Conn. Regulator Ends 'Unilateral' Decisions Amid Utility Suits

By Brian Steele

Connecticut's public utilities watchdog has made a series of promises to change the way that it operates in hopes of bringing an end to a lawsuit in which Eversource Energy and others accused the agency's now former chair of unlawfully wielding her authority.

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SEC Unveils Plan To End Biden-Era Climate Disclosure Regs

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday put forth a proposal that would overturn a Biden-era regulation requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, saying the rule fell outside the agency's "core mandate."

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New Fortress Energy Units Seek Ch. 15 For $8.1B Debt Swap

By Rick Archer

Two New Fortress Energy affiliates asked a New York bankruptcy judge Friday to recognize their efforts to restructure in the English courts by exchanging nearly $8.1 billion in debt for equity and spinning off the Brazilian affiliate.

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Brief

Commerce Ups Japanese Steel Antidumping Duty After Ruling

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Department of Commerce increased the antidumping duty order Friday against certain steel products produced by a Japanese company following a recalculation of the rate during Court of International Trade proceedings.

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Brief

Russian Palladium Dodges Duties After ITC Finds No Harm

By Jack McLoone

Unwrought Russian palladium sold at ostensibly unfair prices won't be subject to triple-digit antidumping and countervailing duties after the U.S. International Trade Commission voted Friday to find the imports are not harming U.S. domestic industry. 

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Petrobras Says Murphy Oil Billed Jet, Bonuses To Joint Biz

By Elaine Briseño

The U.S. arm of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has accused a subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corp. of owing more than $5 million for items improperly charged to their joint oil and gas venture, including a private jet and executive bonuses.

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Consultant In Rivera FARA Trial Asks For Redo

By Carolina Bolado

A political consultant convicted alongside ex-Florida Rep. David Rivera asked for a new trial Friday, arguing that the government "did not come close to proving" that she was guilty of willfully failing to register as a foreign agent for her work on a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

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Atmos Energy Hit With 1st Suit Over Deadly Dallas Explosion

By Hailey Konnath

A Texas man who escaped the May 28 natural gas explosion at a Dallas apartment complex sued Atmos Energy Corp. on Friday, claiming the company failed to properly monitor conditions in his complex despite knowing the risks, calling it a pattern of "gross negligence" that contributed to the deadly blast.

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Brief

US Pipe Producer Seeks Review Of Canadian Duty Order

By Jack McLoone

A U.S. manufacturer of pipes known as oil country tubular goods requested a binational review of an antidumping duty assessed against its imports into Canada, looking to take advantage of a U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement provision, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Friday.

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Hawaiian Electric Gets Final OK Of $100M Wildfire Deal

By Mike Curley

A Hawaii federal judge has given final approval to a $100 million deal to settle a shareholder derivative suit alleging the directors and executives of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. failed to prepare for the deadly 2023 Maui wildfire.

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Feds Dodge Some Claims In New Mexico Wildfire Liability Suit

By Crystal Owens

A New Mexico judge carved up a challenge to the U.S. Forest Service over the destruction of nearly 43,000 acres of national forest land, saying the agency didn't follow its own monitoring obligations that don't allow for discretion until an emergent risk is brought to its attention.

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GoldenPeaks' Solar Unit Seeks Ch. 11 With Over $500M Debt

By Vince Sullivan

The Polish subsidiaries of alternative energy investment company GoldenPeaks Capital filed Chapter 11 petitions in Texas bankruptcy court Friday listing between $500 million and $1 billion of debt.

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Gate City Sues White Energy For $200M Over Carbon Project

By Gina Kim

Gate City Renewable Fuels sued White Energy Holdco for $200 million in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday, alleging it was induced into merging together based on a carbon capture and storage project that faced unfavorable geological conditions, regulatory hurdles, permitting risks and unresolved landowner holdouts that rendered the project nonviable.

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Fla. Man Sentenced To 18 Months For $7M Biofuel Tax Fraud

By Kat Lucero

The owner of a Florida renewable fuel company was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for a scheme that generated more than $7 million in fraudulent fuel tax credits, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.

