California

  • September 22, 2026

    Seyfarth Says Data Breach Exposed Social Security Numbers

    Seyfarth Shaw LLP has disclosed a recent data breach that exposed the names and Social Security numbers of at least 300 individuals, according to notices filed with the Texas and California attorneys general.

  • September 22, 2026

    Meta Celebrates Its Abuse Of Atty-Client Privilege, Judge Told

    A California federal judge ordered Meta on Tuesday to rereview privilege designations on 300 documents in social media addiction litigation, after plaintiffs' lawyers cited a "culture of privilege abuse" epitomized by Instagram swag hats embroidered with "a/c priv" — the shorthand used to log withheld documents.

  • September 22, 2026

    Feds' Latest Permit For Calif. Pipeline Challenged At 9th Circ.

    Environmental groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to review Trump administration's recent decision approving operations of two coastal California oil pipeline segments, including one that was shut down for years following a 2015 oil spill, saying on Tuesday that the new permit waives key safety requirements.

  • September 22, 2026

    Rack Room Shoe Shoppers Can't Get Cert. In Privacy Suit

    A California federal judge on Monday refused to certify six putative classes of Rack Room Shoes website users who say it permitted Meta and other third parties to intercept their personal information in violation of state and federal privacy laws, noting the lack of evidence that their information was intercepted.

  • September 22, 2026

    9th Circ. Wipes Out $140M Class Verdict Against CenturyLink

    The Ninth Circuit overturned a $140 million class verdict against CenturyLink on Tuesday, holding that the company's reasonable interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act shielded it from liability for willful violations when it pulled consumers' credit reports during online orders for internet service.

  • September 22, 2026

    CVS Beats Malpractice Suit Over Pharmacy Mix-Up

    A California appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a suit accusing a CVS pharmacy of negligently giving the wrong prescription medication to a woman, which allegedly caused years of seizures, citing flawed expert testimony from plaintiff's expert.

  • September 22, 2026

    Tyra Banks Says Netflix Misquoted Her Pact Like It Edited Doc

    Tyra Banks has told a California federal court that Netflix and the producers of an "America's Next Top Model" docuseries used the same misleading tactic in their dismissal motion that they allegedly used onscreen: removing key material from the middle of statements to change their meaning.

  • September 22, 2026

    Amazon Says Ring Cam Privacy Suit Misconstrues State Laws

    Amazon urged a Washington federal judge Monday to throw out a proposed class action claiming its Ring doorbell security cameras illegally gathered facial recognition data of neighbors and visitors, contending the plaintiffs seek "to rewrite states' privacy laws" and invent new private rights of action.

  • September 22, 2026

    RI Judge Vacates Feds' Noncitizen Benefit Restrictions

    New York and other states applauded a Rhode Island federal judge's finding that the Trump administration flouted rulemaking requirements when it reinterpreted a 30-year-old welfare reform bill to try to subject a slew of federally funded benefit programs to immigration status verification requirements.

  • September 22, 2026

    3rd Time's A Charm As Netflix Gets PTAB To Ax DivX Patent

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled that Netflix was able to show that all the claims in a DivX streaming patent were invalid, following two previous decisions to the contrary and two trips to the Federal Circuit.

  • September 22, 2026

    Flyers Tell 9th Circ. Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Eroding Service

    Airline customers have told the Ninth Circuit that Alaska Airlines' 2024 acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines eroded consumer choice on numerous routes, and that a district court improperly dismissed their antitrust lawsuit with premature and flawed findings that cannot be allowed to stand.

  • September 22, 2026

    SF Sues To Block Early Access To Trump's Truth Social Posts

    San Francisco's city attorney and others sued President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social in California state court Monday, asking a judge to block its "unprecedented" scheme that grants customers who pay $100,000 per month early access to the president's and other high-level officials' social media posts.

  • September 22, 2026

    Alphabet's Bid To Pare Ad Tech Suit Stalls Over Discovery

    A California federal judge rejected Alphabet's bid for partial summary judgment, saying the Google parent must first comply with a class of investors' discovery requests prompted by the company's motion in litigation claiming CEO Sundar Pichai made a false statement to Congress about whether the company's ad auctions favor Facebook.

