California

  • March 12, 2025

    Cisco Wins Exit From Ex-Workers' BlackRock 401(k) Fund Suit

    A California federal judge permanently tossed a proposed class action from ex-Cisco workers alleging their former employer mismanaged its 401(k) by keeping underperforming BlackRock target-date funds in the plan, finding their claims were still lacking despite multiple chances at amendment.

  • March 12, 2025

    Calif. Funeral Home 'Preys Upon' Latino Families, Suit Says

    A Sacramento funeral home was sued in California state court Tuesday for allegedly sending a deceased man's body to El Salvador in a "shocking state of decomposition" as part of a larger pattern of exploiting the Latino community with substandard services.

  • March 12, 2025

    Feds Launch 1st FEMA Fraud Charges Over LA Wildfires

    Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced Wednesday that three people have been arrested for allegedly submitting fake disaster relief applications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires, the first such charges to come out of the devastating January blazes.

  • March 12, 2025

    Judge Blocks Order Limiting Perkins Coie Government Access

    A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday halted enforcement of the Trump administration's executive order against law firm Perkins Coie LLP that cited issues including its representation of Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential run, calling the order "viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple."

  • March 12, 2025

    Customer Says Wells Fargo Colludes With AAA In Arbitrations

    The lead plaintiff in a proposed class action accusing Wells Fargo and the American Arbitration Association of colluding to fraudulently induce consumers into accepting an unfair arbitration process has urged a California federal judge to deny their attempts to toss the lawsuit.

  • March 12, 2025

    NCAA Volunteer Coaches Get Class Cert. In Antitrust Fight

    A California federal judge on Tuesday certified a class of potentially thousands of former NCAA Division I volunteer coaches who allege the athletic organization's now-repealed bylaw illegally suppressed their wages in violation of antitrust laws, and the judge also refused to exclude the class's damages report by a Princeton University professor.

  • March 12, 2025

    Widow Blames Lawyer's Death On Heat From Atty, Biz Partner

    A lawyer who co-founded a successful college athletics database took his own life after both his former business partner and his personal attorney falsely accused him of stealing from the company and sought to take control of his assets as repayment, his family said in a state court complaint that seeks to sort through the "financial wreckage."

  • March 12, 2025

    Boies Schiller Adds Calif. Litigator Experienced In AI Cases

    Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is boosting its California team, bringing in a Joseph Saveri Law Firm litigator in San Francisco who brings expertise in navigating cases touching on artificial intelligence, the firm announced this week.

  • March 12, 2025

    Cannabis Co. Trulieve Improperly Kept Tax Refund, Suit Says

    California cannabis retailer Catalyst alleged in a new lawsuit that Florida-based multistate operator Trulieve improperly pocketed a $305,000 federal tax refund that was rightfully Catalyst's following its acquisition of a dispensary.

  • March 12, 2025

    Weinstein Evidence Takes Shape Ahead Of Retrial In NY

    A New York state judge on Wednesday ruled on evidentiary issues ahead of Harvey Weinstein's retrial on rape and sexual assault charges, as his overturned conviction — vacated due to improperly admitted evidence — loomed over the proceedings.

  • March 12, 2025

    Calif. Privacy Agency Hits Honda Over Data Rights Handling

    The California Privacy Protection Agency revealed Wednesday that American Honda Motor Co. has agreed to pay a $632,500 fine and make it easier for consumers to exercise their rights under the state's data privacy law in order to settle the first enforcement strike stemming from the agency's ongoing investigation into the data handling practices of connected car manufacturers.

  • March 12, 2025

    Skadden-Led Scopely Buying Pokémon Go Biz In $3.5B Deal

    Skadden-led Scopely said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire the games business of Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go and other popular mobile game titles, in a deal Scopely valued at $3.5 billion.

  • March 12, 2025

    Venable Adds 2 Patent Partners From Axinn In San Francisco

    Venable LLP has hired two technology-focused partners from Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP to expand its intellectual property team in San Francisco.

  • March 12, 2025

    Duane Morris Adds Meyers Nave Enviro Litigation Duo In LA

    Duane Morris LLP is expanding its environmental team, bringing in a pair of Meyers Nave environmental litigators at its Los Angeles office.

  • March 11, 2025

    Crypto CEO A 'Grifter' Who Stole Millions, Jurors Told

    Cryptocurrency company founder Marcus Andrade is a "grifter" who stole millions and left investors empty-handed, a prosecutor told a California federal jury Tuesday during closing arguments while a defense lawyer said his client was a "dreamer" who acted in good faith and was taken advantage of by ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

  • March 11, 2025

    Telescope Buyers Get Class Certification In Antitrust Dispute

    A California federal judge on Monday certified a class of telescope buyers in an antitrust lawsuit saying a syndicate of manufacturers were price-fixing and scheming to monopolize the telescope market, accepting an expert opinion's methods for calculating classwide antitrust damages.

  • March 11, 2025

    Media Matters Slams X For 'Vendetta-Driven Libel Tourism'

    Media Matters for America lobbed its own claims at X Corp. in California federal court on Monday, accusing the social media company of launching a "vendetta-driven campaign of libel tourism" against the left-leaning watchdog across the globe that challenges Media Matters' "truthful reporting."

