California Pulse


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    Data Center Power Co. Names GC To Oversee Real Estate

    Data center infrastructure company Crusoe Inc. said Wednesday that it has added the managing partner of a boutique California business law firm as its general counsel.

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    Crowell & Moring Atty Named CLO For Agentic AI Defense Co.

    Vannevar, a company that builds artificial intelligence agents for national security missions, has hired an experienced government contracts attorney from Crowell & Moring LLP as its legal leader.

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    Baker Botts' Record Hiring Builds On Strengths, Leader Says

    With the 2025 addition of the most lateral partners in a single year in firm history, Baker Botts LLP is pursuing a strategy its leader said is designed to build "strength on strength" and bulk up practice areas where the firm has "true market edge."

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    From Judge To Neutral: Losing Power Of 'Robe,' Gaining Time

    In this first of a two-part series, 10 former California federal and state judges discuss their adjustment from the bench to working as neutrals, a transition that comes with losing the prestige of the "robe" but provides more time for cases.

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    Sony Pictures Elevates Atty Who Led CBS Litigation

    Sony Pictures Entertainment has promoted one of its in-house attorneys, who recently drove the litigation behind the settlement with CBS regarding the syndicated distribution of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune," to executive vice president of global litigation, the entertainment giant exclusively told Law360 Pulse on Wednesday.

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    Cozen O'Connor Brings On Ex-Federal Prosecutor In LA

    Cozen O'Connor is expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a former assistant U.S. attorney as a member in its Los Angeles area offices.

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    LA Judge Faces Ethics Probe Over 'Bizarre' Comments

    California's judicial ethics watchdog announced Tuesday it is looking into misconduct allegations against a Los Angeles judge whose "extreme and bizarre" comments led a state appeals court to reverse a $10 million sexual harassment verdict.

  • Lyft's 'Priority Pickup' Service Fails to Deliver, Suit Says

    Lyft tells passengers they can get a faster pickup for a premium price but frequently fails to deliver on that promise, a customer says in a proposed consumer class action filed Tuesday in California federal court.

  • Willkie Accused Of Aiding $735M Fraud In Buyout Deal

    Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP on Tuesday was accused of aiding a $735 million fraud carried out by an investment manager to secure financing for a 2023 take-private transaction involving Franchise Group Inc., which was then used to pay off the manager's personal debts.

  • Orrick Expands IP Team With Cadwalader, Kirkland Litigators

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has beefed up its intellectual property litigation team with three new partners experienced in counseling technology and life sciences clients, adding two former Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP litigators in New York and a former Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner in Los Angeles.

  • Plaintiffs Atty Who Disclosed Uber MDL Docs On 'Thin Ice'

    A California federal magistrate judge warned plaintiffs attorney Bret Stanley of Johnson Law Group during a hearing Tuesday that he's on "thin ice" after Uber argued he should be sanctioned for allegedly repeatedly using discovery in multidistrict litigation over sexual assault liability to litigate other cases against Uber.

  • Law360 Names Firms Of The Year

    Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 48 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, achieving milestones such as high-profile litigation wins at the U.S. Supreme Court and 11-figure merger deals.

  • 9th Circ. Revives Malpractice Suit Against Bankruptcy Atty

    The Ninth Circuit Tuesday reinstated a California woman's malpractice lawsuit against her bankruptcy attorney, but said the bankruptcy court needs to significantly narrow the permission to sue it granted to the debtor.

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    Stranch Jennings Opens In Calif. With Bleichmar Fonti Team

    Nashville-based firm Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC has launched an office in Oakland, California, with a nine-attorney team from another plaintiffs' class action firm, Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP.

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    Massumi & Consoli Lands M&A Pro In Los Angeles

    Massumi & Consoli LLP announced Monday that it has added an attorney who previously operated his own talent management business for athletes and also spent time at Paul Hastings LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP to enhance its capacity to handle mergers and acquisitions.

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    Womble Bond's Consumer Finance Team Eyes Growth

    Womble Bond Dickinson has added a 36-person consumer financial services team from McGlinchey Stafford PLLC led by Cleveland partner Mark Edelman. Law360 Pulse talked with Edelman about why his team made the move.

