California

  • May 22, 2026

    Rivian Investors Get Final OK For $250M IPO Settlement

    Electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. and its investors have gotten the final green light for their $250 million deal to end claims the company hurt shareholders by underpricing its vehicles and misrepresenting its profitability ahead of its 2021 initial public offering.

  • May 22, 2026

    Disney, Cameron Look To Escape Suit Over 'Avatar' Sequels

    Disney, film director James Cameron and his production company, Lightstorm Entertainment Inc., are urging a California federal judge to throw out a suit alleging the sequels in the "Avatar" movie franchise ripped off a writer's ideas, calling most of the case a "conspiratorial fantasy."

  • May 22, 2026

    Snap Patent Fight Shipped From Texas To California

    A Texas federal judge has sent a patent infringement case brought by Intent IQ LLC and AlmondNet Inc. against the company that makes Snapchat to California, saying the patent infringement allegations will be simpler to litigate there.

  • May 22, 2026

    Nvidia 'Decline All' Tracking Class Action Sent To Arbitration

    A California magistrate judge Thursday sent to arbitration a proposed class action alleging Nvidia secretly installed third-party tracking cookies even after users clicked "decline all" on its website, saying the cookie banner included a hyperlink to terms of service that included an agreement to arbitrate disputes.

  • May 22, 2026

    OpenAI Must Produce Musk Case Depos In NY Copyright MDL

    OpenAI was ordered to turn over deposition testimony from three executives that was taken in the course of Elon Musk's California case challenging the company's conversion into a for-profit entity to a group of authors and news organizations suing over the alleged use of copyrighted content to train artificial intelligence models.

  • May 22, 2026

    OppFi Clinches Win Over $100M Calif. 'Rent-A-Bank' Case

    A California state judge has freed Opportunity Financial from a California state regulator's pursuit of at least $100 million in fines for alleged predatory lending, sealing the fintech firm's victory over long-running "rent-a-bank" claims that threatened its business model in the state. 

  • May 22, 2026

    Opioid Plaintiffs Want Sanctions Over McKinsey Deletions

    A group of plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation against McKinsey & Co. is urging a California federal court to sanction the company for deleting communications with Purdue Pharma and other opioid-makers, saying the court should enter a default judgment against the consulting firm.

  • May 22, 2026

    Settlement Co. Says $2.7M Fla. Lien Notices Were Defamatory

    Structured settlement broker Integrated Financial Settlements Inc. and three affiliates have sued Riverside Capital NY in Connecticut state court, accusing the company of defamation and interference with business expectations for telling third parties about a purportedly improper $2.7 million Florida lien connected to an ex-CEO's allegedly unauthorized loans.

  • May 22, 2026

    Meat Co. Says It Lost $1.2M Through Trade Secrets Theft

    A Denver-based natural meat processor claimed in Colorado federal court that its former sales contractor and a California beef exporter conspired to steal its trade secrets and diverted more than $1.2 million in customer revenue to the exporter.

  • May 22, 2026

    Kratom Buyers' RICO Claims Tossed In Addiction Suit

    A California federal judge has dismissed racketeering claims brought against a kratom supplements company accused of hiding the addictive nature of its products from consumers.

  • May 22, 2026

    World Cup Trafficking Raises Alarm For More Than Just Banks

    An unusual Trump administration notice exhorting financial institutions to be on guard for human trafficking activity during the 2026 FIFA World Cup could create compliance challenges not just for banks but an array of other industries, experts told Law360.

  • May 22, 2026

    UC Berkeley Law Adopts Sweeping Restrictions On AI Use

    The University of California, Berkeley School of Law has adopted a sweeping new policy that restricts the use of artificial intelligence by students, saying the measure aims to ensure "our courses focus on requisite cognitive skills by default."

  • May 22, 2026

    Green Card Candidates To Now Apply From Abroad, Feds Say

    The Trump administration announced Friday that noncitizens in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas who want to become lawful permanent residents must apply from abroad, marking a sharp shift in how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has handled such requests.

