Duke Energy Pushes Back On DOJ's View Of 'Monopoly Broth'

By Matthew Perlman

Duke Energy told the U.S. Supreme Court the government is backing a rival's antitrust claims accusing the power giant of squeezing it out of the North Carolina market simply to help enforcers' own cases accusing Big Tech companies of using a "monopoly broth" to thwart competition.

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U.S. Steel Can Arbitrate $22M Canadian Contract Spat

By Matthew Santoni

Canadian steelmaker Algoma Steel Inc. must arbitrate its bid to break off its contract for buying iron ore from U.S. Steel Corp., since the contract contains a clause bringing all disputes to an arbitrator in Pittsburgh, a federal judge ruled Friday.

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Judge Says Eaton Moved $14B Subsidiary For Tax Purposes

By Molly Moses

A U.S. Tax Court judge said Friday that he plans to find Eaton's U.S. group transferred ownership of a $14 billion subsidiary overseas in 2012 solely to justify payment of higher interest rates and guarantee fees to the company's new Irish parent.

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Judge Vacates Montana Logging Plan Over Wildlife Risks

By Crystal Owens

A Montana federal court judge vacated a U.S. Forest Service plan to log more than 16,500 acres in the Custer Gallatin National Forest, saying its failure to consider future impacts on grizzly bears and Canada lynx was arbitrary and capricious.

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Fired MSPB Member Urges Full DC Circ. To Rehear Case

By Emily Brill

A D.C. Circuit panel based its decision to uphold Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris' firing on a mischaracterization of the agency, Harris argued Friday to the full D.C. Circuit, asking the en banc court to override the decision, bring her back to work and preserve MSPB members' job protections.

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MVP: Susman Godfrey's Geoffrey Harrison

By Zak Kostro

Susman Godfrey LLP partner Geoffrey Harrison guided energy company Apache Corp. to its recovery of nearly $500 million in a dispute related to decommissioning offshore oil rigs and helped Equistar Chemicals beat a construction contractor's $175 million claim in a weekslong trial, earning him a spot as one of the 2025 Law360 Energy MVPs.

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2 Firms Guide Stake Deal For Data Center Services Company

By Isaac Monterose

Middle market private equity firm Kohlberg will obtain a majority stake in industrial services company Loenbro LLC in a deal guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Greenberg Traurig LLP, the companies announced.

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Colo. Gas Co. Sues Water Utility Over Pipeline Construction

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado natural gas provider filed a lawsuit Thursday in state court against a landowner and two entities that contracted to build a water pipeline on a farm property, seeking to stop the pipeline's construction, which the company says would run dangerously close to its own interstate gas pipeline.

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DC Circ. Won't Pause $50B Case During Russia Appeal

By Caroline Simson

The D.C. Circuit refused to pause its order for a lower court to reconsider Russia's bid to escape a long-running case to enforce $50 billion in arbitral awards, as an underlying question is also being considered in unrelated enforcement proceedings also involving the Kremlin.

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2nd Circ. Probes ConEd's Sudden Firing Of Atty Alleging Bias

By Anne Cullen

The Second Circuit raised questions during a hearing Friday about Con Edison's decision to terminate a longtime company lawyer shortly after she complained her boss was targeting her because she's an older woman, hinting some support for the attorney's fight to have her discrimination suit reinstated.

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Mich. Judge Won't Limit Evidence At Dam Collapse Trial

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

A Michigan state judge has rejected the state's and residents' attempts to limit what evidence a jury will hear in a January trial on Michigan's liability for the collapse of a privately owned dam that unleashed widespread flooding.

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Opinion

Supreme Court Term Limits Would Carry Hidden Risk

While proposals for limiting the terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices are popular, a steady stream of relatively young, highly marketable ex-justices with unique knowledge and influence entering the marketplace of law and politics could create new problems, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

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Suncor Is Justices' Chance To Rule On Climate Nuisance Suits

If the U.S. Supreme Court chooses to hear Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, Colorado, it will have the chance to resolve whether federal law precludes state law nuisance claims targeting interstate and global emissions — and the answer will have major implications for climate litigation nationwide, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

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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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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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Analysis

2025 Sees State Courts Diverge From Federal Criminal Norms

By Brandon Lowrey

Some of this year's most notable criminal appellate rulings homed in on differences between state and federal constitutional protections against the most serious punishments, with movement in Michigan, bucking the trend in Wyoming, and an ambiguous but potentially earthshaking decision out of Texas.

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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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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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Alex Jones Atty's Pared-Down Suspension Upheld On Appeal

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut appeals court on Friday upheld the two-week suspension of former Alex Jones lawyer Norm Pattis, agreeing that a trial court judge was within her discretion to bench the attorney over his law firm's handling of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims' medical records.

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DOJ Shake-Up Keeps Criminal Tax Meetings, Ex-Official Says

By Kat Lucero

The U.S. Department of Justice — despite recently eliminating its Tax Division as part of a broad restructuring — continues to meet with practitioners representing clients who may face federal criminal tax charges, the former division chief said Friday.

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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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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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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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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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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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