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California Pulse
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'Breakdown In Civility' Gets Boies Schiller Sanctioned
A California federal judge slapped Boies Schiller Flexner LLP with a $15,000 sanction Thursday in a former worker's suit claiming Levi Strauss & Co. declined to promote her out of sex bias, faulting the firm for a "uniquely eye-opening breakdown in civility and professionalism."
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How Stradley Ronon Is Training Firm Attys On Generative AI
As the legal industry continues to grapple with the use of artificial intelligence, Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP has launched a 12-week program to train its lawyers and business professionals on integrating a law-focused generative AI assistant into their work in an ethical and effective manner.
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Tariffs Drive Cost Increases For Law Firm Office Build-Outs
Higher tariffs are driving higher construction costs for law firm office build-outs and renovation projects, as firms look to improve the quality of the office experience rather than increase its footprint, according to a new report by CBRE.
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Calif. Ethics Panel Clarifies Judge DQs In Racial Justice Cases
A California judicial ethics committee has issued a formal opinion advising a judge who is a former prosecutor that a pending case involving a discovery motion under the state's Racial Justice Act does not require the judge's recusal.
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Ex-DHS AI Chief Joins Salesforce's Legal Team As Tech Exec
The former chief information officer and chief artificial intelligence officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has joined Salesforce as its new chief AI and transformation officer for legal and corporate affairs.
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Legal Legend For MLB's Giants Focuses Efforts On Biz Side
A profile writer for the San Francisco Bar Association once called then-general counsel Jack Bair the "definition of the San Francisco Giants" and the person who "has probably done more for the Giants than just about anyone else."
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Milbank Offers Summer Bonuses Of Up To $25K To Associates
Milbank LLP has become the first BigLaw firm to announce summer bonuses this year, offering up to $25,000 for associates and counsel after smaller shops also unveiled midyear payouts.
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Much Shelist Names Real Estate Atty As West Coast Leader
Chicago-based Much Shelist PC has named a veteran real estate transactional attorney to head its operations on the West Coast and oversee its expansion there.
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How Feeder Judges 'Gatekeep' Supreme Court Clerkships
In the last 50 years, U.S. Supreme Court clerkships have transmogrified from a simple secretarial job for enterprising young lawyers to the legal profession's ultimate status symbol, access to which is controlled by a tiny handful of "feeder judges" who serve as "hidden gatekeepers," according to a new study.
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McDermott Adds Mintz Litigator As First Post-Merger Hire
McDermott Will & Schulte is boosting its litigation team announcing Wednesday that a Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC cross-border asset recovery pro is joining its four-month-old San Diego office as a partner, the firm's first new partner hire since completing its merger last week.
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Some Law Firms Feel Secure Despite Persistent Cyberthreats
Some firms feel secure from cybersecurity threats like ransomware, even though law firms remain prime targets for cyberattacks, according to a new report by cyber disaster recovery company Fenix24 and the International Legal Technology Association.
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Which GCs Sold Stock In July? MicroStrategy, Palantir & More
General counsel Wei-Ming Shao, who's been with MicroStrategy Inc. for over 25 years, cashed in some $31 million worth of stock in July. An active trader, Shao has sold over 200,000 shares of the company since 2021 for an estimated $78.6 million, according to Quiver Quantitative, which tracks stock trades.
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Banks Increasingly Help New Partners With BigLaw Buy-Ins
Most lawyers may not think about a bank when they're approaching the transition from associate to partner, but according to Lisa Kohut, head of the Citi Wealth Law Firm Group, her team has become increasingly involved in the process in recent years.
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LA Seeks To Nix Attys In Ex-Cop's Military Leave Bias Suit
Attorneys for a former Los Angeles Police Department lieutenant improperly obtained and tried to use a privileged email between a city attorney and a current LAPD lieutenant in a military bias suit, the city said, urging a California federal court to disqualify them from the case.
