California

  • June 10, 2025

    First Republic Brass Beat Investor Suit Over Bank Failure

    A California federal judge dismissed for good a shareholder suit against the former directors and officers of now-failed First Republic Bank and its auditor over the lender's 2023 collapse, finding that the plaintiffs failed to first exhaust their required administrative remedies and, therefore, the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case.

  • June 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Legal Co.'s $1.7M Chase Check Suit Is Too Late

    The Ninth Circuit affirmed a California federal court's ruling dismissing a suit by legal support company Nationwide Legal against JPMorgan Chase, saying its suit claiming Chase Bank acted negligently when it allowed a Nationwide Legal employee to deposit fraudulent checks was time-barred.

  • June 10, 2025

    Amazon Can't Duck Suit Over Non-FDA Approved Supplements

    Amazon must face a proposed class action alleging it sells non-FDA approved supplements touting health-related claims without mandatory disclaimers, after a Washington federal judge rejected the company's argument the plaintiffs lack standing to pursue claims over supplements they never bought, finding the plaintiffs allege a uniform, systematic marketing practice.

  • June 10, 2025

    Key Insights On Looming Fair Use Rulings In AI Cases

    Two California federal judges have indicated they are inclined to find that using copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence systems is transformative, which usually means that copying a work is fair, but that may not let Meta Platforms and Anthropic off the hook in separate lawsuits.

  • June 10, 2025

    Mazda Driver Says Emissions Claims Distinct From Calif. Case

    A North Carolina federal judge didn't fairly consider how a Mazda driver's claims of excessive emissions in the state were distinct from a California matter that ended in a settlement he didn't opt out of, the driver argued in a motion to revive the case.

  • June 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Skeptical Oregon Hospital Merger Law Is Too Vague

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday appeared skeptical of a hospital association's challenge to an Oregon law that grants a state agency broad power to block proposed healthcare consolidations to ensure equitable access to healthcare, with two of the three judges questioning whether federal law could limit the state's authority.

  • June 10, 2025

    Judge Denies Calif. Tribe's Bid To Restore Gaming Eligibility

    A D.C. federal judge Tuesday declined to reinstate a California tribe's gaming eligibility for a casino-resort project in the San Francisco Bay Area while the U.S. Department of the Interior reassesses its approval, ruling that the tribe hasn't shown it would be imminently harmed by the eligibility suspension.

  • June 10, 2025

    LA Schools Get $30M Death Suit Verdict Nixed On Appeal

    A California appeals panel has wiped out a $30 million verdict against the Los Angeles Unified School District in a suit by a mother whose son was killed by an employee during Christmas break 2019, saying state law grants immunity to the district in this instance.

  • June 10, 2025

    Edward Jones Among 5 Firms Paying $9.3M Over Inflated Fees

    Edward Jones, TD Ameritrade and three other wealth adviser firms have reached a $9.3 million settlement with the North American Securities Administrators Association after having been accused of overcharging fees for small-dollar investors.

  • June 10, 2025

    Tribes' Effort To Overturn Ore. Casino Land Decision Halted

    A D.C. federal court judge hit pause on a bid by three tribes to vacate the U.S. Department of the Interior's final determination and environmental impact statement in a dispute over the agency's decision to take land into trust for Oregon's Coquille Indian Tribe for a proposed casino project.

  • June 10, 2025

    Farella Braun Wins Partial Fee Award In FDIC Dispute

    A California federal judge has awarded Farella Braun & Martel LLP around $10,000 in attorney fees for the work its lawyers did for the bankrupt parent of Silicon Valley Bank, finding the receiver for the bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., failed to comply with discovery orders.

  • June 10, 2025

    LA Real Estate Agent Admits Obstructing IRS

    A Los Angeles commercial real estate broker pled guilty to obstructing the Internal Revenue Service's attempts to collect thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes by willfully hiding his income and assets from the agency, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

  • June 10, 2025

    Stability AI, Others Fear Artists' Expert Might Use Their Info

    Stability AI and other artificial intelligence art platforms urged a California federal magistrate judge Tuesday to block an artists' expert in a proposed copyright infringement class action from having access to their confidential information, their lawyer arguing the professor is a "functional competitor" who created software to "sabotage" his clients' products.

  • June 10, 2025

    Apple Faces Class Cert. Bid Over AirTag Stalking Risks

    Victims stalked by abusers of Apple's AirTag asked a California federal judge to certify their proposed class action, arguing their negligence and product liability claims can be adjudicated in one fell-swoop since they rest on the same question of whether the tag's design unreasonably put them at risk of harm.

