California

  • January 15, 2026

    Trump Admin Defies Funding K-12 Mental Health Grants

    The Trump administration is fighting an effort by a coalition of U.S. states to preserve at least six months of funding for K-12 mental health grants meant to help students process gun violence, arguing that an earlier court ruling doesn't require the feds to fund the grants.

  • January 15, 2026

    Verizon, Calif. Strike Diversity Deal In Frontier Takeover

    California utility regulators approved Verizon's takeover of Frontier Communications' fiber network Thursday, after the wireless giant has reached several agreements to support statewide diversity and digital equity initiatives.

  • January 15, 2026

    Book Publishers Ask To Join Authors' AI Suit Against Google

    Book publishers Cengage Learning and Hachette Book Group on Thursday asked to intervene in a proposed copyright class action from writers and illustrators accusing Google of using their works for AI training, arguing that as major publishers they have significant interests that are not currently represented in the case.

  • January 15, 2026

    Tinder's $60.5M Deal For Charging Users Over 29 More OK'd

    A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has granted preliminary approval to a $60.5 million settlement Tinder reached with a class of users who alleged the dating app unlawfully charged subscribers age 30 and older more than younger daters, drawing the decade-long litigation to a close.

  • January 15, 2026

    Crypto Lender Nexo Fined $500K For Unlicensed Loans

    The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced that crypto-backed loan company Nexo Capital Inc. will pay a $500,000 penalty to settle claims it did not have a valid license when making its high-risk loans to California residents.

  • January 15, 2026

    Calif. Justices Order Prosecutors To Explain Alleged AI Errors

    The California Supreme Court has ordered Nevada County prosecutors to explain to a lower court why they shouldn't be sanctioned for "apparent serial submission" of artificial intelligence-generated briefs with nonexistent legal citations in multiple criminal proceedings.

  • January 15, 2026

    Crowell Lands Buchalter Practice Group Co-Chair In Calif.

    Crowell & Moring LLP announced Thursday that it has added the former co-chair of Buchalter PC's white collar and government investigations practice to bolster its capacity to handle healthcare fraud and other cases.

  • January 15, 2026

    Latham Guides Mission Produce On $430M Calavo Deal

    Latham & Watkins LLP is advising Mission Produce on a fresh agreement to buy fellow fruit purveyor Calavo Growers, which tapped Cozen O'Connor as its legal adviser, at a $430 million enterprise value.

  • January 14, 2026

    Split Panel Won't Block Calif.'s New Congressional Map

    A split panel of federal judges on Wednesday refused to preliminarily block California's new, voter-approved congressional districts, ruling that the state's Republican Party and the Trump administration "failed to show that racial gerrymandering occurred."

  • January 14, 2026

    DHS Can Axe '11th Hour' Venezuelan Protections, 9th Circ. Told

    The Trump administration urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to vacate its summary judgment loss so that the government can continue to unwind temporary protected status for 600,000 Venezuelans, arguing that U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had the authority to terminate the Biden administration's "eleventh hour" protections.

  • January 14, 2026

    Google Ex-Staffer Attys In 'Grave Danger' Of Testimony Misstep

    A California federal judge appeared open Wednesday to letting prosecutors introduce previously suppressed evidence from the FBI's interview with an ex-Google engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, telling defense counsel that their efforts to paint Google and the government as in cahoots raised a "grave danger" he'd allow the evidence.

  • January 14, 2026

    Calif. Again Asks 9th Circ. To Unleash Kids' Privacy Law

    California's attorney general was back before the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, urging the court to vacate a new preliminary injunction blocking a landmark law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, and arguing the lower court wrongly found the entire statute likely implicates the First Amendment.

  • January 14, 2026

    Kaiser Entities Settle Medicare Fraud Claims For $556M

    Five Kaiser Permanente affiliates agreed to a $556 million settlement resolving allegations they defrauded the government by submitting invalid medical diagnoses for Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    Meta Wants Zuckerberg's Old 'Hot-Or-Not' Site Out Of LA Trial

    Meta's attorney on Wednesday urged a California judge overseeing bellwether trials over claims social media harms young users' mental health to ban mention of the attractiveness-rating website Mark Zuckerberg created at Harvard, saying the plaintiffs want female jurors to see Zuckerberg as "a bad guy" and Facebook as "born in sin."

