California

  • August 21, 2026

    Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

    The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Keeps Order To Improve ICE Site Amid Feds' Appeal

    The Trump administration must continue to address the "severe and inhumane deficiencies" a California federal court identified at an immigrant detention facility in the Mojave Desert, the Ninth Circuit has ruled, finding it unlikely to prevail in detainees' constitutional challenge.

  • August 21, 2026

    Foley & Lardner Adds Chief Information Officer From Fenwick

    Foley & Lardner LLP announced Thursday the hiring of James McKenna, formerly the chief information officer at Fenwick & West LLP, to operate in the same role at the firm.

  • August 21, 2026

    Insurers Owe No Coverage For $40M Retirement Plan Deal

    Three excess insurers owe no coverage for a $40 million settlement that a church retirement plan administrator reached to resolve claims of self-dealing, a California federal court ruled, finding the claims were connected to wrongful prior acts.

  • August 21, 2026

    Calif. High School NIL Limitations Survive Antitrust Challenge

    A California federal judge has tossed a lawsuit by high school athletes challenging the state's limits on name, image and likeness opportunities, saying the plaintiffs have not adequately defined a relevant market or pled antitrust injury.

  • August 20, 2026

    Uber Gets Greenlight On Most Fraud Claims Against LA Firms

    A California federal judge Wednesday largely rejected two Los Angeles personal injury firms' attempts to ditch Uber's suit claiming it's being targeted by a scheme involving fraudulent personal injury claims, finding Uber has plausibly alleged that the firms schemed with a surgeon to rack up medical costs.

  • August 20, 2026

    Jay-Z Appeals Buzbee Win In Rapper's Defamation Suit

    Music mogul Jay-Z's counsel fought uphill Thursday to convince a California state appeals court to revive claims that Texas attorney Tony Buzbee defamed and extorted him by roping him into a sexual abuse suit against Sean "Diddy" Combs, arguing in court that a trial court erroneously read evidence in Buzbee's favor.

  • August 20, 2026

    Instagram Algorithm Czar Tells Jury Safety Helps Profits

    The Instagram executive responsible for the algorithm kicked off Meta's defense case Thursday over Tennessee's claims it concealed harm to youths' mental health, testifying the company's efforts to protect children also protect its bottom line.

  • August 20, 2026

    Facebook Whistleblower Fights For Right To Promote Memoir

    An ex-Facebook executive who wrote a whistleblower memoir urged a California federal judge Thursday to toss a preliminary arbitration decision blocking her from promoting the book or disparaging Meta, while the company countered that she agreed to resolve such disputes by arbitration when she accepted a $780,000 payout.

  • August 20, 2026

    Social Media Cos. Fight Bid To Merge 2 Bellwether Trials In LA

    An attorney for two plaintiffs set to be the second and third bellwether trials out of thousands of lawsuits alleging social media platforms caused children mental health harm urged a Los Angeles judge Thursday to combine their trials into one, although a Meta attorney said they are "fundamentally different cases."

  • August 20, 2026

    CFPB Rips 'Baseless' CashCall Bid To Ax $157M Judgment

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has urged a California federal court to reject lender CashCall Inc.'s bid to wipe out its more than $157 million enforcement judgment, slamming its claims of a settlement bait-and-switch by the agency as "baseless."

  • August 20, 2026

    Ex-Trade Desk Finance Director Accused Of Insider Trading

    A former Trade Desk finance director traded on insider information ahead of public earnings announcements by his former employer, netting over $338,000 in profits, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, both in New York federal court.

  • August 20, 2026

    Meta Atty 'Absolutely Wrong' On Client Privilege, Judge Warns

    With trial dark Thursday due to juror illness, a California judge overseeing states' claims that Meta Platforms Inc. hid social media's harms heard arguments over evidence, at one point criticizing Meta's efforts to assert attorney-client privilege and calling the company's in-house lawyer "absolutely wrong" about the appropriate standard.

