The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday clearing Cisco in an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging it helped the Chinese government violate international law is a win for companies that do business in regions with possible human rights issues, experts tell Law360.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

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Analysis

High Court's Cisco Ruling Is A Win For Multinational Cos.

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday clearing Cisco in an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging it helped the Chinese government violate international law is a win for companies that do business in regions with possible human rights issues, experts tell Law360.

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Stock Bought Too Late For Breakup Fee Suit, Judge Says

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge has dismissed an investor suit claiming that the top brass of the sponsor of a blank check company unfairly claimed a $29 million settlement despite missing a deadline to merge with another company, finding that the investor purchased shares after the breakup fee of the failed merger was disclosed.

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Justices Clear Path For Exxon Damages Claim In Cuba Case

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Supreme Court found Tuesday that a federal law allowing U.S. victims of property seizures by the Cuban government to seek damages automatically abrogates the sovereign immunity of state-owned entities targeted in such cases, clearing a path for Exxon Mobil Corp.'s bid for some $1 billion in damages.

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Colo. Justices Uphold Antero's $215M Fraud Win

By Benjamin Morse

A doctrine limiting tort claims over contract losses did not bar a fraud claim tied to a fracking wastewater treatment project, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, affirming a more than $215 million judgment for Antero.

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Fla. Judge Won't Toss Suit Over $300M Guyana Fuel Deal

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida judge on Tuesday denied Jones Walker LLP's request to exit a lawsuit accusing the firm and one of its partners of using confidential information from a client to create an entity to compete with the client for a $300 million fuel agreement with the government of Guyana.

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POLICY & REGULATION

EU Parliament Panels Advance Mexico Trade Agreement

By Jack McLoone

Two European Parliament committees signed off Tuesday on a reworked trade deal with Mexico that would remove nearly all tariffs on European agricultural goods imported into the country, setting up a full vote by Parliament.

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US Blocks WTO Appellate Body Selection Process Again

By Dylan Moroses

The World Trade Organization failed again to begin the process of selecting members to the appellate body designed to settle disputes over WTO decisions, marking the 98th time that the initiative has been blocked by U.S.-led efforts, according to a news release Tuesday.

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OIL AND GAS

States Challenge Arctic Leasing Over Birds, Climate Change

By Crystal Owens

Fourteen states are backing challenges to the Trump administration's decision to open up oil and gas leasing on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, telling the court that the seismic exploration will harm migratory birds and increase greenhouse gas emissions that already contribute to climate change.

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Venezuela Found Liable For $148M In Botched Charter Deal

By Caroline Simson

Venezuela has been hit with a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court by shipowners that won some $148 million in arbitral awards after the country refused to return oil tankers that had been chartered by a subsidiary of the state-owned PDVSA.

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Green Groups Drop Pipeline Permit Appeal After Stay Is Refused

By Abigail Harrison

Environmental groups' challenge to a discharge permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work on a natural gas pipeline stretching across several Eastern states was voluntarily dismissed Monday at the Fourth Circuit.

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Feds Say Consultant Shouldn't Get FARA Verdict Erased

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. government told a Florida federal court there was "abundant" evidence to convict a political consultant of knowingly failing to register as a foreign agent as she helped draft a $50 million contract involving a former congressman and Venezuela's state-owned oil enterprise.

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UTILITIES AND POWER

$8.5M Utility Service Fraud Nets 7.5-Year Sentence In Chicago

By Lauraann Wood

A Chicago man received more than seven years in federal prison Tuesday for leading a roughly $8.5 million fraud scheme in which he used false identifying information to sign thousands of city residents up to receive gas and electric services they didn't know were fraudulent.

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RENEWABLES

Spanish Soccer Team Shielded From $47M Arbitration Fight

By Alex Lawson

A D.C. federal judge has shut down an energy investor's bid to subpoena information regarding Spain's national soccer team as part of its effort to collect a $47 million arbitration award it secured in a dispute against the Spanish government.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Hertz Investor Class Certified After $10M EV Demand Suit Deal

By Elaine Briseño

A Florida federal judge certified a class of Hertz investors following a $10 million deal to resolve claims that the rental company overstated consumer demand for its electric vehicles and later tried to offload the cars amid a $200 million earnings hit.

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MINING

Energy Fuels, VAC Ink $1.9B Magnet Deal Steered By 4 Firms

By Al Barbarino

Energy Fuels Inc. said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG and Ara VAC TopCo US LLC, collectively known as VAC, from Ara Partners for about $1.9 billion in cash and stock. 

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Colo. Judge Says Mine Operator's FLSA Suit Can Proceed

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado federal judge declined to toss a proposed collective action that alleged a Colorado coal mining company failed to pay its hourly employees for overtime worked, ruling Tuesday that a mine operator alleged sufficient facts for the lawsuit to survive.

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PEOPLE

Clifford Chance Adds Ex-V&E Debt Finance Atty In Houston

By Matt Perez

Clifford Chance LLP announced on Monday the hiring of a former Vinson & Elkins LLP attorney as a finance and derivatives partner in its Houston office.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

What NERC Reliability Guideline Means For Large Loads

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation's new reliability guideline — which addresses issues associated with large loads like data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities and factories — is nonbinding, but hints at possible future expansion of reliability obligations for large load owners, operators, developers and equipment providers, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Drawing A Line Between Settlement Pressure And Extortion

U.S. v. Luo, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, may force courts to address anew when settlement negotiations become criminal extortion, particularly in the age of easily fabricated digital evidence, says attorney Denis Kiely.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

The 2026 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey

Lawyers are generally happy being lawyers, but nonequity partners and associates told Law360 Pulse that several aspects of their job leave them feeling dissatisfied. Explore our analysis of these and other findings in the 2026 Law360 Lawyer Satisfaction survey.

