California

  • July 31, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: The Fed, Tariffs, SF Housing

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney reactions to the Fed's decision to hold interest rates steady, the latest round of tariffs and San Francisco's attempt to reboot housing development.

  • July 31, 2026

    Suit Says 'Hidden' AI Notetaker Trains Model On Meetings

    Granola, a provider of AI-powered notetaking services, faces a wiretapping lawsuit in California federal court claiming its software secretly records virtual meeting conversations without the knowledge or consent of those there, using the data collected to train artificial intelligence models,

  • July 31, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Says Leica's Filtered Light Skirts U. Mich. Patent

    In a dispute centered on how laser light is used in fluorescence technology, a unanimous Federal Circuit panel said on Friday that Leica Microsystems did not infringe on a University of Michigan patent, affirming the decision of a federal court in California.

  • July 31, 2026

    NBA Lets Google's Trackers Intercept User Data, Suit Says

    The NBA misleads users about their digital privacy by displaying a pop-up banner on its platform that purportedly enables them to opt out of tracking cookies, which, in reality, do nothing to stop trackers that don't rely on cookies, according to a proposed class action recently removed to a California federal court.

  • July 31, 2026

    End In Sight For Ovarian Cancer Patients With $5.5B+ J&J Deal

    The $5.5 billion global deal over talc ovarian cancer allows women to move past recent court setbacks requiring them to provide experts who can show a causal link between their disease and use of talc, and for defendant J&J to close a decade of litigation that included judicially criticized gambits to spin off liability through bankruptcy maneuvers.

  • July 31, 2026

    Meta Says AI Voice Suit Rests On Speculation, Not Facts

    Meta sought to throw out a proposed class action claiming it flouted Illinois' biometric privacy law when it used the voices of journalists and voice actors to train their artificial intelligence models, arguing the suit is little more than "professional anxiety" over AI "in search of a cause of action."

  • July 31, 2026

    California Stalls AT&T's $55M Whistleblower Deal

    The long-awaited settlement in the Wisconsin whistleblower case against AT&T was postponed again Friday when the California attorney general's office refused to go along with the dismissal language.

  • July 31, 2026

    Teck Asks Justices To Ax Wash. Tribal Cultural Loss Claims

    A Canadian mining company is asking the Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived Washington tribes' natural resource damages claims for alleged pollution of the Columbia River, arguing the appellate court upended an environmental cleanup statute's tradeoff between broad liability and limited remedies.

  • July 31, 2026

    Verizon Asks EDTX Judge To Overturn $190M Patent Verdict

    Verizon Wireless wants a Texas federal judge to overrule a jury's verdict that it owed $190 million for infringing a patent covering a way for cellphone calls to switch between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

  • July 31, 2026

    Musk Wants 9th Circ. To Weigh Twitter Investor Trial Loss

    Elon Musk wants the Ninth Circuit to review two orders entered in a securities case in California federal court accusing him of defrauding Twitter shareholders, according to a notice of appeal.

  • July 31, 2026

    Energy Co. Hid Reliance On Chinese Raw Materials, Suit Says

    Bloom Energy Corp. has been hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging the renewable energy company and its top brass misled shareholders by understating the extent to which it depended on Chinese scandium, a critical raw material used in its fuel cells.

  • July 31, 2026

    Anthropic Says Authors' New AI Copyright Claims Fall Flat

    Anthropic says that a three-year statute of limitations bars the amended copyright claims of a group of authors who opted out of the $1.5 million settlement the artificial intelligence company reached in a suit claiming it pirated writers' works to train its flagship product, Claude.

  • July 31, 2026

    Voluntary Benefits Suits Emerge As New ERISA Battleground

    A recent crop of proposed class actions targeting employers' insurance-related voluntary benefits offerings — for things like critical illness or hospital indemnity — marks a litigation trend that appears to be gaining, experts say.

  • July 30, 2026

    Netflix Sued For $105M For 'Mishandling' Stolen Nic Cage Film

    The producer behind an unreleased World War II spy movie starring Nicolas Cage has sued Netflix for $105 million in California federal court alleging a copy of the film was stolen from Netflix's Hollywood office, while Netflix accused the law firm representing the movie's producer of trying to "extort" $165 million.

  • July 30, 2026

    USDA Sued By Nonprofits Over Anti-DEI Grant Conditions

    Five food nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday over allegedly unlawful restrictions on grant funding meant to target what the Trump administration has called "radical left ideology," including on issues around diversity, gender identity and immigration.

  • July 30, 2026

    9th Circ. Reverses Hologenix CEO's Tortious Interference Loss

    A Ninth Circuit panel reversed a $2.5 million judgment Thursday against Hologenix CEO Seth Casden by finding a district court erred in ruling the executive is not immune from a tortious interference claim while also reversing a Lanham Act disgorgement award totaling nearly $3 million.

  • July 30, 2026

    Disney, Cameron Get 'Avatar' Sequels IP Suit Nixed, For Now

    A California federal judge Thursday tossed an author's suit accusing the Walt Disney Co., film director James Cameron and Cameron's production company of ripping off the author's work to create "Avatar" movie sequels, saying any substantial similarities between the works should be better fleshed out should the writer amend his complaint again.

  • July 30, 2026

    Cannabis Retailer Says Electrician Killed LA Store Buildout

    Cannabis retail chain Velvet Holdings Inc. claims it is out millions of dollars after a contractor abandoned a storefront project, resulting in Los Angeles building officials refusing to certify the location and leading to the loss of its lease and cannabis licenses, according to a California state lawsuit.

  • July 30, 2026

    Instagram Could Easily Disrupt User Permascrolling, Jury Told

    A Silicon Valley tech guru and theorist testified on Thursday in Tennessee's trial against Meta that, for him, it took "less than 10 lines of code" to create a time delay that broke the grip of a hard-to-resist design feature he released to the world in 2006, infinite scroll.

