Expert Analysis

• Mont. Kids' Climate Decision Reflects 3 Enviro Trends

  

  A Montana district court's recent ruling in Held v. Montana represents a rare win for activist plaintiffs seeking to use rights-based theories to address climate change concerns — and calls attention to three environmental trends that are increasingly influencing climate litigation and policy, says J. Michael Showalter at ArentFox Schiff.

• To Hire And Keep Top Talent, Think Beyond Compensation

  

  Firms seeking to appeal to sophisticated clients and top-level partners should promote mentorship, ensure that attorneys from diverse backgrounds feel valued, and clarify policies about at-home work, says Patrick Moya at Quaero Group.

• Strategies For Enforcing Arbitral Awards Against Sovereigns

  

  When a large project or investment in a foreign country is unexpectedly expropriated by a new government, companies often prevail in arbitration — but if the sovereign refuses to pay up, collecting the arbitral award may require persistence, creativity, and a mixture of hard and soft approaches, say Gabe Bluestone and Jeff Newton at OmniBridgeway.

• Calif. Protected Species Law Changes: Real Fix Or Red Tape?

  

  California's recent amendments to its "fully protected species" statutes create a temporary permitting regime intended to accelerate the building of renewable energy, transportation and water infrastructure in response to climate change — but the new legislation could become another obstacle to the projects it purports to benefit, says Paul Weiland at Nossaman.

• Perspectives

  More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap

  

  Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.

• What New Offshore Drilling Bond Rules Would Mean For Cos.

  

  The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's recently proposed changes to when offshore oil, gas and sulfur lessees must post supplemental financial assurance related to their operations provides greater clarity for stakeholders, but some smaller operators may not satisfy the proposal's new credit rating requirements, say attorneys at V&E.

• Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure

  

  Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.

• Key Drivers Behind Widespread Adoption Of NAV Financing

  

  While net asset value-based lending has existed for years, NAV lending has only started to move into the mainstream recently — likely due to difficult market conditions faced by sponsors including persistent inflation, high interest rates and a lack of exit opportunities, say Matthew Kerfoot and Jinyoung Joo at Proskauer.

• NHTSA Fuel Proposal May Boost EVs — Given More Chargers

  

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recently proposed revised fuel economy standards may spur automakers to further advance development and sales of electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles — but only if consumer concerns over inadequate infrastructure are addressed, say Levi McAllister and Mark Fanelli at Morgan Lewis.

• Series

  The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'

  

  Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.

• What Legal Personhood For DAOs Means For Crypto Industry

  

  A California federal court's recent ruling in U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Ooki DAO that a decentralized autonomous organization is a legal person, despite lacking a centralized coordinating authority, has several potentially significant implications for decentralized finance, say Jeffry Henderson and Douglas Arend at Greenberg Traurig.

• 4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

• Chinese Investment In Latin America Raises Corruption Risks

  

  A wave of Chinese investments in Latin America has increased an already elevated risk profile, so U.S. companies that operate in the region would be wise to bolster their compliance programs as more bribery and corruption-related enforcement activity is sure to come, say Drew Costello, Brian Ross and Jordan Basich at Forensic Risk Alliance.

• Opinion

  3 Ways Justices' Disclosure Defenses Miss The Ethical Point

  

  The rule-bound interpretation of financial disclosures preferred by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — demonstrated in their respective statements defending their failure to disclose gifts from billionaires — show that they do not understand the ethical aspects of the public's concern, says Jim Moliterno at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.

• Counterfactual Models: A Key Tool In Energy Price Disputes

  

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent review of penalties assessed by PJM Interconnection during Winter Storm Elliott is just one example of how estimating the behavior of energy markets in counterfactual scenarios is an essential tool for settling contractual and regulatory disputes, say Kivanç Kirgiz and Manuel Vasconcelos at Cornerstone Research, and independent consultant Roy Shanker.