California

  • January 06, 2026

    Feds Sue Calif. Cities To Extinguish Natural Gas Bans

    The Trump administration is going after two cities in California over building codes that ban natural gas infrastructure in newly constructed buildings, alleging in a lawsuit Monday that these local rules "impose crushing costs" on Californians and run afoul of federal law.

  • January 06, 2026

    Ramey Blocked As Atty In Image Patent Fight In NY

    Intellectual property attorney William Ramey was prevented from representing the owner of image processing and modifying patents used in special eyeglasses in an infringement suit in New York federal court, leading the company to abandon the case.

  • January 06, 2026

    1st Circ. Questions Feds' Mootness Claim In NIH Grant Suits

    The First Circuit appeared to push back Tuesday on assertions by the government that new guidance for terminating medical research grants over supposed links to issues like DEI, gender identity and vaccines — along with a partial settlement last week — moot a pair of lawsuits challenging the directives.

  • January 06, 2026

    Coupang Brass Face Suit Over Alleged Cybersecurity Failures

    The top brass of e-commerce company Coupang Inc. have been sued in California federal court by a shareholder who claims the company's executives and directors failed to maintain adequate cybersecurity protocols, leading to a data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of customers.

  • January 06, 2026

    SEC Lands $2.6M Default Win In Biofuel Investor Fraud Case

    A purported commercial fueling entrepreneur and his companies must pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $2.6 million after failing to retain new counsel in an enforcement action alleging that they scammed retail investors out of more than $1.2 million.

  • January 06, 2026

    Feds Seek More Than 21-Year Sentence In Navy Espionage Case

    The federal government has asked a California federal court to sentence a former U.S. Navy member to more than 21 years in prison for sharing classified information about its amphibious assault ships with the Chinese government.

  • January 06, 2026

    Ex-NBA Player Fights To Keep Suit Over Agents' Fees Alive

    Former NBA player Noah Vonleh's suit accusing several agents of wrongly charging him fees for his contract to play in China should stay in court and out of arbitration, Vonleh has told a California federal judge.

  • January 06, 2026

    Calif. Tribe Rejects Feds' Delay In 40-Acre Land Transfer Fight

    A California tribe is asking a D.C. federal court to deny a bid by the U.S. Department of the Interior for an indefinite stay in responding to a challenge to the agency's decision to approve a 40-acre land transfer for a fellow state tribe's casino project.

  • January 06, 2026

    Calif. Locomotive Emissions Rule Repeal Ends Industry Suit

    A California federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a legal challenge from rail industry groups to a since-repealed regulation that would've required railroads to transition to zero-emission locomotives in the Golden State, closing the book on the dispute after the parties agreed to drop the case.

  • January 06, 2026

    OpenAI Says Cameo Lacks Name Recognition For TM Claim

    Artificial intelligence startup OpenAI has asked a California federal judge to dismiss part of a trademark infringement suit brought by celebrity video service Cameo, saying Cameo hasn't shown its mark is well-known enough to support a dilution claim.

  • January 06, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Christian Ministry Can Reject Gay Applicants

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a Christian ministry is constitutionally clear to refuse employment to people based on their sexual orientation, explaining that the First Amendment allows religious ministries to prefer candidates who share their beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

  • January 06, 2026

    Meta Downplayed $10B Ad Changes 'Tsunami,' 9th Circ. Told

    Meta Platforms Inc. investors urged a Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday to revive a proposed securities class action alleging the social media giant hid the financial effects of privacy changes by Apple Inc., arguing that Meta executives publicly assured investors while knowing the company would be hit with a "$10 billion tsunami."

  • January 06, 2026

    Employment Trio Joins Ogletree In California, Oregon

    Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC announced Tuesday that the labor and employment firm has added three experienced shareholders to bolster its efforts in California and Oregon.

