Environmental

  • May 19, 2026

    Wis. Tribe Says State Misreads 1854 Treaty In Fishing Row

    The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians says Wisconsin is misinterpreting tribal regulatory authority in its bid to block the tribe from barring nonmember fishing in 19 lakes within its reservation, telling a federal district court that the state can't prove key elements of its claims.

  • May 18, 2026

    DeMayo Says Marketers Owe Coverage In Camp Lejeune Suit

    A North Carolina plaintiffs firm facing a proposed class action over unwanted robocalls related to Camp Lejeune water contamination litigation is now suing its marketing company, telling a Charlotte federal court the company should cover any potential damages and legal fees.

  • May 18, 2026

    EPA Plans To Repeal Biden-Era 'Forever Chemicals' Rules

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday officially unveiled plans to roll back limits for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, aka forever chemicals, in drinking water systems and to delay compliance requirements, a move environmentalists said "needlessly" exposes Americans to dangerous chemicals and could be illegal.

  • May 18, 2026

    Native, Enviro Groups Challenge Calif. Oil Pipeline Waiver

    California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection granted safety regulation waivers without proper review, allowing Sable Offshore Corp. to restart operations of a Santa Barbara oil pipeline system a decade after a catastrophic oil spill, environmental and Native American organizations said in a suit removed to federal court.

  • May 18, 2026

    DOJ Charges Bring More Complications For Key Bridge Ship

    Recent federal criminal charges over Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster have created new risks for operators of the cargo ship at the center of the wreck, potentially upending a civil trial that's set to start next month to determine the scope of damages for victims' families and other injured claimants.

  • May 18, 2026

    EPA, Flint Plaintiffs Clash Over Facts After Bellwether Trial

    Residents of Flint, Michigan, and the federal government have offered sharply different accounts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's role in the city's water crisis in hundreds of pages of proposed findings submitted after a bellwether bench trial that lasted more than a month and ended in March. 

  • May 18, 2026

    Volvo Inks $197M Emissions Deal With Calif. Regulators

    Volvo Group North America has agreed to pay roughly $197 million to resolve allegations the automaker violated California's emissions and certification standards, according to an announcement made Monday by the California Air Resources Board.

  • May 18, 2026

    Expert's AI 'Prompts' Discoverable In Shell Enviro Suit

    Any artificial intelligence prompts that an environmental advocacy group's expert witness used to craft her report in a Clean Water Act case are discoverable as part of her methodology, a Connecticut federal judge ruled in ordering additional disclosure efforts.

  • May 18, 2026

    EPA Rejects Hawaii's Haze Plan, Keeping Oil-Fired Plants Open

    The Trump administration has rejected Hawaii's plan to comply with national emission standards to limit regional haze, repeating a novel argument that the closure of a fossil fuel-fired power plant as part of the plan appears to be unconstitutional.

  • May 18, 2026

    Exxon Tells 9th Circ. Calif.'s Plastic Suit Belongs In Fed. Court

    The state of California's claim that Exxon Mobil Corp. is responsible for plastic pollution belongs in federal court, the petroleum giant told a Ninth Circuit panel during a hearing on Monday, arguing that federal courts have admiralty jurisdiction because the litigation targets pollution in navigable waters, among other alleged injuries.

  • May 18, 2026

    Mich. Secures $108M Monsanto PCB Pollution Settlement

    The Michigan Department of Attorney General announced Monday that it secured a settlement worth at least $108 million — and potentially as much as $240 million — with Monsanto Co. and affiliated entities over environmental contamination from toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, across the state. 

  • May 18, 2026

    Senior Home Says Colo. Is Right Venue For Insurance Dispute

    The owner of a Kansas-based senior living community said its claims that its insurer failed to pay over $7 million in damages it suffered when a sprinkler burst must stay in Colorado, according to a pair of briefs filed in Colorado federal court Friday.

  • May 18, 2026

    DOE's Wright Extends Mich. Coal Plant's Life Into 2nd Year

    U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on Monday extended into a second year the life of a Michigan coal-fired power plant slated for closure, just days after the D.C. Circuit considered whether such moves are a lawful use of Wright's emergency authority.

  • May 18, 2026

    Kirkland, McGuireWoods Guide NextEra's $67B Dominion Deal

    NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy said Monday they will merge in an all-stock transaction that combines two of the largest regulated U.S. utilities, in a roughly $67 billion deal steered by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and McGuireWoods LLP. 

  • May 15, 2026

    4 Key Issues Enviro Attys Are Watching In The Farm Bill

    After a contentious passage in the House, the Farm Bill may face a similarly thorny path in the Senate. Here, Law360 previews the key issues environmental attorneys are watching in the proposed legislation.

  • May 15, 2026

    4th Circ. Halts Md. Law Banning Electricity Greenwashing

    The Fourth Circuit on Friday halted a Maryland law aimed at preventing electricity companies from falsely marketing their power as environmentally friendly, saying it may be overly broad in a likely violation of the First Amendment.

