Environmental

  • October 31, 2024

    Mineral Co. Execs Allegedly Misled Investors On Gov't Contract

    Current and former directors and officers of minerals producer Compass Minerals International Inc. face a shareholder derivative action alleging they hid signs the company wouldn't be able to renew a lucrative supplier relationship with the U.S. Forest Service.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • October 31, 2024

    Judge Asks If Full 6th Circ. Needs To Settle Emissions Conflict

    A Sixth Circuit judge expressed discomfort Thursday with the possibility his panel could be asked to declare that colleagues made conflicting calls in separate suits alleging carmakers deceived consumers about vehicle sustainability, wondering if the full circuit needed to weigh in.

  • October 31, 2024

    MVP: Baron & Budd's Scott Summy

    Scott Summy, head of Baron & Budd PC's environmental litigation group, won what the firm says are the largest and second-largest drinking water contamination settlements in U.S. history — a $12.5 billion settlement with 3M and a $1.185 billion agreement with DuPont — as well as other major water settlements, earning him a spot among the 2024 Law360 Environmental MVPs.

  • October 31, 2024

    NC City Urges Panel To Rethink Stormwater Ruling

    A North Carolina city has urged a state appeals court panel to rethink its decision reviving part of a condo association's suit over damage the city allegedly caused by dumping stormwater onto the group's properties after Hurricane Matthew, arguing that the majority's opinion relies on a factual error.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • October 31, 2024

    IFC Projects Must Do More On Emissions, Report Says

    An accountability arm of the International Finance Corp. is encouraging it to bolster its methods to identify and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from financed projects, saying its current approaches are not fully up to date and limit its effectiveness in addressing global warming.

  • October 31, 2024

    Firms Fight Bid To Revive Malpractice Suit Over Liability Case

    Two firms are asking the Delaware Supreme Court to affirm the dismissal of a malpractice suit filed by parents over damages sought for their child's "catastrophic injuries," allegedly caused by contamination from a chicken plant.

  • October 30, 2024

    'Vague' Witness Sinks Green Materials Co. Investor Suit

    A California federal judge dismissed an investor suit Tuesday filed against a maker of sustainable materials alleging it failed to disclose a change in direction in its manufacturing plans and a delay in building a new plant, saying the suit relies heavily on statements of a confidential witness that are "fatally vague."

  • October 30, 2024

    Calif. Panel Axes $10.6M Abex Asbestos Verdict

    A California appellate panel has thrown out a $10.6 million asbestos verdict against Pneumo Abex LLC and ordered a new trial, finding that the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict that rejected the now-bankrupt braking lining manufacturer's sophisticated user defense.

  • 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.

  • October 30, 2024

    DOI Invests $46M In Klamath Basin Restoration

    The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday unveiled nearly $46 million in investments from the bipartisan infrastructure law for ecosystem restoration activities in the drought-prone Klamath River Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California. 

  • October 30, 2024

    Ax Green Groups' Suit Over 'Resiliency' Definition, FEMA Says

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit brought by environmental advocacy and consumer groups alleging the agency missed its deadline to define "resilient."

  • October 30, 2024

    Ariz. Tribe Will Get Back 3,200 Acres In US Land Exchange

    The Yavapai-Apache Nation will receive 3,200 acres of its ancestral homelands in exchange for six parcels of land located within four national forests in Arizona as part of an agreement with the U.S. National Forest Service and Department of Agriculture that has been decades in the making.

  • October 30, 2024

    Brookfield Scoops UK Wind Farms Assets In $2.3B Deal

    Brookfield has agreed to buy a minority stake in four of Danish multinational energy company Orsted's operational U.K. offshore wind farms in a deal valued at £1.745 billion ($2.27 billion), Orsted announced Wednesday. 

  • October 30, 2024

    Landscape Workers Can Be 3 Classes In OT Suit

    U.S. citizens and H-2B landscape workers who claimed that a company cheated them out of overtime pay can keep their collective status while also proceeding in three separate classes, a Kansas federal judge ruled.

  • October 30, 2024

    Maryland Says Electricity Greenwashing Law Is Constitutional

    Renewable energy company Green Mountain Energy Co. and a national advocacy organization cannot block a Maryland law aimed at cracking down on electricity suppliers' "greenwashing" claims, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown argued in federal court.

