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California
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October 11, 2024
California High Court Rejects Bar Exam Alternative Program
The California Supreme Court has rejected a proposal that would have allowed bar applicants to submit a portfolio of work they did with real clients under supervision instead of taking the bar exam.
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October 11, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Latham, Kirkland
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Rio Tinto agrees to acquire Arcadium Lithium for roughly $6.7 billion, Ares Management Corp. and GCP International reach a $3.7 billion deal, and Butterfly Equity announces plans to buy The Duckhorn Portfolio for $2 billion.
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October 10, 2024
Bumble App Is Biased Against Straight Women, Suit Says
Dating app Bumble discriminates against straight women by requiring them to make the first move and tries to justify the bias by portraying women as "perpetual victims" and men as "rude, sexually-forward ogres," two women alleged in a proposed class action removed to California federal court Wednesday.
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October 10, 2024
Western Digital Lifted Spex's Data Security IP, Expert Says
Western Digital's My Book and Ultrastar storage devices infringe features in Spex Technologies' data security patent, including hardware encryption and a means of allowing a host computer to request and receive information from the device once it's plugged in, an expert witness testified during the infringement trial Thursday in California federal court.
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October 10, 2024
Social Media Apps Don't Need User Warnings, MDL Judge Told
A lawyer for TikTok urged a California state judge on Thursday to cut failure-to-warn claims from multidistrict litigation over social media's alleged effects on youth mental health, saying this theory is akin to suing newspapers for "not including a warning that reading the news could put you in a bad mood."
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October 10, 2024
Ejudicate Ran 'Bogus' Student Loan Arbitrations, CFPB Says
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Thursday that it has banned private dispute resolution platform Ejudicate from arbitrating disputes about consumer financial products, saying the company misled student borrowers about its neutrality and initiated "bogus" arbitration proceedings.
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October 10, 2024
Live Nation Loses COVID-19 Physical Loss Insurance Claims
A California federal judge has tossed Live Nation's claims in a lawsuit seeking coverage from Factory Mutual for physical loss or damage stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, holding that a recent ruling by California's highest court thwarted the entertainment giant's argument that the presence of COVID-19 made its property unsafe or unusable.
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October 10, 2024
OpenAI Calls Musk's Fraud, RICO Suit A Harassing Biz Move
OpenAI asked a California federal judge to toss Elon Musk's claims that the artificial intelligence venture and its top brass engaged in fraud by deciding to make OpenAI a for-profit company, claiming Musk "has been trying to leverage the judicial system for an edge" since launching a competing AI company.
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October 10, 2024
Vape Co. Missed Cutoff To Toss $892K Arb. Loss, 9th Circ. Says
A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday affirmed a Washington distributor's $892,000 arbitration award in a dispute with vape company Avid Holdings, in an order siding with a district court judge who determined Avid waited too long to dispute the arbitrator's decision.
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October 10, 2024
IP Forecast: 5G Patent Case Spells Deja Vu For EDTX
A patent suit against a Chinese phone company will go before a new federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas after the judge scrapped the original $10.6 million verdict against it as excessive. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
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October 10, 2024
Yale Hospital Says Pension Liens Breach $435M Sale Deal
A hospital operator's purported $4 million pension liability has saddled its properties with liens that breach a $435 million sale contract, Yale New Haven Health told a Connecticut state judge Wednesday in a letter suggesting it may add claims to litigation over its deal with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.
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October 10, 2024
Ye Investigated Kardashians For Sex Trafficking, Suit Says
A former worker for Ye's short-lived presidential campaign sued in California state court Thursday alleging the Grammy-winning rapper had him investigate the Kardashian family for alleged sex trafficking before their relationship soured and Ye threatened to kill him.
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October 10, 2024
Twitter Judge Seeks More Info On Cert. Bid In Layoff Fight
A California federal judge declined to rule Thursday on a request to certify a class of 115 ex-Twitter workers who claim they were booted without proper notice after Elon Musk acquired the company, saying he wanted more information after learning that most signed arbitration agreements.
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October 10, 2024
Too Early To Decide Indemnification In Flood Row, BNSF Says
Railway giant BNSF told a California federal court that it's too early for the court to decide whether two Travelers units have a duty to indemnify BNSF in a lawsuit alleging that a track relocation project BNSF undertook caused significant flooding, noting the case is still pending.
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October 10, 2024
Biotech Co. Gritstone Hits Ch. 11 With Over $100M Debt
Vaccine developer Gritstone bio Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court Thursday with at least $100 million of debt, saying it was in discussions with a potential bidder for a sale of the business to ensure it can continue researching cancer and other disease treatments.
