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Environmental
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 16, 2025
Mexico's Vista Buys Stake In Argentine Oil Project For $1.5B
Mexico-based oil and gas company Vista Energy said Wednesday it has acquired a 50% stake in La Amarga Chica, a large shale oil project in the Neuquina Basin of Argentina's vast Vaca Muerta shale formation, for about $1.5 billion.
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April 16, 2025
Judge Restores EPA Grant Funds For Climate Change Groups
A D.C. federal judge has ordered Citibank NA to start disbursing Biden-era federal grant funding to nonprofits working on climate change projects, and blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's effort to terminate the grants.
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April 16, 2025
Global Clean Energy Files Ch. 11 With Over $2B In Debt
Renewable fuels company Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 relief Wednesday in Texas with more than $2 billion of liabilities, about $2 million of cash on hand and a prearranged restructuring plan supported by most of its secured lenders.
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April 15, 2025
Judge Tells Feds To Unfreeze Climate, Infrastructure Funds
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies must "turn the funding spigots back on" while environmental groups challenge the Trump administration's decision to cut congressionally approved dollars for infrastructure, agriculture, climate and other initiatives, a Rhode Island federal judge ruled Tuesday.
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April 15, 2025
New Mexico Pueblos Allowed Into Fed Mineral Lease Ban Suit
A pair of Native American pueblos can intervene in a Navajo Nation suit seeking to undo a Biden administration order withdrawing federal land from new mineral leasing around Chaco Canyon, a federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday.
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April 15, 2025
Trump Orders Overhaul Of Federal Contracting Rules
President Donald Trump issued orders Tuesday aimed at simplifying and reducing the costs of federal contracting for both government and contractors, directing agencies to pare back the Federal Acquisition Regulation to only "essential" requirements and to prioritize commercial item purchases.
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April 15, 2025
No Appeal For Green Energy Co. CEO In $40M Investor Suit
The CEO of a company purportedly funded by a green energy outfit can't appeal a judge's determination in a proposed investor class action that found the executive is subject to the Tennessee federal court's jurisdiction, saying he failed to meet the requirements for such an appeal.
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April 15, 2025
Apple Challenges PFAS Claims In Watch Band Lawsuit
Apple has urged a California federal judge to toss a proposed class action claiming its smartwatch bands contain toxic chemicals, arguing the suit relies on speculative "barebones" testing data and fails to show its products actually contain harmful substances.
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April 15, 2025
DC Circ. Again Nixes Challenge To $44B Alaska LNG Project
The D.C. Circuit rejected a challenge by conservation groups against the U.S. Department of Energy's reapproval of a $44 billion liquefied natural gas project in Alaska, ruling Tuesday the department's conclusion regarding uncertainty over the project's effects on greenhouse gases was supported by "overwhelming evidence" in its environmental impact statements.
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April 15, 2025
Massive Calif. Fire Assessment Pass-Through Sparks Suit
Public interest nonprofit Consumer Watchdog sued California's insurance chief in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to stop him from allowing insurance companies to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in assessment costs as surcharges onto policyholders, claiming the decision was made without any public input, in violation of the state's Administrative Procedure Act.
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April 15, 2025
Dow Says NJ Pollution Suit 'Classic' Case For Federal Court
Dow Chemical Co. told a Third Circuit panel on Tuesday that the New Jersey attorney general's suit accusing it and other companies of causing widespread groundwater pollution through a product containing a likely cancer-causing compound belongs in federal court, arguing the product was developed for the federal government.
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April 15, 2025
Court Abused Discretion In Tesoro Pipeline Row, 8th Circ. Told
Enrolled members of a North Dakota tribe say a lower court abused its discretion in denying them intervention in a lawsuit challenging the federal government's right-of-way trespassing claims against the Tesoro High Plains Pipeline, arguing it failed to consider the full scope of their interests and rights at stake.
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April 15, 2025
Kinder Morgan Must Face $100M Texas Storm Billing Dispute
A Texas state appeals court said Tuesday that Kinder Morgan must face a suit over $100 million in invoices stemming from a February 2021 winter storm that caused a power crisis in the state, finding that the company hadn't shown it was forced to reduce gas supplied to a customer at the height of the storm.
Expert Analysis
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The Post-Macquarie Securities Fraud-By-Omission Landscape
While the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 opinion in Macquarie v. Moab distinguished inactionable "pure omissions" from actionable "half-truths," the line between the two concepts in practice is still unclear, presenting challenges for lower courts parsing statements that often fall within the gray area of "misleading by omission," say attorneys at Katten.
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Trump's Energy Plans: Climate, Data Centers, LNG And More
With a host of executive orders addressing climate and emissions policies, expanded energy development, offshore and onshore projects, liquefied natural gas and more, the second Trump administration has already given energy companies much to consider, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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A View Of The Shifting Insurance Regulatory Landscape
Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland explore how the Federal Insurance Office's climate report, the new presidential administration and the California wildfires might affect the insurance regulatory landscape.
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Trump's Energy Plans: Funding, Permits And Nuclear Power
In the wake of President Donald Trump's flurry of first-day executive orders focusing on the energy sector, attorneys at Gibson Dunn analyze what this presidency will mean for energy-related grants and loans, changes to permitting processes and developments in nuclear power.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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The Tides Are Changing For Fair Access Banking Laws
The landscape of fair access banking laws, which seek to prevent banks from denying services based on individuals' ideological beliefs, has shifted in the last few years, but a new presidential administration provides renewed momentum for advancing such legislation against the backdrop of state efforts, say attorneys at Latham.
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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering
Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
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A Halftime Analysis Of DOJ's Compensation Pilot Program
The U.S. Department of Justice appears to consider the first half of its three-year pilot program on compensation incentives and clawbacks to be proceeding successfully, so companies should expect prosecutors to emphasize the program and other compliance-related considerations early in investigations, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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A Look At Order Ending Federal Contractor Affirmative Action
To comply with President Donald Trump's executive order revoking affirmative action requirements in the next 90 days, federal contractors should focus on identification of protected groups, responsibilities of "diversity officer" positions and annual compliance reviews, says Jeremy Burkhart at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Courts Should Nix Conferencing Rule In 1 Discovery Scenario
Parties are generally required to meet and confer to resolve a discovery dispute before bringing a related motion, but courts should dispense with this conferencing requirement when a party fails to specify a time by which it will complete its production, says Tristan Ellis at Shanies Law.
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4 Keys To Litigating In An Active Regulatory Environment
For companies facing litigation influenced by government regulatory action — a recent trend that a politically charged atmosphere will exacerbate — there are a few principles that can help to align litigation strategy with broader public positioning in the regulatory and oversight context, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Series
Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.
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Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations
In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.
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Gas Contract Fight Holds Lessons On Force Majeure Clauses
Ongoing litigation over gas deliveries during Winter Storm Uri underscores the need for precision and foresight when negotiating force majeure clauses in contracts — particularly in the energy sector, where climate-related disruptions and market volatility are inevitable, but often unpredictable, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.