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Two months in court, 1,700 miles from home, $100 million at stake. In this edition of V&E+, Vinson & Elkins partners Jim Thompson, Nick Shum, and Stephanie Noble share their story of a marathon trial — and how they emerged victorious.

On November 29, 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a critically important administrative law case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, No. 22-859.

We have recently seen an increase in audits by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) Office of Enforcement (“OE”) that take issue with the way electric utilities and interstate natural gas pipelines allocate overhead costs to construction projects.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC” or “Commission”) October 18, 2023 Open Meeting (the “October Open Meeting”) and October 27, 2023 issuance of rehearing of remand orders for the Texas LNG Brownsville LLC and joint Rio Grande, LLC and Rio Bravo Pipeline Company, LLC projects provide further evidence of the re-solidification of the Driftwood Compromise we discussed in our earlier update following the September 21, 2023 Open Meeting (the “September Open Meeting”).

At the Open Meeting held on September 21, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) approved four of the six Natural Gas Act (“NGA”) certificate orders for interstate natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminals that were abruptly struck from the agenda at the July Open Meeting.

In a concerted effort to meet the Biden administration’s aggressive carbon-reduction goals, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) unveiled a pre-publication copy of a forthcoming proposed rule on August 10, 2023, aimed at fast-tracking the development of high-voltage electric transmission facilities.

In 2021, $1.9 trillion was invested in energy worldwide, $750B of that in clean energy. And though experts say that is far short of the level needed to impact climate change, it’s causing ripples throughout the energy industry, including at one of its foremost law firms, Vinson & Elkins.

Virtually every day brings another headline trumpeting the latest campaign by a shareholder activist against a public company. Activists have become fixtures on the corporate landscape, agitating for change at a growing number of U.S. corporations. Over the last 15 years, the number of activist campaigns in the U.S. has more than tripled, reaching 277…