California

  • January 30, 2025

    Consumers Want L'Oréal Acne Products Suits In Hawaii

    Plaintiffs suing L'Oréal for selling acne products that could break down into the carcinogen benzene took a second stab at consolidating their lawsuits, asking the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Thursday to join the suits in Hawaii.

  • January 30, 2025

    Investors Push To Consolidate Suits On Cash Sweep Programs

    Investors claiming brokerage firms' cash sweep investment programs unfairly enriched the brokers at the expense of customers asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Thursday to consolidate their suits, arguing they risk ending up with wildly different judicial rulings without it.

  • January 30, 2025

    Meta VR Headsets Are Not 'Wireless Telephones,' Judge Says

    A federal judge in the Western District of Texas has decided Meta's Quest brand of virtual reality headsets can't be considered "wireless telephones" in a patent lawsuit just because they come preinstalled with the Messenger app, which can take calls.

  • January 30, 2025

    Industrial Services PE Firm Lands $425M For Debut Fund

    An industrial services-focused private equity firm, guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, said Jan. 30 it wrapped its inaugural fund with $425 million in tow.

  • January 30, 2025

    Objection To NCAA's NIL Deal Sparks Attorney War Of Words

    A group of athletes claimed Wednesday that the $2.78 billion settlement with the NCAA over college athlete compensation illegally limited payments and broke antitrust laws, in an objection that spurred the plaintiffs' attorney to accuse the objectors' representatives of failing the athletes in previous court challenges.

  • January 30, 2025

    YouTube's 'Nelk Boys' Sued Over 'Snake-Oil' NFTs

    A buyer of an apparently worthless crypto product has filed suit against a pair of influencers behind the YouTube channel "Nelk Boys," calling them "snake-oil salesmen" and claiming they talked up the products online, saying they were valuable when, in reality, the promised perks and returns on investment never materialized.

  • January 30, 2025

    Semiconductor Co. Eyeing $5M Award Can't Get Asset Freeze

    A California federal judge has denied a Chinese semiconductor company's request to bar a commodity trading firm from dissipating its assets while the two are locked in an arbitration battle over a contract for lithography machines, saying the trader, now aware of the litigation, had not sold off its assets or indicated an intention of doing so.

  • January 30, 2025

    Samsung Gets PTAB To Review 2 Smart Ring Patents

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to hear Samsung's challenge to a pair of patents owned by a company that makes smart rings, finding there was a reasonable chance the electronics giant could potentially prevail in the fight.

  • January 30, 2025

    WB's 'The Pitt' Is 'Absolutely' An 'ER' Reboot, Crichton Says

    Counsel for the widow of "ER" creator Michael Crichton urged a California state judge on Thursday not to toss allegations that Warner Bros. Discovery's new medical drama "The Pitt" is an unauthorized reboot, saying the now-streaming show's development history proves it "absolutely derived" from the 1990s and early 2000s hit.

  • January 30, 2025

    Jackson Lewis Brings On Littler Atty As San Diego Leader

    Employment law firm Jackson Lewis PC is expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a Littler Mendelson PC litigator to be the new office managing principal in San Diego.

  • January 30, 2025

    Atty Should Lose License In Billing Scandal Case, Judge Says

    A San Fernando Valley attorney colluded with attorneys for the city of Los Angeles in a water utility class action for which he received a $1.65 million fee and later sought to hire hackers to spy on the judge presiding over the class suit, a State Bar of California judge has found.

  • January 30, 2025

    Calif. Court Says Late Arbitration Fees Keep Bias Suit In Court

    A California-based security company can't kick a former supervisor's employment discrimination lawsuit back to arbitration, a state appeals panel ruled, saying a state statute letting suits return to court if arbitration fees are paid late wasn't usurped by federal law.

  • January 30, 2025

    DOJ Challenges HPE's $14B Deal For Juniper Networks

    The U.S. Department of Justice sued Thursday to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's planned $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks Inc. over concerns about competition for local wireless networking technology.

  • January 30, 2025

    Food Co. Pays $950K To Settle Claims Over Ineligible Bidding

    California-based GS Foods Group Inc. has agreed to pay the federal government nearly $950,000 to resolve claims it bid on contracts reserved for small businesses, despite not qualifying as a small business, in violation of the False Claims Act.

  • January 30, 2025

    Cooley, Latham Steer Beta Bionics' Upsized $204M IPO

    Shares of insulin-delivery device maker Beta Bionics Inc. soared in debut trading Thursday after it priced an upsized, $204 million initial public offering at the top of its increased range, represented by Cooley LLP and underwriters' counsel Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • January 29, 2025

    Meta To Pay $25M To End Trump's Account Suspension Suit

    Meta Platforms confirmed Wednesday that the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have agreed to pay $25 million to settle the lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed after the social media company suspended his account following the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol over concerns he would incite further attacks.