  • October 30, 2024

    Holtec Wins $6.9M Over Gov't's Failure To Store Nuclear Fuel

    Nuclear plant operator Holtec Palisades LLC has been granted $6.9 million in damages after a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge found the federal government had breached an agreement to store spent nuclear fuel at the company's Michigan facility.

  • October 30, 2024

    Class Members Can't Change Opt-Out Rules In Chevy EV Deal

    A Michigan federal judge won't grant a bid by individual class members to change the opt-out procedure in a $150 million settlement to resolve claims that General Motors sold Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles with defective batteries, calling the motion an improper late objection to the settlement's preliminary approval.

  • October 30, 2024

    AI-Focused SPAC Joins Pipeline With $200M IPO Filing

    Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners II Co., a special purpose acquisition company targeting the artificial intelligence industry, filed plans on Wednesday for an estimated $200 million initial public offering, while another SPAC, energy-transition focused Tavia Acquisition Corp., downsized plans.

  • October 30, 2024

    Green Groups Urge EPA To Address 'Big Ag' Nitrate Pollution

    More than 20 environmental and community groups have called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act to address industrial agriculture's nitrate contamination of drinking water in communities across the country.

  • October 30, 2024

    Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Uranium And Missile Detection

    Over the past month, the Biden administration advanced plans to secure the nuclear energy supply chain with $3.5 billion worth of uranium enrichment contracts and added $1.8 billion to its next-generation missile detection program. Here are Law360's most note-worthy government contracts for October 2024.

  • October 30, 2024

    Hershey's Candy Wrappers Contain PFAS, Spooky Suit Says

    A chocolate lover has sued The Hershey Co. in Pennsylvania federal court just days before Halloween alleging the packaging of its milk chocolate bars and Kisses, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reece's Pieces and KitKat Bars contain dangerous "forever chemicals."

Expert Analysis

  • Using Primacy And Recency Effects In Opening Statements

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    By understanding and strategically employing the primacy and recency effects in opening statements, attorneys can significantly enhance their persuasive impact, ensuring that their narrative is both compelling and memorable from the outset, says Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Opinion

    Supreme Court Must Halt For-Profit Climate Tort Proliferation

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    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.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    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.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    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.

  • A Class Action Trend Tests Limit Of Courts' Equity Powers

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    A troubling trend has developed in federal class action litigation as some counsel and judges attempt to push injunctive relief classes under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure beyond the traditional limits of federal courts' equitable powers, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.

  • 6 Tips For Trying Cases Away From Home

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    A truly national litigation practice, by definition, often requires trying cases in jurisdictions across the country, which presents unique challenges that require methodical preparation and coordination both within the trial team and externally, say Edward Bennett and Suzanne Salgado at Williams & Connolly.

  • A Blueprint For Structuring An Effective Plaintiff Case Story

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    The number and size of nuclear verdicts continue to rise, in part because plaintiffs attorneys have become more adept at crafting compelling trial stories — and an analysis of these success stories reveals a 10-part framework for structuring an effective case narrative, says Jonathan Ross at Decision Analysis.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: The MDL Map

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    An intriguing yet unpredictable facet of multidistrict litigation practice is venue selection for new MDL proceedings, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers many factors when it assigns an MDL venue, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

  • Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners

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    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.

  • Reassessing Lease Provisions To Account For ESG Initiatives

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    As companies seek to build ESG considerations into their businesses, it's crucial to understand how such initiatives can quickly become significant enough to compel reassessment of lease agreement provisions, and how best to modify leases accordingly, say Julian Freeman and Gabe Pitassi at Cox Castle.

  • Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics

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    Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.

  • Integrating ESG Into Risk Management Programs

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    Amid increasing regulations and reporting requirements for corporate sustainability in the European Union and the U.S., companies might consider how to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors into more formalized risk management, say directors at Alvarez & Marsal.

  • How Labeling And Testing May Help Reduce PFAS Litigation

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    As regulators take steps to reduce consumers’ exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as forever chemicals, companies can take a proactive approach to mitigating litigation risks not only by labeling their products transparently, but also by complying with testing and marketing standards, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

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