California

  • November 10, 2025

    Trump Pardons Giuliani, Others Accused Of Election Crimes

    President Donald Trump has reportedly pardoned scores of lawyers accused of attempting to interfere in the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell, according to a social media post created by the president's pardon attorney, Ed Martin.

  • November 10, 2025

    Former Prosecutors Come Full Circle To Lead Munger Tolles

    For former federal prosecutors and close friends Martin Estrada and Daniel Levin, being tapped to lead Munger Tolles & Olson LLP as co-managing partners marks a full-circle moment.

  • November 07, 2025

    Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses Full SNAP Payments

    The U.S. Supreme Court Friday evening temporarily paused a Rhode Island federal judge's orders compelling the Trump administration to fully fund November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and transfer roughly $4 billion by the end of the day, hours after the First Circuit denied the administration's emergency request.

  • November 07, 2025

    OpenAI Hit With Wave Of Suits Over 'Suicide Coach' ChatGPT

    ChatGPT users and suicide victims' families hit OpenAI Inc. and its CEO Sam Altman with a wave of lawsuits in California state court Friday, alleging OpenAI knowingly released a dangerously designed sycophantic, psychologically manipulative, addictive version of ChatGPT that at times became a "suicide coach" to vulnerable users who killed themselves.

  • November 07, 2025

    Ex-Calif. Judge Seeks To Toss Sex Assault, Coverup Charges

    A former California state judge on Friday moved to toss federal criminal charges alleging that he sexually assaulted a court employee and lied to investigators, saying the employee was not under his direct supervision so he could not have been acting under the "color of law" when the alleged assault occurred.

  • November 07, 2025

    Dems' Bill Would Give DHS Detainees Right To Talk To Atty

    Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Friday that would guarantee immigrant detainees the right to contact their families and speak to legal counsel in custody, amid the Trump administration's push to ramp up major enforcement efforts that have led to arrests of people while dropping off children at school or grocery shopping.

  • November 07, 2025

    DC Circ. Airs Doubts About USPS Args In 2020 Mail Delay Row

    The D.C. Circuit has doubts that the U.S. Postal Service can kibosh a permanent injunction in a case that aimed to ward off delivery delays ahead of the 2020 election because the plaintiffs had an administrative route open to them — not at the time they filed their suit, but by the time the judge issued summary judgment.

  • November 07, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Mamdani, Immigration, Q3 Debrief

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including real estate reactions to the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, how condo attorneys are bracing for a surge in immigration enforcement and third-quarter takeaways across asset classes.

  • November 07, 2025

    Jeffer Mangels Hit With Pregnancy Bias Suit By Ex-Associate

    A former Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP associate has accused the firm of discriminating against women, especially pregnant women, claiming that she was harassed throughout her pregnancy and eventually fired after she advocated for herself and pointed out the disparate treatment.

  • November 07, 2025

    AI Startup CEO Gets 1-Year Sentence For $40M Fraud

    A California federal judge on Friday sentenced the founder of a company that purported to sell artificial intelligence-based business automation software to one year behind bars for defrauding investors in what the federal government called a "fake-it-til-you-make-it" scheme that never made it.

  • November 07, 2025

    Calif. Cannabis Co. Fights $10M IRS Bill In Tax Court

    A California company that manages cannabis operators challenged $10 million in taxes and penalties in the U.S. Tax Court, arguing the Internal Revenue Service stripped it of business deductions by incorrectly determining it trafficked in a controlled substance.

  • November 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Pushed To Revive Suit Over $3.8B Failed Tech Merger

    A California federal judge erred in finding that investors in semiconductor company MaxLinear Inc. had no standing to sue it over what they say were misrepresentations about a $3.8 billion merger plan with chipmaker Silicon Motion Technology Corp., they told the Ninth Circuit in a bid to revive their suit.

  • November 07, 2025

    Block Says Cash App Probe, Bigger SF Tax Bill Could Cost It

    Jack Dorsey's fintech firm Block Inc. told investors that it may take a financial hit from a multistate probe into its mobile payments platform CashApp, and remains locked in a separate multimillion-dollar tax dispute with the County of San Francisco over its bitcoin sales.

  • November 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Sides With Calif. In Tribal Cigarette Tax Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday backed California in a dispute it brought to enforce cigarette taxes against a tobacco company owned and operated by a federally recognized Native American tribe, holding that the tribal leader defendants can't claim sovereign or qualified immunity exempts them from the federal tax law.

  • November 07, 2025

    Vegas Hotels Say 9th Circ. Shouldn't Rethink Price-Fixing Suit

    Several Las Vegas hotel operators, two software companies and Blackstone all told the Ninth Circuit to reject a rehearing petition for its August decision for a proposed price-fixing class action that accused hotel operators and Blackstone of conspiring to use the software companies' GuestRev software to set prices for Las Vegas hotel rooms.

  • November 07, 2025

    Shutdown, Funding Crisis Leave Federal Defenders Unpaid

    The record-long government shutdown has hindered an already dire funding situation for the federal defense community, but now the judiciary is working on requests to Congress to alleviate that.

  • November 07, 2025

    Mayer Brown Adds Goodwin Real Estate, Hospitality Trio In SF

    Mayer Brown LLP is boosting its West Coast team, bringing in a trio of Goodwin Procter LLP real estate and hospitality experts as partners in the firm's San Francisco office.

  • November 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB Rulings Favoring Uber

    The Federal Circuit on Friday refused to restore claims in a pair of patents used to track individuals, leaving in place Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that Uber showed the claims were invalid.

  • November 07, 2025

    Dorsey & Whitney Adds Real Estate Duo From Womble Bond

    Dorsey & Whitney LLP has expanded its Southern California team, bringing in two Womble Bond Dickinson real estate attorneys in its Orange County office in Costa Mesa.

  • November 06, 2025

    Consumers Sue Tilray Over Protein Claims In Hemp Product

    International cannabis lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company Tilray Brands Inc. was hit with a proposed class action in California federal court by a woman who claims it overstates the amount of protein consumers will get from eating its "Just Hemp" protein powder.

  • November 06, 2025

    Pair Of Health-Focused Startups Net $423M In Combined IPOs

    Two startups, spanning the diagnostics and biotechnology sectors, began trading on Thursday after raising a combined $423 million in initial public offerings, guided by three law firms, as more companies continue going public despite a historic government shutdown that has reduced staffing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • November 06, 2025

    Retailer Can't Force Arbitration Of False Pricing Class Claims

    A California federal judge Thursday rejected a bid by women's fashion brand Maggy London to arbitrate a proposed class action accusing it of advertising "phantom" price discounts on products sold on its website, finding that merely providing a link to the arbitration terms during the checkout process wasn't enough to form a binding agreement. 

  • November 06, 2025

    Cal Poly Athletes Rip NIL Deal For Impact On Women's Sports

    California Polytechnic State University athletes criticized the NCAA's $2.78 billion name, image and likeness settlement, telling a California federal judge during a hearing Thursday that it has harmed women's sports and caused inequitable cuts, while class counsel defended the deal, saying that it specifically preserves class members' Title IX rights.

  • November 06, 2025

    'Restore Coherence': Trump Admin Told To Fully Fund SNAP

    The Trump administration must fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in full this month, a Rhode Island federal judge ruled Thursday while admonishing the government for "entrenching delay" of benefits for the 42 million low-income Americans who rely on food assistance.

  • November 06, 2025

    PayPal Beats Antitrust Suit Over Merchant Rules Again

    PayPal has for a second time beat a proposed class action accusing it of illegally boosting online retail prices with restrictive merchant agreements, but the consumers have one more chance to amend.

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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