Analysis

Iran War Has Oil & Gas Dealmakers Holding Their Breath

By Keith Goldberg

Oil and gas dealmakers are cautiously optimistic they can ride out any immediate energy market volatility caused by the U.S. and Israel-Iran war, but the potential for disrupted transactions will grow if the conflict drags on, or continues to provoke Middle East neighbors.

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Jury Awards $34M In 16th PacifiCorp Wildfire Trial

By Cara Salvatore

An Oregon jury awarded $34 million in noneconomic damages Tuesday in the 16th damages trial against PacifiCorp over the state's Labor Day 2020 fires.

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NY Judge Affirms Venture Global's Win Over Shell

By Caroline Simson

Shell has failed in its bid to overturn an arbitral award siding with liquefied natural gas producer Venture Global in a dispute over sales from one of its Louisiana facilities, after a New York state judge ruled Monday that the tribunal had already rejected allegations that it was misled.

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Gov't Goes After $19M In Biofuel Tax Credit Fraud Case

By Kevin Pinner

A businessman who owes more than $19 million to a company subject to forfeiture over its involvement in a $511 million biofuel tax credit fraud must hand over the money to the federal government now that a catfishing scheme targeting him is resolved, the government told a Utah federal court.

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Split 9th Circ. Tells EPA To Review Cadmium's Species Impact

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must analyze how its revised water quality standards for cadmium would affect endangered species, a split Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, upholding a conservation organization's victory in a lawsuit over the agency's guidance tripling the levels of the heavy metal allowed in U.S. waters.

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Crystallex $15M Fee Request Justified, Special Master Says

By Caroline Simson

A lawyer for the special master overseeing the auction of Citgo to satisfy billions of dollars' worth of Venezuelan debt has defended his request for more than $15.3 million in fees on top of nearly $63 million already paid, saying the request follows an "extraordinarily complex" sale process.

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Gas Wholesaler Says QuikTrip Torpedoed $3.6M Property Deal

By Kelcey Caulder

A petroleum wholesaler slapped gas station chain QuikTrip with a lawsuit in Georgia federal court Tuesday, saying QuikTrip wrongly asserted a right to purchase a $3.6 million property in metro Atlanta to block the wholesaler from acquiring it to develop a new filling station.

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Brief

Widow Sues Pipeline Jobsite Operators Over Fatal Explosion

By Spencer Brewer

The widow of a man who died during a pipeline explosion sued OxyRock Operating LLC and Rock Fish Operating LLC in Texas state court, alleging the jobsite operators' negligence caused the accident.

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5th Circ. Unsure Grid Hookup Request Cap Hurts States

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel appeared skeptical that Louisiana and Mississippi utility regulators deserve an exemption from the cap on the number of electricity generation projects in a regional grid operator's interconnection request queue, asking Tuesday if any state had previously enjoyed a waiver.

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Trump Plan To Reopen Coal Plant Is Illegal, Wash. AG Says

By Ben Adlin

Washington state's attorney general and five environmental watchdogs are challenging the Trump administration's effort to reopen a decommissioned coal power plant in Chehalis, Washington, arguing that the U.S. Department of Energy lacks the authority to force the plant back into operation.

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SCANA Investors' $34M Deal, Atty Fees Get Final OK

By Emilie Ruscoe

Consulting giant Deloitte and investors in utility company SCANA Corp. have gotten a final nod for their $34 million settlement of proposed class action claims that Deloitte gave cover to SCANA as it hid delays and cost overruns for a $9 billion nuclear energy expansion project it eventually abandoned.

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Brief

Hawaiian Electric Investors Get First OK Of $48M Wildfire Deal

By Sydney Price

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and its investors have received initial approval of their nearly $48 million deal settling a California federal suit blaming it for the downturn in its stock price following a deadly 2023 fire on Maui.

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Eletson Says Ch. 11 Arrest Warrants Are 'Logical Next Step'

By Vince Sullivan

Reorganized shipping company Eletson Holdings Inc. has told a New York bankruptcy judge that arrest warrants for ex-officials of the company are an appropriate, incremental action in a months-long quest to obtain depositions from individuals facing court judgments.

