“Data Center Rush Poses Conflicts for Law Firms With Energy Ties” —

• “The data center boom is a conflict minefield for law firms that count major utilities among their top clients. Three of the largest firms in Texas—Vinson & Elkins, Baker Botts, and Jackson Walker—are go-to advisers for large regulated utilities Oncor Electric Delivery Co., CenterPoint Energy, and Texas-New Mexico Power. They are now among a slew of firms representing AI data center developers and hyperscalers building multibillion-dollar facilities that require massive amounts of electricity from the state’s power grid.”
• “‘There’s a whole host of conflicts that can result,’ said John Browning, a former appeals court judge in Dallas. ‘Law firms in Texas want to cash-in on the business opportunities, but at the same time they also have to navigate that very difficult tightrope of keeping their existing utility clients happy.'”
• “The utilities are experiencing  unprecedented demand for infrastructure development to meet increasing calls from industry, including data centers. That creates revenue and opportunity, but it’s also fueling concerns over the strained power grid and public policies regulating large loads of connection. Utilities need to manage how to serve the state’s growing population and industries, while tech giants are asking to plug-in now and get power fast.”
• “Vinson & Elkins and Baker Botts declined to comment, while Jackson Walker did not respond to comment requests. The firms appear for now to be navigating potential conflicts by steering data center projects largely outside of their utility clients’ service areas, according to available public information.”
• “V&E is a longtime legal adviser for Dallas-based Oncor, the state’s largest utility delivering power to more than 13 million customers. The firm also represents Fermi Inc., an AI-focused real estate company co-founded by former energy secretary Rick Perry. The company, which raised nearly $683 million when lawyers from Vinson & Elkins helped it go public last year, is building an 11-gigawatt data center in the Texas Panhandle.”
• “Baker Botts has represented Houston-area CenterPoint and its predecessors for more than a century, according to the firm, and in February steered a $2.6 billion debt securities deal. The firm’s lawyers are advising on data center projects throughout the state, including helping LandBridge Co. on a definitive agreement for a development on 2,000 acres in West Texas.”
• “Jackson Walker has long advised TNMP in a wide range of regulatory matters, including rate change requests and related litigation. The firm last year helped CloudBurst Data Centers Inc. make a ‘behind the meter’ deal to receive natural gas directly from pipeline operator Energy Transfers to power its data center campus in San Marcos, near Austin.”
• “Lawyers at other firms said they are using conflict waivers to get ahead of ethics issues and opting out of certain matters when that pits clients on opposing sides. But firms could be forced to pick sides as the state imposes new regulations on data centers’ power use.”
• “‘There’s potentially conflicting viewpoints on where the data center should be located, how it will be interconnected to the grid, and who should pay for it,’ said Gina Warren, a University of Houston Law Center professor who previously represented utility companies as a lawyer at Perkins Coie. ‘It definitely creates a conflict with meeting energy demands, current demands and future demands, and it’s questionable whether interests of the utility companies will align with interests of the AI data centers.'”
• “Two large law firms with deep Texas roots—Haynes Boone and Norton Rose Fulbright—now require clients to sign advanced conflict waivers to head off potential ethics issues in data center work.”
• “Dallas-founded Haynes Boone has put up ‘guardrails’ and ‘ethical walls,’ separating certain practices to avoid potential conflicts, according to Jeff Moerdler, chair of the firm’s data center and digital infrastructure group. The firm also advised on Fermi’s IPO last year.”
• “‘You can’t be on both sides of the same matter, even with different lawyers,’ said Moerdler, a New York lawyer who joined Haynes Boone in January. ‘There are some firms that do that. My position, and I believe Haynes Boone’s position, is we don’t do that.'”
• “Even if firms don’t cross ethical lines, they may risk alienating certain clients by taking on others with competing interests, according to Browning, the former judge.”
• “‘For a lack of a better way of putting it, you don’t want to piss off your existing clients,’ he said. ‘Client loyalty is a big consideration. Not just actual loyalty, but also the perception of loyalty.'”

