A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday agreed to allow Brazilian-Mexican petrochemical company Braskem Idesa SAPI to tap into $230 million of its new money debtor-in-possession funding as it prepares to collect votes on its Chapter 11 plan.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Petrochemical Co. Can Use $230M In Ch. 11 Funding

By Emily Lever

A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday agreed to allow Brazilian-Mexican petrochemical company Braskem Idesa SAPI to tap into $230 million of its new money debtor-in-possession funding as it prepares to collect votes on its Chapter 11 plan.

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Political Consultant Gets 5 Years In Venezuela FARA Case

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the political consultant convicted alongside ex-Florida Rep. David Rivera to five years in prison after she was found guilty of willfully failing to register as a foreign agent for her work on a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

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EU Guidance Lays Out Cost Adjustments For Carbon Levy

By Josh White

The European Union's carbon import levy on emissions-intensive goods such as aluminum and cement will allow importers to reduce the cost of the levy to mirror carbon allowances granted to EU producers based on benchmark values, according to guidance from the bloc's executive.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Pennsylvania Now Requires Local Approval For Data Centers

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday he has signed an executive order imposing additional requirements on developers seeking to build data centers in the state, including a mandate that projects must obtain approval by local municipalities before the state will allow them to advance.

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Alaska Judge Voids 500-Acre Land Swap For Refuge Road

By Crystal Owens

A district court judge vacated an Interior Department decision to exchange 500 acres to allow road construction on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge lands for failing to comply with the provision of a federal Alaskan land law, saying in a Tuesday order that the transaction has no "force or effect."

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OIL AND GAS

DOI, Enviro Groups Trade Punches Over Wildlands Policy

By Joyce Hanson

The U.S. Department of the Interior has received pushback from conservation groups that oppose five comment processes among three federal agencies as the DOI reviews policies affecting wilderness areas on public lands nationwide.

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DATA CENTERS

2 Cos. Claim Mich. City's Data Center Moratorium Is Unlawful

By Isaac Monterose

Two companies have accused the Michigan city of Gibraltar of enforcing "an unlawful moratorium" that is preventing them from converting a steel processing plant into a data center.

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UTILITIES AND POWER

ITC Probing Transformers Over Trade Secrets Theft Claim

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission has opened an investigation into a California transformer manufacturer's claims that an Indian competitor stole its trade secrets in order to accelerate its entrance into the U.S. market, along with false advertising and trademark infringement claims.

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NUCLEAR

2 Firms Guide Ohio Uranium Site Data Center Development

By Nate Beck

OpenAI said it will take a 20-year lease at a planned data center campus being built by Nvidia and SoftBank on a Cold War-era nuclear site in central Ohio, in a project advised by Latham & Watkins LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

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PEOPLE

Blank Rome Taps Ex-Jones Day Partner To Co-Lead Practice

By James Boyle

An attorney with expertise advising clients on major capital development projects in the United States and abroad has moved his practice from Jones Day to Blank Rome LLP's Pittsburgh office, where he now co-leads the firm's construction group.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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White House Aims To Shield Advisers Behind Law Firm EOs

By Emily Sawicki

The Trump administration and Justice Department "strongly object" to an Aug. 3 discovery order requiring them to name individuals involved in drafting and approving executive orders targeting law firms, amid their repeated refusal to hand over certain communications in a suit brought by the American Bar Association.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Says Trump's University Probes Were Political

By Hailey Konnath

Trump administration officials forged ahead with investigations into Harvard, Columbia and other universities despite its own lawyers raising legal concerns and, in some cases, finding "little to no factual predicate justifying opening them," according to a whistleblower disclosure from a former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer made public Tuesday.

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Troutman Sidelined Associate After Heart Attack, Suit Says

By Patrick Hoff

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP derailed an associate's career because he took medical leave to recover from a heart attack and spoke up about senior attorneys' fraudulent billing practices, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Jersey federal court.

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Trump Names 9 Judicial Picks Across 6 States

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced nine nominees Tuesday for judicial spots in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alaska. 

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Bot Errors Doom Expert's Credibility In Tainted-Supplement Suit

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge Tuesday disposed of a U.S. Army nurse's lawsuit claiming supplement maker Thesis Nootropics sold products tainted with amphetamines, concluding that a key expert destroyed his credibility by submitting a report containing bot-generated false citations — much like errors for which the plaintiffs' counsel was recently sanctioned.

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Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Quill & Arrow Says Ford Can't Rehash Lemon Law Fee Fights

By Linda Chiem

Quill & Arrow LLP has asked a California federal judge to dump a "retaliatory" lawsuit alleging the personal injury firm saddled Ford Motor Co. with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the automaker is trying to chill product liability litigation.

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​​​​​​​Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving multibillion-dollar mergers, corporate oversight, founder control, SPAC litigation, commercial contracts and attorney fees.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Acushnet Holdings Corp.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation

American Bar Association

Amicus

Apple Inc.

Archer Aviation Inc.

BDO LLP

BDO USA LLP

Braskem SA

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Clearing House Payments Co. LLC

Cloudflare Inc.

Computer & Communications Industry Association

Defenders of Wildlife

Earthjustice

EchoStar Corp.

Ford Motor Co.

GRID

Gleason Corp.

Google LLC

Government Accountability Project

H.I.G. Capital LLC

Harvard University

Intel Corp.

Kentucky Downs LLC

Microsoft Corp.

NHK Spring

NVIDIA Corp.

National Parks Conservation Association

National Retail Federation Inc.

New York Post

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Outliers Inc.

SAP AG

SAS Institute Inc.

SB Energy Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

ServiceTitan Inc.

Sierra Club

SoftBank Group Corp.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Tesla Inc.

The Boeing Co.

The Software & Information Industry Association

VCG Holding Corp.

Verisk Analytics Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arete Law Group

Ashurst Perkins

Blank Rome

Bodman PLC

Goodwin Procter

Haynes Boone

Honigman LLP

Hunton Andrews

Jones Day

Jones Walker LLP

Kasowitz LLP

Kilpatrick Townsend

Kirkland & Ellis

Knight Law Group

Latham & Watkins

Littler Mendelson

Manning Gross

Milbank LLP

Murphy Ball Stratton

Norton Rose

O'Melveny & Myers

Quill & Arrow

Reed Smith

Steptoe LLP

Sterlington PLLC

Susman Godfrey

Troutman

Wigdor LLP

WilmerHale

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alaska Department of Law

Bureau of Land Management

California Supreme Court

City and County of San Francisco, California

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

European Commission

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Trade Commission

Fish and Wildlife Service

Food and Drug Administration

International Trade Commission

National Labor Relations Board

National Park Service

Native Village of Paimiut

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of the Interior

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

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

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 New Jersey

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

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

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

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

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

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

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

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

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

United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma