California

  • June 03, 2025

    T-Mobile Wants To Duck Counterclaims In Spectrum Fight

    T-Mobile wants a California federal court to kill antitrust counterclaims from a telecom the mobile titan has filed a RICO suit against, accusing it of making a series of fake bids to buy licenses for spectrum T-Mobile leases so it will have to buy them or exercise its right of first refusal.

  • June 03, 2025

    Calif. Startup's Lender Gets Prison For Investor Fraud

    A Greenwich, Connecticut, hard-money lender was sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison and must pay $9.4 million in restitution to investors in loans he made to the failed California tech startup Bitwise Industries, which operated as a $115 million Ponzi scheme, federal prosecutors said.

  • June 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Wary Of Dormant Commerce Application To Cannabis

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday appeared skeptical that constitutional doctrine barring states from impeding interstate commerce should apply to the federally illegal marijuana market in a pair of cases involving cannabis business licenses in Washington state and Sacramento, California.

  • June 03, 2025

    Peloton 'Hammered' Market With Infringing TM, 9th Circ. Hears

    A professional cyclist's fitness app company, World Champ Tech, urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reverse Peloton's summary judgment win on trademark claims over its "Bike+" brand, arguing the lower court erred by ignoring that Peloton "hammered the market" with its new brand despite knowing World Champ owned the mark.

  • June 03, 2025

    Tenn. IT Biz Lands $4B Contract For Space Force Work

    Tennessee-based Jacobs Technology Inc. has been awarded a ceiling contract valued at up to $4 billion to support the Space Force, the U.S. Department of Defense said.

  • June 03, 2025

    Canada Customers Agree To Halt 23andMe Data Breach Suits

    23andMe and Canadian customers suing over a data breach agreed on Tuesday to pause lawsuits against non-bankrupt third parties for up to six months amid the DNA testing company's Chapter 11 proceedings in Missouri.

  • June 03, 2025

    PepsiCo's Popcorners Bags Not Filled To Corners, Buyer Says

    PepsiCo illegally slack fills its Popcorners corn snack product bags without a legitimate purpose, tricking customers into thinking the package contains more product than it does and essentially making them pay for empty space, according to a proposed class action filed Sunday in California federal court. 

  • June 03, 2025

    'World's Purest Baby Wipes' Not Pure, Microplastics Suit Says

    A California woman on Monday lodged a putative class action against baby wipes manufacturer WaterWipes, telling a San Francisco federal court that what the company describes as plastic-free baby wipes actually have a concerning amount of microplastics.

  • June 03, 2025

    Kim Kardashian Settles Judd Furniture Knockoffs Suit

    Kim Kardashian and West Hollywood-based interior design firm Clements Design have agreed to dismiss a case brought by the late artist Donald Judd's foundation accusing Kardashian of purchasing knockoff versions of Judd's furniture.

  • June 03, 2025

    'Chintzy' Paramount Stole 'Top Gun' IP, 9th Circ. Told

    Counsel for the family of a journalist who sold the rights to a magazine story he wrote that inspired the 1986 movie "Top Gun" to Paramount Pictures urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive their copyright suit over the 2022 film sequel, saying Paramount was "chintzy" in not negotiating another license.

  • June 03, 2025

    Wells Fargo Free To Grow After Fed Ends $2T Asset Cap

    The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it has lifted the $2 trillion asset cap it imposed on Wells Fargo & Co. as part of a 2018 enforcement action stemming from the so-called fake accounts scandal, finding the bank has met all conditions required by the regulator.

  • June 03, 2025

    Rocket Startup Launches $400M Deal With Wilbur Ross' SPAC

    Space and defense-focused startup Innovative Rocket Technologies Inc. plans to go public at a $400 million value by merging with a special purpose acquisition company led by private equity executive and former Trump cabinet official Wilbur Ross.

  • June 03, 2025

    Groups Ask California Bar To Discipline Google's Kent Walker

    Four organizations are citing new court developments involving Google Inc. Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker's alleged mishandling of evidence in again asking the State Bar of California to discipline him.

  • June 03, 2025

    Norton Rose Adds K&L Gates Product Liability Litigator In LA

    Norton Rose Fulbright is expanding its product liability team, announcing Tuesday that it is bringing in a K&L Gates LLP trial attorney as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • June 03, 2025

    Judge Extends Block On Post-Pandemic School Funding Cuts

    A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday maintained a block on a Trump administration move to halt funding for education-related COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts, after lawyers for New York and other states said the feds are trying to get around an earlier injunction.

  • June 03, 2025

    Software Co. Settles Workers' Suit Over Lagging 401(k) Funds

    Software company ServiceNow told a California court Tuesday that it has agreed to settle a proposed class action alleging the business cost workers millions in savings by failing to trim underperforming target-date funds from its 401(k) plan.

  • June 03, 2025

    Calif. Mazda Oil Leak Deal Dooms NC Class Claims

    Mazda has escaped class claims alleging leaky valve stems caused cars to burn excessive oil when a North Carolina federal judge ruled that the driver didn't opt out of a similar class action settlement across the country in California.

  • June 03, 2025

    Tom Girardi Sentenced To Over 7 Years For $15M Client Fraud

    A California federal judge sentenced Tom Girardi on Tuesday to over seven years in prison for his wire fraud conviction, granting some leniency to the disbarred attorney on his 86th birthday by imposing a sentence below the guidelines in recognition of his age and ailing health. 

