Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
California
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
FTC Focus: Interlocking Directorate Enforcement May Persist
Though the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Andrew Ferguson seems likely to adopt a pro-business approach to antitrust enforcement, his endorsement of broader liability for officers or directors who illegally sit on boards of competing corporations signals that businesses should not expect board-level antitrust scrutiny to slacken, says Timothy Burroughs at Proskauer.
-
Calif. Climate Superfund Bill Faces Legal, Technical Hurdles
California could soon join other states in sending the fossil fuel industry a massive bill for the costs of coping with climate change — but its pending climate Superfund legislation, if enacted, is certain to face legal pushback and daunting implementation challenges, says Donald Sobelman at Farella Braun.
-
How Cos. Can Navigate Risks Of New Cartel Terrorist Labels
The Trump administration’s recent designation of eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives rise to new criminal and civil liabilities for companies that are unwittingly exposed to cartel activity, but businesses can mitigate such risks in a few key ways, say attorneys at Steptoe.
-
5 Tribunals' Rules To Help Patent Litigators Avoid AI Disasters
Tech-savvy patent litigators are uniquely poised to stay current on the latest developments in artificial intelligence, such that courts may have even higher expectations for their compliance with AI rules, including the standing orders of several patent-heavy fora, say attorneys at Finnegan.
-
Bid Protest Spotlight: Size, Supply Schedules, SINs
In this month's bid protest roundup, Alissandra McCann at MoFo examines three recent decisions, two of which offer helpful reminders for U.S. General Services Administration schedule holders drafting blanket purchase agreement proposals, and one for small-business joint ventures to avoid running afoul of the U.S. Small Business Administration's two-year rule.
-
$38M Law Firm Settlement Highlights 'Unworthy Client' Perils
A recent settlement of claims against law firm Eckert Seamans for allegedly abetting a Ponzi scheme underscores the continuing threat of clients who seek to exploit their lawyers in perpetrating fraud, and the critical importance of preemptive measures to avoid these clients, say attorneys at Lockton Companies.
-
Maintaining Legal Compliance For GenAI In Life Sciences
As companies continue to implement generative artificial intelligence to enhance all phases of drug discovery, they must remain mindful of legal, regulatory and practical considerations as best practices in this space emerge and evolve, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
-
Series
Teaching Business Law Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Teaching business law to college students has rekindled my sense of purpose as a lawyer — I am more mindful of the importance of the rule of law and the benefits of our common law system, which helps me maintain a clearer perspective on work, says David Feldman at Feldman Legal Advisors.
-
Choosing A Road To Autonomous Vehicle Compliance
As autonomous vehicle manufacturers navigate the complex U.S. regulatory landscape, they may opt for different approaches to following federal, state and local rules and laws, as they balance the tradeoffs between innovation, compliance and speed of deployment, say attorneys at Sidley.
-
Navigating The Expanding Frontier Of Premerger Notice Laws
Washington's newly enacted law requiring premerger notification to state enforcers builds upon a growing trend of state scrutiny into transactions in the healthcare sector and beyond, and may inspire other states to enact similar legislation, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
-
Jurisdictional Issues At Play In 9th Circ.'s FCA Trade Case
A decision by the Ninth Circuit in Island Industries v. Sigma Corp. could result in the U.S. Court of International Trade’s exclusive jurisdiction over trade-related FCA cases, a big shift in the enforcement landscape just as tariffs take center stage in trade policy, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.
-
Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery
The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.
-
Web Tracking Ruling Signals Potential Broadening Of CCPA
The Northern District of California's recent decision in Shah v. Capital One Financial Corp. is notable, as it signals a potential broadening of the California Consumer Privacy Act's private right of action beyond data breaches to unauthorized, nonbreach disclosures involving the use of now-ubiquitous tracking technologies, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.
-
What New Study Means For Recycling Compliance In Calif.
Companies must review the California recycling agency's new study to understand its criteria for assessing claims of product and packaging recyclability under a law that takes effect next year, and then decide whether the risks of making such claims in the state outweigh the benefits, say attorneys at Keller & Heckman.
-
Series
Playing Guitar Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a lawyer not only requires logic and hard work, but also belief, emotion, situational awareness and lots of natural energy — playing guitar enhances all of these qualities, increasing my capacity to do my best work, says Kosta Stojilkovic at Wilkinson Stekloff.