More Real Estate Coverage

  • February 27, 2024

    Conn. Mortgage Biz Rips 'Maximalist' CFPB Licensing Stance

    Shuttered East Hartford mortgage company 1st Alliance Lending LLC and its co-owners have argued a Connecticut federal court should throw out the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's claims that they deceived borrowers by letting unlicensed consultants create and manage their loans, asserting that the agency's "maximalist position" goes beyond the law.

  • February 27, 2024

    Energy Co. Asks 8th Circ. To Revive Lease Termination Suit

    A Denver-based energy company has told the Eighth Circuit that a North Dakota federal judge was wrong to dismiss its lease termination suit and hold that it had not exhausted its administrative remedies when its appeal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision had dragged on for nine-plus years.

  • February 26, 2024

    Feds, Fla. Oppose Sharing Power In Clean Water Act Program

    The federal government and Florida are now fighting over how much power each should get after a D.C. federal judge struck down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to approve the Sunshine State's bid to assume authority over a key Clean Water Act permitting program.

  • February 26, 2024

    Pastor And Ally Of NYC Mayor Was A Con Man, Jury Hears

    A well-known Brooklyn pastor with close ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a con man, a Manhattan federal prosecutor told jurors Monday, one who lied to lenders, stole from an elderly parishioner and claimed his connections to City Hall could result in millions of dollars in profits from a real estate deal.

  • February 26, 2024

    Del. Justices Deny Second Chance For Texas Land Co. Suit

    Two investors in one of Texas' largest land holding companies lost a bid Monday for Delaware Supreme Court revival of a suit challenging a six-fold increase in company shares, upholding a Court of Chancery finding in December.

  • February 26, 2024

    Trump Calls Biz Bans 'Punitive' In $465M Civil Fraud Appeal

    Donald Trump, his adult sons, his companies and former officers moved to appeal the $464.6 million civil fraud judgment handed down by a New York state judge earlier this month, accusing the judge of overstepping his authority and issuing "punitive" relief.

  • February 23, 2024

    Wildlife, Paddling Groups Want To Join Clean Water Act Fight

    The National Wildlife Federation and American Whitewater are asking a Louisiana federal judge to let them join litigation over an updated Clean Water Act rule that expanded states' and tribes' ability to block projects such as pipelines and dams over water quality concerns, to ensure their interests are considered.

  • February 23, 2024

    Tribal Biz Atty Must Meet Calif. DA Over Greenhouse Wreckage

    A California federal judge has ordered the lawyer for a business owned by a tribal conglomerate to attend a hearing with San Bernardino County's district attorney, saying the lawyer must explain why he forced the DA to file a unilateral status report about the destruction of illegal cannabis greenhouses.

  • February 23, 2024

    1st Circ. Told Wind Farm's Approval Should've Been A Breeze

    A wind farm developer has asked the First Circuit to reject fishing groups' challenge to the U.S. Department of the Interior's approval of a proposed project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, saying the effort to sink the plan can't survive because the agency did things by the book.

  • February 22, 2024

    Wildlife Group Sinks USDA Agricultural Wetlands Rule

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture inappropriately altered its program designed to stop the development of wetlands on farmland and struck down those regulations.

  • February 22, 2024

    Coldwell Banker Wins Trade Secrets Fight On Directed Verdict

    A California state judge issued a directed verdict for Coldwell Banker's Orange County division in a case where a rival real estate company accused it of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets.

  • February 22, 2024

    Ex-HFZ Capital Chief Denies $86M Real Estate Fraud Charges

    The former head of troubled real estate firm HFZ Capital Group has pled not guilty in New York state court to dozens of criminal charges alleging he spearheaded a series of theft and tax fraud schemes that netted more than $86 million in total.

  • February 22, 2024

    3 Firms Steer Stonepeak's $3B Wind Farm Stake Deal

    Stonepeak plans to buy a 50% noncontrolling stake in Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project for $3 billion and split construction costs with the electricity giant in a deal powered by three law firms, the companies announced.

  • February 21, 2024

    Justices Urged To Turn Away $285M Panama Canal Award Suit

    The operator of the Panama Canal on Tuesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to turn away a case in which $285 million in arbitral awards are being challenged over an arbitrator's "evident partiality," saying close relationships between arbitrators are so "ubiquitous" in international arbitration that they are unremarkable.

  • February 21, 2024

    Biogas Investment Tax Credit Still Needs Tweaks, IRS Told

    While the IRS clarified that the clean energy investment tax credit would cover eligible upgrading equipment integral to biogas properties, the industry could get a boost if final rules allow separate ownership of the equipment, stakeholders told the agency Wednesday.

  • February 21, 2024

    Green Groups Press FERC To Rescind Tenn. Pipeline Approval

    Environmentalists on Tuesday urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to undo its approval of a Tennessee pipeline project that will serve a Tennessee Valley Authority gas-fired power plant that is replacing a coal-fired plant, saying the agency botched its consideration of the project's climate change impacts.

  • February 20, 2024

    Fond Du Lac Tribe Seeks Sanctions In Mining Land Suit

    The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has asked a Minnesota federal judge to sanction PolyMet Mining Inc. in the tribe's suit over a land swap for a copper and nickel mine, arguing that the company and its lawyers are obstructing the discovery process.

