Court shopping anyone?

Two months after filing suit to block the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce yesterday chose the same federal regional judicial battleground to try to void Treasury Department restrictions on inversions.

An inversion is when a U.S. company merges with an overseas firm to save on taxes.

No matter who wins at the first step of the Chamber’s fiduciary and inversion actions, the next venue for both cases would be the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Fifth Circuit has a reputation for being pro-business. However, its business decisions reportedly have been overturned more often by the U.S. Supreme Court than corporate rulings by other appellate branches.

For the fiduciary action, the Chamber filed suit in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Texas while the business merger suit was filed in the Western District.

The Chamber chose different high-powered Washington law firms to handle the cases -- Gibson Dunn for fiduciary and Jones Day for inversions.

U.S, Chamber Litigation Center Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation Steven Lehotsky is listed an attorney on both suits.

Using the proposed inversion of U.S. based drug company Pfizer with Ireland-headquartered pharmaceutical firm Allergan as a jumping-off point, the Chamber contends Treasury violated federal law by limiting this type of merger.