The second half of 2026 may see the outcome of federal efforts to speed up construction timelines via federal rulemaking and in Congress, and the resolution of open questions around how the repeal of a foundational climate regulation will impact energy policy. Here are four key policy areas that are on environmental attorneys' radar.
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Analysis

Top 4 Enviro Policies To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

By Gautama Mehta

The second half of 2026 may see the outcome of federal efforts to speed up construction timelines via federal rulemaking and in Congress, and the resolution of open questions around how the repeal of a foundational climate regulation will impact energy policy. Here are four key policy areas that are on environmental attorneys' radar.

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DOJ Unveils Law Firm Subpoenas In ABA Docs Bid Fight

By Ryan Boysen, Rae Ann Varona, Alison Knezevich, Daniel Moritz-Rabson and Aebra Coe

The BigLaw firms that cut deals with the Trump administration last year to skirt punitive executive orders are now grappling with subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking deal-related communications and depositions of the firms' managing partners or chairs, according to Friday court filings.

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Judge Denies Bid To Fast-Track Alaska Refuge Road Ruling

By Crystal Owens

An Alaskan district judge is asking the federal government, the state of Alaska and an Indigenous corporation to provide an anticipated construction timeline for a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

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Del. High Court Says Jarkesy Doesn't Extend To State Cases

By Katryna Perera

The Delaware Supreme Court has declined to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy holding to a state securities fraud suit arising from an administrative enforcement action brought by the state's Investor Protection Unit, finding there are no similar common-law cases requiring the right to a jury trial.

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States Ask To Join Fight Against DOD Wind Project Blockage

By Nadia Dreid

Nearly 20 states have told an Oregon federal judge they want in on a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to block land-based wind projects in the U.S. from moving forward.

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Russia Can't Pause $5B Crimean Award Suit, Judge Says

By Caroline Simson

A D.C. federal judge Friday refused to reimpose a pause on litigation filed by Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company to enforce a $5 billion arbitral award against Russia, calling it "mere speculation" that an ongoing appeal in the Netherlands would affect the proceedings.

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Judge Says OMB Can't Change Grant Terms After Award

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge said Friday the Trump administration cannot rely on a shift in policy to retroactively change the terms of already awarded grants in order to justify canceling them.

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Analysis

The Biggest Trade Secret Rulings Of 2026: A Midyear Report

By Ivan Moreno

The Federal Circuit issued two of the year's most consequential trade secret rulings within days of each other, wiping out Insulet's victory in a wearable insulin patch pump case while reopening a software company's path to potentially larger damages in a dispute with Ford Motor Co. Here, Law360 highlights the biggest trade secret decisions so far this year.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Brief

Commerce Opens Duty Probes Into Chinese Supplements

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. Department of Commerce is investigating whether certain dietary supplements imported from China are being sold at unfair prices and should be subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, it said Friday.

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OIL AND GAS

Petrobras Unit Seeks $700K Fees Over Failed Award Challenge

By Caroline Simson

A Petrobras-managed Dutch consortium is seeking more than $700,000 in fees from a group of Brazilian entities and their counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP following their unsuccessful attempt to vacate a $76.1 million arbitral award issued in a long-running offshore oil dispute.

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Latham, Milbank Lead H1 '26 Private Infrastructure Deal Surge

By Al Barbarino

Global private infrastructure financing reached $820.5 billion in the first half of 2026, up 55.3% from $528.5 billion a year earlier, as Latham & Watkins LLP and Milbank LLP led deal counts globally and in North America, according to Infralogic data.