  • June 03, 2025

    The Law360 400: A Look At The Top 100 Firms

    A rebound in client work sent the nation’s largest law firms into growth mode last year, driving a wave of hiring, mergers and strategic moves that reshaped the top tier of the Law360 400. Here's a preview of the 100 firms with the largest U.S. attorney headcounts.

  • June 03, 2025

    Calif. Panel Won't Restore Subclasses In Nurses' Wage Suit

    Two nurses failed to back up their assertions that a hospital system similarly refused to provide their colleagues with meal and rest breaks, a California state appeals court ruled, upholding an order that decertified two subclasses in their wage suit.

  • June 02, 2025

    Budget Bill Would Deepen Residential Solar's Woes

    A Sunnova unit's bankruptcy declaration — the latest among dozens of solar companies that have struggled to stay afloat — adds to evidence of a floundering residential solar industry, which now faces further diminishing prospects under the federal budget reconciliation bill.

  • June 02, 2025

    Alphabet Pledges $500M To Boost Compliance In Investor Suit

    Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., has agreed to earmark half a billion dollars over the next 10 years to overhaul the tech giant's global compliance structure, according to two institutional investors that sued the company's leaders over allegations of anticompetitive and monopolistic business practices.

  • June 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Doubts Professor's DEI Free Speech Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Monday of a professor's effort to revive his constitutional challenge of the California Community Colleges Board's diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility regulations, with one judge noting the board hasn't enforced the rules and another judge criticizing the professor for declining to amend his suit.

  • June 02, 2025

    DOJ Urged To Sue States Over Broadband Rate Caps

    Broadband industry groups want the U.S. Department of Justice to bring suit against California and other states pursuing new caps on internet service rates for low-income households, pointing to myriad harms they say the state laws would inflict on consumers.

  • June 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Sends Express Scripts Opioid Case To State Court

    The Ninth Circuit sent California's public nuisance lawsuit against Express Scripts and OptumRx over opioid dispensing back to state court Monday and denied the pharmacy benefit managers' bid to stay the remand pending appeal, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's 2009 Nken decision controls, not its later Coinbase ruling.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    DOJ's HPE-Juniper Challenge Is Not Rooted In Law

    Author Photo

    Legal precedents that date back as far as 1990 demonstrate that the U.S. Department of Justice's recent challenge to the proposed $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard and Juniper is misplaced because no evidence of collusion or coordinated conduct exists, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • 5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships

    Author Photo

    Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.

  • Notable Q4 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

    Author Photo

    In a continuation of trends in property and casualty insurance class actions, last quarter insurers struggled with defending the merits and class certification of sales tax and fee suits, and labor depreciation cases, but succeeded in dismissing privacy class actions at the pleading stages, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.

  • How Crypto Firms Should Approach Patchwork Of State Laws

    Author Photo

    The Money Transmission Modernization Act was designed to create uniformity across state digital regulations, but the reality remains far from consistent — as demonstrated by the patchwork of laws in states like Texas, Vermont, New York and California — so as state legislatures convene in the coming weeks, crypto firms should watch closely for developments that could shape the regulatory landscape, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Opinion

    NFT Bill Needs Refining To Effectively Regulate Digital Assets

    Author Photo

    A recent bill in the U.S. House proposing to regulate nonfungible tokens as digital assets would leave key concepts undefined until the U.S. comptroller general completes an after-the-fact study of NFTs, showing it needs more work before it is comprehensive enough to meaningfully protect the market, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Series

    Racing Corvettes Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    The skills I use when racing Corvettes have enhanced my legal practice in several ways, because driving, like practicing law, requires precision, awareness and a good set of brakes — complete with the wisdom to know how and when to use them, says Kat Mateo at Olshan Frome.

  • The Political Branches Can't Redefine The Citizenship Clause

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Wong Kim Ark opinion and subsequent decisions, and the 14th Amendment’s legislative history, establish that the citizenship clause precludes the political branches from narrowing the definition of citizen based on how a parent’s U.S. presence is categorized, says federal public defender Geremy Kamens.

  • Opinion

    Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence

    Author Photo

    Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.

  • Appealing An Interlocutory Order On Insurer Duty To Defend

    Author Photo

    A recent First Circuit decision on a motion regarding an insurer's duty to defend underlying litigation highlights how policyholders may be able to pursue immediate appeals of interlocutory orders, especially in light of other circuit courts' stances on this issue, say attorneys at Anderson Kill.

  • Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises

    Author Photo

    “No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 9th Circ. Draws The Line On Software As A Derivative Work

    Author Photo

    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Oracle International v. Rimini Street clarifies the meaning of derivative work under the Copyright Act, and when a work based upon a preexisting item doesn't constitute a derivative, says John Poulos at Norton Rose.

  • As Failure-To-Warn Preemption Wanes, Justices May Weigh In

    Author Photo

    Federal preemption of state failure-to-warn claims has long been a powerful defense in strict liability tort cases, but is now under attack in litigation over the weedkiller Roundup and other products — so the scope and application of preemption may require clarification by the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Sena at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

    Author Photo

    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Biden-Era M&A Data Shows Continuity, Not Revolution

    Author Photo

    While the federal antitrust agencies under former President Joe Biden made broad claims about increasing merger enforcement activity, the data tells a different story, with key claims under Biden coming in at the lowest levels in decades, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Navigating Mortgage Insurance Provisions After LA Fires

    Author Photo

    As homeowners affected by the Los Angeles wildfires consider rebuilding, mortgage lenders and servicers must negotiate the complex intersection between the standard deed of trust and property insurance, says Heather Wright at Buchalter.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the California archive.