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Environmental

  • April 18, 2025

    Ill. Justices To Weigh Scope Of Standard Pollution Exclusions

    The Illinois Supreme Court will consider whether pollution exclusions in standard-form commercial general liability policies apply to industrial emissions allowed under a regulatory permit, the court said Thursday, agreeing to take up a question certified by the Seventh Circuit.

  • April 18, 2025

    Trump Admin Pushes Ahead With New Offshore Oil Leases

    The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday said it's "unlocking the full potential" of offshore oil and gas lease sales on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, a rebuke to the Biden administration's conservative approach to development.

  • April 18, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Simpson Thacher

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Global Payments Inc. buys Worldpay from GTCR and FIS, Intel Corp. sells a stake in its Altera business to Silver Lake, KKR acquires OSTTRA from S&P Global and CME Group, and Canada's Capital Power Corp. nabs two U.S. natural gas power plants.

  • April 18, 2025

    5 Takeaways From Texas Stock Exchange's SEC Filing

    The newly formed Texas Stock Exchange LLC is proposing rules that largely resemble those of the New York heavyweights it seeks to challenge, along with some notable differences, leaving questions on how the exchange will distinguish itself. Here are five takeaways from TXSE's securities filing.

  • April 18, 2025

    OxyChem Unit Settles Bid To Share Ohio Derailment Blame

    Chemical shipper OxyVinyls Inc. and Norfolk Southern struck a deal toward the end of a trial seeking to spread the blame — and the cost of a $600 million settlement — for the 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

  • April 17, 2025

    NY Judge Scrubs Groups' Anti-Congestion-Pricing Claims

    A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday rejected claims from local residents and community groups alleging New York's revised congestion pricing tolls wrongfully discriminated against out-of-state commuters and unfairly benefited public transit riders instead of roadway users.

  • April 17, 2025

    Bard Plant's Emission Controls Weren't Up To Snuff, Jury Told

    A Georgia state jury heard Thursday that a C.R. Bard medical equipment sterilization plant carelessly emitted ethylene oxide by going years without pollution controls, and later failing to diligently use and maintain the controls it did eventually install.

  • April 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Signals Support For Tribes' Cultural Loss Claims

    A Ninth Circuit panel was skeptical Thursday that a Teck Resources unit could dodge the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation's claims for tribal service losses stemming from a smelter's Columbia River pollution, with one judge saying Teck's argument was "splitting hairs."

  • April 17, 2025

    Army Corps Says Miss. Dolphin Harm Suit Rightfully Tossed

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has urged the Fifth Circuit to affirm its decision to divert trillions of gallons of polluted floodwater into the Mississippi Sound, which Mississippi local governments and industry groups allege unlawfully harms bottlenose dolphins.

  • April 17, 2025

    Liberty Mutual Says Other Insurer Owes $500K For Crane Row

    A Liberty Mutual unit said it is owed over $500,000 for defending a contractor in underlying litigation over a crane incident, telling a New York federal court that the contractor qualifies as an additional insured under a subcontractor's commercial general liability policy.

  • April 17, 2025

    DC Circ. Refreezes EPA Climate Grant Funds

    The D.C. Circuit has paused a federal court's order directing Citibank to start disbursing funds to nonprofits undertaking climate change projects that were appropriated by Congress to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration.

  • April 17, 2025

    Program To Speed Up Climate Change Patent Exams Axed

    Federal patent officials have officially pulled the plug on a program that sped up examination of patent applications for inventions that are intended to mitigate climate change, after suspending it earlier this year.

  • April 17, 2025

    Insurance Regulators Urged To Address Climate Change Risks

    Insurance regulators must strengthen their understanding of the threats posed by climate change and better consider how those risks will shape the stability of the sector, a group of international regulators said in a report.

  • April 16, 2025

    Bard Sickened Ga. Man With Medical Gas Pollution, Jury Told

    A C.R. Bard medical equipment sterilization plant secretly "poisoned" a resident of a Georgia town by emitting ethylene oxide for 50 years, a jury heard in opening statements Tuesday, while Bard told the jury it "overwhelmingly" demonstrated reasonable care with the powerful gas.

  • April 16, 2025

    Pa. Poultry Farm's Slaughter Methods Deemed Trade Secrets

    The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled that an animal rights group cannot force a Lebanon County poultry farm to disclose its chicken slaughtering practices, with the court ruling that the materials sought were confidential trade secrets.

  • April 16, 2025

    Judge Pauses Md. Depositions In Bridge Collapse Suit

    A federal judge has paused an order forcing witnesses associated with Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, which owned the cargo ship that struck Francis Scott Key Bridge, to be deposed in Maryland, finding it unclear whether they're employees who can't be forced to come to the United States and must be subpoenaed.

  • April 16, 2025

    Interior Dept. Halts Work On East Coast Offshore Wind Farm

    U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said Wednesday that he has directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to immediately freeze all construction activities on the Empire Wind offshore wind energy project south of New York's Long Island. 

