More Real Estate Coverage

  • January 12, 2024

    Coalition Sues Feds Over Sediment Diversion Project In La.

    A coalition of oyster fishers and growers and environmentalists is asking a Louisiana federal judge to overturn approvals for a major sediment diversion project that aims to address erosion, subsidence and sea level rise in the Barataria Basin south of New Orleans, claiming federal agencies botched their environmental reviews.

  • January 12, 2024

    Skadden, Fried Frank Guide BlackRock On $12.5B GIP Buy

    BlackRock has agreed to purchase Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12.5 billion in a cash-and-stock deal that aims to capitalize on growing long-term infrastructure investment opportunities and is intended to create "the world's premier infrastructure investment firm," the New York City-based firms said Friday.

  • January 11, 2024

    Colo. Judge Splits Class Cert In HomeAdvisor Fraud Row

    A Colorado federal judge ruled a group of service professionals can't sue HomeAdvisor as a class over claims the online marketplace sent them "bogus" home repair job leads, according to an order that certified a class for other allegations that the site has failed to take down profiles for professionals who are no longer paying members.

  • January 11, 2024

    Tribal Biz Wants Calif. DA Barred From Wrecking Greenhouses

    A business owned by a tribal conglomerate led by the Crow Tribe of Montana asked a California federal judge Wednesday to bar San Bernardino County officials from entering property it acquired and destroying greenhouses based on their use in an illegal cannabis operation run by the tenants of a prior owner.

  • January 11, 2024

    Suit Aims To Protect Candy Darter From Coal Hauling In W.Va.

    Conservation groups are suing the U.S. Forest Service, claiming its decision to let a mining company haul coal and equipment through part of the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia is imperiling an exceptional watershed and endangered species, including a colorfully striped fish, the candy darter.

  • January 11, 2024

    Tenn. Bill Would Boost Ag Land Eligible For Less Property Tax

    Tennessee would more than triple the amount of land within a property tax jurisdiction that may be classified as agricultural, forest or open-space land and subject to a lower tax assessment under a bill introduced in the state Senate.

  • January 11, 2024

    Fla.'s Shubin Law Expands To Tampa After Co-Founder's Split

    Shubin Law Group PA, formerly known as Shubin & Bass, revealed this week the firm bolstered its South Florida presence by adding a new partner with decades of experience in the region to helm a new Tampa office, shortly after one of its co-founders left to launch another practice of his own.

  • January 10, 2024

    WWII, Vietnam Vets Tell Jury PacifiCorp Fires Razed Homes

    Following a $90 million class verdict against utility PacifiCorp over a cluster of Labor Day 2020 fires in Oregon, jurors heard individual damages testimony Wednesday from a 101-year-old World War II combat veteran and a Vietnam War combat veteran who lost homes in the fires.

  • January 10, 2024

    Ill. City May Be Liable In Own Pollution Suit Against Metal Co.

    An Illinois federal judge has allowed a counterclaim by a scrap metal recycling company to move forward against the city of Aurora, Illinois, seeking to hold the city at least partially responsible for environmental contamination around the recycling operation.

  • January 10, 2024

    10th Circ. Urged To Keep National Monuments Designation

    Native American tribes and environmental organizations have urged the Tenth Circuit to uphold a lower court decision dismissing Utah and other groups' challenge to President Joe Biden's redesignation of large swaths of the state as part of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

  • January 10, 2024

    Wash. Judge Calls Eviction Protection Ruling 'Disturbing'

    A day after a Washington appellate court panel said the CARES Act's eviction notice requirement applies beyond late-rent cases, another judge on the court reviewing a separate eviction suggested Wednesday the ruling could lead to "disturbing" consequences if landlords aren't allowed to quickly evict violent tenants.

  • January 10, 2024

    Native Owners Again Seek To Intervene In ND Pipeline Row

    A group of North Dakota tribal landowners with property alongside a gas and oil pipeline are asking a federal district court to allow them to intervene in litigation over right of way trespassing claims through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, saying the federal government is only trying to protect its own interests in forthcoming breach of trust claims against it.

  • January 10, 2024

    EPA's Water Leader To Step Down After Busy Tenure

    The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water office on Wednesday said she'll be stepping down at the end of February, after three years leading the office through a multibillion-dollar infusion and several high profile rulemaking efforts.

  • January 10, 2024

    Montana Camp Must Pay $1M Bond To Stay Tribal Lease Order

    A Montana campground operator must post a $1 million surety bond to allow a stay to remain in place while it appeals a ruling to the Ninth Circuit in favor of the Blackfeet Nation in an ongoing land lease dispute, a federal district court judge said, determining that the company presented a "substantial case for relief on the merits."

  • January 10, 2024

    Md. Real Estate Co. Sued For $10M Over $2.5M Loan

    A lender has hit a Maryland real estate company and two of its officers with a more than $10 million suit alleging that the company misused a $2.5 million loan to pay off debts instead of renovating multiple Maryland properties for resale.

  • January 09, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Splits In Affirming Zillow's Patent Win Over IBM

    A split Federal Circuit panel on Tuesday backed a lower court's finding that a pair of IBM patents were not valid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test, handing a win to Zillow, which had been accused of infringing the patents with its real estate website and app.

  • January 09, 2024

    71-Year-Old CPA Sentenced To 25 Years In $1.3B Tax Case

    An accountant blamed by federal prosecutors for pioneering the use of conservation easements as illegal tax shelters was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday following his conviction on all counts of a $1.3 billion tax fraud scheme that drew the first criminal prosecution of its kind.

  • January 09, 2024

    Minn. Justices Question Denial Of Housing Charity Tax Break

    The Minnesota Supreme Court questioned arguments by the state's largest county Tuesday that low-income housing owned by a charitable nonprofit was not exempt from property taxation because the occupancy by the tenants did not further the organization's charitable purpose.