  • September 22, 2026

    Blue States Expand Fight Over Trump Offshore Wind Buyouts

    Democratic-led states on Tuesday stepped up their fight against the Trump administration's buyouts of U.S. offshore wind leases, filing a trio of lawsuits that seek to undo payments to developers for abandoning projects on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

  • September 22, 2026

    Juul Buyers Defend Antitrust Classes At 9th Circ.

    Juul buyers are defending the certification of several classes in a case over tobacco giant Altria's past investment in the e-cigarette company, telling the Ninth Circuit it does not matter if they purchased different quantities on different terms or live in different states.

  • September 22, 2026

    Foley & Lardner Steers Cognex On $500M RealSense Buy

    Industrial machine-vision company Cognex Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire RealSense for about $500 million, expanding its business into robotic perception and adding exposure to the growing market for 3D sensing technology.

  • September 22, 2026

    California Powerhouse: Keker

    Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP partners helped Google and Netflix beat major patent litigation in the past year, while representing OpenAI and other tech companies in precedent-setting IP cases, and fostering a strong pro bono practice, earning the boutique firm a spot on the list of Law360 2026 California Powerhouses.

  • September 22, 2026

    Dispensary's Tax Deduction Properly Nixed, IRS Tells 9th Circ.

    The U.S. Tax Court correctly ruled that a San Francisco marijuana dispensary's expenses found to be tied to trafficking in controlled substances aren't deductible, the IRS told the Ninth Circuit, saying such a deduction shouldn't be allowed in determining an amount to settle the business's $3 million tax debt.

  • September 22, 2026

    Judge Sinks Patent Judgments Against Chilisin In Cyntec Suit

    A California federal judge has nullified judgments against Chilisin Electronics Corp. in a patent case from Cyntec Co. over Cyntec's failure to disclose an agreement to license a pair of its patents to Apple, while also agreeing to sanction Cyntec's counsel.

  • September 22, 2026

    Vape Purchasers Say MDL Complaint Shows Price-Fix Scheme

    Direct purchasers of vaping products are defending their amended complaint in multidistrict litigation alleging that a Chinese vape company conspired with its distributors to fix prices, saying new allegations in their latest complaint show there was more at work in the arrangement than "ordinary" business dealings.

  • September 21, 2026

    British Columbia Joins In Blaming OpenAI In School Shooting

    The Canadian province of British Columbia on Monday became the latest to sue artificial intelligence company OpenAI over a deadly February shooting at a small-town school, telling a California federal court that company leadership rejected an internal recommendation to notify law enforcement of the shooter's ChatGPT communications that company staff flagged as dangerous.

  • September 21, 2026

    Tesla Atty Misled Witness Days Before Bias Trial, Judge Hears

    The California Civil Rights Department asked a California judge for a protective order Monday on the first day of a bench trial over claims Tesla Inc. fostered racism at its Fremont factory, after a witness testified that an in-house Tesla attorney recently called him and misled him into believing he represented the agency.

  • September 21, 2026

    Insider Critiques Of Meta Came From Ignorance, Jury Told

    A Meta vice president testified before a New Mexico state jury Monday that, "with all due respect," criticisms of the company's data handling from investigation partner Gibson Dunn and from then-Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg were born of a lack of understanding.

  • September 21, 2026

    AI-Native Healthcare Service Co. Says Rival Copied 'N' Logo

    Nitra Inc., an artificial intelligence-native all-in-one platform that provides fintech related services helping healthcare practices save time and money, accused a rival company of impermissibly using a "strikingly and confusingly similar" design mark for the stylized letter "N," according to a trademark infringement action filed Friday in California federal court.

  • September 21, 2026

    Anthropic Can't Shake Reddit's AI Content-Scraping Suit

    A San Francisco judge largely rejected Anthropic's bid to toss Reddit Inc.'s suit accusing it of improperly gathering user content to train its artificial intelligence products, finding that most of Reddit's allegations have extra elements exempting them from federal preemption.

Expert Analysis

  • The Preemption Gap In Prediction Market High Court Petitions

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    The Supreme Court is considering three certiorari petitions following a split in prediction market litigation between the Third and Ninth circuits, but one of the petitions would not allow the court to reach the express preemption question, which would leave the dispute half-resolved, says Jordan Garman at Withers.