  • May 15, 2026

    Hertz Inks $10M Deal To End Investor Suit Over EV Demands

    A Hertz investor asked a Florida federal judge Friday to preliminarily approve a $10 million settlement to resolve claims the car rental company overhyped the demand for electric cars, only later to announce a $200 million earnings hit as it sought to offload the vehicles, causing stock prices to fall.

  • May 15, 2026

    Lawmakers Decry USDA Plan To End Roadless Forest Rule

    Federal Democratic lawmakers are backing environmental and tribal advocacy groups' opposition to the Trump administration's plan to rescind the long-standing Roadless Area Conservation Rule, arguing the rollback will cause widespread harm to public lands, wildlife, frontline communities and regional economies.

  • May 15, 2026

    Michigan Says DOE Lacked Crisis To Extend Coal Plant Life

    A D.C. Circuit panel attempted Friday to find the limit on the U.S. Department of Energy's emergency authority to keep power plants running without a regional utility's request, with Michigan arguing that no emergency existed to justify the federal government's orders to keep a Consumers Energy plant online.

  • May 15, 2026

    'I've Looked At Your Billing Records,' Rivian Judge Jokes

    A California federal judge said Friday that she intends to grant final approval to Rivian's $250 million investor settlement, and drew laughs when she cut off a plaintiffs' attorney arguing that counsel worked hard for their requested fees, quipping, "I've looked at your billing records, I know."

  • May 15, 2026

    Sherwin-Williams Hit With Nuisance Suit Over Pa. Paint Plant

    Sherwin-Williams has been hit with proposed class claims in Pennsylvania federal court alleging noxious odors have been spewing out of one of its western Pennsylvania manufacturing plants, causing nuisance to nearby residents.

  • May 15, 2026

    Buddhists' Fla. Temple Suit Is Moot, Army Corps Says

    The Army Corps of Engineers asked a Florida federal court Friday to either pause or dismiss Buddhists' lawsuit alleging environmental and religious violations, arguing that an Everglades restoration project surrounding a temple was paused because of funding reallocation and because relief isn't possible since some construction was already completed.

  • May 15, 2026

    Taxation With Representation: Cassels, Ropes & Gray

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Equinox Gold Corp. and Orla Mining Ltd. announce a merger to create a major gold producer, OpenAI plans to form a company to boost adoption of its software across enterprises and private equity firm Apollo acquires trade show operators Emerald Holding and Questex.

  • May 15, 2026

    Resident Says Toxins' Presence Enough For Union Pacific Suit

    A Wichita homeowner is pushing back against a new bid to dismiss her proposed class action alleging Union Pacific Railroad Co. contaminated the groundwater by mishandling hazardous chemicals, saying the presence of those chemicals on her property is enough to allege an injury and standing.

  • May 14, 2026

    EPA Floats Relaxation Of Coal Plant Waste Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to relax Biden-era rules requiring coal-run power plants to treat toxic wastewater so it doesn't seep into waterways, saying the move would reduce the cost of electricity by more than $1 billion a year.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Regulatory Gaps May Fuel FCA Enforcement Action

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    The intersection of artificial intelligence and False Claims Act enforcement presents legal risk for government contractors across several industries, particularly in the absence of a federal regulatory framework explicitly governing its development and use, say attorneys at O’Melveny.

  • AI Agents Will Test The Bounds Of Expert Witness Rules

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    Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence does not address whether a testifying expert must be human, but as the rule’s amended admissibility framework intersects with the accelerating capabilities of agentic AI, courts may be forced to confront whether AI-generated expertise fits within existing evidentiary doctrine, says Steven Cordero at Akerman.

  • What New PFAS Rule Means For Tracking And Disclosure

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    In the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's publication of its rule adding PFHxS-Na to the Toxics Release Inventory, companies should identify this substance in their facilities and supply chains, and prepare for disclosures to both regulators and the public, says Ayodeji Ayolola at Gordon Rees.

  • Reel Justice: 'Project Hail Mary' Can Aid Cross-Examination

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    In the new science fiction film, "Project Hail Mary," a character understood that survival depended on eliminating ambiguity — a useful lesson that trial lawyers can implement by asking statements that are delivered in the form of a question during cross-examination, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

  • AI-Proofing Class Action Notices From Pro Se Objection Surge

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    Class action practitioners should prepare for a likely surge in artificial intelligence-enabled pro se objections by implementing several practical strategies to navigate this shift, says Britany Wessan at Almeida Law Group.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 'Mobile' Sources For On-Site Generation May Be A Risky Bet

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering treating large on-site generators used at data centers as mobile rather than stationary sources under the Clean Air Act, a significant policy change that would leave developers that adopt this solution at risk of regulatory reversals, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • EPA Listing Signals New Scrutiny Of Drugs In Drinking Water

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    The recent publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest draft drinking water contaminant list highlights pharmaceuticals as a category of concern, marking the start of a process that could shape future research priorities, monitoring requirements, and federal and state actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Md. Justices' State Climate Tort Ban May Shape National Path

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    The Maryland Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal law preempted state-level deceptive marketing tort claims brought by several municipalities could offer the U.S. Supreme Court a road map to use in the pending Suncor Energy v. Boulder County case to exclude states from the business of regulating global emissions, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

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