French oil and gas company Maurel & Prom said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Gran Tierra Energy's Colombia and Ecuador operations in a $1.33 billion deal, expanding its Latin American footprint with a portfolio that produced about 29,000 barrels of oil per day in the first half of 2026.
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Gran Tierra Selling Colombia, Ecuador Oil Assets For $1.33B

By Al Barbarino

French oil and gas company Maurel & Prom said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Gran Tierra Energy's Colombia and Ecuador operations in a $1.33 billion deal, expanding its Latin American footprint with a portfolio that produced about 29,000 barrels of oil per day in the first half of 2026.

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Wyoming Judge Says Congress Nixed Coal Lease Fight

By Tom Lotshaw

A Wyoming federal judge dismissed a series of cases challenging resource management plans that ended new coal leasing on federal lands in the Powder River Basin, agreeing that the dispute ended when Congress repealed the plans.

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Goldman Exec Was Linchpin To Ghana Bribery Ploy, Jury Told

By Stewart Bishop

A federal prosecutor on Wednesday told jurors in Brooklyn that emails and recordings back up allegations a former Goldman Sachs banker was the central player behind a plot to secure a lucrative energy contract by bribing Ghanaian government officials, while the defense argued that a dearth of evidence about illicit payments should doom the case.

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Defense Dept. Was 'Ostrich Burying His Head', Judge Says

By Hailey Konnath

A Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday compared the U.S. Department of Defense's since struck-down reimbursement limit for grant-funded research to an "ostrich burying his head in the sand," awarding attorney fees to the academic organization that successfully challenged the policy.

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DATA CENTERS

Texas Governor Calls For Data Center Audit

By Isaac Monterose

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit any data centers that are going through ERCOT's electric grid interconnection process, saying that an audit is needed because the demand from data centers seeking to connect to Texas' electric grid could overwhelm it.

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UTILITIES AND POWER

NJ Utility's Suit Over $6.8M In Added Project Costs Tossed

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal judge has tossed a municipal utilities authority's suit seeking a pause in arbitration over the cost of delays in an energy savings and capital improvement project, holding that the dispute falls within the scope of the parties' arbitration agreement.

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Utilities Say Toshiba Can't Redo Discovery After $394M Verdict

By Melanie Dorsey

The owners of Michigan's Ludington pumped storage plant have urged a federal judge to block Toshiba Corp. from reopening discovery after a jury awarded the plant owners nearly $394.4 million for Toshiba's botched overhaul of the facility, arguing the company is trying to build a new record to challenge issues already decided at trial.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Tesla Says Ky. Man's Full Self-Driving Fraud Suit Is Untimely

By Gina Kim

Tesla has moved to nix a customer's proposed class action alleging the company duped him into thinking its vehicles can fully drive themselves, arguing in California federal court Tuesday that his claims are untimely and overlap with a similar consolidated consumer protection action.

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PEOPLE

Holland & Knight Hires Energy Finance Advisers In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Holland & Knight LLP has hired a trio of advisers from lobbying and consulting firm Boundary Stone Partners to bolster its work on energy, technology and infrastructure funding and finance in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Tuesday.

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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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2 Law Firms Say IRS Wrongly Denied COVID-19 Tax Credits

By Adrian Cruz

A pair of law firms are alleging in Georgia federal court that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly denied their claims to employee retention credits, a tax incentive created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage businesses to keep workers on their payrolls.

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NC House OKs Unpaid Suspensions For Judges Under Inquiry

By Hayley Fowler

Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives have given the green light to a legislative proposal empowering the chief justice of the state Supreme Court to suspend trial court judges without pay if they're under investigation by the state Judicial Standards Commission.

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Simpson Thacher Lands In Chicago With 5-Atty Kirkland Team

By James Boyle

A five-person team of Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorneys are moving their practices to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to help the firm launch an office in Chicago.

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No Simpson Thacher Malpractice In PIPE Case, Jury Finds

By Madison Arnold

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP escaped a malpractice lawsuit late Thursday over its representation of Patriot National Inc. in a private investment in public equity transaction in the years before the company's downfall.

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Sidley Adds Ex-Accenture Enterprise Platforms Lead As CIO

By Matt Perez

Sidley Austin LLP on Wednesday announced the hiring of a nearly two-decade veteran at professional services firm Accenture as its chief information officer.

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New ABA Chief Seeks To 'Streamline' Org., Defend Democracy

By Emily Sawicki

The American Bar Association's new president, Barbara J. Howard, will focus on twin goals of defending democracy against expected unprecedented attacks associated with this year's midterm elections, while also reorganizing the association to run more efficiently, as she kicks off her one-year term this month.

