California

  • July 07, 2025

    DC Judge Nixes Challenge To Immigrant Legal Services Cuts

    A D.C. federal judge said nonprofit groups failed to show that the Trump administration acted beyond its authority when it decided to end or take over Justice Department programs that previously tapped them to provide legal services to immigrants.

  • July 07, 2025

    Citron Founder Seeks Dismissal Of 'Absurd' DOJ Fraud Case

    An attorney for Citron Research's founder, short-seller activist Andrew Left, urged a California federal judge Monday to dismiss the federal government's "absurd" criminal securities fraud case against Left, arguing that it's an unprecedented effort to criminalize free speech. 

  • July 07, 2025

    Lenders Accused Of Using Calif. Tribe To Dodge Usury Laws

    A California resident has accused River Valley Loans and some business leaders allegedly associated with the company — including the son of TV host Dr. Phil — of operating a predatory lending scheme involving the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe to make short-term, small-dollar loans with illegally high interest rates.

  • July 07, 2025

    Personal Injury & Med Mal Cases To Watch In 2nd Half Of 2025

    The social media addiction multidistrict litigation against the biggest tech companies and a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding state medical malpractice lawsuit requirements are among the cases injury and malpractice attorneys will be following closely in the second half of 2025.

  • July 07, 2025

    Etsy Shares User Data With Google And Meta For Ads, Suit Says

    Etsy flouts privacy laws by illegally sharing website visitors' information with third parties through the surreptitious use and deployment of tracking pixels created by Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft for behavior profiling and real-time digital ad bidding auctions, according to a proposed class action filed last week in California federal court. 

  • July 07, 2025

    As New Era Dawns For College Athletes, Repairs Still Needed

    As far back as late 2023, when a broad cross-section of former college athletes was certified as a class to sue the NCAA for unpaid name, image and likeness compensation, all parties involved have known that the eventual settlement of its claims would repair just one specific broken part of the college sports ecosystem. With the portion of the $2.78 billion settlement designed to share institutional revenues directly with athletes going into effect on Tuesday, legal experts still wonder how and when enough will be done to set right the scales that went unbalanced for decades.

  • July 07, 2025

    Feds Tell 9th Circ. Ayahuasca Church Not Owed $2M In Fees

    Federal officials told the Ninth Circuit on Monday that a Phoenix-based church that reached an agreement with the government to use the psychedelic ayahuasca in religious ceremonies was not entitled to more than $2 million in attorney fees.

  • July 07, 2025

    Calif. Coastal Agency Gets SpaceX Launch Suit Trimmed

    A California federal judge has trimmed SpaceX's suit alleging the California Coastal Commission wrongly tried to block its plan to increase rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, saying the reworked complaint adequately alleges some, but not all, of the purported harms the company faces.

  • July 07, 2025

    Law Firm Partners United Co-Founder Joins King & Spalding

    A Goodwin Procter LLP intellectual property partner who earlier this year co-founded a coalition of BigLaw attorneys challenging the Trump administration's attacks on law firms has jumped to King & Spalding LLP.

  • July 07, 2025

    Calif. Fails To Pause 23andMe's Sale During Appeal

    A Missouri bankruptcy judge on Monday refused California's request that genetic testing company 23andMe Holding Co.'s $305 million Chapter 11 sale be tabled while the Golden State seeks an appeal.

  • July 07, 2025

    AI Weather Startup Claims Rival Used Trade Secrets

    An artificial intelligence-powered weather simulation startup has sued a rival company in California federal court, claiming a consultant took its source code and used it to found the competitor.

  • July 07, 2025

    Samsung Settles Epic's Claims It Colluded With Google

    Epic Games Inc. on Monday voluntarily dropped Samsung from the Fortnite game-maker's latest California federal antitrust suit in light of the parties' settlement, resolving allegations the phone maker colluded with Google to circumvent an order forcing Google to open Android phones to Play Store competition.

  • July 07, 2025

    ​​​​​​​Gov't Says OPM Didn't Order Probationary Worker Firings

    The Trump administration maintained that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's guidance on probationary federal employees was lawful, telling a California federal judge the OPM did not order agencies to carry out a mass termination of these workers despite the claims of unions representing them.