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Pipeline Worker Engaged In Interstate Commerce, Court Says

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appeals court ruled that Energy Transfer LP cannot compel the family of a man who died in a pipeline explosion to arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, finding Thursday that the FAA did not apply to his employment contract because he engaged in interstate commerce.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen Snapchat and Dolby press on with a fresh infringement claim in their ongoing patent battle, The Telegraph face an intellectual property claim by a photo archive, a group of international human rights barristers and chambers sued, and oil business Equinor embroiled in a contract dispute with BP after recently acquiring full ownership in their offshore project. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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DATA CENTERS

Core Scientific Data Center Builder Hit With $2.5M Suit

By Abigail Harrison

A contractor brought on to build a data center owned by cryptocurrency mining company Core Scientific Inc. is accused of owing a subcontractor $2.5 million after it failed to pay for completed work, according to a new lawsuit in North Carolina federal court.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Solar's Momentum At Mid-2026 Will Help It Overcome Snags

The rapid expansion of U.S. solar development in the first half of 2026 is likely to continue its pace, even amid ongoing shifts in federal trade policy and supply chain regulations, obstacles to permitting reform, and an increasing divide between states enacting policies to encourage or stymie project development, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

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Tips For Investors, Creditors Before Venezuela Restructuring

As Venezuela enters the first genuinely actionable phase of what may become one of the largest sovereign debt restructurings in modern financial history, creditors should strategically evaluate their claim types and investors should consider engaging before formal negotiations commence, says Rodrigo Carvalho at Winston Taylor.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

How Competitive Is Your Compensation? Take Our Survey

Is your compensation keeping pace with the rate of inflation? Do you know what your colleagues made last year? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's Law Firm Compensation Survey.

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K&L Gates Cuts Nonattorney Staff By 10% After Review

By Tracey Read

K&L Gates LLP has cut its nonattorney and business support staff by 10% following a monthslong review of its structure, the firm told Law360 Pulse Friday.

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Analysis

Upon Review: The 2026 World Cup's Biggest Legal Stories

By Alex Lawson

The grandest iteration of the World Cup to date unsurprisingly raised new legal and regulatory disputes, including immigration issues and the White House's intervention in a player disciplinary proceeding. Here, Law360 digs into the legal questions arising from the tournament.

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7th Circ. Admonishes Atty Over 'Astonishing' Bogus Citations

By Christine DeRosa

The Seventh Circuit has admonished but declined to sanction an attorney for a brief that included what a judge called "an astonishing number of erroneous and even hallucinated citations."

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Ashurst Perkins Gets Trial Date Pushed In Malpractice Case

By Rachel Riley

A Washington state judge granted Ashurst Perkins Coie's bid to postpone the trial date in a lawsuit accusing the firm's predecessor of making significant mistakes while representing a Middle Eastern screw and nail manufacturer in regulatory proceedings before the U.S. Department of Commerce, calling the case "complex" on Friday.

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Judge Warns Gov't Over Apparent AI-Hallucinated Citation

By Courtney Bublé

A federal judge in Michigan, appointed by President Donald Trump, called out the government for its apparent use of artificial intelligence to cite "nonexistent case law."

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Public Defenders Go On Strike In New York City

By Andrea Keckley

Hundreds of public defenders and social workers in Brooklyn and Queens have gone on strike, with the possibility of more walkouts to come as legal aid providers continue to negotiate with their unions.

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Feature

How A 'Revolutionary' Charlotte Courtroom Advances Justice

By Hayley Fowler

In the second of a two-part series on the Virginia Revival Courtroom in the Charlotte federal courthouse, judges, architects and a trial consultant explain the strategy behind designing a space they see as more conducive to justice.

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2nd Circ. Backs Public Defender's Firing For Computer Misuse

By Andrea Keckley

The Second Circuit has backed a district court's dismissal of a former public defender's lawsuit against Oneida County, New York, for firing him after he used his work computer to work on his private practice on county time, agreeing that the county did not violate his privacy rights or breach their contract.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering allowing electronic delivery to be the default method for sending investors information, and a panel of investor activists said the 2026 proxy season was shaped by regulators who seem to let public companies behave more like private ones. 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

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Second Circuit determined that a lower court properly found that Nielsen cannot condition media company Cumulus' access to national radio ratings data on buying its local offerings.

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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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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abbott Laboratories

Access Advance LLC

Air Liquide

American Bar Association

American Petroleum Institute Inc.

Appian Corp.

Apple Inc.

