California Pulse


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    TrustArc GC Eyes Global Growth, Innovation After Sale

    Now that Val Ilchenko, general counsel and chief privacy officer of TrustArc, has helped navigate the software platform through its sale to a private equity firm, he is looking forward to helping the company expand its territory and its goals.

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    Greenberg Traurig Lands Wilson Sonsini Life Sciences Pro

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has added a California partner from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with in-house and government legal experience to enhance its capacity to handle matters for clients in life sciences, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other industries.

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    Clifford Chance Looks To Go West With California Office

    Clifford Chance LLP is exploring further expansion in the U.S., including potential new offices in California and North Carolina, as it aims to increase its revenue from the world's largest legal market.

  • California Bans Fee Sharing With 'Alternative' Law Firms

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that blocks Golden State lawyers and firms from sharing contingency fees with out-of-state firms owned by non-lawyers.

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    Has The 9th Circ.'s Rightward Shift Ended Bids To Split It?

    Republican lawmakers have long dreamed of breaking up the nation's largest appellate court. But that fervor has diminished as the Ninth Circuit's balance of Democratic and Republican appointees has evened out in recent years, upending the circuit's status as a culture war lightning rod.

  • Calif. Bar Won't Tweak Scores Despite Accommodation Errors

    The committee in charge of overseeing the California bar exam has announced it will not be seeking further score adjustments for test-takers whose approved accommodations were not provided in the fraught February 2025 exam.

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    Musk Blasts Investors' Late Bid To DQ Spiro In Twitter Case

    Elon Musk should be allowed to keep lead trial counsel Alex Spiro since the investors accusing the billionaire of trying to tank Twitter's stock waited until the last minute to attempt to disqualify Spiro, who has Musk's consent to his being both trial counsel and witness, Musk told a California federal judge.

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    Ogletree Brings On New COO From BCLP In DC

    Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has added a former chief operating officer for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as its chief operating officer, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • Boutique DTO Law Adds Former Calif. Federal Prosecutor

    DTO Law, a boutique focused on commercial litigation, transactions, appeals and white collar matters, has hired the former deputy chief of the major frauds section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

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    Why Former Government Attorneys Are Choosing MoFo

    Morrison & Foerster LLP has hired an array of former government attorneys this year, with many of them citing the West Coast firm's "government ethos" and support for building a new book of business.

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    Orrick Boosts Fund Formation Team With Wilson Sonsini Duo

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Tuesday that it has brought on two former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC attorneys in Silicon Valley, one of whom will lead the firm's fund formation group.

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    Q3 Law Firm Lateral Hiring Reflects Cautious Optimism

    Lateral attorney hiring at the nation's largest law firms continued to climb in the third quarter of 2025, signaling that the legal talent market is gradually stabilizing after a sluggish start to the year, according to a new report from legal intelligence provider Firm Prospects.

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    Polsinelli Adds Higgs Fletcher Nonprofit Ace In LA

    Polsinelli PC continues expanding its California team, bringing in a Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP nonprofit expert as a shareholder in its Los Angeles office.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Ninth Circuit held that denials of California anti-SLAPP motions can no longer be appealed in the midst of litigation.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    A law firm combination and BigLaw group hires made this another action-packed week for the legal industry. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Baker Botts Adds 2 Tax Pros From Venable In San Francisco

    Baker Botts LLP is expanding its West Coast transactional team, bringing in a pair of Venable LLP tax attorneys as partners in its San Francisco office.

  • 9th Circ. Changes Stance On Appeals Of Anti-SLAPP Denials

    The full Ninth Circuit on Thursday held that denials of California anti-SLAPP motions can no longer be appealed in the midst of litigation, diverging from 22-year-old circuit precedent and finding that such orders aren't immediately appealable because they don't resolve issues "completely separate from the merits."

  • Baldoni Atty Faces LA Malpractice Suit Over Client 'Betrayal'

    Entertainment attorney Bryan Freedman has been accused in Los Angeles County Superior Court of turning his back on a former client, allegedly convincing him to sign an unfavorable settlement on trademark claims against "It Ends With Us" star Justin Baldoni, only to later begin representing the actor and director.

