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July 18, 2025
Top 5 Energy Decisions Of 2025: A Midyear Report
A game-changing U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could significantly narrow federal environmental reviews of energy projects punctuated a busy first half of 2025 for the industry in the courts. Here are several court decisions that stood out for energy attorneys in the first half of this year.
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July 18, 2025
Seven Months In, Race-Blind Charging Faces Test In Calif.
In January, California adopted race-blind charging as a statewide policy, after a law passed in 2022 went into effect. Now, seven months into the program's statewide rollout, race-blind charging is showing both promise and limitations.
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July 18, 2025
Snake Spotting Voids OK Of Sprawling Calif. Housing Plan
A federal judge has halted a 314-acre master-planned development in Chico, California, after finding federal officials wrongly concluded in 2020 that the endangered giant garter snake had not been observed on the site despite a sighting of the animal in the area a dozen years prior.
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July 18, 2025
9th Circ. Turns Away Wells Fargo's 'Sham' Hiring Appeal
The Ninth Circuit has said it will not hear Wells Fargo's appeal of an investor lawsuit accusing the company of conducting "sham" job interviews to meet a diversity quota, allowing thousands of shareholders to move forward with their claims as a class.
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July 18, 2025
Venture-Backed Medical Tech Biz Heartflow Plans $100M IPO
Private equity and venture-backed medical technology company Heartflow has unveiled plans to raise up to $100 million in its initial public offering, with law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP advising the company and Cooley LLP advising the underwriters.
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July 18, 2025
Calif. Pot Workers Sue Farm For $1.25M Over Wage Theft
A group of cannabis trimmers who are citizens of Colombia, Argentina and Spain have sued cultivator Honeydew Farms LLC and its owners in federal court on Thursday, alleging they were not paid the wages promised because the owners believe the foreign-born workers would not be protected by state or federal law.
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July 17, 2025
21 States Fight ACA Rule They Say Guts Health Coverage
A 21-state coalition led by the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts and New Jersey sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday, challenging a new Trump administration rule they say unlawfully undermines access to healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.
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July 17, 2025
Facebook Whistleblower Calls Meta Discovery A Smear Job
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on Thursday urged a California federal magistrate judge to limit Meta's discovery in multidistrict litigation over claims that social media is addictive and harmful to children's mental health, saying many of their requests are irrelevant and merely seek to smear her name.
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July 17, 2025
LA Ex-Judge Admonished For 'Discourteous,' 'Demeaning' Talk
California's Commission on Judicial Performance has publicly admonished a retired Los Angeles state judge for a pattern of "discourteous, undignified and impatient" behavior that also involved "demeaning" remarks toward women, findings that the judge said don't reflect "the full complexity of the circumstances."
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July 17, 2025
Calif. Tribe Renews $700M Casino Suit With Lobbying Claim
A D.C. federal judge will let a California tribe amend its suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior for axing its eligibility to run a proposed $700 million casino on new claims that a competing tribe successfully orchestrated a politically influential lobbying campaign.
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July 17, 2025
9th Circ. Panel Appears Split On Trump Order Curbing Unions
A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel appeared divided Thursday on a lower court's ruling that halted enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order axing labor contracts covering agencies that have "national security" aims, with one judge expressing concern over the order's implications while two questioned if they can second-guess the president's determination.
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July 17, 2025
Tesla Driver In Fatal Crash Regularly Ignored Autopilot Alerts
The Tesla driver who killed a woman in a crash in Florida Keys had regularly ignored warnings from the autopilot software to engage with the vehicle and would stop the car to reset the autopilot rather than drive without, a vehicle accident reconstruction expert told jurors Thursday.
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July 17, 2025
Judge Won't Grant Fees In Temporary Protected Status Suit
A California federal judge rejected a bid by immigrant rights advocates for $3.6 million in attorney fees, saying their preliminary injunction blocking temporary protected status terminations during Trump's first term did not make them the prevailing party because the case ended without a final judgment.
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July 17, 2025
'Yellowjackets' Makers Get $108K In Fees In Copyright Suit
Showtime, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and the makers of the TV show "Yellowjackets" won $108,000 in attorney fees after earlier this year defeating a copyright suit alleging the program ripped off the 2015 film "Eden."
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July 17, 2025
Hitachi Seeks FCC OK For Bay Area Rail Control System
Hitachi Rail is contracted to update the digital train control system in the Bay Area, but it says that in order to do so it needs the FCC's permission to operate in a slice of spectrum that it normally would not be allowed to. Now the agency is asking how people feel about the request.
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July 17, 2025
Stanford Trims Roche IP Suit, But Others Face Most Claims
Stanford University was let out of all but one claim brought by subsidiaries of F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG over alleged trade secret theft, but a California federal judge allowed most claims to move forward against several Stanford professors and a startup they founded.
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July 17, 2025
Calif. Accuses Airbnb Of Price-Gouging During Wildfires
California accused Airbnb in a state court lawsuit of price-gouging residents of Los Angeles and Ventura counties as the Palisades and Eaton fires raged and in the weeks that followed, despite warnings from the state's attorney general.
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July 17, 2025
6 Cases For Patent Attys To Watch In The Second Half Of 2025
The Federal Circuit is considering major questions about when delays in prosecuting patents become bad faith and whether the acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director is legally allowed to apply new rules retroactively. Here's what you need to know about these cases and others that attorneys are keeping an eye on for the rest of the year.
