More Real Estate Coverage
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January 26, 2024
Biden Stokes LNG Uncertainty With Export Review Pause
The Biden administration's pause of its approvals of liquefied natural gas exports to countries that don't have free-trade agreements with the U.S. will delay several projects and have potential customers question whether their supply agreements can ultimately be honored.
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January 26, 2024
CBD Co. Asks Judge To Reject Franchisee's $10M Claims
The owner of the Your CBD Store brand has urged a Georgia federal court to snuff out an arbitration action brought by one of its franchisees seeking as much as $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit that says an oral agreement between the two cannot be arbitrated.
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January 26, 2024
Property Plays: Phipps, Sunroad, EastGroup
Phipps Houses has landed $98.2 million in financing for a Queens residential project, Sunroad Enterprises has scored $149 million in refinancing for a multifamily portfolio spanning three states and EastGroup Properties has picked up three industrial buildings in Las Vegas for $54.8 million.
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January 26, 2024
State Farm Underpaid Miss. Property Losses, Class Suit Says
A Mississippi homeowner accused State Farm Fire and Casualty in federal court of intentionally underpaying her fire damage claim by using the wrong setting in its pricing software, treating the repairs as new construction and improperly excluding higher labor costs associated with more complicated fixes.
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January 26, 2024
Biden Admin Pauses LNG Reviews Over Climate Concerns
The Biden administration on Friday said it would pause its approvals of liquefied natural gas exports to countries that don't have free-trade agreements with the U.S., and revise its export policy to greater account for LNG's impacts on climate change and energy prices.
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January 25, 2024
Wash. Justices Spare Homeowners From Lakeshore Eviction
The Washington State Supreme Court on Thursday said a group of homeowners are the legal owners of shoreline where they built boat docks and decks, rejecting a county government's argument that it controlled the lakeshore linked to a county recreational trail under a 19th-century federal railroad right-of-way law.
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January 25, 2024
DC Circ. Unsure About Wading Into PR Bay Dredging Fight
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faced off against several environmental groups at the D.C. Circuit Thursday over a dredge project that would widen Puerto Rico's largest port, but the panel seemed more concerned about whether it had the jurisdiction to hear the appeal at all.
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January 25, 2024
FERC Won't Halt Work On Texas LNG Export Terminal
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has said it won't pause authorized construction on a liquefied natural gas export terminal on the South Texas Gulf Coast, a decision a dissenting commissioner said perpetuates and magnifies injuries to environmental justice communities and ignores evidence of harm to public health and the environment.
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January 25, 2024
States, Industry Back Feds' Land Swap Fight At 9th Circ.
The states of Idaho and Utah, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Mining Association have joined the federal government in urging the Ninth Circuit to overturn a lower court ruling in favor of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' challenge to a land transfer intended for the expansion of a fertilizer plant.
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January 25, 2024
Lender Aided $8M Kuwaiti Royal Rip-Off, Judge Finds
A Maryland federal judge ordered a lender to pay at least $469,990 after finding the company helped further a Baltimore restaurant owner's scheme that bilked $7.8 million from a member of the Kuwaiti royal family.
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January 24, 2024
Investors Urge NY Court To Restore RMBS Fraud Claim
A group of investors in a residential mortgage-backed securities entity asked a New York state appeals court Wednesday to hold one of the project officers liable for concealing negative information about its prospects.
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January 24, 2024
Bid To Swap Chevron For An Old Standby Raises Doubts
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court debated whether a World War II-era doctrine encouraging courts to strongly consider agency statutory interpretations could replace the court's controversial so-called Chevron doctrine that requires judges to defer to those interpretations if a statute is ambiguous.
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January 24, 2024
Iowa Senate Bill Seeks Tax Break For Moveable Structures
Iowa would prohibit moveable structures that aren't connected to gas, electricity or other utilities and meet other requirements from being assessed and taxed as real property under a bill introduced in the state Senate.
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January 24, 2024
Mohawk Council Wants To Withdraw From 1796 Land Dispute
The Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs says a recent decision to withdraw from a land settlement agreement with the state of New York over a decadeslong lawsuit involving more than 2,000 acres of illegally purchased land was not easy but was made in the interest of protecting the territorial integrity of the Mohawk Nation.
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January 23, 2024
PacifiCorp Owes At Least $62M To 9 Homeowners Hit By Fires
PacifiCorp must pay at least $62 million in compensatory damages to nine people who fled their homes in a Labor Day 2020 fire outbreak, a Portland, Oregon, jury found Tuesday, with parties confirming the amount could be much higher with the expected addition of punitive damages.
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January 23, 2024
Ch. 11 Preference Claims Can Be Sold, 5th Circ. Says
The Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that interest in Chapter 11 preference actions, which seek to claw back payments a debtor made to creditors prior to bankruptcy, can be sold as "property of the estate," weighing in on the issue for the first time.
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January 23, 2024
Court Will Rethink Tribes' Claims In Railroad Dispute
An Idaho federal judge has reinstated two Quiet Title Act claims the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation lodged against the federal government in a dispute over land once used by a railway, agreeing that a Supreme Court ruling requires the reversal of a prior order dismissing the claims.
