Environmental

Expert Analysis

• Due Diligence From The Lateral Partner’s Perspective

  

  Lateral candidates looking to make the last — or perhaps only — move of their career cannot afford to just stand by and let a law firm’s vetting process unfold on its own, says Howard Flack, a partner at Volta Talent Strategies who previously led lateral partner recruiting and integration at Hogan Lovells.

• Lateral Partner Due Diligence: Where Should A Firm Begin?

  

  One frequently hears from leading malpractice insurers that one of the highest risk categories for law firms is that of lateral partners not sufficiently vetted during the recruitment process, says Howard Flack, a partner at Volta Talent Strategies Inc. who previously led lateral partner recruiting and integration at Hogan Lovells.

• A Closer Look At OSHA's Broken Regulatory Process

  

  Based on the political orientation of the current administration, President Donald Trump’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is unlikely to move any significant regulatory initiatives forward. But if a major catastrophe were to spur bipartisan demands for regulatory action, there are three problem areas to consider, says Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA.

• When 'I Pick, You Pick, They Pick' Goes Wrong

  

  In the “I pick, you pick, they pick” arbitration system, each party selects its own arbitrator, and those two arbitrators select a third. But the Texas Supreme Court's recent decision in Forest Oil v. El Rucio Land and Cattle demonstrates how this method can heighten rather than minimize the chance of an arbitral mistake, say Angela Zambrano and Robert Velevis of Sidley Austin LLP.

• Takeaways From 3 NJ Environmental Insurance Decisions

  

  In 2017, New Jersey has already witnessed three important decisions in the law of insurance coverage for hazardous waste site cleanup, each of which enhances policyholders' ability to obtain coverage for long-tail claims, say Robert Chesler of Anderson Kill PC and Robin Keliher of Willis Towers Watson PC.

• Disposal Of Contamination: Be Careful What You Throw Away

  

  While the Superior Court of New Jersey's decision in Pollitt Drive LLC v. Engel does not establish any precedent, it is in keeping with a line of cases holding, somewhat surprisingly, that plaintiffs must retain the physical evidence from environmental remediations, says Mitchell Klein of Snell & Wilmer LLP.

• Suffering Withdrawal: The Post-Paris Energy Outlook

  

  The Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord has not deterred a number of U.S. states, municipalities and technology companies from their clean energy plans. But in a competitive world, weak government support for new technologies and industries may have substantial commercial consequences, says James Hoecker of Husch Blackwell LLP.

• Debating The Value Of Distributed Rooftop Solar

  

  How much is solar power really worth? Although a seemingly simple question, it has a myriad of complex and sometimes conflicting responses that many regulators across the U.S. are trying to resolve, say Brad Thompson and Jessica Sabbath of King & Spalding LLP.

• Weekly Column

  Innovating For Wise Juries: Setting Trial Time Limits

  

  This is the second in a series of articles discussing ideas proposed by the NYU School of Law Civil Jury Project to resuscitate the American jury trial. In this article, Stephen Susman, Richard Lorren Jolly and Dr. Roy Futterman argue for setting early and strict time limits in civil jury trials.

• Trump's Monuments Order Won't Benefit Tribal Economies

  

  President Donald Trump's executive order mandating the review of national monuments with the goal of opening public lands to mineral development could provide some economic benefits, but history has shown that most mineral development booms are followed by inevitable busts, says professor Hillary Hoffmann of Vermont Law School.