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Thompson Hine Adds Trio In Key Markets In 3 States
The former branch chief of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission office in D.C. dedicated in part to reviewing mutual fund filings, a former Latham & Watkins LLP associate based in Chicago, and a securities lawyer from an Orange County boutique all have joined Thompson Hine LLP.
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Crowell Lands 16 Reed Smith Health Partners Across 4 Cities
Crowell & Moring LLP announced Wednesday that it is expanding its healthcare practice with dozens of attorneys from Reed Smith LLP, including 16 healthcare litigation partners based in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas, where the firm is launching a new shop with a former Reed Smith lawyer at the helm.
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OptumRx Urges Panel To DQ Motley Rice In LA Opioid Suit
OptumRx told a California appellate panel Tuesday that Motley Rice should be disqualified from representing Los Angeles County in a lawsuit alleging it colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid crisis, saying the firm violated state law by using confidential information obtained in the case in other lawsuits it's handling against Optum.
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Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits
The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.
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McGuireWoods Adds Loeb & Loeb Tax Pro In Los Angeles
McGuireWoods LLP is enhancing its corporate team, announcing Tuesday it is bringing in a Loeb & Loeb LLP tax expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office in Century City.
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Haight Brown San Diego Office Head Joins Hanson Bridgett
The former appellate practice head and San Diego office managing partner at Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP has joined Hanson Bridgett LLP as a partner as part of its recent expansion into the market.
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Harrison LLP Expands To California With 11-Attorney Team
Chicago-based private wealth firm Harrison LLP has opened its first office on the West Coast with an 11-attorney team from San Francisco estate planning firm Barulich Dugoni Suttmann & Cummins Law Group Inc., which is winding down operations as its attorneys split up.
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Ex-GoPro CLO Now Steering AI Cyberbiz's Legal Dept.
AI-driven cybersecurity company Darktrace announced this week that GoPro's former chief legal officer is now leading its legal department, while the camera technology company has promoted an in-house attorney to serve as its general counsel.
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Husch Blackwell Hires First Business Development Chief
Husch Blackwell LLP has hired a C-suite executive with more than 20 years of experience in legal marketing as its first chief business development officer.
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Bots, AI And Fake Leads: Attys 'Besieged' By Recruiter Tactics
Off-base mass emails, incessant robocalls, and fake exclusive application offers are just a few of the unsavory tactics some report having seen more often in the attorney recruitment market in recent years.
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ABA Eyes Reducing Board Size, Trimming Diversity Seats
The American Bar Association proposed reducing the size of its board of governors and proportionally cutting the number of seats reserved for women, people of color and other underrepresented groups, as the organization's president Monday reiterated a commitment to "rule of law, due process, access to justice, fairness and diversity."
Expert Analysis
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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Librarian
Lisa A. Goodman at Texas A&M University shares how she went from a BigLaw associate who liked to hang out in the firm's law library to director of a law library herself in just over a decade, and provides considerations for anyone interested in pursuing a law librarian career.
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Legal Briefs Can Benefit From Cleaned Up Case Citations
Federal courts have recently been changing the way they quote decisions to omit insignificant details and string cites, and lawyers should consider adopting this practice to enhance the readability of their briefs — as long as accuracy stays top of mind, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
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5 Best Practices For Firms Designing DEI Programs
Nikki Lewis Simon, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Greenberg Traurig, discusses best practices — and some pitfalls to avoid — for law firms looking to build programs aimed at driving inclusion in the workplace.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities?
While involvement in internal firm initiatives can be rewarding both personally and professionally, associates' billable time requirements don’t leave much room for other work, meaning they must develop strategies to ensure they’re meeting all of their commitments while remaining balanced, says Melanie Webber at Fisher Phillips.
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Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets
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.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
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.
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General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together
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.
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How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers
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.
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A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy
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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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter
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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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job?
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.
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Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law
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.
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AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024
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.
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Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases
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.