be at odds over whether the environmental groups' stance on standing had legs.

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Cherokee Look To Block Voter Group In Casino Mandate Row

By Joyce Hanson

Two Cherokee Nation businesses suing Arkansas over a constitutional amendment revoking one of the tribal entities' casino gambling licenses want a federal judge to deny a bid to intervene in their suit by the group responsible for placing a ballot question before voters that repealed the license.

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Ariz. AG Offers $6M To Aid Victims Of Sober Living Scam

By Crystal Owens

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says the state is offering $6 million in grant funding to tribal nations impacted by a sober home living scam that's estimated to have racked up an estimated $2 billion in fraudulent billing and potentially victimized thousands of Native Americans.

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Oklahoma Tribe Asks DC Circ. To Revive Creek Land Lawsuit

By Crystal Owens

An Oklahoma tribe is asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to revive its challenge to a U.S. Department of the Interior decision that rejected the tribe's proposed liquor ordinance in a dispute over shared jurisdiction with the Muscogee Creek Nation, arguing federally recognized Indigenous nations should stand on equal footing.

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House Dems Tell Gorsuch To Recuse Over NEPA Case Conflict

By Katie Buehler

A group of House Democrats has called for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to recuse himself from a dispute over federal environmental review requirements, arguing the court's decision could directly benefit a Colorado billionaire and former client who campaigned for the justice's first judicial appointment.

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FERC Heeds States' Worries With Grid Planning Policy Rewrite

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved changes to its sweeping revision of its regional transmission planning policies, and a heftier role for states in the planning process was enough to assuage the concerns of a commissioner who dissented from the original rule.

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EPA Floats New Draft Framework On Cumulative Impacts

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday further fleshed out exactly what it means when it tells its employees to consider the "cumulative impacts" of pollution on particular communities.

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Brief

Feds Outline Next Steps For Colo. River Basin Agreement

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Department of the Interior released five proposed alternatives for the Colorado River's post-2026 operations aimed at ensuring the long-term stability of the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin for the communities and habitats that rely on it. 

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California Tribe Looks To Increase Trinity River Water Flows

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Yurok Tribe slapped the Bureau of Reclamation with a complaint in California federal court, alleging its operation of the Trinity River Division provides only minimum flows to the Trinity River in the winter and early spring, modifying and harming salmon habitat and population.

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3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

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How They Won It

How A Purple Jacket Led To A Murder Exoneration And $13M

By Julie Manganis

To win compensation under a Massachusetts state law, lawyers for Michael J. Sullivan, who spent 26 years in prison, were required to prove he was innocent of the 1986 crime for which he was convicted. A couple of lucky breaks helped.

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Interview

High Court Bar's Future: Sullivan & Cromwell's Morgan Ratner

By Jeff Overley

Morgan L. Ratner has emerged as a leader of the U.S. Supreme Court bar's next generation, and she attributes her ascent to brilliant mentors, a laid-back argument style, an aversion to overconfidence and a firm commitment to clear principles in every case — even if that means reluctantly telling the chief justice, as she once did, that a hypothetical cat stuck in a tree shouldn't be saved.

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Trump Sentencing Halted To Weigh President-Elect's Immunity

By Frank G. Runyeon

The New York state judge who oversaw Donald Trump's hush money trial officially canceled his Nov. 26 sentencing date Friday to weigh the impact of his new status as president-elect, pushing briefing into December.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen cash-strapped Thurrock Borough Council bring a £40 million ($50 million) negligence claim against 23 other local authorities over its solar investments from a not-for-profit local government body, AstraZeneca sue a fire safety company following a blaze at its Cambridge headquarters last year, and a director who was convicted in 2016 for corporate manslaughter face action by Manolete Partners. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Bonus Spotlight

Top Firms Big And Small Join In On Milbank Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

The latest law firms to follow Milbank LLP on 2024 associate bonuses late Thursday and into Friday run the gamut from global giant to boutique, according to firm memos shared with Law360 Pulse and media reports.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP, King & Spalding LLP, Holland & Knight LLP and Barnes & Thornburg LLP lead this week's list of Law360 legal lions for beating a Pennsylvania state court lawsuit brought against Bayer AG unit Monsanto by a woman who said she got cancer by using the weed killer Roundup.

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Squire Patton Lawyer Dies In Laos Amid Poisoning Reports

By Ashish Sareen

A junior lawyer at Squire Patton Boggs LLP has died in Laos, the law firm confirmed Friday, amid reports in the media that she was the victim of a suspected mass poisoning incident.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google's chief legal officer has blasted a U.S. Department of Justice proposal to force it to sell its Chrome browser, saying a sale would "break" a range of Google products and be a threat to U.S. tech leadership in the world. And in a close but surprising outcome, California voters have turned down a minimum wage hike for workers.

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Gaetz, Greene Face Atty Fees Bid For $550,000 In Calif. Suit

By Madison Arnold

Progressive groups including the NAACP are seeking more than $550,000 in attorney fees and costs from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Rep. Matt Gaetz after escaping their lawsuit alleging that the organizations conspired to pressure city officials in California to cancel the politicians' rallies.

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Analysis

Bondi Vowed Trump Payback. Ex-Colleagues Aren't Worried.

By Phillip Bantz, Chris Villani and Carolina Bolado

U.S. attorney general nominee Pam Bondi is an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump and vowed during the campaign that his "prosecutors will be prosecuted," but people who've worked with her say she's well qualified to serve as the nation's top cop and downplayed concerns that she would politicize the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Brief

Navajo Co. Dismisses Case Alleging Paralegal Took Docs

By Thy Vo

A natural resources company owned by the Navajo Nation has dismissed a lawsuit against a paralegal it accused of failing to turn in her computer for removal of its privileged documents, after the paralegal said she had already arranged to surrender her device before the lawsuit was even filed.

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Senior Dem Asks Schumer For Votes On Circuit Court Picks

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday pushed back against a deal Democrats and Republicans cut earlier this week that obligates Democrats to forgo votes on four appellate picks.

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