  • June 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Immigration Board Can Review Atty Failure

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Board of Immigration Appeals failed to adequately explain its conclusion that it couldn't review a Chinese man's claims of ineffective counsel before the appeals court.

  • June 10, 2025

    Trump Wind Farm Pause Has Stalled Projects, Judge Hears

    A coalition of blue states and industry advocates told a federal judge on Tuesday that the recent mothballing of a New Jersey offshore wind project exemplifies the damage being inflicted by the Trump administration's unlawful decision to pause wind farm permitting.

  • June 10, 2025

    OpenAI Hit With Trademark Suit Over IO Co. Name

    Technology company IYO Inc. has accused OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of knowingly infringing its trademark when the company acquired competitor IO Products Inc. last month.

  • June 10, 2025

    Photographer Says Marlon Wayans Took Pot Pic

    Marlon Wayans, star of such films as "White Chicks" and "Scary Movie," was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit on Tuesday by a photographer who claims he used her image of a Ziploc bag filled with marijuana on his Facebook account without permission.

  • June 10, 2025

    Nev. Pension Plan Urges 9th Circ. To Ax DOJ Military Bias Suit

    Pension credits bought by military service members aren't an accrued benefit under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, Nevada's public employee retirement system argued, urging the Ninth Circuit not to revive the U.S. Department of Justice's suit alleging the state and system overcharged employees for the credits.

  • June 10, 2025

    Biopharma Co. Unit Hopes To Shed Empty Facilities In Ch. 11

    A subsidiary of biopharmaceutical manufacturer National Resilience Holdco Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday in Delaware bankruptcy court with a reorganization plan involving shutting down offices, manufacturing sites and labs it described as "underutilized."

  • June 10, 2025

    Amazon Can't Fully Escape Waist Trainer Skin Rash Suit

    A California federal judge declined to fully dismiss a proposed class action against Amazon.com alleging it sold waist trainers that left users with skin injuries and rashes, saying they adequately claimed there is a defect in the products that the company failed to warn them about.

  • June 10, 2025

    Blue States Back Harvard In $2.2B Funding Freeze Fight

    A coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a brief supporting Harvard University's bid for a pretrial win in its challenge to the Trump administration's move to freeze $2.2 billion in funds, telling a Massachusetts federal judge that the president's attacks on universities are "an attack on the states themselves."

  • June 09, 2025

    Battery Startup, CEO To Pay $300K Over SEC Fraud Claims

    Battery developer NDB Inc. and its CEO have agreed to pay $300,000 in civil penalties to settle allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they raised $1.2 million from about 70 investors on misleading claims about a "nano diamond battery" NDB aimed to make.

  • June 09, 2025

    Squires Dodges Trump Questions, Emphasizes AI For Backlog

    The Trump administration's nominee for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director avoided answering whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election, how to describe defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and whether he would follow an illegal directive from the president, along with addressing concerns about USPTO resources and artificial intelligence in post-hearing responses to senators.

  • June 09, 2025

    Newsom Sues Trump Over 'Illegal' National Guard Deployment

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued President Donald Trump on Monday over the administration's "illegal" takeover of the state's National Guard unit in response to protests in Los Angeles sparked by federal immigration raids, saying the move exceeded "the bounds of lawful executive authority."

Expert Analysis

  • Navigating Title IX Compliance In The NIL Era

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    As universities push to move more name, image and likeness activity in-house, it's unclear how the NCAA and its members will square implementation of the House settlement with Title IX requirements, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.

  • National Bank Act Rulings Facilitate More Preemption Analysis

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    Two recent National Bank Act preemption decisions from an Illinois federal court and the Ninth Circuit provide the first applications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May ruling in Cantero v. Bank of America, opening the potential for several circuit courts to address the issue this year, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.

  • It Starts With Training: Anti-Harassment After 'It Ends With Us'

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    Actress Blake Lively's recent sexual harassment and retaliation allegations against her "It Ends With Us" co-star, director and producer, Justin Baldoni, should remind employers of their legal obligations to implement trainings, policies and other measures to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Complying With Calif. Price-Gouging Law After LA Fires

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    The recent tragic Los Angeles fires have brought attention to the state's sometimes controversial price-gouging protections, and every California business should keep the law's requirements in mind, despite the debate over whether these statutes help consumers, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • 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.

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