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July 17, 2025
Authors Win Cert. In Copyright Suit Against Anthropic
A California federal judge on Thursday certified a class of copyright owners of books in the online pirate libraries Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror that were downloaded by artificial intelligence firm Anthropic for training its Claude generative text model.
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July 17, 2025
5 Things To Know As California Courts Decide On AI Rule
Fourteen months after California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero first convened a task force to study potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence in the court system, the Judicial Council of California is poised Friday to consider the proposed rules and standards the task force developed.
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July 17, 2025
Ex-Burning Man, MAPS GC Joins Psychedelics Boutique
The former general counsel to both the organization behind the annual Burning Man festival and to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has joined the recently launched psychedelics firm Antithesis Law as of counsel, the firm announced Thursday.
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July 17, 2025
UCLA Football Player Latest To Sue NCAA For Eligibility
A football player hoping to play at the University of California, Los Angeles, next season is the latest to join the ranks of athletes challenging the NCAA over its eligibility rules, claiming they restrict competition and impact players' ability to profit off their talent.
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July 17, 2025
Amazon Attys Jump To Crowell & Moring In San Francisco
Crowell & Moring LLP has expanded its litigation resources in its San Francisco office with the addition of two former in-house attorneys for Amazon, who bring more than 30 years of combined experience to advise clients on product liability claims.
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July 17, 2025
Calif. Supreme Court Won't Look At Meal-Break Waivers
The California Supreme Court declined to weigh in on a case in which veterinarians claimed that the prospective waivers from state meal-break requirements that an operator of veterinary hospitals rolled out were illegal, leaving undisturbed a panel's decision in favor of the hospitals.
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July 17, 2025
Former Microsoft GC Remembered As Rule Of Law Champion
Former American Bar Association President William H. "Bill" Neukom, the first head lawyer for Microsoft and a longtime partner at a predecessor firm to K&L Gates LLP, has died at age 83, the bar said Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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The Revival Of Badie Arbitration Suits In Consumer Finance
Plaintiffs have recently revived a California appellate court's almost 30-year-old decision in Badie v. Bank of America to challenge arbitration requirements under the Federal Arbitration Act, raising issues banks and credit unions in particular should address when amending arbitration provisions, say attorneys at Orrick.
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How Trump's Crypto Embrace Is Spurring Enforcement Reset
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent willingness to step away from ongoing enforcement investigations and actions underscores the changing regulatory landscape for crypto under the new administration, which now appears committed to working with stakeholders to develop a clearer regulatory framework, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession
For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.
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What Trump's Order Means For The Legal Status Of IVF
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month signals the administration's potential intention to increase protections for in vitro fertilization services, though more concrete actions would be needed to resolve the current uncertainty around IVF access or bring about a binding legal change, says Jeanne Vance at Weintraub Tobin.
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Cross-Border Lessons In Using Hague Evidence Convention
Recent case law demonstrates that securing evidence located abroad requires a strategic approach, including utilization of the Hague Evidence Convention and preparation to justify your chosen evidence-gathering path, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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Navigating The Growing Thicket Of 'Right To Repair' Laws
An emerging patchwork of state laws on the right to repair creates tensions with traditional intellectual property and competition principles, so manufacturers should plan proactively for legal disputes and minimize potential for rival third-party repairs to weaponize state laws, say attorneys at Reed Smith.
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Unpacking First Consumer Claim Under Wash. Health Data Act
The first consumer class action claim filed under Washington's My Health My Data Act, Maxwell v. Amazon.com, may answer questions counsel have been contending with since the law was introduced almost a year ago, if the court takes the opportunity to interpret some of more opaque language, say attorneys at Polsinelli.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.
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Implementation, Constitutional Issues With Birthright Order
President Donald Trump's executive order reinterpreting the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship clause presents unavoidable administrative problems and raises serious constitutional concerns about the validity of many existing federal laws and regulations, says Eric Schnapper at the University of Washington School of Law.
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A Close-Up Look At DOJ's Challenge To HPE-Juniper Deal
The outcome of the Justice Department's challenge to Hewlett Packard Enterprise's proposed $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks will likely hinge on several key issues, including market dynamics and shares, internal documents, and questions about innovation and customer harm, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Justices Likely To Issue Narrow Ruling In $1.3B Award Dispute
After last week's argument in Devas v. Antrix, the Supreme Court appears likely to reverse the holding that minimum contacts are required before a federal court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a foreign state and remand the case for further litigation on other important constitutional questions, say attorneys at Cleary.
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AG Watch: Texas Is Entering New Privacy Enforcement Era
The state of Texas' recent suit against Allstate is the culmination of a long-standing commitment to vigorously enforcing privacy laws in the state, and while still in the early stages, it offers several important insights for companies and privacy practitioners, says Paul Singer at Kelley Drye.
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IRS Scrutiny May Underlie Move Away From NIL Collectives
The University of Colorado's January announcement that it was severing its partnership with a name, image and likeness collective is part of universities' recent push to move NIL activities in-house, seemingly motivated by tax implications and increased scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.
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6 Laws Transforming Calif.'s Health Regulatory Framework
Attorneys at Hooper Lundy discuss a number of new California laws that raise pressing issues for independent physicians and small practice groups, ranging from the use of artificial intelligence to wage standards for healthcare employees.