  • August 20, 2026

    Sephora Denied Wash. Workers Breaks, Class Action Says

    Sephora is facing a proposed class action from a former employee who claims the beauty retailer deprived Washington state workers of legally required meal and rest periods and failed to compensate them for missed breaks.

  • August 20, 2026

    TikTok's Ex-Legal Head Made Racist Comments, Suit Says

    TikTok and its former head of global legal operations have been accused in a California state court lawsuit of harassment and discrimination based on race and sex by a former legal department employee who claims the executive subjected her and other nonwhite colleagues to an "unrelenting campaign of harassment."

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Can-Am Fuel Claims Against Sinclair, Glovis

    A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday revived Can-Am Fuel Distribution LLC's federal franchise claims against Sinclair Oil LLC and Glovis America Inc., holding the companies' licensing agreements are covered by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act despite an "unusual variation" in the parties' relationship.

  • August 20, 2026

    Adviser, Startup To Pay SEC $266K For Taking Client Data

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a nearly $266,000 judgment against a California-based investment adviser and his firm, and banned him from practicing for three years after he allegedly emailed himself confidential client information from his former employer and used it to launch his own investment firm.

  • August 20, 2026

    Lenders Sue Over $1M Loan Tied To Cannabis Farm

    A group of California lenders is trying to claw back a $1 million loan that was supposed to launch a cannabis farm in Miranda, claiming they learned too late that the property had already lost its permits to grow and that the borrowers had misused most of the loan proceeds.

  • August 20, 2026

    Defunct Tax Startup CEO Barred From Deceiving Investors

    A California federal judge prohibited the CEO of a defunct tax compliance startup who was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of swindling $13 million from investors from deceiving anyone or disseminating false information regarding investments in violation of securities laws.

  • August 20, 2026

    Snap Must Face YouTube Creators' DMCA AI Scraping Suit

    A California federal judge has denied a bid from the company that owns video-messaging app Snapchat to escape allegations from a group of YouTube creators that their content was illegally ingested to train artificial intelligence, saying the YouTubers had sufficiently laid out how users encounter measures meant to protect videos.

  • August 20, 2026

    Judge Denies Bid To Move AT&T ERISA Case To State Court

    A California federal judge has denied a former AT&T employee's bid to move his class action suit alleging violations of state labor law over a tobacco surcharge on employee health plans from federal to state court.

  • August 20, 2026

    Estee Lauder's TM Suit 'Full Of Detail,' Judge Tells Walmart

    A California federal judge said Thursday he is skeptical of Walmart's motion to dismiss much of Estee Lauder's lawsuit accusing the retail giant of selling infringing beauty products online, saying he is unsure the pleadings are inadequate at this stage because he found them "chock full of detail."

  • August 20, 2026

    DOJ Pot Shift Changes LA Licensing Challenge, 9th Circ. Told

    A California attorney who has challenged state and local cannabis licensing policies across the country on the grounds that they discriminate against out-of-state entrants told the Ninth Circuit that recent federal shifts on medical marijuana mean the dormant commerce clause should apply to the once-federally illicit industry.

  • August 20, 2026

    Amgen Reaches Deal To End Ex-Worker's Tobacco Fee Fight

    Biotech giant Amgen Inc. struck a deal to end a proposed class action alleging a $150-a-month fee on the health plans of employees who used tobacco violated federal benefits law, according to a filing in California federal court Thursday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Trade Groups Back Apple In 9th Circ. Class Decert. Fight

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade and advocacy groups backed Apple Wednesday with amicus briefs telling the Ninth Circuit to reject an appeal from consumers looking to undo the decertification of a class of roughly 200 million people in an antitrust case targeting App Store policies.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Being A Singer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Before law school, I spent seven years trying to make it as a professional singer in Los Angeles, and nearly everything I learned about preparation, humility, confidence and more has followed me into my legal practice, says Jessica Caterina at Moses & Singer.

