California

  • February 25, 2025

    Calif. Bar Touts Reduction In Racial Disparity In Atty Discipline

    The State Bar of California has reported what it calls "significant" shifts toward equity in attorney discipline in the five years since a watershed study showed a decades-long trend of disparity, including that Black male attorneys were more than three times as likely to be placed on probation or disbarred compared to their white counterparts.

  • February 25, 2025

    Union Pacific Cleared In Pedestrian's Injury Suit

    A California jury found Tuesday that Union Pacific Railroad Co. was not liable for an injury to a man who was walking along its railroad tracks.

  • February 25, 2025

    Silicon Valley City Planners Say Landowners Can't Duck Suit

    A company backed by a group of Silicon Valley business people looking to build a mini-city has urged a California federal court not to toss price-fixing claims against Solano County property owners, arguing that doing so at this point would be "premature."

  • February 25, 2025

    Dental Co. Biolase Drills Down On Unopposed Ch. 11 Plan

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday OK'd the Chapter 11 plan of dental technology maker Biolase Inc., which was fully consensual following changes to gain the approval of the U.S. Trustee and the official committee of unsecured creditors.

  • February 25, 2025

    Duane Morris Adds Former Federal Prosecutors In NY, Calif.

    Duane Morris LLP has expanded its trial practice group with a pair of former federal prosecutors coming aboard in San Francisco and New York.

  • February 25, 2025

    Landscaping Plant Farmer TreeSap Hits Ch. 11 With Sale Plans

    A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday agreed to give interim approval for landscaping plants grower TreeSap Farms LLC to access $14 million of its debtor-in-possession financing, which it hopes to use to turn its business around ahead of a sale.

  • February 24, 2025

    'It Was An Accident': Judge Denies Shooting Wife On Purpose

    A California judge who shot his wife to death in their living room following an argument took the stand in his murder trial Monday, fighting hard to maintain his composure while explaining to jurors that his Glock discharged accidentally when he tried to set it down on the coffee table.

  • February 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Axes Fee Award In California Pizza Kitchen Hack Deal

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday scrapped an attorney fee award of $800,000 given to class counsel as part of a deal resolving data breach litigation against California Pizza Kitchen, finding that the lower court had failed to properly compare the "actual value" of the settlement — which the panel put around $950,000 — to the requested fees.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple Exec Had Doubts Over New App Store Fee Compliance

    Apple fellow Phil Schiller testified Monday during a high-stakes compliance evidentiary hearing that he had initially been concerned that Apple's decision to implement a new 27% commission on purchases made outside Apple's App Store wouldn't comply with the court's 2021 anti-steering injunction in its yearslong antitrust fight with Epic Games.

  • February 24, 2025

    Lobbyist Abramoff Testifies At Fraud Trial Against Crypto CEO

    Disgraced Washington, D.C., power broker Jack Abramoff told jurors on Monday that he participated in a conspiracy with the founder of an "anti-money laundering" cryptocurrency company accused of bilking investors out of $5 million, testifying remotely due to a recent cancer diagnosis.

  • February 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Mostly Clears The Way For Mont. Logging Project

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed portions of a Montana federal judge's decision to vacate U.S. Forest Service approval of a controversial Black Ram logging project on the Kootenai National Forest, but told the lower court it had to take a closer look at some of the environmentalists' objections.

  • February 24, 2025

    Trump Birthright Citizenship EO Must Stay Paused, States Say

    A coalition of states on Monday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to leave in place his preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship while the government appeals, arguing that the injunction merely maintains a centurylong status quo recognizing those citizenship rights.

  • February 24, 2025

    Union Pacific Says Pedestrian Was In The Wrong In Crash Suit

    Lawyers for a pedestrian allegedly hit by a Union Pacific train told a jury in closing arguments Monday that the engineer wasn't paying enough attention to the tracks ahead, while the rail giant's lawyers said the man should not have been there.

  • February 24, 2025

    'Yellowjackets' Makers Omit Overlaps With Film, Court Told

    Showtime, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and the makers of the TV show "Yellowjackets" use "self-serving descriptions" and "omit similarities" between the show and the 2015 film "Eden" in their bid to toss a suit alleging the hit series ripped off the movie, the filmmakers told a California federal court judge on Monday.

  • February 24, 2025

    Bigelow Says Class Trial Is On 'Road To Nowhere'

    Counsel for R.C. Bigelow Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to call off an upcoming class action damages trial over the tea-maker's "manufactured in the USA" labels, saying the proceeding would be a "road to nowhere" because of fatally flawed sales data.

  • February 24, 2025

    Baby Bottle Cos. Get Parts Of Microplastics Suit Tossed

    Parents who sued Philips over allegations that microplastics leach from its "BPA free" baby bottles and sippy cups saw their lawsuit partially trimmed, after a California federal judge said that the company's label isn't misleading because it doesn't promise the products are "devoid of all harmful plastic."

