California

  • December 17, 2024

    Roblox, Epic Games Accused Of Addicting Minors

    A suit filed in California state court has alleged that Epic Games and Roblox purposefully addict minors to playing their video games, knowing that the more time that they spend playing games, the more they will spend on in-game purchases.

  • December 17, 2024

    Plex Wrongly Refused To Arbitrate Privacy Claims, Suit Says

    A Plex subscriber is claiming the streaming service violated its terms of service by refusing to arbitrate claims that it was breaching federal and state privacy laws.

  • December 17, 2024

    Apple Fights Epic's Atty Privilege Challenge Win Over Docs

    Apple has asked a California federal judge to overturn a magistrate judge and allow it to withhold documents in a discovery spat with Epic Games, arguing Monday the documents in the antitrust case aren't simply business analyses but rather, reflect "'legal advice on a business decision,' which is protected."

  • December 17, 2024

    Perkins Coie Hit With DQ Bid In Face Recognition IP Dispute

    Perkins Coie LLP's representation of tech company Jumio Corp. in a patent suit is a "betrayal," facial recognition technology firm FaceTec Inc. said in a motion seeking to disqualify the law firm from the California case because it had previously represented FaceTec in many matters, including the patent currently in dispute.

  • December 17, 2024

    PG&E Secures $15B Energy Dept. Loan To Upgrade Grid

    The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday that it has conditionally committed to lending Pacific Gas & Electric Co. up to $15 billion for projects aimed at expanding hydropower generation and clean energy infrastructure in California.

  • December 17, 2024

    Fenwick-Led AI Startup Databricks Nets $10B In Private Round

    Venture-backed Databricks Inc. said Tuesday it raised $10 billion through a private funding that valued the artificial intelligence startup at $62 billion, represented by Fenwick & West LLP, marking the latest sign of investor enthusiasm for AI technology.

  • December 16, 2024

    Eisner Partner Among Newsom's Latest Picks For Bench

    A partner at Eisner LLP, a former Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP attorney and a former Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP associate are among 11 new judges tapped by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve on the Golden State's superior court, according to an announcement made Friday.

  • December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  • December 16, 2024

    Ginkgo Bioworks Investors Get Final OK Of $17.8M Settlement

    Investors in biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc. have gotten final approval for their $17.75 million deal to end proposed class action claims that the company and its leaders distorted Ginkgo's finances, mischaracterizing certain related party deals, to garner shareholder support for its merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

  • December 16, 2024

    Report Finds CBP Still Separating Some Children In Detention

    A court-appointed juvenile care monitor told a California federal judge the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol was continuing to routinely hold children separately from parents or trusted adults at a Donna, Texas, facility this September, in what could be the monitor's final report.

  • December 16, 2024

    Medical Facility Or Prison? Judge Mulls Tom Girardi's Fate

    A California federal judge on Monday ordered federal prosecutors and Tom Girardi's defense counsel to make their case on whether the 85-year-old disbarred attorney should get lifetime confinement to a medical facility instead of prison for embezzling millions of dollars from clients, given his age and declining mental health.

  • December 16, 2024

    'Farmville' Maker Settles With IBM After $45M Trial Loss

    IBM says it has reached a tentative settlement with the developer behind "Farmville" and other online video games, a few months after a jury in Delaware ordered the developer to pay $45 million in a patent case over programming online ads. 

  • December 16, 2024

    Oracle's 'Copyright War' Will Go On, 9th Circ. Says

    Ninth Circuit judges decided on Monday that a "pitched copyright war" going for over a decade between Oracle and a software company that markets third-party software support to Oracle customers has not gone on for long enough, finding that a Nevada federal judge turned out to be quite wrong about what constitutes a "derivative" work.

  • December 16, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Suit Over Starz Strip Club Drama

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday refused to revive a playwright's lawsuit claiming that Starz Entertainment copied her stage musical for the strip club drama series "P-Valley," saying the works weren't substantially close to one another.

  • December 16, 2024

    Rapper TI Sues Ex-Friend Over 'Baseless' Trafficking Claims

    Clifford "TI" Harris has filed a defamation suit against a former friend in California federal court, alleging that her "unhinged obsession" with the rapper and attempts to stay relevant have led to a raft of "baseless" accusations published on the defendant's social media accounts, including false sex trafficking claims. 

  • December 16, 2024

    Congress Sends Biden Another Bill To Help Federal Courts

    The House voted 390-0 Monday evening in favor of a bipartisan bill to make permanent 10 judgeships across the country, including in Texas, Florida and California, and the bill now goes to the president's desk.

  • December 16, 2024

    Yodlee Judge 'Wrestling' With Invasion Of Privacy Question

    A California federal judge considering financial data aggregator Yodlee's bid to dismiss allegations it unlawfully collected user data said Monday that she is "wrestling" with whether the company's retention of users' bank credentialing information gave those users standing for an invasion of privacy claim.

  • December 16, 2024

    Disney To Pay $233M To End Calif. Wage Theft Case

    Walt Disney Co. has agreed to shell out $233 million to end a five-year-long California state court case covering more than 51,000 workers accusing the company of failing to follow Anaheim's $15 minimum wage ordinance.

