California

  • September 25, 2025

    Calif. Panel Rejects Prisoner's Racial Bias Discovery Motion

    A California state appeals court has determined that an incarcerated Samoan man did not sufficiently allege he was discriminated against when brokering a plea agreement with state prosecutors, ruling that he should not have been granted limited discovery to prove his claims under a state racial justice law.

  • September 25, 2025

    XAI Claims OpenAI Poached Employees For Trade Secrets

    Elon Musk's chatbot company xAI Corp. has hit rival OpenAI Inc. with a suit in California federal court that alleges two engineers and an unnamed senior executive took trade secrets to OpenAI when they switched companies.

  • September 25, 2025

    Nissan Hid Leaf EV Fire Risk, Charging Defect, Drivers Say

    Nissan Leaf drivers have hit the automaker with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that it misled them about the electric car's charging capabilities and didn't inform them of a possibly dangerous fire risk.

  • September 25, 2025

    SmartLabs Accused Of Dodging Rent On Cambridge Lab

    Boston-headquartered SmartLabs is facing a lawsuit over millions in unpaid rent owed to the landlord of one of its Cambridge facilities, according to a complaint filed in Massachusetts state court.

  • September 25, 2025

    Tribal Co. Sues Feds Over $2M Military Bridge Project Loss

    A California tribal company is seeking more than $2 million in damages after it says the U.S. Air Force breached a contract for construction of a bridge by providing it with an incomplete engineering report and failing to gain timely environmental approvals for the project.

  • September 25, 2025

    Calif. City Asks Justices To Reboot Housing Law Challenge

    The city of Huntington Beach, California, has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to revive its claims challenging state laws that require the city to build enough housing to keep up with population growth, arguing an appeals panel wrongly found the city can't bring a federal constitutional challenge against its parent state.

  • September 25, 2025

    Driver Says Mazda's Sanctions Bid Is Itself Sanctionable

    The leader of a proposed class of Mazda drivers suing over an alleged oil burning defect is firing back at the automaker's call for sanctions for what it called "frivolous" postjudgment filings, saying Mazda's filing is legally baseless and filled with ad hominem attacks on his attorney, so the company is the one that should face sanctions.

  • September 24, 2025

    Boies Schiller Partner Admits AI Errors In Scientology Case

    A Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner representing women who allege the Church of Scientology harassed them for reporting convicted actor Daniel Masterson's sexual assaults has asked a California appeals court to strike a brief containing artificial intelligence-generated citation errors, saying he "very much regrets" the errors, but they shouldn't impact his clients' case.

  • September 24, 2025

    DHS Barred From Tying Disaster Aid To Immigration Agenda

    The Trump administration unlawfully attached conditions to emergency service funding that required states to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's immigration enforcement, a Rhode Island federal judge ruled Wednesday, agreeing with a multistate coalition that the conditions are unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ex-Lyft Lobbyist Testifies For Uber In Sex Assault Trial

    California has established model safety standards for the ride-hailing industry and Uber has exceeded those standards, a former lobbyist for Lyft told jurors Wednesday in a bellwether trial over claims Uber negligently failed to put sufficient measures in place to prevent sexual assaults by its drivers.

  • September 24, 2025

    Calif. Judge Urged To Reject Noem's Bid To Escape TPS Suit

    An immigrant rights group told a California federal judge that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is rehashing rejected arguments to try to escape a suit alleging she cut corners to end temporary protected status designations for Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

  • September 24, 2025

    Calif. Tribes Fight State Highway Patrol Over Cannabis Raids

    The Round Valley Indian Tribes have opposed the state of California's motion to dismiss their lawsuit over what they claim are illegal cannabis raids, telling a federal judge that the bid to throw out their suit fails to prevail over the latest complaint's factual allegations.

  • September 24, 2025

    Ticketmaster, LA Sued For Sabotaging Kingston Trio Concerts

    A concert promoter for the current iteration of the Kingston Trio has filed suit in California federal court, accusing the city of Los Angeles, the Greek Theater and Ticketmaster of sabotaging the folk and pop group's concerts in late 2024, including by making it hard for its older fan base to buy tickets.

  • September 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Insurer's Removal Effort Was Reasonable

    An insurer for a residential property owner had a reasonable basis to try to remove its coverage dispute over underlying shooting claims to Washington federal court, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday, noting the owner even failed to identify the citizenship of all its members and partners.

  • September 24, 2025

    Google, Flo To Pay Combined $56M To End Data Privacy Suit

    Google LLC will shell out $48 million and app developer Flo Health Inc. will pay $8 million to resolve a class action over the popular menstrual tracking app's allegedly unlawful sharing of sensitive health data with Google and others through online tracking tools, according to documents filed by the app's users in California federal court.

  • September 24, 2025

    Calif. Judge Blocks Feds' Transpo, Housing Grant Conditions

    A California federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from requiring cities and local governments to follow "impermissibly vague" directives relating to immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion policies in order to receive federal transportation, infrastructure, housing and other grants that had already been appropriated by Congress.

  • September 24, 2025

    Coinbase Wants Out Of Terraform Token Conversion Loss Suit

    Coinbase Inc. has urged a California federal court to toss a suit lodged by cryptocurrency buyers alleging the crypto exchange caused them to incur losses after Terraform's collapse three years ago, arguing the buyers' claims are both time-barred and fail to show that the crypto exchange intended to deceive.

  • September 24, 2025

    Swimmers, Divers Rip School, NIL Deal After Team Dropped

    Four former swimming and diving team members at California Polytechnic State University have filed objections in federal court to the NCAA's $2.78 billion name, image and likeness settlement, after university officials pointed to the financial consequences of the settlement as the reason the swimming and diving program was eliminated.

