Environmental

  • February 04, 2025

    Calif. AG Backs Tribes In Bid To Protect Cultural Resources

    California's attorney general has won his bid to intervene in a consolidated suit challenging a county's approvals for a roadside attraction proposed to be built along Highway 101, saying the county violated environmental standards and failed to consult with Native American tribes.

  • February 04, 2025

    5th Circ. Mulls If Green Orgs. Have Injury In Injection Well Case

    A Fifth Circuit panel pondered whether environmental groups will suffer an injury adequate to challenge underground injection wells in Louisiana, asking during oral arguments Tuesday whether the groups can bring a legal claim for an event 50 years down the road.

  • February 04, 2025

    EPA, Interior Leaders Unveil Focus On US Energy Production

    The heads of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled plans for their agencies that largely focus on bolstering President Donald Trump's U.S. energy dominance policy. 

  • February 04, 2025

    5th Circ. Asks Why EPA Stalled Denial Of Texas Ozone Plan

    A Fifth Circuit panel pushed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to specify why it had dragged its feet before denying Texas' Clean Air Act implementation plans, asking during oral arguments how long the agency can "sit on" the plans.

  • February 04, 2025

    Calif. AG Gets $25M To Fund Legal Fights Against Trump

    The California Legislature greenlighted a $25 million cash infusion Monday for the state attorney general's office in a strategic effort to bolster the state's legal defenses against President Donald Trump's policy agenda, including anticipated challenges to immigration and environmental regulations.

  • February 04, 2025

    Pushing The Envelope In Climate Law: Murder Charges

    Climate change legal advocates are pointing to wildfires in Los Angeles, hurricanes in the Southeast and a regulation-averse presidential administration as evidence that local prosecutors should begin going after fossil fuel companies with criminal charges — up to and including homicide.

  • February 04, 2025

    Norfolk Southern Hit With 'Toxic Nightmare' Derailment Suit

    Hundreds of Ohio and Pennsylvania residents affected by the fallout of the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment have accused the rail company, government agencies and several businesses of downplaying the ongoing harm of the incident, marking one of the latest lawsuits filed on or near the two-year milestone.

  • February 04, 2025

    NJ Wildlife Regulator Is Unconstitutional, Ex-Legislator Argues

    A former New Jersey state senator urged an appeals court Tuesday to revive his nonprofit company's suit challenging the constitutionality of the state's hunting and fishing regulatory agency, arguing it's the only policymaking body in the state controlled by a single private organization.

  • February 04, 2025

    Auto Cos., Mass. AG Make Final Case In 'Right To Repair' Fight

    The stagnated four-year battle over a Massachusetts law requiring vehicle manufacturers to provide open access to vehicle telematics software saw its final salvos Tuesday as attorneys for an automotive industry group and the state clashed over the merits of the federal preemption case.

  • February 04, 2025

    White House Lacks Authority To Issue NEPA Regs, Judge Says

    The White House Council on Environmental Quality has no authority to issue binding National Environmental Policy Act regulations, a North Dakota judge has ruled, scrapping challenged regulations the Biden administration had enacted.

  • February 04, 2025

    6th Circ. Urged To Back $600M Train Derailment Deal

    Norfolk Southern and East Palestine, Ohio, residents defended a $600 million class settlement in Sixth Circuit briefs Monday, saying the deal provides meaningful relief to people and businesses impacted by a 2023 train derailment and release of toxic chemicals.

  • February 04, 2025

    Wash. Gov. Orders Look At Data Centers' Tax Revenue Impact

    Washington's governor issued an executive order directing the state's Department of Revenue to create a work group to examine the impact of data centers on the state's tax revenue and economy and recommend policies to address tax revenue needs in relation to other priorities.

  • February 04, 2025

    US, Osage Nation Fight Bid To Stay $4.2M Wind Farm Order

    The U.S. government is fighting a bid by Enel Green Power North America to stay a $4.2 million judgment and permanent injunction that requires it to remove 84 wind turbines from the Osage Nation's reservation, arguing that the company is unlikely to prevail in a Tenth Circuit appeal.

  • February 04, 2025

    Environmental Group Of The Year: Keller Rohrback

    Keller Rohrback LLP attorneys secured a $160 million settlement for the city of Seattle in a lawsuit accusing Monsanto of forever-chemical contamination, and they won $126.4 million in damages against PacifiCorp for its role in igniting the 2020 Oregon wildfires, earning the firm a place among the 2024 Law360 Environmental Groups of the Year.

  • February 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Block SC Mixed-Use Housing Project

    The Fourth Circuit refused to temporarily block the development of a nearly 4,000-acre mixed-use Charleston, South Carolina, development project, ruling that the conservationists challenging the project failed to show that the federal government violated federal law after issuing a Clean Water Act permit for the project.

  • February 03, 2025

    DOJ Poised To Prosecute Threat-Makers Against DOGE

    A federal prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump offered Elon Musk his office's support to "protect" the work of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency headed by the billionaire businessman, including "legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people."

  • February 03, 2025

    Faulty LA County Wildfire Alerts Probed By Congress

    A group of U.S. House of Representatives members from Los Angeles County launched an investigation Monday into false-alarm evacuation warnings accidentally sent to nearly 10 million people during last month's deadly wildfires, saying the incident "raises serious questions" about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mobile alert system.