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Brief

EU Greenlights Bahrain Aluminum Giant's French Smelter Buy

By Irene Madongo

The European Commission has given the go-ahead for Aluminium Bahrain BSC to acquire major French smelter Aluminium Dunkerque in a transaction that the companies expect will create an industrial powerhouse.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Latham, White & Case, Vischer

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Fertitta Entertainment acquires Caesars Entertainment, Eli Lilly and Co. buys three companies involved in vaccine development, and nuclear energy company Newcleo Ltd. says it plans to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, NewHold Investment Corp. III.

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Key Legal Considerations For Data Center Battery Storage

Battery energy storage systems have become essential infrastructure for data center development — but as trade, energy and tax policies continue to shift, companies operating in this space must understand the importance of supply chain requirements and industry-tailored contracts, says RJ Colwell at Davis Graham.

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Justices Widen Path For Confiscated Cuban Property Claims

For Americans holding claims to confiscated Cuban property, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Havana Docks v. Royal Caribbean Cruises means that the expiration of their property interest is no longer a bar and that any company using such property is now a potential defendant, say attorneys at Bracewell.

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Your Next Litigation Hold Should Cover AI Chat Logs

The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Fortis Advisors v. Krafton to treat a CEO’s artificial intelligence chats as substantive evidence is being read as a discovery warning to litigators, but there is a second duty-to-preserve lesson that is especially pertinent to in-house counsel, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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Double Shooting Renews Courthouse Safety Fears In NC

By Hayley Fowler

The shooting of two Fox Rothschild LLP attorneys outside a courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of Memorial Day weekend has renewed calls to protect the safety of judges and lawyers in an increasingly volatile justice system.

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Baker McKenzie Asks Judge Not To Toss Suit Against Ex-Atty

By Alison Knezevich

A lawyer for Baker McKenzie on Friday urged a Washington, D.C., judge not to dismiss the BigLaw firm's defamation suit against a former tax associate who accused a firm office leader of sexual assault, telling the court the accusations were false and made with "malice."

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Bonus Spotlight

Selendy Gay Doles Out Spring Associate Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

New York litigation boutique Selendy Gay PLLC paid its associates spring bonuses of as much as $25,000 this week, according to the firm.

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Akin Gump Owes Fees For Winebow's 'Self-Indulgent' Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered an importer's Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to pay a European winemaker fees for having to defend against the importer's "spurious objections" to the winemaker's valid arbitral award, ruling that the importer's "self-indulgent" appeal warrants sanctions in the form of fees.

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Calif. Panel Reverses Order For Citing Atty's Bogus Case Law

By Dorothy Atkins

A California appellate panel on Thursday reversed a judgment in favor of a man accused of abusing his son, finding that "without doubt" the trial judge abused her discretion by incorporating the man's bogus legal citations into her ruling, despite being alerted to the mistakes in advance.

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NY Judge Doubts Nussbaum-Linked Firms Belong In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

A New York bankruptcy judge on Friday questioned whether his court was the proper venue to wind down two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum as the debtors sought to ditch an assignment for the benefit of creditors process in New York state court.

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Dems Say DOJ Blocked Bondi On Trump Questions

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats were incensed on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who accompanied former Attorney General Pam Bondi to her committee interview stopped her from answering questions about President Donald Trump.

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Civil Rights Icon Clarence B. Jones Dies At 95

By Andrea Keckley

Civil rights icon Clarence B. Jones, a speechwriter and personal attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., died May 22 at an assisted living facility in the Santa Clara County city of Cupertino, California, his family confirmed earlier this week. He was 95.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen the billionaire who donated £5 million ($6.7 million) to Nigel Farage sue Ben Habib, the leader of far-right party Advance UK, for defamation; Mashreqbank bring claims against three subsidiaries of dissolved private equity giant Abraaj Group for commercial fraud; and the property and investment vehicle of the State of Kuwait be targeted by four real estate figures who filed a miscellaneous claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Kirkland & Ellis says it's investing a half billion dollars into developing its own artificial intelligence platform to better serve clients. And Law360 looks at the general counsel who is guiding BP through its latest leadership crisis after the company abruptly dismissed its board chair.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Hogan Lovells and Watkins & Eager PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Boies Schiller's Matthew Schwartz

By Sarah Jarvis

Matthew L. Schwartz oscillated among many career aspirations as a kid, from astronaut to mayor of New York. When it was time to head off to college, the man who would go on to handle the prosecution of employees tied to Bernie Madoff and become chair of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP set his sights on science, earning an undergraduate degree in physics.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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