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Environmental
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January 07, 2025
Judge Looks To Finally Resolve Mass. 'Right To Repair' Suit
A long-stalled fight over Massachusetts' expanded "right to repair" law requiring open access to vehicle telematics software appears to be on a fast track after a new judge took over the case and said Tuesday she plans to rule in the near future.
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January 07, 2025
No Problem With $217M Dam Repair Tax, Mich. Panel Says
A Michigan appellate panel on Monday said a $217 million special assessment levied on property owners for dam repairs and lake level restoration after devastating 2020 floods was established through a legally sound process, ruling the owners were never entitled to have a pseudo-judicial review of the tax.
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January 07, 2025
Eckert Seamans Adds Former Trump Interior Dept. Atty
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC is the latest firm to get in on the exploding lateral movement in the energy legal market following the 2024 presidential election, adding a former Trump administration attorney who served in a first-of-its-kind role in the first administration's Interior Department.
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January 07, 2025
6 Firms Guide $5.6B PE-Backed Deal For GFL Unit
Six law firms are guiding a deal disclosed Tuesday that will see funds managed by affiliates of Apollo and BC Partners purchase the environmental services business of GFL Environmental Inc. at an enterprise value of 8 billion Canadian dollars ($5.6 billion).
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January 07, 2025
CFTC Chair Behnam To Step Down When Trump Takes Office
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam announced Tuesday that he will resign his chairmanship on Inauguration Day in order to make way for new agency leadership under incoming President Donald Trump, who has yet to name Behnam's successor.
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January 07, 2025
Mintz Environmental Atty Joins Crowell & Moring In SF
Crowell & Moring LLP is boosting its California environmental team, announcing Tuesday it is bringing in an environmental expert from Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC as a partner in its San Francisco office.
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January 06, 2025
Exxon Says Calif. AG, Green Groups Defamed Recycling Effort
Exxon Mobil Corp. claims California's attorney general and a coalition of conservation groups have disparaged its reputation by declaring that the petrochemical company misled people about the effectiveness of plastic recycling and that its "advanced recycling" doesn't mitigate the problem, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Texas federal court.
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January 06, 2025
Nikola Investors Win Class Cert. In Securities Fraud Litigation
An Arizona federal judge on Monday certified a class of investors accusing Nikola Corp. of inflating its stock price by exaggerating its ability to manufacture electric trucks, ruling that the shareholders have shown their case warrants the class treatment more than four years after they first sued.
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January 06, 2025
EPA Adds 9 PFAS To Its Toxics Release Inventory List
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added nine so-called forever chemicals to the list of chemicals covered by its Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI, thereby requiring facilities that manufacture such chemicals above set quantities to report the amount they release into the environment.
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January 06, 2025
Edelson Must Share Info In Tort Case, Colo. Judge Says
A Colorado state judge has ordered Edelson PC to provide information about advertising in a toxic tort case over ethylene oxide emissions from a medical sterilization facility in Lakewood, with a bellwether trial set for this month.
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January 06, 2025
New Rules Won't Lift Political Clouds Over Hydrogen Projects
The Biden administration's new rules to make hydrogen production tax credits more accessible for project developers and investors may not move the needle much for the industry given President-elect Donald Trump's vow to at least partially repeal the statute that created the credits.
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January 06, 2025
Farm Owners, Rail Co. Spar Over Toxic Spill Trial Evidence
Mississippi landowners fired back at a Canadian National Railway unit's attempt to block a train derailment report containing its admissions of fault from an upcoming trial in Mississippi federal court, saying the company's claims that the report is incomplete "ring hollow."
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January 06, 2025
Feds Hit Georgia Developer With Suit Over Native Artifacts
The United States has accused a Georgia developer of violating its Clean Water Act permit by illegally filling in wetlands, so it could build residences on a floodplain even though it knew about the presence of protected archaeological sites and cultural objects on the property.
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January 06, 2025
Mich. Residents Say Solar Investors Can't Arbitrate Fraud Suit
Michigan residents who allege Florida investment firms funded a company that duped them into buying defective solar panels have urged a federal judge to deny the firms' bid to arbitrate or dismiss the claims, saying the court has already rejected the investors' arguments.
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January 06, 2025
Biden Closes Off Coastal Areas To Offshore Drilling
President Joe Biden on Monday announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of U.S. waters on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in Alaska after determining that the environmental and economic risks and harms outweigh the benefits of drilling.
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January 06, 2025
Paul Hastings, Cravath Steer Pork Giant Smithfield's IPO Filing
Pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. on Monday submitted the year's first filing for an initial public offering, part of a spinoff from China's WH Group Ltd., represented by Paul Hastings LLP and underwriters' counsel Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
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January 06, 2025
Nippon, US Steel Hit Back With Suits After Biden Blocks Deal
Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. have filed two lawsuits following President Joe Biden's Friday decision to block their planned $14.9 billion merger, claiming Monday that the deal was blocked for "purely political reasons."
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January 03, 2025
3rd Circ. Won't Hit Brakes On NY Congestion Toll Launch
New York City's highly litigated congestion pricing toll program began Sunday morning after the Third Circuit denied an emergency motion for an injunction to delay it while an appeal by the state of New Jersey unfolds.
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January 03, 2025
Energy Cos. Ask Top Calif. Court To End Climate Change Suits
A half-dozen global energy giants urged California's top court Thursday to review a lower court's decision allowing climate change suits against them to proceed, arguing that California courts don't have jurisdiction over claims stemming from global fossil fuel use.