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Richards Layton Under Fire Amid Bid To Avoid AI Sanctions

By Rose Krebs

A firm has asked a Delaware vice chancellor to allow it to submit more "factual information" regarding what it says are inconsistencies in Richards Layton & Finger PA's attempt to avoid sanctions for submitting a filing with errors generated by artificial intelligence.

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Justices' FTC Ruling Weakens Qui Tam's Constitutional Base

The U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Trump v. Slaughter, expanding presidential control over those exercising executive power, suggests that courts may be receptive to arguments challenging the constitutional foundations of the False Claims Act’s qui tam mechanism, says Daniel Passeser at Wiggin.

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Analysis

The Dramatic Moments Set To Shape Tom Goldstein's Appeal

By Jeff Overley and Jared Foretek

Prurient revelations, brash recriminations and purportedly glaring judicial errors in Tom Goldstein's criminal case have captivated the appellate bar for nearly 19 months, and many of those moments will be center stage in the star attorney's imminent appeal.

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6th Circ. Slashes 'Egregious' Fee Award In Tax-Taking Suit

By Susan Smiley

Michigan attorneys representing plaintiffs in a tax foreclosure suit had their awarded attorney fees, which more than doubled the settlement they obtained in the case, slashed by a Sixth Circuit panel in a published opinion Thursday.

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Ex-GC Hijacked Accounts And Posted Klan Imagery, Suit Says

By Ben Adlin

A Washington state court granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday in a school fundraising company's lawsuit accusing its former general counsel of taking control of its social media accounts and allegedly replacing its LinkedIn photo with a manipulated image of its president in a Ku Klux Klan robe.

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Wash. Justices Offer Bar Waiver After July Exam Tech Failure

By Rachel Riley

The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday it's offering to waive the bar exam requirement for first-time applicants who were unable to take the test last week due to an abrupt cancellation driven by technical issues at the Yakima Convention Center where it was scheduled to be administered.   

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Dems Slam Skadden's 'Nothing To See Here' Trump Deal Reply

By Hailey Konnath

Three Democratic lawmakers on Thursday criticized Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP's response to their request that the firm disclose details of its pro bono arrangement with the Trump administration, saying the firm's "three sentence letter essentially saying 'nothing to see here'" is "not going to cut it."

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Trump Again Targets Birthright Citizenship In 2 New Orders

By Rae Ann Varona

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders that seek to limit automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S., after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a previous birthright citizenship executive order as unconstitutional.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Accenture PLC

American Arbitration Association

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

Association of American Universities Inc.

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Earthjustice

Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc.

Executive Health Resources Inc.

George Washington University

Google LLC

Gran Tierra Energy Inc.

Guidehouse Inc.

Hard Yaka Inc.

Harvard Kennedy School

Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.

Intel Corp.

LinkedIn Corp.

National Mining Association

Navajo Transitional Energy Co.

Northeastern University

Pacific Legal Foundation

Patriot National Inc.

Public Co. Accounting Oversight Board

Rosebud Mining Co.

Schneider Electric

Sierra Club

Tesla Inc.

The Boeing Co.

The Charles Schwab Corp.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Toshiba Corp.

Uber Technologies Inc.

Vimeo Inc.

Washington State Bar Association

Western Environmental Law Center

Yelp Inc.

YouTube Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Anderson Kill

Ashurst Perkins

Baker & Hostetler

Bass Berry

Bodker Ramsey

Bracewell LLP

Burns Charest

Bush Seyferth

Cairncross & Hempelmann

Clement & Murphy

Conrad & Scherer

Crowell & Moring

Foley & Lardner

Giarmarco Mullins

Gordon Dana & Gilmore

HSF Kramer

Holland & Knight

Honigman LLP

Hughes Hubbard

Jenner & Block

Kirkland & Ellis

McAlpine PC

McDermott Will & Schulte

Migliaccio & Rathod

Morrison Cohen

Paul Hastings

Richards Layton

Rueb Stoller

Schwabe Williamson

Seila Law

Sidley Austin

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Skadden Arps

Stearns Weaver

Susman Godfrey

Trif & Modugno

White & Case

Wiggin & Dana

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Ziontz Chestnut

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Land Management

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Council on Environmental Quality

Delaware Court of Chancery

Export-Import Bank of the United States

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Railroad Administration

Federal Trade Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Montana Attorney General's Office

Northern Cheyenne Tribe

Public Utility Commission of Texas

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

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

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

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 Georgia

U.S. International Development Finance Corp.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Wyoming

Wyoming Attorney General's Office