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Energy
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November 01, 2024
Oil Group, Enviro Orgs Clash Over Offshore Drilling Plan
Environmental groups and the American Petroleum Institute filed sparring briefs in an appeal before the D.C. Circuit over the U.S. Department of the Interior's 2024-2029 offshore oil and gas leasing program, each arguing that the agency wasn't legally obligated to satisfy the other's demands.
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November 01, 2024
FERC In Position To Ride Out Any Election Day Upheaval
The ongoing work of a reloaded Federal Energy Regulatory Commission isn't likely to be disturbed by a new president in the White House next year, although FERC watchers say concerns that a Trump administration could challenge the agency's historic independence can't be brushed off.
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November 01, 2024
2024 Election Could Be Crossroads For Clean Energy Funding
Election Day will present a multibillion-dollar fork in the road for the energy industry and its reliance on the federal government to help fund its decarbonization efforts, energy attorneys say.
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November 01, 2024
Dentons, Boies Schiller Want Out Of 'Absurd' $300M RICO Suit
Dentons and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP have asked a Manhattan federal court to toss a $300 million racketeering lawsuit brought against them by a former client and his companies following what they called a botched power plant contract in Senegal, with Dentons further requesting Rule 11 sanctions against the plaintiffs and their counsel for bringing "frivolous" claims.
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November 01, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen two industry magnates take on the Gambling Commission, Ordinance Survey hit with a claim from a Swiss GPS maker, and China's largest oil company PetroChina face a claim from a Polish documentary maker. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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November 01, 2024
Denver Gas Co. Settles Misclassifcation, Overtime Suit
A Denver-based oil and gas producer reached a confidential settlement with the geologist who claimed in a proposed collective action that the company owed workers overtime after misclassifying them as independent contractors.
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November 01, 2024
Ex-Gas Co. Worker Seeks Justices Review On 'Honest Belief'
A former mechanic for a Baltimore gas company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit decision that found it was not discriminatory for his ex-employer to fire him over an issue with time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act because the company believed he took the leave dishonestly.
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October 31, 2024
$268K Fee Challenge Nixed In 9th Circ. Chevron Award Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to reconsider its order slapping a six-figure fine against a Seattle attorney for fabricating a news article to bolster his clients' efforts to enforce an allegedly fraudulent $18 billion arbitral award against Chevron, effectively ending the long-running saga for now.
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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
Ex-Conn. Utility Execs Must Report To Prison, Judge Orders
The former CEO of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative and two ex-board members must report to prison by Dec. 4, a federal judge has ordered, after the Second Circuit upheld their convictions over their roles in the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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October 31, 2024
Dallas Judge Kicks 2022 Energy Case Out Of Biz Court
A Dallas business court judge sent a multimillion-dollar energy dispute back to state district court this week, marking the first time a Texas Business Court judge has weighed in on whether cases in existence before the court's opening could be litigated in the new venue.
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October 31, 2024
Madigan Ally Set Up Work For Speaker's Fired Aide, Jury Told
An ex-lobbyist on trial alongside former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan made arrangements for a political operative that Madigan fired to receive monthly payments while he was unemployed, suggesting he enter into contracts with loyal lobbyists and write up reports on legislators "in case the IRS checks this out," a federal jury heard Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs GE's Win In Ex-Exec's Benefits Denial Suit
The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal Thursday of a former General Electric executive's suit claiming the company should have awarded her pension and stock benefits when it moved her into an independent contractor role, ruling that her claims were filed too late.
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October 31, 2024
Chubb Says No Coverage For Texas Chemical Explosion Suits
Two Chubb units told a Texas federal court Thursday they owe no coverage to Team Industrial Services Inc. for two lawsuits seeking to hold it liable for injuries from an explosion at a chemical plant, arguing a pollution exclusion applies because a release of a chemical caused the explosion.
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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
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
What DOJ's New National Security Obsession Means For Attys
The Justice Department’s emerging criminal crackdown on corporate national security violations is putting increased pressure on white collar lawyers to be conversant, if not experts, on opaque, complex and swiftly evolving regulations.
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October 31, 2024
Exxon Entitled To Interest Deduction On Qatar Deal
Exxon Mobil is entitled to an interest expense deduction on payments to Qatar under a natural gas deal, a Texas federal judge ruled, rejecting the U.S. government's classification of an underlying transaction as a royalty rather than a loan.
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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
Vinson & Elkins To Open Denver Office With Plans To Expand
Three Vinson & Elkins LLP partners have been tapped to open the firm's newest office in Denver, the firm announced Thursday, amid an effort to expand its client base and talent roster in the Mountain West region.
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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 30, 2024
Halliburton Loses Fracking Claims At Patent Board
A Texas business has persuaded an administrative board at the patent office to wipe out all of the claims in a Halliburton Co. patent that covered a method of operating an electric fracking pump.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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Int'l Agreements Are Key For Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal
By replacing fossil fuels, nuclear energy has the potential to offer a major contribution to the global fight against climate change — but ensuring that nuclear power is safe and sustainable will require binding, multinational agreements for safe nuclear waste disposal, say Ryan Schermerhorn and Christopher Zahn at Marshall Gerstein.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA
After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Conn. Court Split May Lead To Vertical Forum Shopping
As shown by a recent ruling in State v. Exxon Mobil, Connecticut state and federal courts are split on personal jurisdiction, and until the Connecticut Supreme Court steps in, parties may be incentivized to forum shop, causing foreign entities to endure costly litigation and uncertain liability, says Matthew Gibbons at Shipman & Goodwin.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election
Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.
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Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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Secret Service Failures Offer Lessons For Private Sector GCs
The Secret Service’s problematic response to two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this summer provides a crash course for general counsel on how not to handle crisis communications, says Keith Nahigian at Nahigian Strategies.
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Opinion
Supreme Court Must Halt For-Profit Climate Tort Proliferation
If the U.S. Supreme Court does not seize the opportunity presented by Honolulu v. Sunoco to reassert federal authority over interstate pollution regulation, the resulting frenzy of profit-driven environmental mass torts against energy companies will stunt American competitiveness and muddle climate policy, says Gale Norton at Liberty Energy.
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Takeaways From TOTSA Settlement And Critical CFTC Dissent
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent settlement with TOTSA highlights the agency's commitment to enforcing market integrity and deterring manipulative practices, while Commissioner Caroline Pham's dissent to the settlement spotlights the need for transparency and consistency in enforcement actions, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Series
Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.
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Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners
Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.