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Bonus Spotlight

Axinn Giving $25K Bonuses As Glenn Agre Matches Milbank

By Tracey Read

Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes LLP will match the Milbank LLP base pay scale for associates, while Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP — which was already paying above-market salaries — will hand out special summer bonuses of up to $25,000, the boutiques told Law360 Pulse Tuesday.

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LA Superior Court Gains Prominence With 'Nuclear' Verdicts

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Los Angeles County Superior Court was among the country's top sites for awarding big civil damages in recent years, according to a Lex Machina report.

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NC Becomes First State To Ban Outside Funding Of Civil Suits

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina has become the first state in the country to ban outside investors from funding civil litigation, after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed into law a bill that outlaws third parties from footing the bill for civil suits in exchange for a cut of the payout at the finish line.

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Calif. Judge Restores Immigration Courthouse Arrest Limits

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge Tuesday vacated the Trump administration's policies on civil arrests at immigration courthouses, restoring limits on those arrests and finding that the government didn't adequately explain its policy shift.

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NY Rule Rewrite Drops 30-Day Pause For Atty Soliciting

By Emily Sawicki

New York's Appellate Division has adopted new rules of professional conduct on attorney advertising and solicitation, deleting a ban on soliciting clients less than 30 days after an incident.

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Judicial Noms Still Say Biden Won In 2020 — Technically

By Courtney Bublé

A group of judicial nominees, who earlier this month were the first of the Trump administration's nominees to say President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, reiterated in follow-up statements that Biden won the election "as a matter of law" — doubling down on what critics say is an equivocation on the election's outcome.

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Judge Who Denied Goldstein Retrial Says It Wasn't Close Case

By Rachel Rippetoe

A Maryland federal judge has elaborated on her decision to deny SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein's bid for an acquittal or new trial, saying that the evidence presented at trial either supersedes or invalidates his claims of issues with jury instructions and insufficient or excluded evidence.

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Texas Judge Tosses Buzbee Firm's Jay-Z Conspiracy Suits

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas state court has handed a win to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a Mississippi law firm, which sought dismissal of claims that they conspired with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter to retaliate against Houston personal injury firm The Buzbee Law Firm and two of its former clients.

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Ex-AT&T Counsel Charged Over Disclosing Privileged Info

By Sue Reisinger

A former in-house attorney for AT&T, accused of leaking privileged information to opposing counsel while seeking a share of financial gains from a lawsuit filed 18 years ago against the company, has been charged with violating attorney professional conduct rules.

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Judge Allows Brazil To Join Trump Suit Against Justice

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday allowed Brazil to intervene in a suit by President Donald Trump's media company and online video-sharing platform Rumble Inc. against a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice's gag orders but deferred ruling on Brazil's motion to dismiss the suit.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

Ahern Rentals Inc.

American Bar Association

American Tort Reform Association

Appalachian Mountain Advocates

Ara Partners

BNP Paribas SA

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement Ltd.

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Claremont McKenna College

Commonwealth Edison Co.

Duke Energy Corp.

Earthjustice

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fordham University

Fortress Investment Group LLC

Gawker Media LLC

Google LLC

Helix TCS Inc.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Lex Machina Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Milwaukee Bucks

Nabors Industries Ltd.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Native American Rights Fund Inc.

Natural Resources Defense Council

New York State Bar Association

Nicor Gas Co.

Nike Inc.

North American Electric Reliability Corp.

North Carolina Justice Center

Pennzoil

RELX PLC

ROC Nation LLC

Sierra Club

Southern Environmental Law Center

Starbucks Corp.

The District of Columbia Bar

The New York Times Co.

Twitter Inc.

Veolia Environnement SA

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Axinn Veltrop

Bessenyey & Van

Boies Schiller

Bradley Arant

Brito PLLC

Bruckner Burch

Buzbee Law Firm

Clifford Chance

Coblentz Patch

Cokinos Young

Cullin O'Brien Law

DLA Piper

Davis Graham

Davis Polk

Dentons

Dordick Law

Dorsey & Whitney

Faegre Drinker

Fisher & Phillips

Foley & Lardner

Foley Hoag

Fox Rothschild

Freshfields

Gibson Dunn

Glenn Agre

Greenberg Gross

HSF Kramer

Heise Suarez

Jones Day

Jones Walker LLP

Josephson Dunlap

Kasowitz LLP

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Levi & Korsinsky

MJ Legal PA

Markus Moss PLLC

Mayer Brown

Milbank LLP

Morgan Lewis

Morris Kandinov

Munger Tolles

O'Melveny & Myers

Parris Law Firm

Parry Law PLLC

Quinn Emanuel

Rabinowitz Boudin

Schonbrun Seplow

Sidley Austin

Steptoe LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell

Troutman

Vinson & Elkins

Winston Taylor

Womble Bond

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Land Management

Colorado Supreme Court

Council of the EU

European Parliament

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Fish and Wildlife Service

Government of Mexico

Internal Revenue Service

International Trade Administration

New York State Unified Court System

North Carolina General Assembly

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Interior

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

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 Maryland

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

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

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

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

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

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 Southern District of New York

U.S. Government Accountability Office

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

Washington Attorney General's Office

World Trade Organization