Senate Leaders Unveil Project Permitting Overhaul

By Keith Goldberg

U.S. Senate energy and environmental leaders on Wednesday unveiled bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the permitting of infrastructure projects, and said they hope to get the bill through the chamber during the lame-duck session following November's elections.

Bill attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump Says S. Korea Investing $54B In Alaska Gas Pipeline

By Jack McLoone

South Korea will invest about $200 billion in various U.S. energy projects, including $54 billion for a long-awaited Alaska liquid natural gas pipeline, as part of a deal trading investments in the U.S. for preferential tariff treatment, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

11th Circ. Skeptical Of PACE Lenders' CFPB Rule Challenge

By Jon Hill

An Eleventh Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared poised to reject an industry challenge to Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules for providers of property-assessed clean-energy loans, repeatedly questioning claims that the agency overstepped its authority.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-DOJ Enviro Deputy AG Lands At Holtzman Vogel

By Keith Goldberg

A former top deputy in the U.S. Department of Justice's Energy and Natural Resources Division has landed at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC, the latest high-ranking DOJ attorney to join the firm.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Commerce Finds Chinese, Indian Electrodes Being Stockpiled

By Jack McLoone

Imports of electrodes used for smelting from India appear to have surged in response to the opening of a countervailing duty investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily found Wednesday, setting up possible retroactive duties on the goods.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Wyo. Asks To Intervene In Suit Over Lease Sales To Oil Cos.

By Rachel Konieczny

Wyoming urged a Colorado federal judge to allow the state to intervene in environmental nonprofit groups' lawsuit challenging the leasing of public lands in Colorado and Wyoming for oil and gas development, saying it could stand to lose millions of dollars in future revenue.

3 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Argentina Threatens UK With Arbitration In Falklands Oil Fight

By Joyce Hanson

Argentina President Javier Milei has told the British government to cease development of the Sea Lion oil drilling project off the coast of the Falkland Islands, threatening to initiate international arbitration proceedings over the "illegal plundering" of the archipelago of Atlantic islands also known as the Malvinas.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NJ Co. Says PPE Stockpiling Was Chinese Sovereign Activity

By Carolina Bolado

A New Jersey company accused of helping China hoard personal protective equipment to create a monopoly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic told the Eleventh Circuit that a lower court erred in finding that the allegations fall within the commercial activity exception to sovereign immunity.

3 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Norfolk Southern Investors Certified In Derailment Suit

By Sydney Price

Norfolk Southern investors can proceed as a class in a suit accusing the company of making misleading statements regarding its safety operations before a fiery train derailment in Ohio in 2023, though a Georgia federal judge did adopt the company's suggestion to narrow the class period.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Kirkland-Led Data Center Infrastructure Firm Prices $540M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Data center power provider Accelevation Holdings hit the public markets Wednesday after raising $540 million in its initial public offering steered by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DC Circ. Unsure Annulled $40M Award Is 'Repugnant'

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether it was "repugnant" of a Swedish court to retroactively cancel an arbitration agreement after a $40 million award had already been won, based on a finding that European Union law didn't allow it.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

PR Rebar Cos. Can't Duck Price-Fixing Claims

By Bryan Koenig

A Puerto Rico federal judge refused Wednesday to let steel rebar companies and one of their executives duck price-fixing claims from construction companies and consumers, citing instant messages discussing the alleged scheme and rejecting arguments that the island hasn't expressly allowed antitrust allegations from indirect buyers.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump's Rationale On Forced Labor Tariffs Misses, CIT Told

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Trade Representative's report justifying President Donald Trump's latest round of global tariffs based on imports produced with forced labor should prove insufficient, counsel for small businesses told a panel of U.S. Court of International Trade judges during oral arguments Wednesday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Joby Air Taxi Trade Secrets Suit Against Archer Trimmed

By Linda Chiem

A California federal judge has cleared Joby Aviation to advance a slimmed-down lawsuit alleging rival electric air-taxi developer Archer Aviation misappropriated its trade secrets, but again rejected Archer's counterclaims alleging Joby unfairly jockeyed for government contracts and concealed its pervasive China ties.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ariz. Land Swap Survives Despite 11-Judge 9th Circ. Dissent

By Crystal Owens

The Ninth Circuit won't rethink a decision to allow a 2,500-acre land exchange within Arizona's Tonto National Forest that tribal nations and conservation groups say will destroy a sacred Apache worship site, with 11 judges arguing in a dissent that a 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the dispute was wrong.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Opinion

Colo. Climate Suit Defies Limits Of State Power

In Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the U.S. Supreme Court must not allow a single Colorado county to penalize pollution occurring across the country and around the globe, because the U.S. Constitution forbids states from exercising power beyond their borders, says Michael McGinley at Dechert.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

The Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders: A Look At The Top Firms

Today's most prestigious firms attract top talent and marquee clients while posting record profits. Here's a look at the top 10 firms in this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders, a ranking of the firms that stand out for their prominence, power and distinction.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Accuses Judges Of Ethics Violations With Press Remarks

By Jack Karp

Several Minnesota federal judges ran afoul of their ethical obligations when they commented on President Donald Trump's immigration policies in a recent news article, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a judicial misconduct complaint filed Wednesday.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Federal Bar Discussion Looks At Courts' Role In Regulating AI

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Federal Bar Association discussion Wednesday in California about AI and how it will be regulated in the United States prompted the Northern District's new chief judge to ask whether Congress' "inability to pass laws" will leave it to the courts "to figure out how we're going to do this."

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Atty Picked For Judgeship Probed On Fulton County Raid

By Courtney Bublé

A top U.S. Department of Justice official tapped for a federal judgeship faced questions from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday about the department's investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, over Trump's allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Texas AG Says ABA Stifling Law School Competition

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Attorney General announced an investigation into the American Bar Association relating to alleged anticompetitive conduct in the association's accreditation of law schools, claiming Wednesday that the ABA "weaponized its accreditation authority" to push "unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements."

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Sen. Blackburn Sues Smith For Seizing Phone Records

By James Boyle

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn alleges in a federal complaint filed Wednesday that Jack Smith illegally subpoenaed her phone records as part of an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

3rd Circ. Calls Westlaw AI Fight 'Ordinary Copyright Case'

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit said the first appellate fight over artificial intelligence training and fair use ultimately came down to an "ordinary copyright case," affirming that Ross Intelligence infringed Thomson Reuters' Westlaw headnotes when it used them to train a competing legal research platform.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Blank Rome Seeks Time To Exit LIV Golf's Fla. Office

By Ben Zigterman

Blank Rome LLP on Wednesday filed a limited objection to LIV Golf's motion to reject its sublease at an office building in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying it didn't receive any advance notice and would like until the end of October to transition to a new office.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: Candace Owens, Firm DQ

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights a new suit over right-wing media personality Candace Owens and her conspiracy theories about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Quinn Emanuel's disqualification from a suit against a former client.

9 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Tort Report: Uber Owes $40M In Abandoned Rider Death Case

By Y. Peter Kang

A $40 million arbitration award in a case over an Uber incident and looming litigation against the federal government over a highly publicized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Roundup

Hub Hires: Mintz, Foley Hoag, Barclay Damon

By Chris Villani

Boston saw several significant moves across its legal landscape as the summer wound down, with Foley Hoag adding an experienced debt finance attorney from Goodwin Procter, a boutique white collar firm snagging a longtime federal prosecutor, and Mintz getting new leadership for the first time in nearly two decades.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »