Texas' law restricting state investments with financial firms and businesses that want to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels is both "overbroad and unconstitutionally vague," a federal judge has ruled, handing a sustainability-focused business group a summary judgment victory.
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Albright Axes Texas' Anti-ESG Law As Unconstitutional

By Lauren Berg

Texas' law restricting state investments with financial firms and businesses that want to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels is both "overbroad and unconstitutionally vague," a federal judge has ruled, handing a sustainability-focused business group a summary judgment victory.

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Analysis

5 Takeaways From 5th Circ.'s Limited Partner Tax Decision

By Kat Lucero

The Fifth Circuit has issued a long-awaited opinion holding that partners with limited liability under state law qualify for an exclusion from the self-employment tax, and the decision offers five notable takeaways that experts said may shed light on the potential fate of partnership taxation and compliance.

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Analysis

​What's Left In VLSI-Intel's $3B Patent Litigation

By Dani Kass

Intel and VLSI are set to square off Thursday at the Federal Circuit ​i​n one arm of their high​-stakes fight over semiconductor patents, but questions over the state of $3 billion in verdicts, a potential license, fraud allegations and invalidations are still playing out in other cases. Here's where things stand.​

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Analysis

2 Killings Are Reshaping ICE Strategy. States Also Have Plans.

By Carla Baranauckas

The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in separate immigration enforcement episodes have become a fresh catalyst for state lawmakers who are moving on legislation to limit federal agents' tactics or deepen cooperation with them, despite looming constitutional fights over how far states can go.

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A&O Shearman, DLA Piper Lead $7.5B Texas Instruments Deal

By Spencer Brewer

Texas Instruments on Wednesday announced that it will acquire Silicon Labs in a $7.5 billion deal, saying the transaction will generate nearly half a billion dollars' worth of annual manufacturing within three years after close.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Ex-Fox News Host Decries Judge Pick's Arbitration Stance

By Courtney Buble

Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor and a leading advocate for ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, has come out against a federal judicial nominee for Louisiana for her past comments on the issue.

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TMX Wants $52M Penalty From Pa. Banking Regulators Axed

By Katryna Perera

A TitleMax affiliate urged a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court panel on Wednesday to strike down a $52 million penalty that state banking regulators have lodged against it over alleged usury law violations, arguing that the disputed loans it provided to state residents were neither negotiated nor made in the Keystone State.

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LITIGATION

Oracle Oversold AI Infrastructure Spending, Investor Says

By Lauren Berg

An Oracle Corp. shareholder has accused the company in Delaware federal court of overly promising that its increased spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure would accelerate revenue growth despite concerns about its increasing contractual reliance on OpenAI, saying OpenAI itself is beholden to "AI tailwinds continuing and its models being a market leader."

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Texas AG Sues County Over Immigrant Legal Defense Funding

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas attorney general told a state district court that Bexar County unlawfully used taxpayer dollars to fund the legal defense of unauthorized immigrants who are facing deportation proceedings, saying Wednesday the county may have allocated more than $1 million to an allegedly illegal program.

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IBM Seeks Texas Enforcement Of $24M UK Contract Ruling

By José Luis Martínez

A British subsidiary of IBM asked a Texas federal court to enforce a $24.6 million English judgment against Houston-based software entrepreneur John Jay Moores, seeking to collect court-ordered litigation costs awarded after Moores was found to have breached IBM software licenses.

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Exxon, Shell Say Oil Cos. Can't Be Sued For Wash. Heat Death

By Rachel Riley

Fossil fuel giants including Exxon Mobil and Shell pressed a Washington state judge Tuesday to toss a first-of-its-kind lawsuit over a 2021 Seattle heat wave death, saying the plaintiff family cannot use Evergreen State law to extract damages from oil corporations for harm allegedly caused by more than a century of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Seidler Family Resolves Most Of Padres Ownership Dispute

By Alex Lawson

A dispute over control of the San Diego Padres appears to be over, as the widow of the team's late owner has dropped several claims against his brothers just months after the Major League Baseball team announced it was putting itself up for sale.

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BANKRUPTCY

First Brands Creditors Seek To Hire Nardello For Fraud Probe

By Yun Park

First Brands Group's unsecured creditors urged a Texas bankruptcy judge to let them retain Nardello & Co. as a forensic financial adviser and assist with their investigation into the "pervasive looting and fraud" that they allege precipitated the auto parts maker's Chapter 11 case.