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DOE Contractor Pays $3.45M To Settle Time Card Fraud Case

By Elaine Briseño

A contractor paid the U.S. Department of Energy $3.45 million to settle a dispute over alleged time card fraud at the decommissioned Hanford nuclear site in Washington where workers took naps, watched movies and read while on the clock.

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EV Maker Lucid Investor Seeks Class Cert. In Production Suit

By Emilie Ruscoe

An investor in electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. is seeking certification of its proposed class in litigation alleging the company misled investors about how many cars it could make in 2022, hurting investors when it disclosed months later it was on track to make about a third of its earlier estimate.

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4th Circ. Won't Revive Retired Miners' Health Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Fourth Circuit refused Tuesday to reopen a dispute over lifetime retirement health and life insurance benefits from a proposed class of retired coal miners, keeping in place a West Virginia federal court's judgment that broadly favored the company following a seven-day bench trial.

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King & Spalding Adds 3 More Attys From Winston & Strawn

By Rose Krebs

King & Spalding LLP announced Tuesday that it is continuing to expand in Dallas by adding three more attorneys from Winston & Strawn LLP.

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11th Circ. NextEra Ruling Broadens Loss Causation Standard

The Eleventh Circuit's recent Jastram v. NextEra Energy decision significantly expands the loss causation standard at the motion-to-dismiss stage and may lead to suits predicated on more tenuous connections between company disclosures and alleged misstatements, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

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DOJ Nixes Plan To Drop Law Firm EO Appeals In About-Face

By Emma Cueto

A day after informing the D.C. Circuit that it would no longer seek to defend the executive orders issued by President Donald Trump against four law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice reversed course Tuesday, requesting permission to withdraw its motion to voluntarily dismiss the appeals.

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Goldman's Departing CLO, Gates Asked To Testify On Epstein

By Lauren Berg

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday asked outgoing Goldman Sachs Chief Legal Officer Kathryn Ruemmler, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black and others to testify about their connections to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Early Publicity Could Poison DOJ's Criminal Cases, Attys Say

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has shrugged off long-standing prosecutorial policies against publicizing criminal probes in their early stages and disparaging the targets, an "unusual" and "troubling" development that threatens the integrity of investigations, grand jury proceedings and the right to a fair trial, experts tell Law360.

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Skadden Hit With Sanctions Over 'Vexatious' Gaming Suit

By Ivan Moreno

A Manhattan federal judge has sanctioned Papaya Gaming and its attorneys from Skadden for what the court said was a "blatant" attempt to relitigate claims in Virginia that had already been dismissed in a false advertising dispute in New York with Skillz Platform, one of its competitors.

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NY Judicial Watchdog Says Complaints Break Record Again

By Andrea Keckley

New York's judicial watchdog has reported a record number of new complaints filed against judges for the fourth year in a row in 2025.

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Day Pitney Faces DQ Bid Over Ex-Justice's Role In $1.3M Case

By Aaron Keller

Day Pitney LLP should be sidelined from a $1.3 million private equity management company's windup lawsuit because former Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, now a partner at the firm, heard the case before it was earmarked for a new trial, three company owners have argued.

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New Whistleblower Program Adds 'Bit More Stick,' DOJ Says

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's new whistleblower rewards program partnership with the U.S. Postal Service doesn't displace the leniency program by which companies disclose potential price-fixing and other antitrust violations, a DOJ official said Tuesday in Washington, D.C., but it is an important complement.

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DOJ Turns To 2nd Circ. In Bid To Revive James Subpoenas

By Emily Sawicki

The U.S. Department of Justice is urging the Second Circuit to revive an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James launched by a federal prosecutor later found to have been serving unlawfully, arguing the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York had been rightfully appointed when he launched the probe.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice got its antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster teed up for trial, as a court continues mulling the department's settlement last year in a case challenging a deal by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and lawmakers call for scrutiny of Paramount Skydance's blockbuster acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

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Meta Atty's Slip Reveals Social Media Trial Plaintiff's Identity

By Craig Clough

An attorney for Meta Platforms on Tuesday revealed the highly guarded full name of the plaintiff in a landmark bellwether trial accusing its Instagram platform and Google's YouTube of harming children's mental health, prompting the Los Angeles judge overseeing the case to strike it from the record and order everyone in the courtroom not to reveal it.

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