  • July 07, 2025

    P&G Beats False Ad Suit Over 'Pure Cotton' Tampax, For Good

    The Procter & Gamble Co. permanently beat a proposed class action alleging that it omits the presence of organic fluorine in its Tampax products, after a California federal judge again rejected the plaintiff's testing method for detecting forever chemicals, ruling Monday that the latest iteration of the suit continued to rest on flawed testing.

  • July 07, 2025

    George Clinton Faces Sanctions Bid In IP Suit

    Music executive Armen Boladian has asked a Florida federal court to sanction funk legend George Clinton, saying he was raising issues already adjudicated in their decades-long series of legal disputes.

  • July 07, 2025

    Some Class Certs. Granted In Amazon Alexa Privacy Suit

    A Washington federal judge on Monday granted class certification to plaintiffs with registered Amazon Alexa devices in a suit alleging the devices recorded and stored their conversations, and he denied class certification to those plaintiffs who did not have registered devices.

  • July 07, 2025

    Pro Se Party Given 'Benefit Of The Doubt' After Conn. AI Filing

    An airline worker with ties to American Airlines who is accused of stalking and terrorizing passengers likely used generative artificial intelligence in filings he submitted after defaulting in a federal lawsuit, which include "phantom cases and nonexistent case law," a Connecticut judge has said in a ruling that nevertheless sets aside the defendant's default.

  • July 07, 2025

    J&J Unit Looks To Wipe Out $442M Catheter Antitrust Loss

    Johnson & Johnson health tech unit Biosense Webster has asked a California federal court to throw out Innovative Health's $442 million trial win in a case accusing Biosense of conditioning product support for its cardiac mapping systems on the purchase of cardiac catheters.

  • July 07, 2025

    Weil Adds DLA Piper Entertainment Transactions Co-Chair

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP announced Monday it has hired the co-leader of DLA Piper's entertainment transactions practice to enhance its own capacity to handle a wide range of entertainment, sports and media deals.

  • July 03, 2025

    BofA Beats Class Cert. Bid Over Vacation Pay, For Now

    A California federal judge Thursday refused to certify three putative classes of former Bank of America employees who accused the bank of not paying them their accrued, unused vacation time, saying a proposed class representative seemingly wasn't eligible for vacation time accrual.

  • July 03, 2025

    J.Jill Can't Compel Arbitration In False Price Discount Suit

    A California federal judge has refused to ship to arbitration a proposed class action accusing J.Jill of advertising false reference prices on products sold throughout its website, finding that the clothing retailer had failed to put the plaintiff on adequate notice that she would be bound to arbitration simply by placing an order as a guest.

  • July 03, 2025

    Calif. Justices Say Ford Can't Arbitrate Fiesta And Focus Suits

    Ford Motor Co. cannot force drivers who allege defects in their Focus and Fiesta vehicles to take their claims to arbitration, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting the automaker's argument that the dispute flows from dealership sales contracts containing arbitration provisions that it can invoke.

  • July 03, 2025

    State Telecom Roundup: States Rush To Meet New BEAD Regs

    States were allocated their share of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program two years ago. Some states were nearly ready to announce which companies would receive a slice of the funding and exactly how much they would get when President Donald Trump's administration shook things up in early June by rescinding all the awards.

  • July 03, 2025

    Gov't Must Still Face Claim In Calif. Shipyard Cleanup Suit

    A California federal judge on Thursday granted the U.S. government's bid to trim some claims from a suit challenging aspects of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site cleanup in San Francisco, but not all of them.