  • December 16, 2024

    Sony To Pay $7.8M To 4M PlayStation Gamers In Antitrust Fight

    Sony Interactive Entertainment will pay $7.85 million to more than 4 million gamers to settle a proposed class action accusing the company of overcharging PlayStation Store customers via a monopoly on downloadable game cards, according to a motion for preliminary approval filed Friday in California federal court.

  • December 16, 2024

    BNSF Can't Derail $20M Verdict For Man Hit By Train

    A California appeals panel won't upend a nearly $20 million verdict in a suit by a former BNSF Railway Co. employee who says the company's negligence led to him getting hit and dragged by a train car, saying the trial court correctly found that BNSF violated federal safety regulations.

  • December 16, 2024

    Sempra Policies Too Old For $1.8B Leak Coverage, Court Told

    An insurer told a California federal judge to end Sempra Energy's bid to obtain coverage in connection with a nearly $1.8 billion settlement over the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history, claiming its policies expired before any alleged injuries occurred.

  • December 16, 2024

    Albertsons Says Kroger 'Squandered' $25B Merger Bid

    The Kroger Co. Inc. "willfully squandered" opportunities to complete a now-blocked $24.6 billion mega-merger with Albertsons Cos. Inc., according to an unsealed five-count lawsuit in Delaware's Court of Chancery potentially seeking billions in damages.

  • December 16, 2024

    Pot Co. Stiiizy Accused Of Pushing High-THC Wares On Teens

    California cannabis giant Stiiizy has been accused of marketing dangerous high-potency THC products to young people, allegedly resulting in cannabis-induced psychosis in two users who brought a product liability and fraud suit in Los Angeles state court.

  • December 16, 2024

    ICE Contractor Claims Immunity From Family Separation Suit

    Transportation services provider MVM Inc. is arguing a father and son suing it for its role in a Trump administration policy that separated them and thousands of other immigrant families can't show it acted unlawfully or outside the bounds of a valid federal contract, dooming their litigation.

  • December 16, 2024

    NJ Judge Approves Settlement In Artificial Turf MDL

    A New Jersey federal judge has granted final approval to a proposed nationwide settlement to end a multidistrict litigation brought by consumers who purchased retired artificial fields from FieldTurf USA Inc.

Expert Analysis

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Payward And The Secondary Crypto Transaction Confusion

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    Following orders in cases against Coinbase and Binance, the recent California federal court ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward raises even more questions about regulation of secondary transactions involving crypto-assets, as it tries to sidestep fundamental flaws in the SEC's legal theories, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Takeaways From Texas AG's Novel AI Health Settlement

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    The Texas attorney general's recent action against a health tech company marks another step in rapidly proliferating enforcement against artificial intelligence and privacy issues across multiple states, and highlights important risk mitigation considerations for health companies that implement AI systems, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • What To Know About Latest Calif. Auto-Renewal Law Update

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    While businesses have about nine months to prepare before the recently passed amendment to California's automatic renewal law takes effect, it’s not too early to begin working on compliance efforts, including sign-up flow reviews, record retention updates and marketing language revisions, say Gonzalo Mon and Beth Chun at Kelley Drye.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.

  • How Lucia, Jarkesy Could Affect Grocery Merger Challenge

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    While the Federal Trade Commission is taking a dual federal court and administrative tribunal approach to block Kroger's merger with Alberstons, Kroger's long-shot unconstitutionality claims could potentially lead to a reevaluation of the FTC's reliance on administrative processes in complex merger cases, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: The MDL Map

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    An intriguing yet unpredictable facet of multidistrict litigation practice is venue selection for new MDL proceedings, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers many factors when it assigns an MDL venue, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

  • What To Expect From Calif. Bill Regulating PE In Healthcare

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    A California bill currently awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom's approval, intended to increase oversight over private equity and hedge fund investments in healthcare, is emblematic of recent increased scrutiny of investments in the space, and may affect transactions and operations in California in a number of ways, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners

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    Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Reassessing Lease Provisions To Account For ESG Initiatives

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    As companies seek to build ESG considerations into their businesses, it's crucial to understand how such initiatives can quickly become significant enough to compel reassessment of lease agreement provisions, and how best to modify leases accordingly, say Julian Freeman and Gabe Pitassi at Cox Castle.

  • What 7th Circ. Collective Actions Ruling Means For Employers

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    With the Seventh Circuit’s recent Fair Labor Standards Act ruling in Vanegas v. Signet Builders, a majority of federal appellate courts that have addressed the jurisdictional scope of employee collective actions now follow the U.S. Supreme Court's limiting precedent, bolstering an employer defense in circuits that have yet to weigh in, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Google And The Next Frontier Of Divestiture Antitrust Remedy

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    The possibility of a large-scale divestiture in the Google search case comes on the heels of recent requests of business breakups as remedies for anticompetitive conduct, and companies should prepare for the likelihood that courts may impose divestiture remedies in the event of a liability finding, say Lauren Weinstein and Nathaniel Rubin at MoloLamken.

  • Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics

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    Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.

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