California

  • November 21, 2024

    SEC Denied Civil Penalties Over Pot Pill Exec's 'Inexperience'

    The SEC will score $86,000 in disgorgement and interest from a former executive of C3 International Inc. for falsely claiming the company's cannabis pill was projected to generate millions of dollars in revenue, but the court found the defendant's conduct did not warrant the civil penalty the agency requested.

  • November 21, 2024

    Social Media MDL Judge Rips State Attys Defying Orders

    A California federal magistrate judge overseeing discovery in multidistrict litigation over social media platforms' allegedly addictive designs on Thursday ordered states to provide the names and state bar numbers of agency counsel who have refused to comply with discovery orders, threatening sanctions and asking, "What happened to the rule of law?"

  • November 21, 2024

    9th Circ. Told $500K To Huizar Not Intended As Bribe

    A real estate developer convicted of bribing former Los Angeles City Councilor José Huizar with $500,000 for help overcoming challenges to a downtown project asked the Ninth Circuit for a new trial, arguing Thursday the lower court erroneously excluded evidence showing the developer didn't know the money would be used as a bribe.

  • November 21, 2024

    Boehringer Trial Over Zantac's Cancer Link Ends In Mistrial

    A California state judge declared a mistrial Thursday, ending a monthslong trial over product liability claims by a bladder cancer survivor who alleges Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. failed to disclose cancer risks associated with the company's Zantac heartburn medication, according to the plaintiff's counsel.

  • November 21, 2024

    Feds Coined 'Catchphrase' To Convict LA Pol, 9th Circ. Told

    Mark Ridley-Thomas' attorney on Thursday urged the Ninth Circuit to overturn the former California politician's bribery conviction for scheming to indirectly donate $100,000 to his son's nonprofit and secure him a university position, saying prosecutors coined the "catchphrase" "funneling" to obfuscate that no bribe actually occurred.

  • November 21, 2024

    Fed's Bowman Sees The Bright Side In Chevron's Demise

    Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman, a Republican seen as a potential Trump administration contender for the central bank's top supervision job, chided the regulatory response to last year's regional bank failures and said the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision could "transform agency rulemakings positively."

  • November 21, 2024

    Walmart Hit With $34.7M Verdict For Defaming Truck Driver

    A California jury has awarded $34.7 million to a former Walmart truck driver, finding that the retailer defamed him when it falsely accused him of fraud and fired him after he was injured on the job and filed a worker's compensation claim.

  • November 21, 2024

    AutoZone, Ex-Manager Agree To Park Sex Bias Suit

    A subsidiary of car parts retailer AutoZone Inc. struck a deal to end a sex, gender and age bias suit from a former district manager who said the company fired her and replaced her with a younger worker, according to a filing in California federal court.

  • November 21, 2024

    EPA Beats Calif. Suit Over Pesticide-Coated Seed Exemption

    A California federal judge threw out public safety groups' lawsuit alleging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided pesticide-coated crop seeds an illegal loophole from regulation, finding the agency made a fair and considered judgment when it said the seeds are exempted from registration. 

  • November 21, 2024

    Ex-Twitter Workers Denied Class Cert In Arbitration Fight

    A California federal judge denied class certification to ex-Twitter employees accusing the social media company now owned by Elon Musk and renamed X Corp. of stalling their employment disputes, saying some putative class members are already seeking arbitration outside the Golden State or trying to pursue their claims in court.

  • November 21, 2024

    IP Atty Fights To Revive Allergan FCA Suit At 9th Circ.

    A patent attorney urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to revive False Claims Act allegations against Allergan over dementia drug patents, arguing his client used his expertise to discover the patents were fraudulently issued to block generics and that these are the kinds of FCA cases the government welcomes from experts.

  • November 21, 2024

    Ye's Cos. Sanctioned For Blowing Off Discovery In Bias Suit

    A Los Angeles judge sanctioned two of Ye's companies Thursday after they "simply ignored" discovery requests in a former employee's lawsuit alleging widespread racism, antisemitism and homophobia on the part of the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

  • November 21, 2024

    California Tribe Looks To Increase Trinity River Water Flows

    The Yurok Tribe slapped the Bureau of Reclamation with a complaint in California federal court, alleging its operation of the Trinity River Division provides only minimum flows to the Trinity River in the winter and early spring, modifying and harming salmon habitat and population.

  • November 21, 2024

    Phillips 66 Charged With Dumping Wastewater In LA County

    A federal grand jury has indicted Phillips 66 on charges of violating the Clean Water Act by illegally discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of wastewater into the Los Angeles County sewer system without reporting the violations to authorities, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.

  • November 21, 2024

    Kirkland-Led LLCP Secures $575M For Continuation Fund

    Middle-market private equity shop Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Thursday announced that it closed a multiasset continuation fund after securing $575 million in capital commitments, which will be used to buy interests in three portfolio companies.

  • November 21, 2024

    Rebel Wilson Unlikely To Duck 'The Deb' Defamation Suit

    A Los Angeles judge suggested Thursday that he'll likely keep alive a defamation suit accusing actress Rebel Wilson of spreading baseless lies about producers of the musical film "The Deb," saying it seems the matter is a "private business dispute" not protected by California's anti-SLAPP statute.

