Class action litigation is beginning to take shape over allegations that major banks manipulated Libor, the benchmark rate used to calculate interest on trillions of dollars in securities globally. On Monday the federal district court judge hearing the litigation consolidated 20 class complaints, and appointed interim class counsel.

Gas and electric companies reacted with alarm back in 2009, when a jury awarded more than $20 million to a single Texas property owner whose land was taken though eminent domain by a unit of the energy company Enbridge Inc. On Friday, to the relief of Enbridge and its many energy industry amici, Baker Botts managed to get the verdict thrown out before the Texas Supreme Court.