  • May 22, 2026

    California Beer Co. Says Hemp Seller Stole 'Riip' Trademark

    California-based brewer Riip Inc. is suing a seller of hemp-based THC products, alleging that its line of "Riipit" products knowingly infringes on its own branding.

  • May 21, 2026

    Apple Wants Justices To Review Epic Games Contempt Order

    Apple Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on exactly when and how civil contempt sanctions can be issued for violating a court order, arguing that the Ninth Circuit missed the mark by upholding such sanctions against Apple in its App Store battle with Epic Games.

  • May 21, 2026

    OpenAI Ouster About Governance, Not Bad Counsel, Pros Say

    Witness testimony offered during a recent high-profile jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit restructuring accused the artificial intelligence company's nonprofit board of following bad legal advice when it fired CEO Sam Altman in 2023, although experts say the incident was more likely the product of poor governance rather than lousy legal counsel.

  • May 21, 2026

    Citron Founder's Tweets Impacted Stock Prices, LA Jury Told

    A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission financial economist testified Thursday in the criminal securities fraud case against Citron Research founder Andrew Left, telling a California federal jury that allegedly deceptive tweets posted by the "activist investor" clearly had a "statistically significant" impact on companies' stock prices.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta Defeats App Users' Location Data Privacy Suit For Good

    A California federal judge Thursday shut down for good a proposed class action accusing Meta Platforms of illegally collecting location data from users of third-party apps that installed the company's tracking software, again finding the complaint doesn't plausibly allege that Meta knew it didn't have permission to access this data.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta Expert Says $27M Is Better Number For Abatement

    An economics expert for Meta testified Thursday against New Mexico's desired $3.7 billion plan to abate social media's harm to mental health, calling it more "a spending plan" than one for abatement and claiming $27 million will do the job.

  • May 21, 2026

    J&J Used Ellipsis To Nix Asbestos In Report To FDA, Jury Told

    Johnson & Johnson used an ellipsis to eliminate a professor's finding of asbestos in its talc in a report submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a video deposition shown Thursday to a California jury considering bellwether claims over three women's deadly ovarian cancer.

  • May 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Judge Overstepped In Fluoride Risk Case

    A Ninth Circuit panel scrapped a ruling that directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to address potentially unsafe levels of drinking water fluoridation, concluding a California federal judge improperly commandeered the case.

  • May 21, 2026

    AT&T Sues Calif. To End Copper Wire Service Requirements

    AT&T asked a California federal court to preempt state regulations that require it to continue offering "plain old telephone service" to new customers, saying it needs to retire the "outdated" system to move forward with plans to devote $19 billion on modern telecom tech in the Golden State.

  • May 21, 2026

    Calif. Resort Developer Gets OK For Ch. 11 Plan After Deal

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Thursday approved SilverRock Development's Chapter 11 plan after hearing the California property developer had reached a global agreement resolving objections to the sale of its land and the distribution of the proceeds.

  • May 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Told To Reject J&J Unit's $442M Antitrust Appeal

    Cardiac catheter refurbisher Innovative Health urged the Ninth Circuit to reject the appeal from Johnson & Johnson's Biosense Webster unit seeking to upend its $442 million antitrust judgment, saying the lower court rightly found that Biosense forced hospitals to avoid refurbished catheters in favor of its own.

  • May 21, 2026

    Fraudster's Australian Prison Time Doesn't Cut US Sentence

    A convicted investment fraudster from California can't point to his time awaiting extradition in an Australian prison to get a new, shorter sentence, the Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Congress Should Lead On AI Policy, Not The States

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    There needs to be some limits on how far federal agencies go in regulating artificial intelligence systems, but Congress must not abdicate its responsibility and cede control over this interstate market to state and local officials, say Kevin Frazier at the University of Texas School of Law and Adam Thierer at the R Street Institute.