  • November 21, 2024

    Calif. Politics Ace Joins McGuireWoods' Gov't Affairs As VP

    McGuireWoods LLP's consulting arm has brought on as vice president a former legislative director who worked for multiple members of the California State Assembly, the consulting firm announced this week.

  • November 21, 2024

    Feds Outline Next Steps For Colo. River Basin Agreement

    The U.S. Department of the Interior released five proposed alternatives for the Colorado River's post-2026 operations aimed at ensuring the long-term stability of the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin for the communities and habitats that rely on it. 

  • November 21, 2024

    Calif. Judge Says Dormant Commerce Inapplicable To Pot

    A California federal judge on Thursday tossed an out-of-state entrepreneur's challenge to Sacramento's cannabis social equity licensure program, asserting that the dormant commerce clause does not apply to federally illegal marijuana.

  • November 21, 2024

    Gordon Rees Brings Back Employment Ace In San Diego

    Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP is expanding its San Diego team, announcing Thursday that an employment expert most recently with Pettit Kohn Ingrassia Lutz & Dolin PC is rejoining the firm as a partner.

  • November 21, 2024

    Accel-KKR Closes Tech-Focused Fund With $2.2B In Tow

    Technology-focused private equity shop Accel-KKR on Thursday announced that it closed its AKKR Strategic Capital LP fund after raking in over $2.2 billion of investor commitments, which will be used to invest in a range of transactions mainly focused on the software industry in the secondary market.

  • November 20, 2024

    5 Charged For 'Scattered Spider' Phishing Hacks, Crypto Theft

    California federal prosecutors unveiled a criminal case Wednesday accusing five alleged members of the "Scattered Spider" cybercrime group of using a phishing scheme to access the confidential data of media and technology companies and steal $11 million worth of cryptocurrency from digital wallets.

  • November 20, 2024

    Arizona Governor Settles Tribal Water Rights Claims

    Two agreements signed by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs settled four tribal nations' water rights claims and will help to provide safe drinking water to thousands of Native Americans on reservation lands that depend on the Colorado River Basin System.

  • November 20, 2024

    Tribe Fights Ore. Irrigation District At 9th Circ. Over Water Use

    The Yurok Tribe has joined with fishing and conservation groups in asking the Ninth Circuit to deny an irrigation district's bid to certify questions to the Oregon Supreme Court over the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's authority to control water use under state law.

  • November 20, 2024

    'Fat Leonard' To Appeal 15-Year Sentence Over Navy Bribery

    A Malaysian defense contractor and ex-fugitive who pled guilty nearly 10 years ago to a bribery scheme that authorities said cost the U.S. Navy over $20 million has indicated in California federal court that he will appeal his 15-year sentence to the Ninth Circuit.

Expert Analysis

  • Video Privacy Law Claims After 2nd Circ. NBA Ruling

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    The Second Circuit's recent ruling in Salazar v. National Basketball Association expanded the definition of what constitutes a consumer under the Video Privacy Protection Act, breathing new life into the law by making any newsletter subscriber to a platform that hosts video content a potential plaintiff, say attorneys at Clark Hill.

  • Navigating DOJ's Patchwork Whistleblower Regime

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    In the past few months, the U.S. Department of Justice and several individual U.S. attorney’s offices have issued different pilot programs aimed at incentivizing individuals to blow the whistle on misconduct, but this piecemeal approach may create confusion and suboptimal outcomes, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?

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    Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • In SF Water Case, Justices Signal How Loper May Be Applied

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    Skeptical questions from U.S. Supreme Court justices during oral argument in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offer hints of how the court intends to apply limits on agency regulatory autonomy established last term in Loper Bright, says Karen Cullinane at Goldberg Segalla.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: November Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six federal court decisions that touch on Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and when individual inquiries are needed to prove economic loss.

  • Philly's Algorithmic Rent Ban Furthers Antitrust Policy Trends

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    A Philadelphia bill banning the use of algorithmic software to set rent prices and manage occupancy rates is indicative of growing scrutiny of this technology, and reflects broader policy trends of adapting traditional antitrust principles to respond to new technology, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • A Look At 2024 NIL Rights And Economies In College Sports

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    Permutations in the arena of name, image and likeness affecting collegiate athletics have continued unabated this year, and practitioners and industry representatives should anticipate significant activity at schools and continuing legal changes at the state level, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Considering Chevron's End Through A State Tax Lens

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    States took the lead in encouraging Chevron's demise, turning away from Chevron-type deference in state tax administration ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, a trend likely to accelerate as courts take a more active role in interpreting tax laws, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Comparing Antitrust Outlooks Amid Google Remedy Review

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    As the U.S. Justice Department mulls potential structural remedies after winning its recent case against Google, increased global scrutiny of Big Tech leaves ex post and ex ante antitrust approaches ripe for evaluation, say Nishant Chadha at the Indian School of Business and Manisha Goel at Pomona College.

  • What FTC's 'Bitcoin ATM' Report Tells Us About Crypto Scams

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent insights into bitcoin ATM scams highlight the technical evolution of fraudsters, the application of old scams to new technology, and the persistent financial impact on victims, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

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