California Pulse


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    DLA Piper Brings On A&O Shearman M&A Partner In SF

    DLA Piper has announced it is pushing forward with its "strategic expansion" in Northern California with the addition of "a market-leading dealmaker" from Allen Overy Shearman Sterling.

  • Ex-McDermott, Venable Attys Sued Over Estate's $40M Tax Bill

    The estate of a successful dentist who died in 2017 sued McDermott Will & Schulte LLP, Venable LLP and two attorneys in California state court Monday, alleging they gave negligent legal advice in planning the dentist's estate causing it to owe the IRS $40 million in taxes and penalties.

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    Fennemore Craig Builds Calif. Presence With Boutique Tie-Up

    Fennemore Craig PC has launched its 24th office with the addition of a 15-person team of attorneys and legal professionals from Northern California boutique Reynolds Law LLP.

  • Dem AGs Slam Climate Science Removal From Judicial Guide

    The federal judiciary's decision to strike a chapter on climate change from its guide to scientific evidence is misguided, partisan and "will impede the judiciary's ability to pursue truth," according to a Tuesday letter from nearly two dozen Democratic state attorneys general.

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    BigLaw Could Tap PE Money For Advantage In Talent Wars

    BigLaw firms may soon partner with private equity to gain an edge in the talent wars, potentially reshaping the U.S. legal industry despite fears that the shift could corrode firms' cultures.

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    Foley & Lardner Taps Firm Veteran As Litigation Dept. Chair

    Foley & Lardner LLP has appointed a partner who previously led its national construction practice group for 18 years to serve as chair of the firm's national litigation department.

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    Milbank Raises Associate Pay Scale, Topping Out At $455K

    Milbank LLP is increasing associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually, with new salary floors of $235,000 and pay reaching as high as $455,000 for more experienced attorneys, according to the firm.

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    Paul Hastings Lands Winston & Strawn Capital Markets Duo

    Paul Hastings LLP announced Tuesday that it has brought on a pair of capital markets and public advisory partners in Dallas and Orange County, California, who came aboard from Winston & Strawn LLP just as that firm combined with U.K.-based Taylor Wessing to form Winston Taylor.

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    Disney Deputy GC Joins Starz As Legal, Strategy Chief

    A seasoned media and M&A lawyer who spent almost three decades in-house at The Walt Disney Co. is set to join Starz Entertainment LLC next week as chief legal and strategy officer, the TV network said Monday.

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    O'Melveny Adds M&A Pro From Paul Hastings In SF

    O'Melveny & Myers LLP announced Monday that it has welcomed back a mergers and acquisitions attorney who started his career at the firm before most recently working at Paul Hastings LLP.

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    Keker Promotes New Managing Partner, New GC

    San Francisco trial boutique Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP has promoted a longtime partner to managing partner, and named a new general counsel, the firm announced Monday.

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    Hueston Hennigan To Pay Summer Bonuses Up To $35K

    Trial firm Hueston Hennigan is the second boutique to announce it will dole out midyear bonuses to associates.

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    As Judicial AI Use Gains Steam, Training Lags

    Court systems around the country are emerging bullish on the use of generative artificial intelligence by judicial officers, but implementation, training, resources and overall regulations remain scattershot, giving rise to concerns that a learning gap could lead to missteps.

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    Winston Taylor Deal 'Natural Outcome' Of Global Ambitions

    When Steve D'Amore was elected chairman of Winston & Strawn in 2023, he expressed a commitment to leading the firm's global expansion, a goal that took shape on Monday with the completion of its combination with U.K.-based Taylor Wessing.

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    Epstein Becker Adds 6 Manatt Phelps Litigators

    Epstein Becker Green has added six litigators experienced in commercial and healthcare matters who previously worked for Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP in its Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices, the firm announced Monday.

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    Freshfields Names M&A Pro As US Managing Partner

    Freshfields LLP announced Monday that a New York-based mergers and acquisitions partner has been named U.S. managing partner.

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    Winston Taylor Goes Live As New Transatlantic Giant

    Winston Taylor officially launched on Monday, bringing together Winston & Strawn LLP and the U.K. arm of Taylor Wessing to form a unified transatlantic law firm.

  • Calif. Panel Reverses Order For Citing Atty's Bogus Case Law

    A California appellate panel on Thursday reversed a judgment in favor of a man accused of abusing his son, finding that "without doubt" the trial judge abused her discretion by incorporating the man's bogus legal citations into her ruling, despite being alerted to the mistakes in advance.

  • Akin Gump Owes Fees For Winebow's 'Self-Indulgent' Appeal

    The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered an importer's Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to pay a European winemaker fees for having to defend against the importer's "spurious objections" to the winemaker's valid arbitral award, ruling that the importer's "self-indulgent" appeal warrants sanctions in the form of fees.

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    Calif. Supreme Court OKs Challenges To Blanket Judge DQs

    The California Supreme Court has opened the door to challenges to blanket judicial disqualifications across the largest state court system in the country, partially overturning a precedent established nearly 50 years ago.

  • AI Comms Co. Wants Calif. Phone Service Suit Moved To NY

    Connex One, a customer communications software company that uses AI, asked a California federal judge to dismiss or transfer a lawsuit by personal injury firm DK Law alleging it oversold the capabilities of its call center platform, delivered defective services and improperly extended the parties' contract.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Phillips Black Inc., Hogan Lovells and Watkins & Eager PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief.

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    Civil Rights Icon Clarence B. Jones Dies At 95

    Civil rights icon Clarence B. Jones, a speechwriter and personal attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., died May 22 at an assisted living facility in the Santa Clara County city of Cupertino, California, his family confirmed earlier this week. He was 95.

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    Ex-Calif. Appellate Judge To Take Over As Law School Dean

    A former California appellate justice, who was the first Muslim to serve as a Court of Appeal justice in the U.S., has been named Western State College of Law at Westcliff University's next dean.

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    US Law Firm Leasing Hits 2-Year Low In 1st Quarter

    U.S. law firms signed new lease deals for 1.9 million square feet of space in the first quarter, the lowest quarterly mark in two years, according to a recent report from brokerage firm Savills Inc.

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Expert Analysis

  • 3 Innovative Ways AI May Be Used In Legal Practice
    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
    Author Photo

    Artificial intelligence tools will increasingly be used by outside counsel to better predict the outcomes of litigation — thus informing legal strategy with greater precision — and by clients to scrutinize invoices and evaluate counsel’s performance, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Roundup

    My Nonpracticing Law Job Author Photo

    Not every law degree leads to a law practice. In this Law360 Pulse series, former practicing attorneys share the stories of how they went from practicing corporate law to using their knowledge and background to carve out a nontraditional career path in the legal industry.

  • Series

    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Librarian Author Photo

    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.

  • Legal Briefs Can Benefit From Cleaned Up Case Citations Author Photo

    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.

  • 5 Best Practices For Firms Designing DEI Programs Author Photo

    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.

  • Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs Author Photo

    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.

  • Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities? Author Photo

    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.

  • 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.

  • Series

    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.

  • Series

    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.

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