“O’Toole Scrivo Fights DQ Bid Over Port Authority Leader Ties” —

• “McCarter & English LLP this week blasted a counsel disqualification motion from a former attorney suing for alleged discrimination as a ‘blatant and meritless’ tactical move to interfere with its representation by the firm O’Toole Scrivo LLC over that firm’s connection to the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”
• “Pro se plaintiff William Brown Jr., a former McCarter & English attorney suing the firm for alleged anti-veteran discrimination, moved to disqualify O’Toole Scrivo in early March.”
• “Brown had named O’Toole Scrivo managing partner Kevin O’Toole as a defendant in an amended complaint filed in February and argued that O’Toole’s firm could not ethically go on to represent a fellow defendant in the suit.”
• “But O’Toole Scrivo told the Essex County Superior Court in a brief filed Tuesday that Brown ‘presents the court with nothing other than unfounded speculation that could never result in a conflict sufficient to deprive McCarter of its chosen counsel.'”
• “Brown’s claim against O’Toole is that, using his influence as Port Authority chairman, he retaliated against Brown for suing McCarter & English by canceling a Navy SEAL charity event Brown runs at the World Trade Center, costing Brown tens of thousands of dollars a year in income.”
• “Brown argued that O’Toole Scrivo must be removed from the litigation because McCarter & English’s strongest defense would be to shift the blame for canceling the charity event onto O’Toole personally, leaving the firm and its counsel with adverse interests.”
• “McCarter & English, however, told the court Brown is speculating about McCarter & English’s future legal strategy. The firm also said the supposed conflict is irrelevant because of a sworn statement in discovery from the CEO of the Navy SEAL Foundation, an organization involved in the charity, stating that the event’s cancellation had nothing to do with O’Toole.”
• “‘McCarter’s strategy and choice of counsel are for McCarter to determine,’ the firm wrote in Tuesday’s filing.”
• “Brown responded to McCarter & English’s opposition Wednesday, denying that his disqualification motion was speculative or based on future events.”
• “Brown alleged that Open Public Records Act documents show O’Toole again misused his influence as Port Authority chairman by directing the police department of his town to block a process server from serving him with Brown’s amended complaint. The episode highlights the tension between McCarter & English and O’Toole in terms of how to defend against the retaliatory conduct allegations in his suit, according to Brown.”

“Ethics Commission: Former Holyoke City Councilor allegedly violated conflict of interest law” —

• “The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission says it’s found ‘reasonable cause’ while probing potential conflict of interest violations involving a former Holyoke city councilor.”
• “According to the commission, David Bartley allegedly violated the state’s Conflict of Interest law on multiple occasions while serving the city.”
• “The four listed incidents occurred between 2023 and 2025, and largely involved Bartley acting as an attorney, often representing property owners in cases involving the city.”
• “The commission says the state’s Conflict of Interest law ‘prohibits municipal employees from acting as agent or attorney for anyone other than the municipality, or doing paid work for anyone other than the municipality, in connection with matters in which the municipality is a party or has a direct and substantial interest.'”
• “The commission also says Bartley allegedly failed to complete the state conflict of interest law online training program for most of his time as a councilor. “

“Paul Weiss Deal With Trump Haunts Industry One Year Later” —

• “A year after Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp shuttled to the White House to strike a deal with President Donald Trump, the fallout is still shaking the law firm, the legal profession, and the president’s agenda in court.”
• “The agreement weakened Paul Weiss’ reputation in the market in the year since. The legal profession is struggling to backfill pro bono work that the largest law firms used to take on. And the Trump administration losses against four law firms that challenged the orders have proven to be a bellwether of how judges can curtail the president’s retribution streak.”
• “‘Even without further executive orders, if what already occurred is enough to cause the biggest firms to be afraid to do what they used to do, that is not a good thing for our country,’ said Shira Scheindlin, a former Manhattan federal judge who’s now at Boies Schiller. Scheindlin is part of a group advocating that lawyers sign an ethics pledge preventing them from entering into deals with the administration.”
• “Paul Weiss’ reputation arguably has been the hardest hit of any of the nine law firms that struck accords with the administration, partly because of the notoriety of being the first to settle.”
• “‘Paul Weiss had a reputation as a firm that stood up for civil liberties and took on tough cases and had principles, and that reputation is really tarnished,’ said Elliot Peters, a partner at San Francisco-based Keker Van Nest & Peters. ‘A lot of good lawyers left some of those firms, they certainly left Paul Weiss. And I hope they feel shame for not standing up for the most basic tenets of our profession.'”
• “Karp stepped down from his chair role in February after details emerged about his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.”
• “The fallout from the Paul Weiss deal and those agreements that followed is not over. One risk is whether the firms will take a hit in law school recruiting. The Association of American Law Schools this month is starting a six-week ‘teach-in’ to discuss the ethics of the law firm deals. The effort will reach students at schools including Georgetown, Harvard, and Indiana—pipelines for Big Law recruiting.”
• “The firms are likely to fill their classes, McGowan said. Students have debt, and the firms pay good wages. ‘The fact they can still hire people doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake,’ he said. “