Environmental

Expert Analysis

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Steps Toward A Supportive Firm Culture

  

  As an early advocate of the American Bar Association's year-old well-being pledge, we launched an integrated program to create and sustain a supportive workplace culture with initiatives focused on raising mental health awareness, embracing creativity and giving back to the community, says Casey Ryan at Reed Smith.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Mental Health Education As A Firm Priority

  

  Our firm drives a holistic concept of well-being through educational opportunities, such as a series of expert-led workshops intended to address mental health and substance abuse issues that we vowed to fight when we signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge one year ago, says Krista Logelin at Morgan Lewis.

• New Visa Means 1 Less Problem For Offshore Wind Projects

  

  The U.S. State Department has updated the Foreign Affairs Manual to include a visa category for offshore wind projects, removing a regulatory hurdle that was causing significant logistical problems for the industry, say Jonathan Waldron and Stefanos Roulakis at Blank Rome.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: A Firm's Work With Mental Health Experts

  

  Signing the American Bar Association's well-being pledge last year was a natural progression of our firm's commitment to employee wellness, which has included developing partnerships with professionals in the mental health space to provide customized programming to firm attorneys and staff, say Annette Sciallo and Mark Goldberg at Latham.

• Another Round In The Battle Over The Clean Water Act

  

  The Obama-era Clean Water Rule used the full extent of federal power to protect the country's water under the Clean Water Act. Last week, that rule was repealed, giving more authority to states. At issue are questions of federalism and science, and a confusing U.S. Supreme Court case, says Allyn Stern of Beveridge & Diamond.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: When A Firm Brings Counseling On Site

  

  One year ago, our firm signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge and embraced a commitment to providing on-site behavioral health resources, which has since become a key aspect of our well-being program, say Meg Meserole and Kimberly Merkel at Akin Gump.

• Laying The Groundwork For Next-Generation Nuclear Energy

  

  Nuclear energy enjoys bipartisan support, as evidenced by a range of recent and pending federal legislation that could help revive the U.S. nuclear industry, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis.

• New Calif. Law Represents Strategic Shift In PFAS Regulation

  

  California recently became the first state in the country to require public water suppliers to notify customers if their water contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which will undoubtedly set into motion more regulatory oversight, and more litigation, say Jeffrey Dintzer and Clynton Namuo of Alston & Bird.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Inside A Firm Meditation Program

  

  After our firm signed the American Bar Association’s well-being pledge one year ago, we launched two key programs that included weekly meditation sessions and monthly on-site chair massages to help people address both the mental and physical aspects of working at a law firm, says Marci Eisenstein at Schiff Hardin.

• Updated NJ Site Remediation Law Makes Public Outreach Key

  

  New Jersey's newly updated Site Remediation Reform Act requires those responsible for conducting remediation to handle open records requests from the public, so companies should make public outreach strategy an integral part of site remediation planning, says Lori Mills of Duane Morris.

• Early Sampling Of Electronic Info Is Underutilized In Discovery

  

  The early and prompt provision of samples from all electronically stored information sources as a part of ESI protocol search methodology is consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and may allow for significant cost savings during discovery, says Zachary Caplan at Berger Montague.

• Opinion

  PG&E Bankruptcy Will Test Shareholder Capitalism

  

  If the Pacific Gas and Electric bankruptcy allows for the underestimation of tort creditors' claims to leave value for existing shareholders, it will represent an enormous failure that would call into question the fairness of our shareholder capitalism system, says researcher J.B. Heaton.

• To Defer Or Not To Defer: Kisor's Impact On Tax Controversies

  

  Three recent federal tax cases show how the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Kisor v. Wilkie, substantially restricting agency deference, is affecting interpretation of the many regulations and guidance issued post-tax reform, say Andrew Roberson and Kevin Spencer at McDermott.

• 3 Lessons For Calif. Insureds From Late-Notice Rule Decision

  

  The California Supreme Court's recent decision in Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor establishes that the notice-prejudice rule may protect California policyholders even if a contractual choice-of-law provision selects less favorable law, but such protection is not guaranteed, especially in the case of third-party policies, say Nathan Anderson and Tyler Gerking of Farella Braun.

• Opinion

  Utilities Need Timely Project Review For Reliable Service

  

  National Parks Conservation Association v. Semonite, in which a Virginia utility faces possibly having to dismantle a previously approved transmission line due to drawn-out litigation, points to the need for time limits on court review of infrastructure projects, say Alan Seltzer and John Povilaitis of Buchanan Ingersoll.