Construction

Expert Analysis

• What To Know Before Moving Your Supply Chain Out Of China

  

  U.S. companies moving their supply chains to avoid Chinese tariffs should be aware of the complexities of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol country-of-origin determinations and the scope of U.S. Department of Commerce authority to impose tariffs on Chinese goods that originate outside of China, say attorneys at Covington.

• State Net

  Wildfire Responses Resonate Beyond California

  

  Firefighting practices are often shared between states, so what California does, or doesn't do, to prevent and combat wildfires has impacts beyond its borders. One lesson learned this year is that power shutoffs to prevent fires cause more problems than they solve, says Lou Cannon of State Net Capitol Journal.

• Justices' Maui Ruling Could Change Groundwater Permitting

  

  Oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund raise the possibility that the national permitting system for discharging wastewater into the ground will need to be retrofitted, says Marcia Greenblatt of Integral Consulting.

• Resolving Warranty And Guaranty Confusion In Construction

  

  It is essential that property owners, contractors and their lawyers understand the key distinctions between warranties and guaranties, and are mindful of these distinctions when drafting and enforcing prime construction contracts or subcontracts, says Michael Scheffler of Blank Rome.

• FERC Orders Advance Grid Operators' Energy Storage Plans

  

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved two regional transmission organizations' energy storage proposals. But full integration of storage resources into the wholesale market will be complex — and ongoing litigation could force FERC to change its approach, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

• Texas Could Take Page From Mass.'s Judicial Selection Book

  

  As Texas and other states review their judicial election processes, they would be well served by taking guidance from Massachusetts' Governor’s Council system, which protects the judiciary from the hazards of campaigning, says Richard Baker of New England Intellectual Property.

• Series

  Judging A Book: McKeown Reviews 'Conversations With RBG'

  

  Reading Jeffrey Rosen’s "Conversations With RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law" is like eavesdropping on the author and his subject while they discuss how the restrained judicial minimalist became the fiery leader of the opposition, says Ninth Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown.

• Justices Seek Balance In Clean Water Act Case Arguments

  

  In last week’s U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, justices searched for a standard for controlling indirect discharges to navigable waters that could prevent evasion of water quality protections without significantly expanding federal permitting requirements, say Ashley Peck and Alison Hunter of Holland & Hart.

• Opinion

  In A Trade War, Everyone Loses

  

  While some countries may temporarily benefit from bilateral trade disputes, in the long term, the Trump administration's protectionist strategy puts at risk the enormous achievements of the last decades, both in the U.S. and globally, says Anahita Thoms at Baker McKenzie.

• Where A Litigator's Advice Can Improve Agreement Drafting

  

  Transactional attorneys should consider consulting with litigation counsel when drafting certain contractual provisions — choice of law, choice of forum, attorney fees and others — that could come into play in a broad range of substantive disputes, says Adrienne Koch at Katsky Korins.

• Pipeline Projects Face New Questions On Landowner Rights

  

  The tension between the rights of landowners and pipeline developers has come to a head in two federal appellate courts and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announcement, muddling the historical clarity of Natural Gas Act eminent domain authority, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

• High Court's Disgorgement Ruling Could Curb SEC Authority

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which challenges the SEC's ability to obtain disgorgement from federal courts, and has the potential to significantly restrict the regulator's enforcement power, say attorneys at Cleary.

• Opinion

  Flat-Fee Legal Billing Can Liberate Attorneys

  

  Replacing hourly billing with flat-fee arrangements, especially for appellate work, will leave attorneys feeling free to spend as much time as necessary to produce their highest quality work, says Lawrence Ebner of Capital Appellate Advocacy.

• Spoliation Rule Remains Ambiguous Despite Amendments

  

  Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to provide a uniform standard of culpability for spoliation, cases with similar facts are still reaching differing results because the rule does not specify how a court should evaluate a party's intent, say attorneys at Pepper Hamilton.

• SEC's Fraud Enforcement Shows Quality, If Not Quantity

  

  Over the course of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently ended fiscal year, the regulator's Division of Enforcement fulfilled its promise to emphasize quality over quantity in cases alleging misrepresentations of financial performance by covering a wide swath of accounting, disclosure, internal control and auditor independence issues, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.