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January 22, 2024
PacifiCorp Should Pay $45M To 9 Wildfire Victims, Jury Hears
Nine people who fled their homes during a Labor Day 2020 wildfire outbreak each deserve at least $5 million from the owner of Pacific Power, their lawyers told a Portland, Oregon, jury in closing arguments Monday, while the company said reasonable numbers would be much lower.
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January 22, 2024
Iowa County's CO2 Pipeline Rules Are Preempted, Judge Told
The developer of a proposed interstate carbon dioxide pipeline has told a federal judge that rules restricting its project passed last week in Palo Alto County, Iowa, are preempted by federal law, as the company pointed to a ruling last month blocking two other local ordinances.
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January 22, 2024
World Cup Workers' Abuse Claims Are Misdirected, US Co. Says
Filipino laborers who claimed they were subjected to abusive work and living conditions while helping build facilities for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar aimed their ire in the wrong direction, a U.S. construction company told a Colorado federal judge in a bid to dismiss the suit.
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January 22, 2024
Feds Defend Ability To Take Land Into Trust For Alaska Tribes
The U.S. government is urging an Alaska federal judge to reject the state of Alaska's arguments that the Interior Department's decision to take a 787-square-foot piece of land in downtown Juneau in trust for the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes oversteps its authority or threatens state jurisdiction.
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January 22, 2024
Holland & Knight Brings On Greenspoon Public Finance Pros
A pair of former Greenspoon Marder LLP public finance attorneys who both have about four decades of experience in their practice area have jumped to Holland & Knight LLP, the firm announced Monday.
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January 19, 2024
Law360 Names Firms Of The Year
Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 55 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, steering some of the largest deals of 2023 and securing high-profile litigation wins, including at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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January 19, 2024
Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year
Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2023, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.
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January 19, 2024
Property Plays: Thorofare, Greystone, Brennan
Thorofare Capital has loaned $26 million for a San Diego multifamily property, Greystone has provided $40.3 million for a multifamily property in Indiana and Brennan Investment Group has picked up a 263,000-square-foot Cincinnati industrial building.
Expert Analysis
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Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target
Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
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5 Gen X Characteristics That Can Boost Legal Leadership
As Generation X attorneys rise to fill top roles in law firms and corporations left by retiring baby boomers, they should embrace generational characteristics that will allow them to become better legal leaders, says Meredith Kahan at Whiteford Taylor.
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6 Questions For Boutique Firms Considering Mergers
To prepare for discussions with potential merger partners, boutique law firms should first consider the challenges they hope to address with a merger and the qualities they prioritize in possible partner firms, say Howard Cohl and Ron Nye at Major Lindsey.
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5 Tips For Adding Value To Legal Clients' Experience In 2023
Faced with a potential economic downturn this year, attorneys should look to strengthen client relationships now by focusing on key ways to improve the client experience, starting with a check-in call to discuss client needs and priorities for the coming year, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Legal Standing For Nature: The Road Not Taken
Fifty years have passed since former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas asked whether natural objects like trees and rivers should have standing — and while the high court has since narrowed access to the courtroom for potential environmental plaintiffs, Douglas' vision is worth revisiting, says Ninth Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown.
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Where ESG And Director Fiduciary Duty Overlap
Despite ideological arguments to the contrary, directors and officers' fiduciary duties do not preclude their consideration of environmental, social and governance principles in corporate decision making, say Luis Fortuño at Steptoe & Johnson and Evan Slavitt at Paper Excellence.
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Proposed FERC Backstop Siting Rule May Speed Grid Plans
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's proposed rule to implement its legislatively reinvigorated backstop siting authority — which allows it to grant permits for electric transmission lines when states refuse to do so — could serve as a subtle warning to state commissions, and encourage approval of important grid infrastructure, say attorneys at Steptoe & Johnson.
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10 Environmental And Energy Issues To Watch In 2023
After a year of transformative changes in the environmental and energy space, 2023 promises more big developments — including greenwashing litigation, finalized environmental, social and governance regulations, further scrutiny of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and an ongoing focus on environmental justice, say attorneys at ArentFox.
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What Will Keep Legal Talent Professionals Up At Night In 2023
Hybrid work environments, high demand for lateral hires and a potential slowdown of the economy defined 2022 in the always-busy marketplace for legal talent, and as BigLaw looks at the year ahead, there are five major sources of concern for the teams charged with securing and retaining that talent, say advisers at Baretz+Brunelle.
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The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022
A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from the "great resignation" to potential expansion of attorney-client privilege.
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The Future Of Legal Ops: AI Has Important Role To Play
Though the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted some fears about negative impact on lawyers, artificial intelligence technology can be a powerful tool for legal operations professionals if used effectively to augment their work, say Justin Ben-Asher and Gwendolyn Renigar at Steptoe, and Elizabeth Matthews at TotalEnergies.
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4 Proactive Strategies For 'Rocket Docket' Discovery In SDNY
With more than half of Southern District of New York judges now allowing four or fewer months for fact discovery, civil litigators in this aspiring "rocket docket" jurisdiction should prioritize case management methods that make the most of this compressed timeline, say Jaclyn Grodin and Nicholas Cutaia at Goulston & Storrs.