  • Mass. UHC Fraud Suit Signals States' Medicaid FCA Push

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    Massachusetts' recently filed False Claims Act suit alleging UnitedHealthcare misrepresented the health status of enrollees in a Medicaid senior care organization plan it managed pushes forward a new phase of state-level scrutiny of managed care data and Medicaid payment mechanisms, say Li Yu at Bernstein Litowitz, Ellen London at London & Naor and Gwendolyn Stamper at Vogel Slade.

  • The Growing Antitrust Risks Of AI Pricing For Health Insurers

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    Attorneys at Patterson Belknap provide an overview of the increased risk of antitrust enforcement for health insurance companies using algorithmic price models, including in the form of multidistrict private litigation, new state and federal bills, and potential federal enforcement.

  • Trade Secret Practice Tips From The 1st Half Of 2026

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    Intellectual property attorneys should consider what several significant developments in 2026 thus far mean for how they protect, litigate and value trade secrets, focusing on new state noncompete bans, cases scrutinizing how plaintiffs identify trade secrets and federal rulings on damages doctrines, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • 2 Microsoft Matters Could Help Shape AI Antitrust Outlook

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    A pending federal court case and investigation focusing on Microsoft's allegedly anticompetitive conduct in the deployment of artificial intelligence tools are testing whether antitrust law can distinguish ordinary competition to supply the AI ecosystem from conduct that distorts how that competition unfolds, says Kylie Kim at Massey & Gail.

  • Fed. Circ. Licensing Rulings Shed Light On Patentee Standing

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    Two recent decisions from the Federal Circuit provide a useful framework for evaluating whether a patent license agreement preserves a sufficient exclusionary interest to support future patent infringement claims, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Asylum Ruling Signals Larger Separation Of Powers Battle

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that border officials may turn away asylum-seekers without inspection is part of a broader conversation about the reach of institutional safeguards that subject governmental authority to legal constraint, says Dree Collopy at American University's Washington College of Law.

  • Solar's Momentum At Mid-2026 Will Help It Overcome Snags

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    The rapid expansion of U.S. solar development in the first half of 2026 is likely to continue its pace, even amid ongoing shifts in federal trade policy and supply chain regulations, obstacles to permitting reform, and an increasing divide between states enacting policies to encourage or stymie project development, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • Carbon Health Settlement Highlights Why Evidence Is Key

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    The California Attorney General's Office's first-of-its-kind settlement with Carbon Health, imposing penalties for alleged corporate practice of medicine violations, shows that friendly professional corporation challenges usually hinge not on the parties' management services agreement, but on whether the operational record matches it, says Ben Dubin at VC Expert Services.

  • Series

    Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

  • How Litigants Are Testing Conversion Therapy Ruling's Scope

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    Litigants are already using the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Chiles v. Salazar ruling, which applied strict scrutiny to Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, to challenge laws limiting algorithmic rental pricing, artificial intelligence-based discrimination and anti-union employer speech, and courts must soon decide Chiles’ First Amendment limits, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Illinois Audit Law Will Make AI Clauses Actually Enforceable

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    A law recently enacted in Illinois creates a first-in-the-nation requirement for artificial intelligence developers to undergo annual audits, providing objective standards that can be incorporated into private contracts and addressing the problem of defining responsible AI use, says William Tanenbaum at Moses & Singer.

  • Opinion

    Shareholder Derivative Litigation Needs A Better Framework

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    Uncoordinated, multiforum shareholder derivative litigation is a growing issue for corporate defendants that have little to no recourse for organizing and consolidating actions, but several commonsense steps should be utilized to preempt such disputes, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Occupier Contract Strategies For Locking In Expansion Rights

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    In a market defined by record-setting demand, shrinking availability and rising rents, large commercial office occupiers must treat expansion space planning as a strategic priority, including by auditing existing rights, understanding the competitive landscape within their buildings and exploring creative lease provisions, says Josh Winefsky at HSF Kramer.

  • How State, Local Rules Are Expanding Debt Collection Reach

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    Consumer protection rules recently enacted by several states signal that the rules of debt collection are being rewritten at a pace that should command the attention of every creditor, servicer, debt buyer, collection agency and collection law firm operating across state lines, says Weldianne Scales at Reed Smith.

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