California Pulse


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    Webcor Promotes General Counsel To EVP, CLO

    Commercial general contractor Webcor announced Thursday that it has tapped its general counsel to take on the role of executive vice president and chief legal officer.

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    Groombridge Wu Tops Milbank Pay Scale For Associates

    Groombridge Wu Baughman & Stone LLP is the latest firm to top the pay scale for associates announced earlier this month by Milbank LLP, with attorneys set to earn as much as $470,000.

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    Sidley Grows In Calif. With Life Sciences, Emerging Cos. Hires

    Sidley Austin LLP announced three partner hires in California, which the firm said will enhance its capabilities in the life sciences and emerging companies and venture capital practices.

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    Sex Abuse, Wages, Wildfires Drive Complex Case Spike In LA

    What constitutes complex civil litigation is undergoing a "dramatic transformation" in Los Angeles, where cases involving sexual abuse and the Catholic Church, novel employment issues and recent wildfires are driving a surge in complicated disputes, according to a new report.

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    Can BigLaw Find 'More Thoughtful' Approach To 1L Stipends?

    Large law firms experienced public pushback this spring after implementing new stipend programs for prospective summer associates who choose to take on public interest work after their first year of law school. However, it's unclear whether firms will be moved by the criticism.

  • Senate Confirming Judges Faster Than In Trump's 1st Term

    The Senate has confirmed 45 judges in the second Trump term, outpacing the rate of his first administration, Senate Republicans announced on Thursday.

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    Adobe Hires PayPal Atty As VP Of Corp. Legal

    An in-house attorney of more than a decade at PayPal has joined Adobe Inc. as vice president of corporate legal, according to an announcement on social media from a senior lawyer at the software giant.

  • Legal Tech Co. Sues US Over Anthropic AI Shutdown Order

    Legal tech company Legion has sued the U.S. government in D.C. federal court over a directive ordering Anthropic to shut down two of its advanced AI models to foreigners, alleging the move caused the company to lose access to one of the models that powers its platform.

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    AAA Rolls Out Protocol For AI Agent Transactions

    The American Arbitration Association launched an open-source method on Wednesday for attaching legal terms to transactions brokered by artificial intelligence agents, saying most agent-to-agent transactions currently lack verifiable terms and are unclear about which jurisdiction's law governs.

  • Baker McKenzie Partner Class Dips To 47 Attys

    Baker McKenzie has promoted a smaller-than-usual partner class of 47 attorneys, according to an announcement from the firm on Tuesday.

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    How Empathy Can Make Associates Better Lawyers

    As associates navigate a legal industry increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence and related technology that makes information more readily available than ever before, developing empathy will be increasingly crucial, legal experts tell Law360 Pulse.

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    How Associates Can Maximize Their New Pay Raises

    For the first time in over two years, many associates have seen their base pay rise by at least $10,000 and some by as much as $45,000 annually. Here's what financial experts say young lawyers should do with the extra income.

  • Calif. Judge Restores Immigration Courthouse Arrest Limits

    A California federal judge Tuesday vacated the Trump administration's policies on civil arrests at immigration courthouses, restoring limits on those arrests and finding that the government didn't adequately explain its policy shift.

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    Arnold & Porter Rehires City Of Hope Deputy GC In LA

    The former deputy general counsel of litigation at a nonprofit cancer research and treatment center has returned to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Los Angeles, as counsel in the firm's complex litigation practice.

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    What Attorneys Really Think About Their Profession

    Law360 Pulse asked attorneys for their thoughts on what being an attorney is actually like — what they love about their job, what they see as the biggest misconceptions about a career in law and what advice they have for new lawyers. Here's what they said.

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    Associates Unhappy Over Leave, Firm Leadership

    Associates are dissatisfied over the lack of transparency at their law firms, what they perceive to be limited opportunities for advancement and how their leaders communicate, Law360 Pulse found in its sixth annual Lawyer Satisfaction Survey.

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    Are Attorneys Happy At Work? Depends Who You Ask

    Most lawyers are satisfied with their careers, but their happiness at work varies depending on their rank, a new Law360 Pulse survey found.

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    Axinn Giving $25K Bonuses As Glenn Agre Matches Milbank

    Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes LLP will match the Milbank LLP base pay scale for associates, while Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP — which was already paying above-market salaries — will hand out special summer bonuses of up to $25,000, the boutiques told Law360 Pulse Tuesday.

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    LA Superior Court Gains Prominence With 'Nuclear' Verdicts

    Los Angeles County Superior Court was among the country's top sites for awarding big civil damages in recent years, according to a Lex Machina report.

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    'Rubber-Stamp' Doc Sealing In Federal Civil Cases 'Run Amok'

    Most sealing motions in federal civil litigation are granted, often without proper review, blocking important information from public view, a team of law professors and researchers found in a new study.

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    Broadway Financial Hires Ex-Invesco General Counsel As CLO

    Broadway Financial Corp., the parent company of City First Bank, has found its new legal leader in a financial services veteran who most recently served as general counsel at Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc.

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    Investors Nearly Unanimously Reject Anti-Diversity Proposals

    An anti-diversity proxy campaign has submitted shareholder proposals at almost 90 companies in 2025 and 2026, and so far investors have rejected them almost unanimously two years in a row, according to a new report.

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    Fighting Cyber Threats: What Law Firms Need To Do Now

    Law firms, especially small and midsize ones, are increasingly becoming victims of cyberattacks. Here are some practical tips for firms to thwart cyberattacks and reduce damage when breaches occur.

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    Small Firms Hit Hardest As Data Breaches Surged In 2025

    Cyberattacks targeting law firms remained widespread in 2025, with smaller firms accounting for the majority of reported breaches, according to a Law360 Pulse analysis. The pace shows little sign of easing this year, as experts warn that cybercriminals are becoming more organized, sophisticated and financially motivated.

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    CLM Co. Agiloft Hires Ex-Mitsubishi, John Deere Exec As GC

    Contract lifecycle management provider Agiloft Inc. on Monday announced the hiring of a former senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Mitsubishi HC Capital America Inc. as its general counsel, following the recent vacancy of the company's chief legal officer role.

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Expert Analysis

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together Author Photo

    It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.

  • How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers Author Photo

    A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.

  • A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy Author Photo

    Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.

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    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter Author Photo

    Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job? Author Photo

    Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law Author Photo

    Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge Author Photo

    With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.

  • Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law Author Photo

    With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.

  • Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know Author Photo

    The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly? Author Photo

    Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.

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