  • July 30, 2026

    2 More Circuits Reject No-Bond Rule For Interior ICE Arrests

    Split Seventh Circuit and Ninth Circuit panels ruled Thursday that noncitizens arrested in the interior U.S. cannot be detained without bond, joining four other circuits that have rejected the Trump administration's policy of subjecting these noncitizens to mandatory detention.

  • July 30, 2026

    AT&T's Copper Network Retirement Needs Review, FCC Told

    The Communications Workers of America, rural counties in California and a consumer advocacy group for affordable utilities urged the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its automatic approval of AT&T's request to retire copper-line networks in California, saying that significant public interest concerns have to be addressed first.

  • July 30, 2026

    Judge Wary Of DOD Rationale For Anthropic Risk Label

    A California federal judge appeared unconvinced Thursday by the government's claim that its designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was based on a credible threat and not retaliation for publicly criticizing the Trump administration.

  • July 30, 2026

    T-Mobile Says WCO Spectrum Can't Fix Antitrust Claims

    T-Mobile has told a California federal court that WCO Spectrum has admitted it does not have what it needs to state a viable antitrust counterclaim in the mobile carrier's case accusing the spectrum-buying company of racketeering.

  • July 30, 2026

    Skechers Can't Run From Manufacturer Tax, Mass. Court Says

    Skechers must pay nearly $200,000 in back excise taxes and interest, a Massachusetts intermediate appellate court said Thursday, rejecting the shoe brand's argument that it is not a manufacturer.

  • July 30, 2026

    Chubb Seeks Toss Of Costco's Customer Injury Coverage Row

    A Chubb unit urged a Washington federal court to toss Costco's suit seeking coverage for a personal injury action under a home décor brand's policy, saying the retailer failed to state a claim for additional insured coverage because the underlying injuries are not related to the brand's products.

Expert Analysis

  • Leveraging AI In MDL Discovery And Case Management

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    Generative and agentic artificial intelligence tools can help teams organize and digest the vast volume of documents inherent to multidistrict litigation, but workflows must be designed to maximize the tools' strengths and maintain human control of key operational and ethical factors, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • DOJ China Container Indictments Signal Global Cartel Risk

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent announcement that it had indicted Chinese manufacturers for conspiring to drive up the price of shipping containers sold in the U.S. illustrates the Antitrust Division's interest in pursuing overseas cartel conduct, especially in China, signaling that multinational companies with employees abroad should strengthen antitrust compliance to avoid running afoul of U.S. national security policy, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • Perfectus Deal Raises Trade Missteps To Enterprise Risk Level

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    Former inspector general Parisa Salehi at Parker Poe discusses what the U.S. Department of Justice's recently settled False Claims Act case against Perfectus Aluminum can teach companies about satisfying trade reporting obligations as agencies increasingly coordinate enforcement.

  • NY Defamation Carveout Hinges On Causation, Not Labels

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    A New York federal court's decisions in two cases involving tortious interference claims, and the recent Second Circuit ruling in Satanic Temple v. Newsweek Digital, highlight that the dispositive question for alleged defamation is whether injury flows through reputation or through direct interference with a relationship, says attorney Andrea Natale.

  • Lessons For Cos. From Nixed Apple Watch Greenwashing Suit

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    A California federal court's recent decision in Dib v. Apple, a putative class action challenging carbon-neutral marketing statements made about the Apple Watch, provides meaningful guidance on how such claims may be defeated at the pleading stage, especially where they hinge on third-party verification, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

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    Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five recent rulings from cases involving allegations of internet data misuse, consumer fraud claims, immigration, insurance and First Amendment violation claims.

  • Takeaways From 1st Del. Ruling Applying Moelis Amendments

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    Delaware corporations should carefully review contractual arrangements and governance documents following the Court of Chancery's recent enforcement of a non-Delaware forum selection clause in a CEO's employment agreement under 2024 amendments to the state's General Corporation Law, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

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    An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

  • Opinion

    State Courts Must Be Gatekeepers Of Expert Testimony

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    Based on my experience in the state judiciary, emulating federal courts' role as gatekeepers of expert witness testimony would help state court judges maintain the appearance of impartiality and assist juries, thus enhancing the overall confidence people have in their justice system, says Lorie Gildea at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Weighing The Implications Of The Anthropic Export Directive

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    The Trump administration recently issued an export control directive against Anthropic to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, representing one of the first uses of the regime against a frontier large language model in widespread commercial distribution, says attorney Sohan Dasgupta.

  • Series

    Moshing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Entering a mosh pit is much like entering the practice of law — it is difficult, you have to know both the written and unwritten rules, and conduct yourself according to the expectations of each community, says Christopher Deubert at Constangy Brooks.

  • A Calif. Law May Aid Homeowner Recovery After LA Fires

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    Reconstruction bottlenecks following the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires mean that certain homeowners insurance gaps are only now emerging, and for counsel aiding policyholders in recovery, a regulation regarding insurers' replacement cost estimates may be critical to obtaining coverage, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Why Highly Specialized Experts May Risk Exclusion At Trial

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    Expert witnesses with highly specific areas of focus may be vulnerable to exclusion in court, making it important for attorneys to check how potential witnesses' qualifications can be bolstered by their publications and other professional activities, say Evan Weisberg and Christopher Cunio at Hunton, and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • A Midyear Look At Antiterrorism Act Jurisprudence And Policy

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    Plaintiffs have filed comparably fewer new actions under the Antiterrorism Act this year, though a handful of key decisions further defined the statute’s aiding-and-abetting standard and highlighted continuing risks for financial services companies, say attorneys at Skadden.

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