  • April 16, 2025

    Texas Energy Bills Are No Panacea For Power Projects

    Energy bills advancing through the Texas Legislature aim to get more electricity on the grid to satisfy escalating demand, but the possibility of new restrictions on renewable energy development has attorneys questioning whether companies will actually build what's needed.

  • April 16, 2025

    Texas Oil Co., Exec Admit Negligence In Toxic Gas Deaths

    A Texas oilfield company executive has been sentenced to five months in prison, while his company was put on two years of probation and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution after pleading guilty in a case stemming from the deaths of an employee and his wife from exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas in 2019.

  • April 16, 2025

    Feds Float Reducing Endangered Species Habitat Protections

    The Trump administration on Wednesday said it plans to eliminate a long-standing regulatory provision that prohibits the destruction of endangered species habitat by project developers.

  • April 16, 2025

    IBM Sues Insurers Over $900M In Environmental Expenses

    IBM has taken several of its excess commercial general liability insurers to New York federal court, arguing that following IBM's coverage settlements with underlying insurers, they are now on the hook for over $900 million in environmental remediation expenses incurred under policies issued between 1961 and 1970.

  • April 16, 2025

    Interior Transfers 110,000 Acres To Army For Border Security

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is transferring 110,000 acres of federal land along the southern border to the U.S. Army to support Border Patrol as part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to crack down on illegal immigration.

  • April 16, 2025

    Texas Oil Cos. Seek Pass-Through Pollution Claims Coverage

    Oil and gas companies told a Texas federal court on Wednesday that their insurer must pay to defend them against pass-through claims in connection with underlying pollution lawsuits thanks to a purchase and sale agreement they entered into with another company.

  • April 16, 2025

    Union Denied More Time In Feds' Bid To Bless CBA Rebuke

    A Kentucky federal judge has refused to delay an approaching hearing on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's bid to nullify its workers' union contracts, despite a union's assertion that it's been given little time to prepare for a consequential case and that it has yet to be served.

  • April 16, 2025

    Groups Urge Congress To Probe DC's Use Of Private Attys

    The American Tort Reform Association and two other groups called on Congress on Wednesday to investigate District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb for the office's use of outside counsel for litigation, which they say has issued millions in legal contracts with little transparency or accountability.

Expert Analysis

  • Implications Of NY Climate Case For Generating Facilities

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    Regardless of how Greenidge Generation LLC v. New York Department of Environmental Conservation develops on remand, this decision has immediate repercussions for generating facilities seeking permit applications and renewals in New York, likely involving Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act considerations, say attorneys at Hodgson Russ.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Teaching Your Witness To Beat The Freeze/Appease Response

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    In addition to fight-or-flight, witnesses may experience the freeze/appease response at trial or deposition — where they become a deer in headlights, agreeing with opposing counsel’s questions and damaging their credibility in the process — but certain strategies can help, says Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • How Litigation, Supply Chains Buffeted Offshore Wind In 2024

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    U.S. offshore wind developers continue to face a range of challenges — including litigation brought by local communities and interest groups, ongoing supply chain issues, and a lack of interconnection and transmission infrastructure — in addition to uncertainty surrounding federal energy policy under the second Trump administration, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

  • What Bisphenol S Prop 65 Listing Will Mean For Industry

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    The imminent addition of bisphenol S — a chemical used in millions of products — to California's Proposition 65 list will have sweeping compliance and litigation implications for companies in the retail, food and beverage, paper, manufacturing and personal care product industries, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Permitting, Offtake Among Offshore Wind Challenges In 2024

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    Although federal offshore wind development started to pick up this year, many challenges to the industry became apparent as well — including slow federal permitting, the pitfalls of restarting permits after changes in project status, and the difficulties of negotiating economically viable offtake agreements, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review

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    For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • The Fashion Industry Should Prep Now For State PFAS Bans

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    New York and California have each passed legislation regulating PFAS in apparel and other textiles, so retailers should consult with manufacturers and suppliers and obtain the requisite certification documents as soon as possible to avoid disruptions in supply chains, say attorneys at Venable.

  • California Supreme Court's Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Horvitz & Levy highlight notable decisions on major questions from the California Supreme Court's last term, including voter initiatives, hostile work environment and the economic loss rule.

  • DC Circ. Decision Opens Door To NEPA Regulation Litigation

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    A recent D.C. Circuit decision in Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Administration could open the door to more litigation over the White House Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act regulations, and could affect how many agencies conduct and interpret environmental assessments, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Service Providers Must Mitigate 'Secondary Target' Risks

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    A lawsuit recently filed in an Illinois federal court against marketing agency Publicis over its work for opioid manufacturers highlights an uptick in litigation against professional service providers hired by clients that engaged in alleged misconduct — so potential targets of such suits should be sure to conduct proper risk analysis and mitigation, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Opinion

    FTC Actions In Oil Cases Go Against Its Own Rulemaking

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    Two recent Federal Trade Commission actions concerning the oil and gas industry appear to defy its own merger guidelines, with allegations that fall far short of the commission's own standard — raising serious questions about the agency's current approach, say attorneys at Clifford Chance.

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