Judge Slams Eaton Expert For Offering Legal Analysis

By Molly Moses

A report submitted by one of Eaton's expert witnesses in its acquisition financing trial overstepped the limits of an expert's role, offering legal rather than economic analysis and seeming to advocate for the company​​​​, a U.S. Tax Court judge said Thursday.

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Sembcorp Entering Australia With $4.3B Alinta Energy Deal

By Al Barbarino

Singapore's Sembcorp Industries said Thursday it has agreed to acquire Alinta Energy, marking the company's entry into the Australian power market, through a deal valued at AU$6.5 billion, or about $4.3 billion, including debt. 

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Grants Can Be Axed For Political Reasons, DOJ Atty Says

By Jared Foretek

A Trump administration lawyer said Thursday that the president had blanket authority to cancel every discretionary grant slated for states that broke against him in the general election, and it wouldn't amount to a violation of the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee.

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MVP: Reese Marketos' Joel Reese

By Jack Rodgers

Joel Reese of Reese Marketos LLP helped represent Cardinal Midstream II LLC in a dispute against Energy Transfer LP, a case in which he earned his client a nearly $52 million judgment and had to jump into action just four months before trial, with his work in that and other matters making him one of the 2025 Law360 Energy MVPs.

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Alaska Natives Say Arctic Oil Project Ignores Enviro Risks

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management failed to properly evaluate the environmental impacts of ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.'s seismic and exploration drilling program in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaskan natives and green groups said Thursday in a new lawsuit.

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Offshore Lease Sales Net $279M With Chevron, BP, Shell Bids

By Nate Beck

The Trump administration wrapped up the first in a series of offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico under a July tax cut and spending bill, with Chevron, BP and Shell joining in the bidding process.

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Natural Gas Tax Nixed For Wash. Silicon Maker On Appeal

By Sanjay Talwani

A Washington state maker of silicon materials used in solar semiconductors qualified for a tax exemption for natural gas purchased for use in its manufacturing process, an appeals court said Thursday, reversing a state board.

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DC Judge Seeks US Guidance In $173M Russia Award Suit

By Caroline Simson

A District of Columbia federal judge on Wednesday held off deciding whether to restart long-delayed litigation filed by one of Russia's largest oil companies to enforce a $173 million arbitral award against Ukraine, instead ordering the Trump administration to indicate whether it wants a say in the matter first.

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Solaris Energy Top Brass Sued Over Turbine Co. Acquisition

By Katryna Perera

The top brass of Solaris Energy Infrastructure have been hit with an investor derivative suit in Texas federal court alleging they failed to disclose that a turbine leasing company Solaris acquired lacked the "track record" that it was touted to have, had only one client, and that its owner had a history of "turbine-related fraud," among other things.

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Bradley Arant Adds Former Hilgers Graben Name Partner

By Lynn LaRowe

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has strengthened its litigation practice with a partner in Dallas who came aboard from Hilgers Graben PLLC, where he was a founder of that firm's Dallas shop.

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New Russia Energy Sanctions Add Compliance Complexity

Recent U.S. and U.K. designations of Russian oil companies and related entities, as well as a new sanctions package from EU, mark a significant escalation in restrictions on the Russian energy industry and add a new layer of regulatory complications for companies operating in the global energy sector, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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Series

Knitting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Stretching my skills as a knitter makes me a better antitrust attorney by challenging me to recalibrate after wrong turns, not rush outcomes, and trust that I can teach myself the skills to tackle new and difficult projects — even when I don’t have a pattern to work from, says Kara Kuritz at V&E.

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Wash. Justices Retroactively Lower Bar Exam's Passing Score

By Ben Adlin

As Washington state is preparing to transition to a new bar exam, its Supreme Court has ordered a retroactive adjustment to the current exam's minimum passing score, making an estimated hundred-plus law school graduates who narrowly failed in recent years newly eligible for admission to practice law.

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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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Dems Demand Release Of 2nd Jack Smith Report

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday demanding she release the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office the first time.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Shell hit with a climate change claim from 100 survivors of a typhoon in the Philippines, London Stock Exchange-listed Oxford Nanopore bring legal action against its co-founder, and the editors of Pink News sue the BBC for defamation following its investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the news site.

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Higgs Fletcher Forms White Collar, Regs Enforcement Team

By Andrea Keckley

San Diego-based law firm Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP has launched a white collar crime and regulatory enforcement defense practice group, citing heightened regulatory scrutiny in the financial and healthcare sectors and rising enforcement risks for licensed professionals and institutions.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

President Donald Trump issued an executive order to review the influence that proxy adviser firms have, and law firms saw a 9.8% increase in compensation expenses along with a similar increase in billable rates. ​These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Watchdog Sues White House For Records On Law Firm Deals

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington-based nonprofit watchdog has sued the Trump administration, seeking records related to deals BigLaw firms struck to provide an estimated nearly $1 billion worth of pro bono legal services to further the administration's priorities, following the president's executive orders to withhold security clearances and investigate the firms.

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Ex-NJ Municipal Court Admin Says COVID Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

The former municipal court administrator for West Windsor Township, New Jersey, has alleged that the town failed to accommodate her disability when it fired her instead of giving her a short medical leave of absence after she contracted COVID-19.

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US Atty Nominee For Wyo. Was Outside Capitol On Jan. 6

By Courtney Bublé

One of President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominees, who was on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and recently told senators he still thinks "there were imperfections" in the 2020 election process, has been advanced toward Senate confirmation.

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Del. US Atty Resigns Citing 'Politics,' Successor Appointed

By Rose Krebs

The acting U.S. Attorney for Delaware said Friday that she is resigning, citing "a highly politicized, flawed blue-slip tradition" for nominees and saying she "fully" supports her first assistant, who has been appointed by a federal judge to succeed her.

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Bonus Spotlight

Axinn Veltrop's Bonuses Reach Up To $240K

By Andrea Keckley

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP is giving out bonuses of up to $240,000 for its associates, according to an in-house memo seen by Law360 Pulse.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit handed Epic Games Inc. a partial win by mostly affirming an injunction blocking Apple Inc. from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems.

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