  • January 09, 2024

    NJ Revises Process For Valuation Of Farmland Easements

    New Jersey revised its process for determining the value of farmland and development easements on farmland intended to be acquired for preservation purposes under a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

  • January 08, 2024

    Wash. Marketing Co. Looks To Escape Timeshare Class Action

    A marketing firm connected with financial planning celebrity Dave Ramsey has urged a Washington federal judge to free it from a proposed class action accusing it of falsely promoting a timeshare-exit company, saying a decision in another suit prohibits any judgment against it.

  • January 08, 2024

    Feds Want Decades For Atty, CPA Convicted In $1.3B Tax Case

    An attorney and an accountant found guilty by a jury of selling $1.3 billion in fraudulent tax deductions in connection with conservation easements should spend decades behind bars, federal prosecutors told a Georgia federal court in advance of their Tuesday sentencing hearings.

  • January 08, 2024

    Tulsa Has Interest In Prosecuting Native Crimes, Officials Say

    The city of Tulsa has a strong interest in enforcing criminal law within its boundaries, its officials said, arguing that concurrent jurisdiction with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over Native Americans who commit crimes within its boundaries is "paramount" to the Oklahoma tribe's safety.

  • January 05, 2024

    Minn. County Accuses Feds Of Illegally Taking Land For Tribe

    A Minnesota county has sued the U.S. government in federal court, claiming the Interior Board of Indian Appeals wrongly allowed it to accept about 3,238 acres of land into trust for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians and has threatened the county's tax revenue.

  • January 05, 2024

    Biden Admin Floats New Natural Resource Damage Rule

    An "inefficient and inflexible" rule intended to facilitate settlements that pay for environmental damage resulting from pollution would be streamlined under a new rule proposed Friday by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

  • January 05, 2024

    Neb. Bill Aims To Expand Tax Break For Nonprofits' Purchases

    Nebraska would expand a sales and use tax exemption for purchases by nonprofit organizations under a bill introduced in the state's unicameral Legislature.

Expert Analysis

  • Building On Successful Judicial Assignment Reform In Texas

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    Prompt action by the Judicial Conference could curtail judge shopping and improve the efficiency and procedural fairness of the federal courts by implementing random districtwide assignment of cases, which has recently proven successful in Texas patent litigation, says Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper.

  • IRS Green Energy Tax Credit Notice Provides Needed Clarity

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    Recent IRS guidance clarifying how the government will determine energy community locations for purposes of bonus clean energy tax credits should help resolve risk allocation disagreements among financing parties and parties to merger and acquisition transactions, say Casey August and Paul Gordon at Morgan Lewis.

  • How State Laws Are Taking On Clean Energy Project Protests

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    By enacting legislation that streamlines siting and permitting for large-scale renewable energy infrastructure projects, states like Illinois, New York and California are keeping approval processes out of the reach of "not in my backyard" opponents and increasing the probability of meeting ambitious climate goals, says Bo Mahr at Husch Blackwell.

  • Practical Skills Young Attorneys Must Master To Be Happier

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    For young lawyers, finding happiness on the job — with its competitive nature and high expectations for billable hours — is complicated, but three skills can help them gain confidence, reduce stress and demonstrate their professional value in ways they never imagined, says career counselor Susan Smith Blakely.

  • Evaluating The Legal Standing Of Natural Elements

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    Wednesday's observance of World Water Day invites questions about anthropocentric or ecocentric approaches to the rights of natural elements as thinking shifts about the legal standing of such resources, say Susan Lutzker at Lutzker & Lutzker and Thomas Wallentin at Kunz Wallentin.

  • ABA Opinion Should Help Clarify Which Ethics Rules Apply

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    A recent American Bar Association opinion provides key guidance on interpreting ABA Model Rule 8.5's notoriously complex choice-of-law analysis — and should help lawyers authorized to practice in multiple jurisdictions determine which jurisdiction's ethics rules govern their conduct, say attorneys at HWG.

  • How Crypto-Friendly Bank Failures Will Change Tech Industry

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    The recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital are likely to result in significant shifts in how the global tech industry and its financial partners address legal, compliance, regulatory and business risks, says Erin Bryan at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • 4 Ways To Reboot Your Firm's Stalled Diversity Program

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    Law firms that have failed to see real progress despite years of diversity initiatives can move forward by committing to tackle four often-taboo obstacles that hinder diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, says Steph Maher at Jaffe.

  • What To Expect From A Litigation Finance Industry Recession

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    There's little data on how litigation finance would fare in a recession, but a look at stakeholders' incentives suggests corporate demand for litigation finance would increase in a recessionary environment, while the number of funders could shrink, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.

  • Insureds Must Prep For Drought-Related Service Interruptions

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    Amid the ongoing U.S. water crisis, corporate policyholders must prepare for the emerging risk of service interruption property damage and time element loss, including through careful examination of their current and renewal property policies, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.

  • How To Select The Right Arbitrator For A Construction Dispute

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    In construction disputes, selecting an arbitrator is a critical decision with many nuances to consider, as different types of potential panelists all come with their own experiences, views and possible biases, says Edward Gentilcore at Blank Rome.

  • Liquefied Natural Gas Outlook: Industry Under Pressure

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    While last year saw a remarkable turnaround in the liquefied natural gas market, with strong demand for U.S. LNG projects, the industry must now confront problems including increased credit and construction costs, and the possibility of fewer LNG conversions due to higher prices, say Monica Hwang and Silvia Smith at O'Melveny.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Lessons For Joint Ventures

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    In this month's bid protest roundup, Alissandra McCann at MoFo examines recent decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims of particular significance to joint ventures, concerning past performance evaluation and misrepresentation, and registration in the System for Award Management.

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