  • January 14, 2026

    Wells Fargo Brass Gets 1st OK For 'Fake' Diversity Suit Deal

    A California federal judge has granted the first green light to a settlement reached between Wells Fargo investors and executives in a derivative suit claiming the bank's leadership failed to address the company's discriminatory lending practices and engaged in "fake" interviews with diverse candidates.

  • January 14, 2026

    Tort Report: Los Angeles Tops Annual 'Judicial Hellhole' List

    Los Angeles' designation by a tort reform group as a top "judicial hellhole," and the latest in a suit over a Kentucky judge shot to death in his own chambers lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

  • January 14, 2026

    Feds Sue Calif. Over Ban On Drilling Near Schools, Homes

    The U.S. government sued California on Wednesday over its law banning fossil fuel development activities within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and other sensitive areas, saying the state law is preempted by federal law since it infringes on the U.S. government's authority to manage federal lands and mineral resources.

  • January 14, 2026

    Uber Resolves Family's Suit Over Driver Slain By Passengers

    Uber Technologies Inc. and the family of a driver who was murdered by his ridesharing passengers have agreed to dismiss a lawsuit filed in Seattle federal court claiming Uber should have reasonably foreseen the risk to the driver, Cherno Ceesay.

  • January 14, 2026

    Oracle Sued By Pension Plan Over AI-Linked Debt Disclosures

    The Ohio Carpenters Pension Plan filed a proposed class action Wednesday in New York state court against Oracle, its founder Larry Ellison and other top brass, alleging the company failed to disclose that it would need to sell significant extra debt to fund its artificial intelligence buildout.

  • January 14, 2026

    Google Inks $8.25M Deal Over Kids' App Data Privacy

    Google has agreed to an $8.25 million settlement that, if approved, will fully resolve a potential class action that children filed in California federal court through their parents, accusing the tech giant of secretly tracking the personal information of children under the age of 13 through child-directed apps.

  • January 14, 2026

    Calif. AG Probes 'Avalanche' Of Grok-Created Sexual Deepfakes

    California is looking into the "avalanche" of nonconsensual sexually explicit materials, including "deepfake" images used to harass women online, that are reportedly being produced by Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI Inc., the state's attorney general announced Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    Property Co. Says Insurer Shirked Defense Of Tenant Suit

    A property management company said an AIG unit shirked its duty to defend a lawsuit accusing the company of charging unlawful fees to tenants who receive Section 8 vouchers, telling a California federal court that the underlying claims constituted covered personal and advertising injuries.

  • January 14, 2026

    Judge Questions If Workers' Attys Can Handle AI Bias Class

    A California federal judge called out the attorneys for a proposed class of workers who accused human resources software company Workday of using biased artificial intelligence to screen out job applicants, saying Wednesday that evidence indicated they'd been "asleep at the wheel."

  • January 14, 2026

    Calif. Car Cos. Hit With $200M Chancery Fraud Suit

    Several California-based car companies, as well as their leader and current and former executives, orchestrated a fraudulent acquisition and asset transfer scheme designed to render a lucrative fuel trading contract worthless and shield a defense contractor from more than $200 million in liabilities, a lawsuit brought Wednesday in the Delaware Chancery Court says.

  • January 14, 2026

    Trump Admin Drops Appeal In Transportation Funds Suit

    The Trump administration has dropped its First Circuit appeal of an order blocking it from tying billions of dollars in federal transportation funding to states' cooperation with its immigration crackdown.

