California Pulse


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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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    Jones Day Picks Up Gibson Dunn Corporate Ace In California

    Jones Day announced Wednesday that it has added a partner to its corporate practice from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP to bolster its capacity to advise clients on transactional, equity and other matters.

  • Arnall Golden Sanctioned For Giving Feds ERISA Suit Docs

    A California federal judge has ordered Arnall Golden Gregory LLP to pay a $50,000 penalty for giving the U.S. Department of Labor confidential documents United Behavioral Health turned over in a class action accusing the insurer of overcharging workers for out-of-network substance use disorder treatments.

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    Gibbons, Frost Brown Combining As 800-Atty Nationwide Firm

    Gibbons PC and Frost Brown Todd LLP announced Wednesday that they will combine at the beginning of 2026 to form FBT Gibbons LLP, creating a nationwide firm with strengths in litigation and transactional work.

  • Musk Atty Alex Spiro Faces DQ Bid Ahead Of Twitter Deal Trial

    A certified class of former Twitter investors accusing Elon Musk of tanking the social media platform's stock during acquisition negotiations has urged a California federal judge to disqualify Musk's proposed lead trial counsel Alex Spiro before a January trial, arguing he's a "critical first-hand witness" and may testify, according to documents unsealed Monday.

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    MoFo Brings On Calif. Financial Protection Agency GC

    Morrison Foerster LLP is growing its financial team, bringing in the general counsel of the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation as a partner in its San Francisco office, the firm said Tuesday.

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    Disney Recruits Gibson Dunn 'Driving Force' As Deputy GC

    A Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP attorney who throughout her career has represented big technology companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. in high-profile cases has chosen to take on her first ever in-house role, at The Walt Disney Co. as deputy general counsel for litigation and patents, the entertainment giant confirmed Tuesday to Law360 Pulse.

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Expert Analysis

  • Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets Author Photo

    Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.

  • 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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