DC Circ. Backs FERC Extension For Southgate Pipeline Work

By Tom Lotshaw

A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's construction deadline extension for the Mountain Valley Pipeline's southern spur, with one judge characterizing a suit challenging it as "typical" of litigation that has stymied American progress.

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Feds Tee Up Redo Of Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Friday that vehicle fuel economy standards issued by the Biden administration improperly factored electric vehicles into the calculus, resulting in overly stringent standards that the Trump administration will soon revise.

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4th Circ. Stays Ruling Restoring Frozen Federal Grant Funding

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

A split Fourth Circuit panel has blocked a South Carolina federal judge's order directing the federal government to restore 32 congressionally funded grants that were frozen by the Trump administration, while casting doubt on nonprofits' and cities' legal challenge.

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6th Circ. Sends GM Emissions Fraud Claims Back To Michigan

By Linda Chiem

The Sixth Circuit on Friday partly revived drivers' claims alleging General Motors deceptively marketed Chevrolet Cruze vehicles as clean vehicles when they were actually outfitted with emissions-cheating software, punting a question of preemption back to Michigan federal court.

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Analysis

Legislative Reprieve For Texas Green Energy Isn't Permanent

By Keith Goldberg

Texas renewable energy companies dodged another bullet when several bills that would have restricted development died in the state Legislature a second time, but the industry remains on guard for future attempts to more tightly regulate renewable projects.

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Brief

Feds Want Comments On Altering ESA Conservation Rule

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday said it's considering altering a Biden-era rule intended to increase participation in voluntary conservation programs, and asked the public for input.

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NY Tribe Urges Supreme Court To Overturn Eel Fishing Ruling

By Crystal Owens

A Long Island tribe is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a Second Circuit ruling that rejected its challenge to New York's regulations on eel fishing harvests, arguing that if the decision is held, it would set a precedent allowing district courts to give up their gatekeeping roles on expert testimony.

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Wyo. Landowners' Attys Score $5M From Anadarko Deal

By Nate Beck

A Wyoming federal judge awarded more than $5 million in attorney fees and expenses Friday to attorneys for a class of landowners that accused an oil extraction company of hoarding permits to block oil and gas projects.

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US Steel Says Consultant Data Protected By Privilege

By Matthew Santoni

U.S. Steel is fighting subpoenas from neighbors suing the steelmaker over alleged nuisance emissions from its facilities outside Pittsburgh, claiming that recommendations, reports and data from two consultants in the wake of a 2018 fire were covered by various privileges and confidentiality agreements.

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Arizona Mining Co. Challenges $417M Ruling In Peru Dispute

By Kevin Pinner

Peru breached its U.S. trade agreement by imposing $417 million in penalties and interest on the unpaid royalties of an Arizona-based mining company's local operator, the company said while asking international arbiters to partially annul an award that it claimed mistakenly ignored the issue.

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High Court Says Software Glitch Led To Early Order List Drop

By Hailey Konnath

An "apparent software malfunction" caused the U.S. Supreme Court's order list to be issued early Friday, orders in which the justices granted certiorari in four cases and refused to take up a long list of other ones, including cases centered on Pennsylvania's election system and the Obama Presidential Center.

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Justices Won't Hear Obama Center Site Selection Complaints

By Nate Beck

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider claims that federal agencies failed to complete a full environmental review of plans to construct the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park neighborhood.

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LA Fire Victims Say AAA, USAA Left Many Unable To Rebuild

By Hope Patti

California homeowners accused AAA and USAA of systematically undervaluing the replacement cost of their homes all while advertising adequate coverage and financial security, telling a state court that many cannot now afford to replace or rebuild their homes following the wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year.

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Taxation With Representation: Winston, Stibbe, Weil, Goodwin

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Chart Industries Inc. and Flowserve Corp. merge, Aedifica NV and Cofinimmo NV unite, Sanofi buys Blueprint Medicines Corp., and Kimberly-Clark Corp. sells a majority stake in its international tissue business to Suzano.

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Goldberg Segalla Adds Toxic Torts Expert In NY

By Tracey Read

Civil litigation firm Goldberg Segalla LLP has added a trial lawyer who is an expert in complex asbestos litigation, product liability, personal injury and commercial litigation matters to its toxic torts and environmental law group in Garden City, New York.

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How Attorneys Can Become Change Agents For Racial Equity

As the administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and law firms consider pulling back from their programs, lawyers who care about racial equity and justice can employ four strategies to create microspaces of justice, which can then be parlayed into drivers of transformational change, says Susan Sturm at Columbia Law School.

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Legal Sector Jobs Ticked Up In May Amid Uncertain Economy

By Alison Knezevich

The U.S. legal industry added 1,100 jobs in May, holding steady in the midst of economic uncertainty, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ex-SDNY Prosecutor Exits Paul Weiss For Jenner & Block

By Alison Knezevich

Just months after rejoining Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is leaving the firm to join Jenner & Block LLP.

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Split DC Circ. Reinstates AP's White House Press Pool Ban

By Dorothy Atkins

A split D.C. Circuit panel reinstated the White House's decision to ban the Associated Press from the press pool covering the Oval Office, Air Force One and Mar-a-Lago on Friday, while a dissenting judge criticized her colleagues' rationale as being nonsensical and upending longstanding First Amendment precedent and generations of tradition.

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Atty Gets Prison For Conn. Law Firm Parking Lot Shooting

By Aaron Keller

A onetime Cramer & Anderson LLP partner was sentenced Friday to a seven-year prison term after being convicted of first-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting an attacker in the parking lot of his rural Litchfield, Connecticut, law firm, although his incarceration will be suspended after 2½ years.

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Brief

Fox Rothschild Settles Suit Over $3M Real Estate Deal

By Ryan Harroff

Fox Rothschild LLP has settled a Colorado real estate investor's legal malpractice lawsuit over a $3 million development deal that went wrong, according to a new order filed in state court directing the parties to file for dismissal within a month.

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Calif. Bar Hires Investigator To Review Exam Snafu

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of California's board of trustees voted to approve a $185,000 contract with a nonprofit to review "exam scoring irregularities and testing accommodations" from its fraught February 2025 bar exam.

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Flaws Remain In Bar Fitness Queries, Summit Panelists Say

By Aebra Coe

Many current state bar character and fitness tests fail to identify bad actors, and at the same time, certain aspects of the queries can hurt efforts to increase diversity in the profession, according to panelists at the American Bar Association's 2025 Virtual Equity Summit on Friday.

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Seeger Weiss Aims To Protect Bench With Duke Law Donation

By Madison Arnold

New Jersey-based Seeger Weiss LLP is seeking to help protect judges with a $500,000 donation to an institute at Duke Law School that is named in honor of the murdered son of a federal judge in the Garden State.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

In corporate legal news from the past week,​ in-house lawyers' use of alternative legal service providers remains low, and the top Justice Department merger official said that the Trump administration welcomes "fix-it-first proposals," where merging companies arrange to sell off overlapping business lines.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Edward Gilbert lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence.

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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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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Lieff Cabraser's Michael Sobol

By Kevin Penton

Michael Sobol has won significant settlements recently, including a $115 million deal over Oracle's allegedly unlawful sale of internet users' electronic profiles and a $62 million deal with Google over allegations it illegally stored and tracked the private location information of smartphone users, earning him a place among Law360's 2025 Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar.

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