Expert Analysis

  • 2026 State AI Bills That Could Expand Liability, Insurance Risk

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    State bills legislating artificial intelligence that are expected to pass in 2026 will reshape the liability landscape for all companies incorporating AI solutions into their business operations, as any novel private rights of action authorized under AI-related statutes signal expanding exposures, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • What's On Deck In Tribal Nations' Prediction Markets Litigation

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    Native American tribes' response to the expansion of sports-based prediction markets enters a decisive phase this year, with appellate courts positioned to address whether federal commodities law permits nationwide offering of sports-based event contracts free from state and tribal gaming regulation, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • SEC Virtu Deal Previews Risks Of Nonpublic Info In AI Models

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent settlement with Virtu Financial Inc. over alleged failures to safeguard customer data raises broader questions about how traditional enforcement frameworks may apply when material nonpublic information is embedded into artificial intelligence trading systems, says Braeden Anderson at Gesmer Updegrove.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Boost Access To Justice

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    Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Thumma writes that generative artificial intelligence tools offer a profound opportunity to enhance access to justice and engender public confidence in courts’ use of technology, and judges can seize this opportunity in five key ways.

  • Examining Privilege In Dual-Purpose Workplace Investigations

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent holding in FirstEnergy's bribery probe ruling that attorney-client privilege applied to a dual-purpose workplace investigation because its primary purpose was obtaining legal advice highlights the uncertainty companies face as federal circuit courts remain split on the appropriate test, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    The Case For Emulating, Not Dividing, The Ninth Circuit

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    Champions for improved judicial administration should reject the unfounded criticisms driving recent Senate proposals to divide the Ninth Circuit and instead seek to replicate the court's unique strengths and successes, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • ERISA Litigation Trends To Watch With 2025 In The Rearview

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    There were significant developments in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation in 2025, including plaintiffs pushing the bounds of sponsor and fiduciary liability and defendants scoring district court wins, and although the types of claims might change, ERISA litigation will likely be just as active in 2026, say attorneys at Groom Law.

  • 2025's Defining AI Securities Litigation

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    Three securities litigation decisions from 2025 — involving General Motors, GitLab and Tesla — offer a preview of how courts will assess artificial intelligence-related disclosures, as themes such as heightened regulatory scrutiny and risk surrounding technical claims are already taking shape for the coming year, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Targeted Action, Rule Tweaks Reflect 2025 AML Priority Shifts

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    Though 2025’s anti-money-laundering landscape was characterized not by volume of penalties but by the strategic recalibration of how illicit finance risk is handled, a series of targeted enforcement actions signaled that regulators aren't easing off the accelerator, even as they refine the rules of the road, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    Muay Thai Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Muay Thai kickboxing has taught me that in order to win, one must stick to one's game plan and adapt under pressure, just as when facing challenges by opposing counsel or judges, says Mark Schork at Feldman Shepherd.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Intentional Career-Building

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    A successful legal career is built through intention: understanding expectations, assessing strengths honestly and proactively seeking opportunities to grow and cultivating relationships that support your development, say Erika Drous and Hillary Mann at Morrison Foerster.

  • Key Trends In PFAS Regulation And Litigation For 2026

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    As 2026 begins, the legal and regulatory outlook for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances is defined less by sweeping federal initiatives and more by incremental adjustments, judicial guardrails and state-driven regulations — an environment in which proactive risk management and close monitoring of policy developments will be essential, say attorneys at MG+M.

  • Navigating Workplace AI When Federal, State Policies Clash

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    Two recent federal bills and various state laws concerning employers' artificial intelligence use may clash with an executive order calling for minimal regulation, so employers should proactively monitor their AI usage and stay apprised of legislative updates while awaiting further direction from the federal government, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Series

    A Day In The In-House Life: Chime GC Talks Pathfinding

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    On a recent Tuesday in the office, Chime's general counsel Adam Frankel shares his typical work day, tackling everything from strategically guiding product launches and testing AI tools to mastering the perfect latte and making time for extracurricular interests.

  • Reviewing 2025's Artificial Intelligence Disputes Over IP

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    2025 brought the first major fair use rulings involving generative artificial intelligence, and in 2026 courts will weigh in on more discovery disputes, renewed motions to dismiss, class certification challenges and fair use defenses that could shape the course of future AI litigation, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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