  • July 03, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: CEQA, Data Center Energy, Midyear Views

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney insight into this week's reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act, how states are approaching energy demand for data center projects, and where the commercial and residential real estate sectors stand at the midyear.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Rejecting Biz Dev Myths

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    Law schools don’t spend sufficient time dispelling certain myths that prevent young lawyers from exploring new business opportunities, but by dismissing these misguided beliefs, even an introverted first-year associate with a small network of contacts can find long-term success, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Trade In Limbo: The Legal Storm Reshaping Trump's Tariffs

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    In the final days of May, decisions in two significant court actions upended the tariff and trade landscape, so until the U.S. Supreme Court rules, businesses and supply chains should expect tariffs to remain in place, and for the Trump administration to continue pursuing and enforcing all available trade policies, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • Why Funder Forecasts Don't Belong In Royalty Analysis

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    In denying the request for production of damages-model communications between Haptic and its litigation funder, which Apple argued were relevant to a reasonable royalty analysis, a California federal court recently reaffirmed an underappreciated principle — that the purpose and context of an estimate shape its evidentiary value, says Rick Eichmann at Secretariat Advisors.

  • Move Beyond Surface-Level Edits To Master Legal Writing

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    Recent instances in which attorneys filed briefs containing artificial intelligence hallucinations offer a stark reminder that effective revision isn’t just about superficial details like grammar — it requires attorneys to critically engage with their writing and analyze their rhetorical choices, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • NCAA Settlement Kicks Off New Era For Student-Athlete NIL

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    A landmark settlement stemming from 15 years of litigation between schools and the NCAA reflects a major development in college athletics by securing compensation for usage of student-athletes' names, images and likenesses, and schools hoping to take advantage of new opportunities should take proactive steps to comply with new rules, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Lessons From Recent Creative Clashes In Entertainment IP

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    Three recent controversies highlight when creative expression might cross over into infringing another party's rights, and how these potentially conflicting interests can be balanced, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 9th Circ. Has Muddied Waters Of Article III Pleading Standard

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    District courts in the Ninth Circuit continue to apply a defunct and especially forgiving pleading standard to questions of Article III standing, and the circuit court itself has only perpetuated this confusion — making it an attractive forum for disputes that have no rightful place in federal court, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • What Calif. Appeals Split Means For Litigating PAGA Claims

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    After two recent California state appeals court rulings diverged on whether a former employee with untimely individual claims under the Private Attorneys General Act can maintain a representative action, practitioners' strategic agility will be key to managing risk and achieving favorable outcomes in PAGA litigation, say attorneys at Buchalter.

  • How Cos. Can Prep For Calif. Cybersecurity Audit Regulations

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    As the California Privacy Protection Agency Board finalizes cybersecurity audit requirements, companies should take six steps to prepare for the audit itself and to build a compliant cybersecurity program that can pass the audit, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Series

    Competing In Modern Pentathlon Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Opening myself up to new experiences through competing in modern Olympic pentathlon has shrunk the appearance of my daily work annoyances and helps me improve my patience, manage crises better and remember that acquiring new skills requires working through your early mistakes, says attorney Mary Zoldak.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Teaching Yourself Legal Tech

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    New graduates often enter practice unfamiliar with even basic professional software, but budding lawyers can use on-the-job opportunities to both catch up on technological skills and explore the advanced legal and artificial intelligence tools that will open doors, says Alyssa Sones at Sheppard Mullin.

  • State Farm Rate Hike Portends Intensifying Insurance Crisis

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    The California Department of Insurance's unprecedented emergency approval of a 17% rate increase for State Farm General Insurance, the first interim rate relief granted before completing full actuarial justification, represents a regulatory watershed and establishes precedent that could fundamentally reshape insurers' response to climate-driven market instability, says Daniel Veroff at Merlin Law Group.

  • How AI May Reshape The Future Of Adjudication

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    As discussed at a recent panel at Texas A&M, artificial intelligence will not erase the human element of adjudication in the next 10 to 20 years, but it will drive efficiencies that spur private arbiters to experiment, lead public courts to evolve and force attorneys to adapt, says Christopher Seck at Squire Patton.

  • How States Are Taking The Lead On Data Center Regulation

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    While support for data center growth is a declared priority for the current administration, federal data center policy has been slow to develop — so states continue to lead in attracting and regulating data center growth, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • When Legal Advocacy Crosses The Line Into Incivility

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    As judges issue sanctions for courtroom incivility, and state bars advance formal discipline rules, trial lawyers must understand that the difference between zealous advocacy and unprofessionalism is not just a matter of tone; it's a marker of skill, credibility and potentially disciplinary exposure, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.

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