  • Limiting Worker Surveillance Risks Amid AI Regulatory Shifts

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    With workplace surveillance tools becoming increasingly common and a recent executive order aiming to preempt state-level artificial intelligence enforcement, companies may feel encouraged to expand AI monitoring, but the legal exposure associated with these tools remains, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • How Insurers Are Wording AI Exclusions

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    Artificial intelligence exclusions are now available for use in insurance policies, meaning corporate risk managers must determine how those exclusions are interpreted and applied, and how they define AI, says David Kroeger at Jenner & Block.

  • How 2 Tech Statutes Are Being Applied To Agentic AI

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    The application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Invasion of Privacy Act to agentic artificial intelligence is still developing, but recent case law, like Amazon's lawsuit against Perplexity in California federal court, provides some initial guidance for companies developing or deploying these technologies, say attorneys at Weil.

  • FTC Focus: Testing Joint Enforcement Over Loyalty Programs

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    The Federal Trade Commission's case against Syngenta can be understood both as a canary for further scrutiny over loyalty-discount practices and a signal of the durability of joint federal-state antitrust enforcement, with key takeaways for practitioners and those subject to regulatory antitrust scrutiny alike, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Defense Strategy Takeaways From Recent TCPA Class Actions

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    Although recent Telephone Consumer Protection Act decisions do not establish any bright-line tests for defeating predominance based on an argument that class members provided consent for the calls, certain trends have emerged that should inform defense strategies at class certification, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

  • NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools

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    Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Dispatches From Utah's Newest Court

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    While a robust body of law hasn't yet developed since the Utah Business and Chancery Court's founding in October 2024, the number of cases filed there has recently picked up, and its existence illustrates Utah's desire to be top of mind for businesses across the country, says Evan Strassberg at Michael Best.

  • Viewing The Merger Landscape Through An HPE-Juniper Lens

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    If considerations beyond antitrust law were taken into account to determine whether Section 7 of the Clayton Act was violated in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks deal, then legal practitioners advocating deal clearance may now have to argue that deals should be justified by considerations not set forth in the merger guidelines, says Matthew Cantor of Shinder Cantor.

  • 4 Quick Emotional Resets For Lawyers With Conflict Fatigue

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    Though the emotional wear and tear of legal work can trap attorneys in conflict fatigue — leaving them unable to shake off tense interactions or return to a calm baseline — simple therapeutic techniques for resetting the nervous system can help break the cycle, says Chantel Cohen at CWC Coaching & Therapy.

  • 2 Rulings Showcase Fuzzy Limits Of 'Related To' Jurisdiction

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    The Fifth and Ninth Circuits recently handed down decisions, in Sanchez Energy and Sawtelle Partners, respectively, reminding practitioners that bankruptcy court jurisdiction over lingering disputes is not guaranteed, regardless of whether confirmation orders contain specific "retention of jurisdiction" language, says Brian Shaw at Cozen O’Connor.

  • Privacy Ruling Shows How CIPA Conflicts With Modern Tech

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    A California federal court's recent holding in Doe v. Eating Recovery Center that Meta is not liable for reading, or attempting to read, the pixel-related transmission while in transit reflects a mismatch between the California Invasion of Privacy Act's 1967 origins and modern encrypted, browser‑driven communications, says David Wheeler at Neal Gerber.

  • Navigating Trade Secret Exceptions In Noncompete Bans

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    Recent and ongoing developments in the noncompete landscape, including a potential decision from the Tenth Circuit in Edwards Lifesciences v. Thompson, could offer tools for employers to bring noncompete agreements within trade secret exceptions amid an era of heightened employee mobility, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Series

    Playing Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    An instinct to turn pain into purpose meant frequent trips to the tennis court, where learning to move ahead one point at a time was a lesson that also applied to the steep learning curve of patent prosecution law, says Daniel Henry at Marshall Gerstein.

  • How Generative AI Cos. Can Navigate Product Liability Claims

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    Increasingly, plaintiffs are aggregating disputes over generative artificial intelligence and pursuing them through mass-tort-style proceedings, borrowing tactics from litigation involving social media, pharmaceuticals and other consumer-facing products — but there are approaches that AI companies can use to narrow claims and manage long-term exposure, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

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