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    Private Equity Eyes Legal Field As Alternative Paths Open Up

    This could be the year that private equity finally cracks the ramparts of the U.S. legal sector, as the rise of alternative business structure programs and managed services organizations chip away at the long-standing ban on nonlawyer ownership of law firms.

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    Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

    Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2025, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.

  • Littler Adds Epstein Becker Employment Litigator In Calif.

    Littler Mendelson PC announced that an attorney from Epstein Becker Green is joining its Century City, California, office as a shareholder, bringing a wealth of experience in employment law. 

  • Calif. Atty Wins Fee Appeal In Dispute With Ex-Firm

    A California appellate panel on Thursday approved an attorney fee award for a lawyer in dispute with his former firm but also denied that attorney's attempt to get attorney fees for a post-arbitration hearing.

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    Boutiques Loomed Large In Latest Bonus Season

    Sometimes referred to as the BigLaw bonus scale, year-end associate bonuses of more than $100,000 have included prestigious boutique law firms in recent years, with a notable outpouring of large bonuses among such firms in 2025, an analysis of data compiled by Law360 Pulse shows.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Kellogg Hansen's handling of an antitrust suit against Google and Choate's work on a $215 million acquisition of a medical device maker lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight on Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from Jan. 2 to 16.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Sher Tremonte LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Second Circuit upheld a ruling requiring Getty Images to pay out nearly $88 million to investors who said they were blocked from purchasing shares in the company once it became public.

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    Do's And Don'ts For How To Handle That Year-End Bonus

    While associates' bank accounts may be flush after the recent round of year-end bonuses at many of the country's top firms, whether the money leads to additional benefits or problems hinges on how attorneys handle the influx of cash, financial experts tell Law360 Pulse.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry had another action-packed week with more lateral moves, leadership changes and C-suite promotions. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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Expert Analysis

  • Yada, Yada, Yada: The Magic Of 3 In Legal Writing Author Photo

    Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.

  • How Firms Can Stop Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data Security Author Photo

    In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.

  • 5 Life Lessons From Making Partner As A Solo Parent Author Photo

    Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage? Author Photo

    Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.

  • Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career Author Photo

    Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.

  • Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use Author Photo

    ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

  • Opinion

    We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds Author Photo

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

  • Law Firms Cannot Ignore Attorneys' Personal Cybersecurity Author Photo

    Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.

  • Why Writing CLE Should Be Mandatory For Lawyers Author Photo

    Though effective writing is foundational to law, no state requires attorneys to take continuing legal education in this skill — something that must change if today's attorneys are to have the communication abilities they need to fulfill their professional and ethical duties to their clients, colleagues and courts, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona.

  • How To Find Your Inner Calm When Client Obligations Pile Up Author Photo

    In the most stressful times for attorneys, when several transactions for different partners and clients peak at the same time and the phone won’t stop buzzing, incremental lifestyle changes can truly make a difference, says Lindsey Hughes at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Support Gen Z Attorneys? Author Photo

    Meredith Beuchaw at Lowenstein Sandler discusses how senior attorneys can assist the newest generation of attorneys by championing their pursuit of a healthy work-life balance and providing the hands-on mentorship opportunities they missed out on during the pandemic.

  • Law Firm Cybersecurity Should Not Get Lost In The Cloud Author Photo

    A recent data leak at Proskauer via a cloud data storage platform demonstrates key reasons why law firms must pay attention to data safeguarding, including the increasing frequency of cloud-based data breaches and the consequences of breaking client confidentiality, says Robert Kraczek at One Identity.

  • Advice For Summer Associates Uneasy About Offer Prospects Author Photo

    There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.

  • How Law Firms Can Cautiously Wield AI To Streamline Tasks Author Photo

    Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.

  • Keys To Managing The Stresses Of Law School Author Photo

    Dealing with the pressures associated with law school can prove difficult for many future lawyers, but there are steps students can take to manage stress — and schools can help too, say Ryan Zajic and Dr. Janani Krishnaswami at UWorld.

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