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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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December 16, 2024
Investment Pro Denies $600M 'Cherry-Picking' Fraud Charges
A California investment executive on Monday denied cheating a group of his firm's clients by assigning them poorer-performing trades, pleading not guilty before a Manhattan federal judge to what prosecutors call a $600 million criminal "cherry-picking" fraud.
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December 16, 2024
Ozy Media CEO Gets Almost 10 Years For Investor Fraud
A New York federal judge on Monday sentenced former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson to nearly 10 years in prison following his conviction at trial for lying to banks and investors to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding for the nascent multimedia company.
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December 16, 2024
Dental Workers' Retaliation Appeal Nixed For Lack Of Docs
A California appeals court declined to revive a suit brought by two dental office workers who claimed they were fired after complaining that their boss sexually harassed them, saying they hadn't provided enough details for the court to evaluate their case.
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December 16, 2024
Court Culture Seen As Barrier To Workplace Misconduct Fixes
The federal judiciary's internal system for resolving workplace misconduct allegations has gone through a six-year overhaul that officials tout as evidence of sustained progress, but some experts say the tight bonds that unite court personnel may still be an impediment to meaningful change.
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December 16, 2024
Justices Preserve Calif. Vehicle Emissions Autonomy
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to allow California to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles, a power red states had challenged as unconstitutional.
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December 16, 2024
K&L Gates Adds Hirschfeld Kraemer Employment Pro In LA
K&L Gates LLP continues expanding its labor and employment team, bringing in a Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP employment litigator as a partner in its Los Angeles office.
Expert Analysis
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2nd Circ. American Girl Ruling Alters Test Purchase Norms
The Second Circuit's recent ruling in American Girl v. Zembrka overturns years of precedent that required completed test purchase shipments to establish jurisdiction in infringement cases, but litigators shouldn't abandon the strategy entirely, say Robert Wasnofski and Sara Gates at Dentons.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits
Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
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2nd Circ. Provides NY Pathway For Fighting Foreign Infringers
A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provides a road map for expeditiously obtaining personal jurisdiction in New York against foreign trademark infringers based on a single purchase of counterfeit goods, meaning the Second Circuit could now be the preferred venue for combating foreign infringement, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.
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How A Trump Win Might Affect The H-1B Program
A review of the Trump administration's attempted overhaul of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program suggests policies Donald Trump might try to implement if he is reelected, and specific steps employers should consider to prepare for that possibility, says Eileen Lohmann at BAL.
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Compliance Considerations For Calif. Child Labor Audit Law
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.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
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.
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Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case
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.
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Harris Unlikely To Shelve Biden Admin's Food Antitrust Stance
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.
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3rd Circ. Hertz Ruling Highlights Flawed Bankruptcy Theory
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.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
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.
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The Complex Challenges Facing Sustainable Food Packaging
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.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
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.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
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.