  • September 24, 2025

    Defunct Tech Co.'s CEO Bilked Investors Of $120M, Feds Say

    The founder of a defunct Canadian technology company faces criminal charges and a civil suit in California federal court by securities regulators on Wednesday stemming from a fraud scheme where he allegedly raised $120 million after providing investors with bogus financial statements that inflated the company's financial condition and performance.

  • September 24, 2025

    CVS Moves To End Worker's Tobacco Surcharge ERISA Suit

    CVS urged a California federal judge to toss an employee's proposed class action alleging it illegally imposes surcharges to health plan participants and their covered spouses who use tobacco, arguing it offers surcharge alternatives to workers and spouses when a medical condition makes it unreasonably difficult to cease tobacco use.

  • September 24, 2025

    Course Hero Operator Must Face School's Copyright, TM Claims

    Course Hero, a study platform where users upload materials, must face copyright and trademark claims after a Connecticut federal judge found that a for-profit Connecticut university has demonstrated enough possible harm to justify standing for alleged copyright violations, and that a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision does not stand in the way of its Lanham Act claims.

  • September 24, 2025

    Arcturus Sues AbbVie, Capstan Alleging Trade Secret Theft

    Arcturus Therapeutics Inc. has sued AbbVie and Capstan Therapeutics in California federal court, alleging Capstan used Arcturus' proprietary lipid nanoparticle technology to develop and patent competing drug delivery systems, which AbbVie later acquired in a $2.1 billion deal.

  • September 24, 2025

    AGs Slam Capital One's $425M Deal As Unfair To Consumers

    New York Attorney General Letitia James and 17 other attorneys general are opposing a proposed $425 million settlement between Capital One and a putative consumer class alleging the bank deceptively advertised its 360 Savings accounts, telling a Virginia federal court the deal "fails to adequately redress" the harms caused by the scheme.

  • September 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Allows One More Go-Round In Kleenex Ad Fight

    The Ninth Circuit Wednesday determined it does not have jurisdictional authority to revive a proposed class action alleging Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Kleenex Germ Removal Wet Wipes mislead consumers about the product's ability to kill germs, saying the consumers were not able to establish subject matter jurisdiction.

  • September 24, 2025

    IP Feud Over 'Shark Tank'-Backed Comb Settles Before Trial

    The inventor of a hair-twisting system that was featured on an episode of "Shark Tank" and received an investment from celebrity businessman Mark Cuban has settled patent infringement claims with a rival a week before the two were to go to trial.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Know About NCAA Deal's Arbitration Provisions

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    Kathryn Hester at Jones Walker discusses the key dispute resolution provisions of the NCAA's recently approved class action settlement that allows for complex revenue sharing with college athletes, breaking down the arbitration stipulations and explaining how the Northern District of California will handle certain enforcement, administration, implementation and interpretation disputes.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • Midyear Rewind: How Courts Are Reshaping VPPA Standards

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    The first half of 2025 saw a series of cases interpreting the Video Privacy Protection Act as applied to website tracking technologies, including three appellate rulings deepening circuit splits on what qualifies as personally identifiable information and who qualifies as a consumer under the statute, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • How The Healthline Privacy Settlement Redefines Ad Tech Use

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    The Healthline settlement is the first time California has drawn a clear line in the sand around how website tracking must function in practice, so if your site uses tracking technologies, especially around sensitive content like health or finance, regulators are inspecting your website's back end, not just its banner, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • AI Infrastructure Growth Brings Unique IP Considerations

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    The explosive rise of artificial intelligence has triggered an equally dramatic transformation in the supporting infrastructure required to meet growing AI demand, and the technology used in these data centers has its own intellectual property considerations to navigate, says Vincent Allen at Carstens Allen.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • Reverse Bias Rulings Offer Warning About DEI Quotas

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    Several recent holdings confirm that targeted or quota-based diversity programs can substantiate reverse discrimination claims, especially when coupled with an adverse action, so employers should exercise caution before implementing such policies in order to mitigate litigation risk, says Noah Bunzl at Tarter Krinsky.

  • 4 In-Flux Employment Law Issues Banks Should Note

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    Attorneys at Ogletree provide a midyear update on employment law changes that could significantly affect banks and other financial service institutions — including federal diversity equity and inclusion updates, and new and developing state and local artificial intelligence laws.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Influencer Marketing Partnerships Face Rising Litigation Risk

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    In light of recent class actions claiming that brands and influencers are misleading consumers with deceptive marketing practices — largely premised on the Federal Trade Commission's endorsements guidance — proactive compliance measures are becoming more important, say attorneys at Olshan Frome.

  • 7 Ways Employers Can Avoid Labor Friction Over AI

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    As artificial intelligence use in the workplace emerges as a key labor relations topic in the U.S. and Europe, employers looking to reduce reputational risk and prevent costly disputes should consider proactive strategies to engage with unions, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Trump Air Emissions Carveouts Cloud The Regulatory Picture

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    President Donald Trump's new proclamations temporarily exempting key U.S. industries from air toxics standards, issued under a narrow, rarely-used provision of the Clean Air Act, will likely lead to legal challenges and tighter standards in some states, contributing to further regulatory uncertainty, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Opinion

    DOJ's HPE-Juniper Settlement Will Help US Compete

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    The U.S. Department of Justice settlement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise clears the purchase of Juniper Networks in a deal that positions the U.S. as a leader in secure, scalable networking and critical digital infrastructure by requiring the divestiture of a WiFi network business geared toward small firms, says John Shu at Taipei Medical University.

  • Anthropic Ruling Creates Fair Use Framework For AI Training

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    A California federal court’s recent ruling that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train its large language model qualified as fair use provides important guidance for both artificial intelligence developers and copyright holders because it distinguishes between transformative uses and unauthorized uses involving pirated or format-shifted works, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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