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    Calif. Supreme Court Justice Martin Jenkins To Retire

    California Supreme Court Justice Martin J. Jenkins, the first openly gay man and the third African American man to sit on the bench, will retire at the end of October, the court announced Thursday.

  • Ex-Twitter CLO, 3 Others Settle Severance Suit With Musk

    Four executives of Twitter, now X Corp, including the former chief legal officer and former general counsel, have reached a tentative settlement with Elon Musk in a lawsuit over $128 million in promised severance pay that Musk allegedly withheld after he bought the social media company and fired them.

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    Law Firm Mergers Accelerated In Q3 After Slow First Half

    After a relatively quiet start to the year, U.S. law firms announced more combinations during the third quarter of 2025 than in any other third quarter going back five years, with the uptick driven largely by combinations between midsize and small firms.

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    Why Eventbrite's GC Doesn't Need A 'Massive' Legal Team

    At the ticketing and events marketplace Eventbrite, Lisa Gorman's 10-person law department is built around specialization in four areas, which are each led by long-tenured attorneys who are experts in their domains.

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    Former California Solicitor General Joins WilmerHale In SF

    WilmerHale is expanding its appellate team, announcing Thursday it is bringing in the former California solicitor general as a partner in its San Francisco office starting in early December.

  • LA County Probes Firm's Conduct In $4B Sex Abuse Deal

    The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted to launch an investigation into a record $4 billion sex abuse settlement it approved earlier this year following claims that the Downtown L.A. Law Group paid people to file complaints.

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    What Is 'Brickstorm' And How Law Firms Can Guard Against It

    A recent cyberattack at Williams & Connolly LLP that compromised a few attorney email accounts is the latest reported event possibly linked to “Brickstorm” malware. Here, Law360 Pulse breaks down what law firms and legal professionals should know about the cyberattacks.

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Expert Analysis

  • The Pursuit Of Wellness In BigLaw: Lessons From My Journey Author Photo

    Jane Jeong at Cooley shares how grueling BigLaw schedules and her own perfectionism emotionally bankrupted her, and why attorneys struggling with burnout should consider making small changes to everyday habits.

  • Why We Must Recruit And Advance More Black Prosecutors Author Photo

    Black Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of the incarcerated population but are underrepresented among elected prosecutors, so the legal community — from law schools to prosecutor offices — must commit to addressing these disappointing demographics, says Erika Gilliam-Booker at the National Black Prosecutors Association.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can Associates Deal With Overload? Author Photo

    Young lawyers overwhelmed with a crushing workload must tackle the problem on two fronts — learning how to say no, and understanding how to break down projects into manageable parts, says Jay Harrington at Harrington Communications.

  • A Scientific Path For Improving Diversity At Law Firms Author Photo

    Law firms could combine industrial organizational psychology and machine learning to study prospective hires' analytical thinking, stress response and similar attributes — which could lead to recruiting from a more diverse candidate pool, say Ali Shahidi and Bess Sully at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can Associates Seek More Assignments? Author Photo

    In the first installment of Law360 Pulse's career advice guest column, Meela Gill at Weil offers insights on how associates can ask for meaningful work opportunities at their firms without sounding like they are begging. 

  • Legal Sector Regulatory Reform Is Key To Closing Justice Gap Author Photo

    In order to improve access to justice for those who cannot afford a lawyer, states should consider regulatory innovations, such as allowing new forms of law firm ownership and permitting nonlawyers to provide certain legal services, says Patricia Lee Refo, president of the American Bar Association.

  • How Attys Can Guard Against Rising Settle-And-Sue Claims Author Photo

    Certain precautions can help lawyers avoid post-settlement malpractice claims and create a solid evidentiary defense, as settle-and-sue lawsuits rise amid pandemic-induced dispute settlements, say Bethany Kristovich and Jeremy Beecher at Munger Tolles.

  • What I Learned As A Virtual Summer Associate Author Photo

    It is necessary in a virtual law firm summer program to think twice about asking questions you may be able to answer on your own, but this independence and other aspects of a remote internship may help to instill habits that would be useful for future full-time associates, says law student Kelley Sheehan, who interned at Patterson & Sheridan this summer.

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