  • February 24, 2025

    Unions, Groups Say Fed. Employees '5 Things' Email Illegal

    A group of unions challenging the federal layoff order said the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's controversial request for federal employees to include in a weekly email five things they accomplished flouts federal law, amending their lawsuit in California federal court.

  • February 24, 2025

    Judge Finds No Reason To Recuse From Trans Athlete Case

    A Colorado federal judge refused to step down from a lawsuit seeking to block a transgender woman from competing on a collegiate women's volleyball team, writing in an order Monday that he has given the plaintiffs "free reign" to make their arguments without requiring use of specific pronouns.

  • February 24, 2025

    'Varsity Blues' Suit Against USC An 'Uphill Battle,' Judge Says

    A Los Angeles judge said Monday that while a private equity investor's fraud suit against USC over his prosecution in the "Varsity Blues" case will likely make it past the pleading stage, he will later face an "uphill battle" given how much time has passed since the high-profile college admissions scandal.

  • February 24, 2025

    Filmmaker Seeks New IP Trial Against Shyamalan, Others

    A filmmaker has asked for a new copyright infringement trial against writer-director M. Night Shyamalan and his co-defendants Friday after a jury found that they did not have access to the film she claimed they infringed, arguing that the court failed to answer a crucial question from the jury before the verdict was delivered.

  • February 24, 2025

    Venable Litigator Jumps To Steptoe In California

    Steptoe LLP continues growing its West Coast team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Venable LLP commercial trial lawyer as a partner in its Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple Antitrust Ace Returns To Latham In Bay Area

    Latham & Watkins LLP announced Monday that it has welcomed back an attorney who was working as in-house counsel for Apple to bolster its antitrust and competition practice and enhance its efforts to handle monopolization cases.

  • February 24, 2025

    Ex-Sheppard Mullin Media Atty Joins O'Melveny In Calif.

    An entertainment attorney with expertise representing stakeholders on all sides of deal negotiations has moved his practice recently to O'Melveny & Myers LLP's office in the Los Angeles area after more than six years with Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple To Invest $500B In US Over 4 Years As Tariffs Mount

    Apple said Monday that it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, weeks after President Donald Trump placed a 10% tariff on goods from China, where the company sources components for its products, and threatened tariffs on semiconductors.

  • February 24, 2025

    Museum Cleared To Fire Hurt Worker After 4 Leave Extensions

    A California appeals court declined to revive a former HVAC technician's suit claiming the J. Paul Getty Trust illegally fired him while recovering from an on-the-job leg fracture, saying terminating him instead of granting a fifth request for indefinite medical leave was reasonable.

Expert Analysis

  • A Look At 2024 NIL Rights And Economies In College Sports

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    Permutations in the arena of name, image and likeness affecting collegiate athletics have continued unabated this year, and practitioners and industry representatives should anticipate significant activity at schools and continuing legal changes at the state level, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Considering Chevron's End Through A State Tax Lens

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    States took the lead in encouraging Chevron's demise, turning away from Chevron-type deference in state tax administration ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, a trend likely to accelerate as courts take a more active role in interpreting tax laws, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Comparing Antitrust Outlooks Amid Google Remedy Review

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    As the U.S. Justice Department mulls potential structural remedies after winning its recent case against Google, increased global scrutiny of Big Tech leaves ex post and ex ante antitrust approaches ripe for evaluation, say Nishant Chadha at the Indian School of Business and Manisha Goel at Pomona College.

  • What FTC's 'Bitcoin ATM' Report Tells Us About Crypto Scams

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent insights into bitcoin ATM scams highlight the technical evolution of fraudsters, the application of old scams to new technology, and the persistent financial impact on victims, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

  • A Novel Expansion Of Alien Tort Statute In 9th Circ.

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    The Ninth Circuit's Doe v. Cisco rehearing denial allows a new invocation of the Alien Tort Statute to proceed, which could capture the U.S. Supreme Court's attention, and has potentially dramatic consequences for U.S. companies doing business with foreign governments, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • A Look At The Increased Scrutiny Of Cash Sweep Programs

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    Financial industry regulators have increasingly probed the adequacy of so-called cash sweep disclosures and policies, underscoring the heightened risk faced by investment advisers and broker-dealers, as well as the importance of adequately disclosing material conflicts of interest, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • Calif. Ruling Offers Hope For Mitigated Negative Declarations

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    In Upland Community First v. City of Upland, a California appeals court upheld a warehouse development's mitigated negative declaration over its greenhouse gas emissions thresholds — a rare victory against this type of challenge providing reassurance that such declarations can be upheld, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

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