  • January 06, 2026

    Girardi Keese CFO Must Use His Own Atty For Chicago Appeal

    Girardi Keese's former financial chief cannot have counsel appointed to help him challenge the Illinois sentence he is serving alongside his 10-year California sentence for helping Tom Girardi steal millions from clients because he isn't pursuing the appeal in good faith, an Illinois federal judge has ruled.

  • January 06, 2026

    'Jersey Boys' Producer Slips $1M Pension Tab At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday reversed a win for a stagehands union pension plan in a dispute with a producer for the jukebox musical "Jersey Boys," saying an entertainment industry exemption to federal benefits law shielded the production company from approximately $1 million in withdrawal liability. 

  • January 06, 2026

    Live Nation Settles Workers' Claims Of Excessive 401(k) Fees

    Live Nation has agreed to a settlement of a proposed class action from former employees who alleged their 401(k) plan was saddled with excessive fees, after a California federal judge said in December he would reconsider his earlier decision requiring arbitration of some claims in the dispute. 

  • January 06, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Ax Of Transmission Signal Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive a suit accusing gaming hardware maker Razer of infringing a transmission signal decoding patent, agreeing with a California federal court that claims in the patent were invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice standard.

  • January 06, 2026

    San Diego Sues DHS Over Marines' Border Barrier

    The city of San Diego has sued the Department of Homeland Security over what it described as an unauthorized installation of razor-wire fencing by the U.S. Marines in a city-owned protected wildlife habitat area near the southern border.

  • January 06, 2026

    2 Firms Advise $540M AI Infrastructure Co. Acquisition

    California data infrastructure firm Marvell said it has reached a deal to expand its product portfolio amid demand for artificial intelligence by acquiring XConn Technologies in a deal valued at about $540 million, advised by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and Goodwin Procter LLP.

  • January 06, 2026

    Top Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice Cases Of 2025

    A headline-grabbing $329 million wrongful death verdict against Tesla and a landmark $2.5 billion deal between DuPont and New Jersey over PFAS "forever chemicals" are among Law360's top personal injury and medical malpractice cases from 2025.

  • January 05, 2026

    US Chamber Gets Expedited Appeal In $100,000 H-1B Fee Suit

    The D.C. Circuit on Monday fast-tracked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's appeal of a ruling that a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions was within President Donald Trump's "broad authority" to restrict noncitizens' entry.

  • January 05, 2026

    1st Circ. Upholds Block On Trump Admin NIH Funding Cuts

    The First Circuit on Monday affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge's order permanently blocking the Trump administration from gutting National Institutes of Health funding for biomedical research, agreeing that the government didn't have the authority to cap indirect costs for research grants.

  • January 05, 2026

    Tile Tells 9th Circ. To Send Stalking Victims' Suit To Arbitration

    Tile Inc. urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to send to arbitration a putative class action alleging Tile's Bluetooth tracking devices negligently empower stalkers, arguing during a hearing that Tile's mass email notifying users of its arbitration provision constitutes sufficient notice, even if those emails were delivered to spam inboxes.

  • January 05, 2026

    Hawaiian Electric Reaches $47.8M Investor Deal Over Wildfires

    Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. shareholders reached a nearly $48 million settlement with the company and some of its leaders in a suit blaming it for the downturn in its stock price following a deadly 2023 fire on Maui, and asked a California federal judge on Monday to grant the deal preliminary approval.

  • January 05, 2026

    Uber Sex Assault MDL Judge Won't Delay Bellwether Trial

    A California federal judge on Monday denied Uber's request to postpone the first of some 20 bellwether trials in multidistrict litigation over passenger sexual assaults despite the company's assertion that the jury pool will be tainted by what it said was a plaintiffs' counsel advocacy group commercial saying Uber refused to make safety improvements.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Resolve PSLRA Issue For Section 11 Litigants

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    By establishing a uniform judgment reduction credit for all defendants in cases involving Section 11 of the Securities Act, Congress could remove unnecessary statutory ambiguity from the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and enable litigants to price potential settlements with greater certainty, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • FTC's Reseller Suit Highlights Larger Ticket Platform Issues