  • February 03, 2025

    Texas Appeals Court Wipes Exxon's $2.5M Oil Cleanup Verdict

    A Texas appeals court has wiped a more than $2.5 million verdict for ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., finding that successive owners of its pipeline hadn't agreed to assume the cleanup costs of an oil spill.

  • February 03, 2025

    Exec Cops To Crashing Drone Into Plane Fighting LA Fires

    The former president of Skydance Media's video game division has admitted to crashing his drone into a water-scooping airplane that was fighting Los Angeles' deadly and destructive Palisades Fire last month, according to a plea agreement in California federal court.

  • February 03, 2025

    Blank Rome Adds Ex-Babst Calland Litigator In Pittsburgh

    Blank Rome LLP has expanded its Pittsburgh office with the recent addition of a business litigator who moved her practice after three years with Babst Calland Clements and Zomnir PC.

  • February 03, 2025

    Environmental Group Of The Year: Sidley Austin

    Sidley Austin LLP attorneys over the past year have helped protect a large offshore wind energy project from multiple lawsuits, helped Cummins Inc. resolve a major federal investigation and helped force Alexandria, Virginia, to stop discharging coal tar into the Potomac River, earning the firm a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Environmental Groups of the Year.

  • February 03, 2025

    Relief In Tribal Casino Fight Would Be Uncommon, Court Told

    An Oregon tribe at the center of a dispute over the federal government's decision to approve a land-into-trust application for the state's first off-reservation casino says any attempt to void the process is moot, telling a federal court that an unfavorable ruling in the case would be unprecedented.

  • February 03, 2025

    Power Cos., States Ask DC Circ. To Dispose Of Coal Ash Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted arbitrarily and well beyond its authority when it enacted a new rule to strengthen federal regulations for coal ash, a score of electric utility entities and Republican-led states told the D.C. Circuit.

  • February 03, 2025

    US Steel, Nippon Say Election Politics Blocked $14.9B Deal

    Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. on Monday filed their opening brief in a suit against former President Joe Biden and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States over a blocked $14.9 billion mega-merger, alleging the deal was blocked purely due to election-year politics and not national security as claimed.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Judge Joins RI In Blocking Trump Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing a freeze on federal spending while a group of nonprofits sue over the move, ruling the pause appears to "suffer from infirmities of a constitutional magnitude."

Expert Analysis

  • Final Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs Add Flexibility For Producers

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    The recently released final regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean hydrogen production tax credit offer taxpayers greater flexibility, reducing risk and creating more certainty for investments in the industry, thus diminishing — but not eliminating — the risk of legal challenges to the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • How Decline Of Deference Will Affect Trump Policymaking

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    An administrative law regime without Chevron deference may limit the Trump administration’s ability to implement new policies in the short term, but ultimately help it in the long term, and all parties with an interest in regulatory changes will have to take a fresh approach to litigation, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Anticipating The Maritime Sector's Future Under Trump 2.0

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    With the Republicans taking control of a governance trifecta, the maritime sector should brace for both familiar leadership and new change that could significantly shift shipping and defense priorities, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Defense Strategies For Addressing Conspiracy-Minded Jurors

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    As conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and gain traction in the U.S., defense attorneys will need to consider ways to keep conspiracy-minded jurors from sitting on the jury, and to persuade them when this isn’t possible, say consultants at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • 7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

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    President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

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    Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Impact Of Successful Challenges To SEC's Rulemaking Ability

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    In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission faced significant legal challenges to its aggressive rulemaking agenda as several of its rules were vacated by the Fifth Circuit, which could hinder the SEC's ability to enact rules extending beyond express statutory authority in the future, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Justices Seem Focused On NEPA's Limits In Utah Rail Case

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    After last month's oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, the court appears poised to forcefully reiterate that the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to review only those environmental impacts within their control, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • How Trial Attys Can Wield Amended Federal Evidence Rules

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    Trial lawyers should assess recent amendments to four Federal Rules of Evidence and a newly enacted rule on illustrative aids to determine how to best use the rules to enhance pretrial discovery and trial strategy, says Stewart Edelstein, former litigation chair at Cohen & Wolf.

  • Series

    Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.

  • Top 10 Legal Issues This Year For Transportation Industry GCs

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    General counsel must carefully consider numerous legal and policy challenges facing the automotive and transportation industry in the year to come, especially while navigating new technologies, regulations and global markets, says Francesco Liberatore at Squire Patton.

  • Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

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    Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Series

    Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.

  • Identifying Deepfakes During Evidence Collection, Discovery

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Attorneys must familiarize themselves with the tools used to create and detect deepfakes — media manipulated by artificial intelligence to convincingly mimic real people and events — as well as best practices for keeping this fabricated evidence out of court, says Bijan Ghom at Saxton & Stump.

  • Expect Continued Momentum For Nuclear Power In 2025

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    With increasing electricity demand, growing interest in carbon-free energy and recent policy initiatives favoring atomic power, the future is looking bright for the U.S. nuclear energy industry — and the imminent switch of administrations in Washington is unlikely to change that, say attorneys at Venable.

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