Environmental

  • April 28, 2025

    Green Group Says Shell Case Discovery Fees Are Too Costly

    A Philadelphia-based environmental group suing Shell over pollution from a Western Pennsylvania chemical plant balked at a federal court's order that it pay 15% of the cost to resolve a discovery dispute, arguing it could be left with a potentially devastating tab.

  • April 28, 2025

    EPA Restarts Voluntary Retirement Program

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday refreshed its effort to convince employees to take a voluntary retirement package that was rolled out in the early days of the Trump administration but has been dormant until now.

  • April 28, 2025

    Nikola Seeks Court OK For $9M Climate-Credit Sale Process

    Electric truck maker Nikola Corp. has asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to approve a sale process for environmental credits the company earned by selling zero-emission vehicles, saying it has secured an $8.97 million bid that will set a floor price for the assets.

  • April 28, 2025

    EPA Touts Intention To Act On PFAS Contamination

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday said it's planning a series of actions to address pollution from forever chemicals, including the designation of a leader for PFAS regulation and issues at the EPA.

  • April 28, 2025

    10th Circ. Says EPA Overlooked Colo. Air Pollution Concerns

    The Tenth Circuit on Monday said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inappropriately approved changes to Colorado's air pollution standards that a green group claimed allow regulators to disregard emissions during drilling, fracking and well completion processes.

  • April 25, 2025

    PacifiCorp Should Pay $96M To Wildfire Victims, Jury Told

    Nine plaintiffs who fled from wildfires started by PacifiCorp's negligence should get $95.5 million in noneconomic damages, an Oregon state jury heard in closing arguments Friday, while PacifiCorp's lawyer told the jury to focus on what the evidence actually supports and award roughly $2.2 million in that category.

  • April 25, 2025

    Okla. Backs Wind Farm At 10th Circ. In Osage Mineral Dispute

    Oklahoma is backing Enel Power in its Tenth Circuit bid to undo a $4.2 million judgment and order requiring it to remove 84 wind turbines from the Osage Nation reservation, saying the project provides tax revenue, employment and a stable power source for tens of thousands of homes.

  • April 25, 2025

    SPAC Deals Are Buzzing Again Despite Tariff Turmoil

    Amid heavy volatility that has largely frozen traditional initial public offerings, deal teams are launching more special purpose acquisition companies, an alternative market to typical IPOs that so far has shown few ill effects from tariff-related uncertainty.

  • April 25, 2025

    Interior's Energy Permits Plan Has Legal And Practical Risks

    The U.S. Department of the Interior's plan to truncate environmental reviews and accelerate the approval process for certain energy projects could be vulnerable to lawsuits, given the legwork needed to ensure project reviews are sufficient.

  • April 25, 2025

    Judge Blocks Trump Order Limiting Fed. Worker Bargaining

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump's order last month seeking to end collective bargaining for workers at more than a dozen federal agencies with national security roles, two days after suggesting during oral arguments that Trump's order was retaliatory.

  • April 25, 2025

    Exxon Can't Use $8.5M Deal To Skirt Pa. Suit, Judge Says

    Exxon Mobil Corp. and ExxonMobil Oil Corp. can't use an $8.5 million settlement from 2012 to escape Pennsylvania's drinking water contamination suit, a New York federal judge has ruled.

  • April 25, 2025

    $1.1M Hail Coverage Suit Against Travelers Is Time-Barred

    An Oklahoma property owner cannot get revised coverage from two Travelers units for more than $1.1 million in claimed hail damage repairs, an Oklahoma federal court ruled, finding that after Travelers paid roughly $100,000 in coverage, the property owner filed its coverage action too late. 

  • April 25, 2025

    WTO Will Hear EU-China Dispute Over Electric Car Batteries

    A World Trade Organization dispute panel will hear China's complaint against the European Union's duties on Beijing's electric car batteries after talks between the two governments failed to resolve the matter, the global trade watchdog announced Friday.

  • April 25, 2025

    Font Size Error Dooms USDA Contract Bid

    An information technology services company lost out on a U.S. Department of Agriculture contract for using the wrong font size in its quotation, after the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that it failed to follow the USDA's formatting guidelines.

  • April 25, 2025

    Calif. AG Asks Court To Sink Exxon Recycling Defamation Suit

    California's attorney general is asking a Texas federal court to dismiss Exxon Mobil Corp.'s lawsuit alleging he and several conservation groups have disparaged the company's reputation by declaring that it misled people about the effectiveness of plastic recycling.

  • April 25, 2025

    NJ Industrial Remediation Claims Not Time-Barred, Panel Says

    A Garden State appellate panel on Friday revived New Jersey's suit seeking the remediation of a contaminated industrial property in the city of Camden and associated damages, ruling that the state's remediation claims are not time-barred.

  • April 25, 2025

    Apache Want To Pause Enviro Study Until High Court Ruling

    An Apache nonprofit has urged an Arizona federal judge to issue an emergency injunction barring the government from transferring an ancient worship site to a mining company until the U.S. Supreme Court can rule on the group's petition, which seeks to block the endeavor.

  • April 25, 2025

    Nelson Mullins Adds Product Liability Pro In Charlotte

    Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has welcomed seasoned product liability litigator William Purnell to its Charlotte, North Carolina, litigation group, where the firm said it intends to draw on his experience defending manufacturers in complex matters involving everything from consumer goods to industrial equipment.

  • April 25, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Dechert, Brown Rudnick

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Boeing sells parts of its digital aviation solutions business to Thoma Bravo, Baker Tilly and Moss Adams join forces, Mobico sells its U.S. school bus business to I Squared Capital, and Apollo commits to a joint venture with Bullrock Energy Ventures.

  • April 24, 2025

    DOT Drops SDNY Attys Who Accidentally Exposed Case Flaws

    The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday it replaced its defense counsel after the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York's Southern District accidentally filed publicly a confidential memo advising the DOT it's "very unlikely" to win litigation challenging the DOT's bid to kill New York's congestion pricing.

  • April 24, 2025

    11th Circ. Considers Sackett's Impact In Clean Water Suit

    Green groups and citizens who alleged Georgia's Sea Island resort misled the Army Corps of Engineers about a wetlands filling project urged the Eleventh Circuit to revive their suit Thursday, with the groups and resort arguing the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA worked in their favor.

  • April 24, 2025

    EPA Faces Diverging Input On How To Modify WOTUS Rule

    The Trump administration is being pulled in opposite directions by a wide variety of industry groups that are urging it to take a very narrow view of the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction, and environmental organizations and others who say the law should cover the most waterways possible.

  • April 24, 2025

    2 SPACs Join Recovering Market With $461M In New Capital

    Two special purpose acquisition companies raised $461 million combined through initial public offerings in the past two days in order to pursue mergers targeting several industries, represented by three law firms, extending an uptick in SPAC offerings despite broader market volatility.

  • April 24, 2025

    8th Circ. Quizzes SEC About Fate Of Climate Regs

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been ordered by the Eighth Circuit to say whether it plans to withdraw or rewrite corporate climate disclosure rules that it is no longer defending in court, with the litigation surrounding the rules being put on hold at the request of several blue states until the agency discloses next steps.

  • April 24, 2025

    $1M Settlement In Ga. PFAS Litigation Gets Judge's Final OK

    A Georgia federal judge gave a final sign-off Wednesday to a $1 million settlement that will see a chemical company provide temporary drinking water resources to a northwest Georgia town to end the company's involvement in a suit over the alleged release of forever chemicals into local waterways.

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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