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    Taken together, the recent Federal Trade Commission lawsuit and Ticketmaster's recent antitrust woes demonstrate that federal enforcers are testing the resilience of antitrust and consumer-protection frameworks in an evolving, tech-driven marketplace, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

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    As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

  • Health Insurance Kickback Cases Signal Greater Gov't Focus

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    A series of recent indictments by federal prosecutors in California suggests that the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act is gaining momentum as an enforcement tool against illegal inducement of patient referrals in the realm of commercial health insurance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Cos. Face EU, US Regulatory Tension On Many Fronts

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    When the European Union sets stringent standards, companies seeking to operate in the international marketplace must conform to them, or else concede opportunities — but with the current U.S. administration pushing hard to roll back regulations, global companies face an increasing tension over which standards to follow, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Being A Professional Wrestler Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Pursuing my childhood dream of being a professional wrestler has taught me important legal career lessons about communication, adaptability, oral advocacy and professionalism, says Christopher Freiberg at Midwest Disability.

  • 2 Calif. Cases Could Reshape Future Of Trap-And-Trace Suits

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    A California federal judge's recent dismissal of two California Invasion of Privacy Act cases demonstrates an inherent contradiction in pen register and trap-and-trace claims, teeing up a Ninth Circuit appeal that could either breathe new life into such claims or put an end to them outright, says Matthew Pearson at Womble Bond.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Adapting To The Age Of AI

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    Though law school may not have specifically taught us how to use generative artificial intelligence to help with our daily legal tasks, it did provide us the mental building blocks necessary for adapting to this new technology — and the judgment to discern what shouldn’t be automated, says Pamela Dorian at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Voiding $2M Litigation Funding Sends A Warning

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    A recent Texas bankruptcy court decision that a postconfirmation litigation trust has no obligations to repay a completely drawn down $2 million litigation funding agreement serves as a warning for estate administrators and funders to properly disclose the intended financing, say attorneys at Kleinberg Kaplan.

  • Tesla Verdict May Set New Liability Benchmarks For AV Suits

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    The recent jury verdict in Benavides v. Tesla is notable not only for a massive payout — including $200 million in punitive damages — but because it apportions fault between the company's self-driving technology and the driver, inviting more scrutiny of automated vehicle marketing and technology, says Michael Avanesian at Avian Law Group.

  • Demystifying The Civil Procedure Rules Amendment Process

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    Every year, an advisory committee receives dozens of proposals to amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, most of which are never adopted — but a few pointers can help maximize the likelihood that an amendment will be adopted, says Josh Gardner at DLA Piper.

  • RI Menopause Law Brings New Considerations For Employers

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    Rhode Island becoming the first state to provide express antidiscrimination and accommodation protections for employees' menopause-related conditions may be a bellwether for similar protections in other jurisdictions, so employers should consider that while such benefits may improve recruitment and retention, complications may arise from voluntarily adding them, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • FTC, CoStar Cases Against Zillow May Have Broad Impact

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    Zillow's partnerships with Redfin and Realtor.com have recently triggered dual fronts of legal scrutiny — an antitrust inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission and a mass copyright infringement suit from CoStar — raising complex questions that reach beyond real estate, says Shubha Ghosh at Syracuse University College of Law.

  • State Crypto Regs Diverge As Federal Framework Dawns

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    Following the Genius Act's passage, states like California, New York and Wyoming are racing to set new standards for crypto governance, creating both opportunity and risk for digital asset firms as innovation flourishes in some jurisdictions while costly friction emerges in others, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • How 2nd Circ. Cannabis Ruling Upends NY Licensing

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    A recent Second Circuit decision in Variscite NY Four v. New York, holding that New York's extra-priority cannabis licensing preference for applicants with in-state marijuana convictions violates the dormant commerce clause, underscores that state-legal cannabis markets remain subject to the same constitutional constraints as other economic markets, say attorneys at Harris Beach.

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