  • January 29, 2025

    Calif. Privacy Agency Keeps Up Pressure On Data Brokers

    The California Privacy Protection Agency continued to build on its scrutiny of data brokers Wednesday, announcing a settlement with a Connecticut-based company that allegedly failed to comply with the registration requirements of a groundbreaking state data deletion law. 

  • January 29, 2025

    Comet Lands $17M Fee Award After $40M Trade Secret Win

    A California federal judge has ordered Singapore-headquartered XP Power to pay $17 million to Comet Technologies USA for the tech company's legal fees in the wake of Comet's $40 million trial win, saying the award will deter "malicious trade secret misappropriation" and "encourage trade secret defendants to make reasonable litigation decisions."

  • January 29, 2025

    Lab Co-Owner Gets 9 Years For $369M COVID Testing Scheme

    The co-owner of a California medical laboratory was sentenced to nine years in prison after being accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare and private insurers out of $369 million by submitting claims for medically unnecessary tests during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

  • January 29, 2025

    New DOT Chief Orders Fuel Economy Standards Redo

    U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has ordered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to retool its "extraordinarily stringent" vehicle fuel economy standards, immediately diving into President Donald Trump's rollback of Biden-era policies aimed at bolstering electric vehicles.

  • January 29, 2025

    Brother Hits Back In Family Feud Over Padres Ownership

    The late owner of the San Diego Padres did not give control of the Major League Baseball franchise to his widow, and his brothers are not wrongly withholding assets and control of the team from her, one of the brothers argues in his reply to her Texas state lawsuit.

  • January 29, 2025

    Mass. Judge Sends Stellantis' UAW Strike Suit To Calif.

    A Massachusetts federal judge has sent a Stellantis lawsuit accusing the UAW of violating a collective bargaining agreement by threatening mid-contract strikes to a California federal court where the automaker is pursuing identical claims over the union's tactics.

  • January 29, 2025

    Co.'s Missing Signature Prevents Arbitration In Wage Row

    A former home sales representative for a cosmetics company can keep her wage suit in court, a California state appellate panel ruled, affirming a lower court's ruling that the company failed to show it had a valid arbitration agreement with the worker because it didn't sign the pact.

  • January 29, 2025

    Hollywood Talent Co. Calls CAA's Info Theft Suit Retaliation

    Upstart Hollywood talent management firm Range Media Partners has asked a California judge to toss Creative Artists Agency's information theft and poaching claims, saying the lawsuit is a mere power grab and retaliation by the entertainment industry behemoth "to penalize its longtime employees for leaving."

  • January 29, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms Ax Of Patent Atty's Allergan FCA Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of a patent attorney's False Claims Act lawsuit alleging Allergan and Adamas Pharma fraudulently obtained patents to block generic competition for two Alzheimer's drugs, finding the information he disclosed was already publicly available and so his FCA claims are barred.

Expert Analysis

  • Compliance Considerations For Calif. Child Labor Audit Law

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    California employers will need to conduct a fact-intensive analysis to determine whether a new state law that imposes transparency rules for child labor audits applies to their operations, and should look out for regulatory guidance that answers open questions about deadlines and penalties, says Sylvia St. Clair at Faegre Drinker.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case

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    The recently settled dispute between Amtrak and its insurers over sublimit coverage illustrates that parties with unclear manuscript policies may wish to avoid litigation in favor of settlement — as the New York federal court declined to decide the case by applying prior term interpretations, says Laura Maletta at Chartwell Law.

  • Harris Unlikely To Shelve Biden Admin's Food Antitrust Stance

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    A look at Vice President Kamala Harris' past record, including her actions as California attorney general, shows why practitioners should prepare for continued aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly in the food and grocery industries, if Harris wins the presidential election, says Steve Vieux at Bartko.

  • 3rd Circ. Hertz Ruling Highlights Flawed Bankruptcy Theory

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    The Third Circuit, in its recent Hertz bankruptcy decision, became the latest appeals court to hold that noteholders were entitled to interest before shareholders under the absolute priority rule, but risked going astray by invoking the flawed theory of code impairment, say Matthew McGill and David Casazza at Gibson Dunn.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • The Complex Challenges Facing Sustainable Food Packaging

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    More and more states are requiring recycled content to be used in product packaging, creating complex technological and regulatory considerations for manufacturers who must also comply with federal food safety requirements, say Peter Coneski and Natalie Rainer at K&L Gates.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future

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    As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.

  • New Law May Move Calif. Toward Fashion Sustainability

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    California’s recently signed Responsible Textile Recovery Act seeks to increase sustainability innovation in the fashion industry, but it could also create compliance hurdles for brands, especially smaller fashion houses that do not have ample resources, say Warren Koshofer and Maggie Franz at Michelman & Robinson.

  • Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know

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    As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.

  • Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases

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    Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

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