  • Hims & Hers Suit Spotlights Health Data-Sharing Privacy Risks

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    Regulators' complaint against telehealth company Hims & Hers alleging deceptive practices serves as a reminder that the privacy principles developed under consumer protection laws and predating omnibus statutes remain in force, and sensitive data governance continues to be a crucial component of compliance, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 4 Paths To AI Safety Coordination Amid Antitrust Debate

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    Frontier artificial intelligence companies have more room for collective safety work than the debate over an antitrust waiver suggests, with several existing avenues providing different degrees of protection and oversight, says Evan Miller at V&E.

  • 'Demon Hunter' IP Suit Highlights Reverse Confusion Perils

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    A metal band named Demon Hunter's recently filed lawsuit against Netflix, alleging that consumers mistakenly believe it to be connected to the "KPop Demon Hunters" movie, provides a useful vehicle for examining the reverse confusion doctrine and its practical implications, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • How Calif. Privacy Bill Could Change CIPA Tracking Cases

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    If California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs S.B. 690, the bill could materially reduce the leverage behind a pen-register-only claim or demand, so California Invasion of Privacy Act website tracking claims should not be evaluated the same way they were six months ago, says Alexandra Samofalova at Spencer Fane.

  • 5th Circ. Embedding Decision Could Recast Copyright Claims

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    The Fifth Circuit's decision in Emmerich v. Particle Media addresses decades of ambiguity surrounding whether embedded content can constitute copyright infringement, potentially affecting how defense counsel fight against such claims, say attorneys at Greenberg Glusker.

  • How Cos. Can Avoid Infant Product False Advertising Suits

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    As lawsuits proliferate over products marketed for infant use and sold at a premium that are identical to cheaper general-use products, manufacturers should review related product lines, and scrutinize contextual cues that may contribute to the overall message received by consumers, say attorneys at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Raises Bar For Arbitration Pacts Via Email

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent holding in Rickes v. Thermo Fisher that the mere delivery of an email doesn't establish an employee's assent to the arbitration agreement underscores that rollout processes should both give employees notice of the agreement and create evidence of their assent, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • How GCs Can Assess The Risks Of Emerging AI Laws

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    Amid a swirl of momentous legislative activity aimed at regulating artificial intelligence, general counsel must return to first principles when determining whether new laws will apply and whether the company’s use could cause regulators to subject it to additional regulation, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • How FTC's $20B Amazon Suit May Shake Up Ad Enforcement

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    Gonzalo Mon at Kelley Drye discusses the significance of the Federal Trade Commission's recent suit against Amazon for allegedly overcharging advertising customers more than $20 billion, the company's potential defenses, and the context of rapidly evolving digital advertising technology.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Marks New Chapter In Risk Factor Tug-Of-War

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent dismissal of a securities fraud class action against SunPower is the latest in a growing line of cases addressing whether, if ever, a company's risk factor disclosures can give rise to potential liability, an area where the law remains unsettled, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Meta Deal Highlights Advisory Jury Issues, Litigation Risk

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    The $17 billion settlement of youth safety claims brought against Meta offers lessons for all consumer-facing companies because the court made the rare move of empaneling an advisory jury and the case was built on what the company learned from its own studies, says Mark Morgan at McCarter & English.

  • What State AI Election Laws Mean For The 2026 Midterms

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    In the absence of federal rules governing artificial intelligence in elections and no consensus emerging across state laws, campaigns, their vendors and AI developers must address the risks associated with outdated rules written for other problems, says Matthew Shapanka at Covington.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Cultivating Good Judgment

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    Law schools generally overlook the role that solid judgment skills play in real-world practice, but attorneys can bridge the gap by strengthening their abilities to assess a case’s strengths and weaknesses, develop and execute effective strategies, and provide clear recommendations to clients, says Manny Caixeiro at Venable.

  • Responding To State Packaging Law Uncertainty

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    As states roll out new packaging and recycling mandates, companies face expanding compliance duties and a growing wave of constitutional challenges that offer key lessons for managing regulatory risk, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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