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PEOPLE

Blank Rome Adds Egan Nelson Trial Ace In Dallas

By Rose Krebs

Blank Rome LLP has added a trial lawyer who previously worked at the Dallas-based boutique Egan Nelson LLP to enhance its capacity to handle business litigation, financial services and other matters.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Resilience

Resilience is a skill acquired through daily practices that focus on learning from missteps, recovering quickly without internalizing defeat and moving forward with intention, says Nicholas Meza at Quarles & Brady.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Paul Weiss' Karp Steps Back After Epstein Email Revelations

By Hailey Konnath and Aebra Coe

Longtime Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP chair Brad S. Karp has resigned from his leadership role, the firm announced Wednesday, a move that comes after the U.S. Department of Justice released numerous emails between Karp and Jeffrey Epstein.

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Baker McKenzie To Downsize Business Professional Jobs

By Tracey Read

Baker McKenzie, which has a legal services hub in Tampa, Florida, is in the process of downsizing business professionals' jobs, a firm spokesperson confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Wednesday.

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Ex-DLA Piper Partner Aims To Toss Claim He Raped Associate

By Jack Karp

Allegations that an ex-DLA Piper partner raped a former Boston-based associate in Delaware in 2022 should be tossed since the Massachusetts state court the case was filed in has no jurisdiction over the Delaware claim, according to the accused former partner.

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Goldstein Accountant Admits Tax Return Errors

By Jared Foretek

A star government witness and the top outside accountant for SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein and his law firm admitted to making mistakes on Goldstein's tax returns and offering the grand jury erroneous testimony, under cross-examination in the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer's tax fraud trial Wednesday.

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Analysis

Clemency Was 'Broken' Long Before Trump. Can It Be Fixed?

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump has transformed what has historically been a bureaucratic process for seeking federal pardons and commutations into a more freewheeling affair with few clear rules — and no easy solutions for reform, experts say.

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Wachtel Missry Settles Liability In $26M Atty Malpractice Case

By Emily Sawicki

A dispute over who is liable for a former Wachtel Missry LLP partner's alleged exploitation of an elderly client has been settled on the eve of trial, while the Brooklyn federal judge declined to consider recusing himself despite "inadvertently" meeting with the firm's founding partner before the matter was fully put to rest.

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Trump Bid To Move NY Appeal Faces 'Fatal' Error, Judge Says

By Frank G. Runyeon

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday repeatedly aired doubts that President Donald Trump can upend the pending New York state appeal of his hush-money conviction by moving the case to federal court.

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

A&O Shearman

Akerman LLP

Akin Gump

Arnold & Porter

Ashby & Geddes

Baker McKenzie

Bernstein Litowitz

Beveridge & Diamond

Blank Rome

Brown Rudnick

Byrnes Keller

Ciardi Ciardi

Cole Schotz

Corr Cronin

Cravath Swaine

DLA Piper

Debevoise & Plimpton

Egan Nelson

Emery Celli

Gibson Dunn

Goldstein & Russell

Guerrero & Whittle

Hamilton Lincoln

Holland & Knight

Howley Law PLLC

Hueston Hennigan

Jackson Walker LLP

K&L Gates

Kessler Topaz

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Leach & Walker

Lehotsky Keller

Libby Hoopes

MoloLamken

Munger Tolles

Nelson Mullins

Orrick Herrington

Osborne Helman

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Pollard PLLC

Pryor Cashman

Quarles & Brady

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Rosenberg Freedman

Seyfarth Shaw

Shah Litigation

Shapiro Arato

Stanton LLP

Stoel Rives

Sullivan & Cromwell

Summit Law Group

Susman Godfrey

The Hartnett Law Firm

Troutman

Vander Stoep

Wachtel Missry

Whiteford Taylor

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

3M Co.

Apollo Global Management LLC

BP PLC

Binance Holdings Ltd.

Blue Owl Capital Inc.

Cash America International, Inc.

Chevron Corp.

ConocoPhillips

CoreCivic Inc.

CreditSights Inc.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Denham Capital Management LP

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Finjan Holdings Inc.

First Brands Group

Fortress Investment Group LLC

Intel Corp.

International Business Machines Corp.

LinkedIn Corp.

Major League Baseball Inc.

Managed Funds Association

Migration Policy Institute

Nardello & Co. LLC

New York University

Ohio State University

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Oracle Corp.

Parabellum Capital LLC

Phillips 66

Rothschild & Co. SCA

S&P Global Inc.

San Diego Padres

Shell PLC

Sirius Solutions LLLP

TMX Finance Family of Cos.

Texas Instruments Inc.

The New York Times Co.

TitleMax

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alaska Department of Law

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Election Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities

Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Social Security Administration

Superior Court of Massachusetts

Texas Attorney General's Office

Texas Legislature

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Tax Court

UK High Court