  • March 11, 2025

    Art Loft Building's Toxicity Was Disclosed, Expert Testifies

    A defense toxicologist told a Los Angeles jury Tuesday that residents in a large live-work art building received warning of carcinogenic chemicals in the soil underneath, supporting a real estate company's argument that the statute of limitations blocks the claims.

  • March 11, 2025

    Ex-USPTO Head Can't Be Expert In Walmart IP Fight, Co. Says

    A startup suing Walmart over trade secrets connected to shelf-freshness technology wants an Arkansas federal court to block the retailer from retaining former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal as an expert when the $115 million case moves forward to a retrial.

  • March 11, 2025

    Origin Brass Face Investor Suit Over Factory Delay Disclosure

    Executives and directors of sustainable chemical manufacturer Origin Materials have been hit with a shareholder's derivative suit alleging that they concealed a three-year construction delay affecting a production facility the company was building that increased company costs and altered relationships with its customers, including Pepsi.

  • March 11, 2025

    California Will Be Probing Location Data Industry

    California has a hunch that a lot of companies might be violating its data privacy law when it comes to sensitive location data, according to the state's attorney general, who says he is launching a sweeping investigation into the location data industry as a whole.

  • March 11, 2025

    Rising Caseloads Call For 71 New Judges: Judicial Conference

    The Judicial Conference of the United States on Tuesday asked Congress to create dozens of new judgeships in districts across the country in an effort to address what it calls a "worsening shortage" of judges amid mounting caseloads, months after then-President Joe Biden vetoed a bill to add 63 new permanent judgeships over partisan concerns.

  • March 11, 2025

    HPE's IP Case Moves Ahead, With Chance To Fix Some Claims

    A California federal judge has given Hewlett Packard Enterprise a month to amend its patent infringement complaint against a group of companies and greenlit the IT giant to seek discovery on business one of them may have done in the state.

  • March 11, 2025

    Authors Seek Win On Meta AI Direct Infringement Claims

    A group of award-winning authors urged a California federal judge to grant them a win on claims Meta directly infringed their copyrights by using databases of pirated works to train its "Llama" artificial-intelligence tool, arguing Meta infringed "massive" amounts of protected material, including books written by Supreme Court justices.

  • March 11, 2025

    Property Co. Says Insurer Must Pay $10M For Judgment

    The insurer for builders of a luxury mixed-use development in Oakland, California, must cover more than $10 million after a judgment was entered against the entities in an underlying suit brought by a property company asserting negligence and trespass claims, according to a complaint removed to federal court Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • How Cos. Can Use Data Clean Rooms To Address Privacy

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    Implementing comprehensive administrative controls, security processes and vendor management systems are vital steps for businesses leveraging data clean rooms for privacy compliance, especially given the Federal Trade Commission's warnings of complicated user privacy implications, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

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    Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

  • SEC Motion Response Could Reveal New Crypto Approach

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    Cumberland DRW recently filed to dismiss the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement action against it for the unlawful purchase and sale of digital asset securities, and the agency's response should unveil whether, and to what extent, the Trump administration will relax the federal government’s stance on digital asset regulation, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • What Calif. Bill Could Mean For Battery Energy Storage

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    A newly proposed bill in the California Legislature would place major restrictions on the development of battery energy storage system projects in the state — but with Gov. Gavin Newsom's strong support for clean energy technology, the legislation will likely face significant obstacles, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 3 Ways Trump Can Nix SEC's Climate Disclosure Rules

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    Given President Donald Trump's campaign statements and agency appointments, it's likely that his administration will try to annul the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rules, but his options for doing so present unique opportunities and challenges, with varying levels of permanence and impact, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Perspectives

    Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

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    KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.

  • Zuckerberg's Remarks Pose Legal Risk For Meta Amid Layoffs

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    Within days of announcing that Meta Platforms will cut 5% of its lowest-performing employees, Mark Zuckerberg remarked that corporations are becoming "culturally neutered" and need to bring back "masculine energy," exposing the company to potential claims under California employment law, says Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law Center.

  • Perspectives

    DC Circ. Cellphone Ruling Upends Law Enforcement Protocol

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    The D.C. Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Brown decision, holding that forcibly requiring a defendant to unlock his cellphone with his fingerprint violated the Fifth Amendment, has significant implications for law enforcement, and may provide an opportunity for defense lawyers to suppress electronic evidence, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • Reg Waiver Eases Calif. Rebuilding, But Proceed With Care

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order suspending some environmental review and permitting requirements for the reconstruction of homes and businesses damaged by recent wildfires may streamline rebuilding efforts, but will require careful navigation of the evolving regulatory landscape, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.

  • The Post-Macquarie Securities Fraud-By-Omission Landscape

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 opinion in Macquarie v. Moab distinguished inactionable "pure omissions" from actionable "half-truths," the line between the two concepts in practice is still unclear, presenting challenges for lower courts parsing statements that often fall within the gray area of "misleading by omission," say attorneys at Katten.

  • AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

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    Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

  • A View Of The Shifting Insurance Regulatory Landscape

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    Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland explore how the Federal Insurance Office's climate report, the new presidential administration and the California wildfires might affect the insurance regulatory landscape.

  • When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law

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    In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Engaging With Feds On Threats To Executives, Employees

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    In an increasingly polarized environment, where companies face serious concerns about how to protect executives and employees, counsel should consider working with federal law enforcement soon after the discovery of threats or harassment, says Jordan Estes at Gibson Dunn.

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