Banco Sabadell SA

Benefit Street Partners Ltd.

Boston Scientific Corp.

Brooklyn Defender Services

CDI Corporation

CLEAResult Consulting Inc.

CaixaBank SA

Calpine Corp.

Campaign Legal Center

Center for Biological Diversity Inc.

Constellation Energy Corp.

Core Scientific Inc.

Court of Arbitration for Sport

Cumulus Media Inc.

Delivery Hero

Deutsche Bank AG

Dolby Laboratories Inc.

Duke Energy Corp.

Earthjustice

Energy Transfer LP

Equinor ASA

Federation Internationale de Football Association

Five Below Inc.

Ford Motor Co.

Fort Point Capital

Gleason Corp.

Groupe PSA

Grupo Antolin SA

Hannaford Brothers Co.

Instagram Inc.

Insulet Corp.

Insulet Corporation

Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc.

Kraft Group LLC

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

MTX Group

Macquarie Group Ltd.

Major League Soccer LLC

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Michigan Immigrant Rights Center

Micron Technology Inc.

Momentus Inc.

Naftogaz

National Westminster Bank PLC

Netlist Inc.

New England Patriots LP

New York Post

Nielsen Holdings PLC

Norfolk Southern Corp.

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Pegasystems Inc.

Petrobras

RELX PLC

Salesforce.com Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sandoz International GmbH

Skydance Media LLC

Snap Inc.

Solar Energy Industries Association

Solicitors Regulation Authority Ltd.

Swan Energy Inc.

Syntel, Inc.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

Teleperformance SA

The New York Times Co.

The Reynolds and Reynolds Co.

TriZetto Corp.

Uber Technologies Inc.

United Auto Workers

Vantage Data Centers

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. Ltd.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

A&O Shearman

Advokatfirmaet Selmer AS

Ahmad Zavitsanos

Alston & Bird

Arnold & Itkin

Arnold & Porter

Ashurst LLP

Ashurst Perkins

Bailey Duquette

Baker McKenzie

Beveridge & Diamond

Bird & Bird

Boyes Turner

Burness Paull

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang

Clarke Willmott

Cleary Gottlieb

Clifford Chance

Clyde & Co

Covington & Burling

Curtis Mallet-Prevost

DLA Piper

DMH Stallard

Davis Wright Tremaine

Debevoise & Plimpton

Dentons

Eversheds Sutherland

Freshfields

Fried Frank

Gibson Dunn

Gunster Yoakley

HSF Kramer

Haynes Boone

Herrick Feinstein

Hogan Lovells

Hunton Andrews

Jenner & Block

Joelson JD LLP

Jones Day

K&L Gates

Keller Postman

Kellogg Hansen

Kirkland & Ellis

Kobre & Kim

Latham & Watkins

Liskow & Lewis

McCarter & English

McNaul Ebel

Meritz Reddy

Milbank LLP

Mishcon de Reya

Morgan Lewis

Morrison & Foerster

Murphy & King

Nabarro LLP

Norton Rose

Olshan Frome

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Quinn Emanuel

Reddy Neumann

Reed Smith

Simmons & Simmons

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Sive Paget

Skadden Arps

Smith Debnam

Sullivan & Cromwell

Sullivan & Worcester

Susman Godfrey

TLT LLP

Trowers & Hamlins

Varnum LLP

Vinson & Elkins

Wachtell Lipton

Wedlake Bell

Weightmans LLP

White & Case

Williams & Connolly

WilmerHale

Winston Taylor

Womble Bond

Wright Close Barger & Guzman

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alaska Department of Law

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Companies House

Delaware Court of Chancery

Executive Office of the President

Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Internal Revenue Service

International Monetary Fund

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

National Institutes of Health

Native Village of Paimiut

New Jersey Attorney General's Office

North Carolina Utilities Commission

Office of Foreign Assets Control

Texas Supreme Court

Texas Tenth Court of Appeals

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Department of the Treasury

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 Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon

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

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

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

US Office of Management and Budget

Unified Patent Court