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January 03, 2025
3 Firms Seek $36M Fee Award In 'Historic' NJ PFAS Deal
The Law Offices of John K. Dema PC, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP and Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP have asked a New Jersey state court to award $36.7 million in attorney fees for their work in securing a $393 million deal over "forever chemical" contamination by Belgian chemical company Solvay as special counsel to the Garden State.
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January 03, 2025
Treasury Unveils Flexible Final Regs For Hydrogen Tax Credit
The U.S. Treasury Department released final rules Friday for hydrogen production tax credits that allow fuel produced using nuclear-generated electricity or methane to qualify for the incentive, making the regulations more flexible than what was proposed last year.
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January 03, 2025
Biden Blocks $14.9B US Steel-Nippon Deal
President Joe Biden on Friday formally blocked the planned $14.9 billion merger between Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, making good on a prior pledge to keep the latter steelmaker U.S.-owned in one of his final flexes of executive power over cross-border deals.
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January 02, 2025
Samsung Sued Over Alleged PFAS In Galaxy Watch Wristbands
Samsung has been putting "forever chemicals" in the wristbands it sells for its smartwatches and fitness trackers, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court by a Los Angeles resident who cites a newly published scientific study.
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January 02, 2025
9th Circ. Revives Pot Fines Suit Against Calif. County
A proposed class of Northern California landowners can pursue a swath of constitutional claims against Humboldt County officials with the Ninth Circuit ruling they plausibly pled the county was overzealous in its efforts to crack down on allegedly illegal cannabis growers.
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January 02, 2025
Calif. Says Insurers Must Expand Coverage In High-Risk Areas
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced Monday that carriers will be required to increase coverage in areas of the state that are at high risk of wildfires, marking the final major step in the department's historic regulatory effort to restabilize the state's insurance market.
Expert Analysis
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How Courts' Differing Views On Standing Affect PFAS Claims
Two recent opinions from New York federal courts — in Lurenz v. Coca-Cola, and Winans v. Ornua Foods North America — illustrate how pivotal the differing views on standing held by different courts will be for product liability litigation involving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, particularly consumer claims, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.
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New State Carbon Capture Laws: Key Points For Developers
Multiple states have introduced or expanded legal frameworks for carbon capture and sequestration this year, and while there are some common themes, many of these state laws include unique approaches and requirements — which developers and investors should be aware of when considering potential projects and investment risks, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents
Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.
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New NHTSA Fuel Economy Rule Adds Compliance Complexity
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recently announced final rule on new corporate average fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks will create challenges for manufacturers, which must also comply with the EPA's multipollutant rule and California's zero-emission vehicle programs, say Joanne Rotondi and Hannah Graae at Hogan Lovells.
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Series
Teaching Scuba Diving Makes Me A Better Lawyer
As a master scuba instructor, I’ve learned how to prepare for the unexpected, overcome fears and practice patience, and each of these skills – among the many others I’ve developed – has profoundly enhanced my work as a lawyer, says Ron Raether at Troutman Pepper.
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Lawyers Can Take Action To Honor The Voting Rights Act
As the Voting Rights Act reaches its 59th anniversary Tuesday, it must urgently be reinforced against recent efforts to dismantle voter protections, and lawyers can pitch in immediately by volunteering and taking on pro bono work to directly help safeguard the right to vote, says Anna Chu at We The Action.
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Series
After Chevron: NRC Is Shielded From Loper Bright's Effects
While the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Loper Bright v. Relentless decision brought an end to Chevron deference, Congress' unique delegation of discretionary authority to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will likely insulate it from the additional judicial scrutiny that other federal agencies will face, say Ryan Lighty and Scott Clausen at Morgan Lewis.
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How Loper Bright Weakens NEPA Enviro Justice Strategy
The National Environmental Policy Act is central to the Biden administration's environmental justice agenda — but the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo casts doubt on the government's ability to rely on NEPA for this purpose, and a pending federal case will test the strategy's limits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Opinion
Expert Witness Standards Must Consider Peer Review Crisis
For nearly two decades, the so-called replication crisis has upended how the scientific community views the reliability of peer-reviewed studies, and it’s time for courts to reevaluate whether peer review is a trustworthy proxy for expert witness reliability, say Jeffrey Gross and Robert LaCroix at Reid Collins.
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Navigating Antitrust Considerations In ESG Collaborations
The intersection of ESG goals and antitrust laws presents a complex challenge for businesses and their counsel — but by creating clear frameworks for collaboration, adhering to established guidelines and carefully considering the competitive implications of their actions, companies can work toward sustainability while mitigating legal risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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How To Grow Marketing, Biz Dev Teams In A Tight Market
Faced with fierce competition and rising operating costs, firms are feeling the pressure to build a well-oiled marketing and business development team that supports strategic priorities, but they’ll need to be flexible and creative given a tight talent market, says Ben Curle at Ambition.
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Series
Rock Climbing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Rock climbing requires problem-solving, focus, risk management and resilience, skills that are also invaluable assets in my role as a finance lawyer, says Mei Zhang at Haynes and Boone.
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What Chevron's End Means For How Congress Does Business
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, overturning the Chevron doctrine, will have a far-reaching impact across the entire public policy life cycle, beginning with how Congress writes its laws and extending through agency implantation and judicial review, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step
From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.