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October 10, 2024
SeaWorld Wraps Up Suit Over COVID Severance Pay
SeaWorld has inked settlements with two employees to resolve a California federal court suit claiming the business ignored its policies by failing to pay employees severance when they were furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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October 10, 2024
George Foreman Unlikely To Get '70s Sex Assault Suit Trimmed
A California federal judge was skeptical Thursday of boxing legend George Foreman's bid to trim alleged conduct that occurred in Texas and Florida from a lawsuit claiming he groomed and sexually abused a teenage girl in the 1970s.
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October 10, 2024
Calif. Says FDIC Must Wait For $21M Tax Refund
A California tax agency urged a New York federal court to toss a lawsuit by the FDIC seeking a $20.7 million tax refund on behalf of the shuttered Signature Bank, saying it's entitled to wait for a possible IRS audit before delivering the payment.
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October 10, 2024
Feds Say 'Buy America' Waiver In Train Project Should Stand
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration is urging a D.C. federal court to toss a suit alleging it wrongly waived "Buy America" requirements for a Las Vegas high-speed train project, arguing the plaintiff vendor hasn't shown it would have won the contract if the waiver hadn't been granted.
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October 10, 2024
Longtime Mayer Brown Counsel Joins Potomac Law Group
Alan Velasco worked for years as an engineer before launching his law practice at Mayer Brown in the early 2010s. Now, after 11 years with the firm, he's closed the book on the first chapter of his legal career to join Potomac Law Group as a partner in San Francisco.
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October 10, 2024
Lawmakers Want Calif. Colleges To Flex NIL Muscle
As states across the country pass new laws for college athletes to earn money for their name, image and likeness, California lawmakers are encouraging universities there to make use of the considerable NIL provisions already on the books.
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October 09, 2024
Kingston Paid Royalties For SPEX's Data Security IP, Jury Told
The founder of Spyrus Inc., which assigned its data security patents to SPEX Technologies, Wednesday told California federal jurors in the infringement trial against Western Digital that Kingston Technology paid a royalty rate of $20 per flash drive sold to license the patent and never challenged its validity.
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October 09, 2024
Robbins Geller Atty, Fed. Prosecutors Tapped For Calif. Bench
A Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP partner, former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP partner, former Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP associate and federal prosecutors were among California Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest picks for judgeships, according to an announcement made Wednesday.
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October 09, 2024
'Legend' Distributor Tried 'Shell Game' To Duck Bill, Judge Told
French film company StudioCanal's attorney said Wednesday during opening statements of a California bench trial that companies associated with Cross Creek Pictures and its cofounder played a "shell game" by fraudulently avoiding paying millions owed for the North American distribution rights to the 2015 film "Legend."
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October 09, 2024
Uber Can't Claw Back Safety Update Doc In Sex Assault MDL
A California federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that Uber can't claw back a "safety criteria" document it accidentally produced in multidistrict litigation accusing the transportation company of failing to prevent drivers from sexually assaulting passengers, saying the document wasn't privileged since it wasn't created for legal advice purposes.
Expert Analysis
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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New Law May Move Calif. Toward Fashion Sustainability
California’s recently signed Responsible Textile Recovery Act seeks to increase sustainability innovation in the fashion industry, but it could also create compliance hurdles for brands, especially smaller fashion houses that do not have ample resources, say Warren Koshofer and Maggie Franz at Michelman & Robinson.
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Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know
As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI
While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.
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Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases
Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.
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Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election
Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.
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2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules
In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.
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What 2 Key Rulings Mean For Solicitation Under TCPA
Two recent rulings from federal district courts in New York and California — each of which came to a different conclusion — bring to light courts' continued focus on and analysis of when an alleged communication constitutes a solicitation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say Felix Shipkevich and Jessica Livingston at Shipkevich.
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Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
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Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession
About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Payward And The Secondary Crypto Transaction Confusion
Following orders in cases against Coinbase and Binance, the recent California federal court ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward raises even more questions about regulation of secondary transactions involving crypto-assets, as it tries to sidestep fundamental flaws in the SEC's legal theories, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.
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Opinion
AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys
The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Takeaways From Texas AG's Novel AI Health Settlement
The Texas attorney general's recent action against a health tech company marks another step in rapidly proliferating enforcement against artificial intelligence and privacy issues across multiple states, and highlights important risk mitigation considerations for health companies that implement AI systems, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.