  • February 20, 2024

    5th Circ. Seeks Texas Justices' Input On LNG Permit Fight

    The Fifth Circuit has yanked its prior ruling that scrapped an emissions permit issued by Texas environmental regulators for a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal, saying it wants the state's Supreme Court to weigh in on how to define the best available pollution control technology under Texas law.

  • February 20, 2024

    Landlord Bias Can Be Eviction Defense, Colo. Justices Say

    The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that tenants facing eviction can raise allegations of a landlord's discrimination or retaliation as a defense, directing a trial court to take another look at the case of a woman who accused her landlord of trying to boot her because she refused to have sex with him.

  • February 20, 2024

    New Yorker Writer Pans Subpoena Over Adams' Ties To Pastor

    A writer for The New Yorker said that being forced to testify about an indicted Brooklyn pastor's ties to Mayor Eric Adams would step on journalistic privilege, arguing that Manhattan federal prosecutors could instead rely on other sources.

  • February 20, 2024

    IRS Issues Fix For Tax Treatment Of Gas Upgrading Equipment

    The Internal Revenue Service issued a correction clarifying the tax treatment of certain gas upgrading equipment under proposed rules related to the energy credit.

  • February 20, 2024

    Justices Won't Review Partnership's $26M Easement Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear a partnership's bid to keep a $26.5 million deduction for a land conservation easement, letting stand a decision that the case was barred by a law that prohibits suits that restrain the collection of taxes.

  • February 16, 2024

    Florida Loses Wetland Permitting Authority In D.C. Court Case

    A D.C. judge has stripped Florida of its federally delegated authority to permit wetlands development, ruling that U.S. environmental regulators failed to analyze the impact of their decision on endangered and threatened species and handing a victory to conservation groups challenging the program.

  • February 16, 2024

    Gov't Wants More Alaskan Native Reps On Subsistence Board

    The U.S. government has plans to strengthen Alaskan Native tribal representation on its Federal Subsistence Board, saying the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have proposed a new rule to add board members with personal experience of subsistence living in rural Alaska.

  • February 16, 2024

    Feds Tell 1st Circ. Mass. Wind Farm Approval Was Sound

    The federal government has said a Massachusetts federal judge properly dumped a challenge lodged by commercial fishing groups seeking to upend federal approvals of the Vineyard Wind project, telling the First Circuit that the record shows federal agencies thoroughly studied the project's potential impacts.

Expert Analysis

  • A Look At Lease Expansion Options In A Challenging Market

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    Expansion options can provide a powerful incentive for businesses to sign long-term leases even amid economic uncertainty, but both landlords and tenants must carefully consider the potential rights and terms, says Kris Ferranti at Shearman.

  • 5 Keys To A Productive Mediation

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    Cortney Young at ADR Partners discusses factors that can help to foster success in mediation, including scheduling, preparation, managing client expectations and more.

  • Evaluating The Legal Ethics Of A ChatGPT-Authored Motion

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    Aimee Furness and Sam Mallick at Haynes Boone asked ChatGPT to draft a motion to dismiss, and then scrutinized the resulting work product in light of attorneys' ethical and professional responsibility obligations.

  • 7 Tips To Increase Your Law Firm's DEI Efforts In 2023

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    Law firms looking to advance their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts should consider implementing new practices and initiatives this year, including some that require nominal additional effort or expense, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Gina Rubel at Furia Rubel.

  • Keys To A 9-0 High Court Win: Get Back To Home Base

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    When I argued for the petitioner in Morgan v. Sundance before the U.S. Supreme Court last year, I made the idea of consistency the cornerstone of my case and built a road map for my argument to ensure I could always return to that home-base theme, says Karla Gilbride at Public Justice.

  • New US Waters Definition May Rock The Boat

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    Federal agencies' latest attempt to define "waters of the United States" attempts to avoid previous rules' failings, though it will potentially increase administrative difficulties for regulated entities and also leaves ample ground for litigation, say Christopher Thomas and Andrea Driggs at Perkins Coie.

  • Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.

  • 5 Gen X Characteristics That Can Boost Legal Leadership

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    As Generation X attorneys rise to fill top roles in law firms and corporations left by retiring baby boomers, they should embrace generational characteristics that will allow them to become better legal leaders, says Meredith Kahan at Whiteford Taylor.

  • 6 Questions For Boutique Firms Considering Mergers

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    To prepare for discussions with potential merger partners, boutique law firms should first consider the challenges they hope to address with a merger and the qualities they prioritize in possible partner firms, say Howard Cohl and Ron Nye at Major Lindsey.

  • 5 Tips For Adding Value To Legal Clients' Experience In 2023

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    Faced with a potential economic downturn this year, attorneys should look to strengthen client relationships now by focusing on key ways to improve the client experience, starting with a check-in call to discuss client needs and priorities for the coming year, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax

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    The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Legal Standing For Nature: The Road Not Taken

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    Fifty years have passed since former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas asked whether natural objects like trees and rivers should have standing — and while the high court has since narrowed access to the courtroom for potential environmental plaintiffs, Douglas' vision is worth revisiting, says Ninth Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown.

  • Where ESG And Director Fiduciary Duty Overlap

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    Despite ideological arguments to the contrary, directors and officers' fiduciary duties do not preclude their consideration of environmental, social and governance principles in corporate decision making, say Luis Fortuño at Steptoe & Johnson and Evan Slavitt at Paper Excellence.

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