California

  • March 06, 2025

    State AGs Want Fees In Kroger Wash., Ore. Merger Cases

    A total of 10 attorneys general kicked off two separate bids Wednesday for attorney fees in the state and federal court cases in Washington and Oregon that blocked Kroger's $24.6 billion bid to buy Albertsons, arguing in the federal lawsuit that their substantial participation alongside the Federal Trade Commission means they "substantially prevailed."

  • March 06, 2025

    Crypto Cos. Want Justices To Settle Venue Statute Circuit Split

    A Binance-branded U.S. exchange and affiliated crypto data site CoinMarketCap have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to settle what they call a circuit split over whether a trader must show the firms had contacts in their state, or if ties to the country as a whole are enough to press a manipulation claim under the Commodity Exchange Act.

  • March 06, 2025

    Fla. Court Told Cannabis Biz Investor Agreed Not To Sue

    The CEO of an Arizona-based cannabis business on Thursday urged a Florida federal court to toss a securities fraud lawsuit brought by an investor alleging an undisclosed $13 million tax liability, saying the investor agreed not to bring claims based on whether critical nonpublic information may have been withheld.

  • March 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Shreds 'Muddled' Argument In Amazon Antitrust Case

    A panel of the Ninth Circuit on Thursday picked apart arguments from consumers in their lawsuit alleging Amazon violated antitrust law through the e-commerce giant's fulfillment services, with the judges saying an amended complaint was "extraordinarily light on any actual evidence" and the arguments appeared "muddled."

  • March 06, 2025

    Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

    Believe it or not, there's still important litigation happening that doesn't involve President Donald Trump, and the proof exists in this month's circuit court calendars. During the remaining weeks of March, arguments will explore numerous high-profile topics, including a law firm's severe punishment for alleged misconduct in 9/11 litigation and a judicial rebuke of Trader Joe's for "an attempt to weaponize the legal system."

  • March 06, 2025

    California City Abandons Battle Over Affordable Housing

    A wealthy Southern California city wants to drop its appeal of a legal nonprofit's suit that was filed over the city's opposition to a mixed-income affordable-housing project, according to a filing in a state appellate court.

  • March 06, 2025

    Coinbase Investors Ask Court To Lead Direct Listing Suit

    Two new contenders have filed to lead a shareholder class action over crypto exchange Coinbase's direct listing hours after its original lead plaintiff dropped out following the Ninth Circuit's dismissal of a similar case brought against Slack Technologies.

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurer's 9th Circ. Procedural Win Highlights Appraisal Rules

    A Ninth Circuit panel affirmed that a property owner could not litigate its insurer's failure to pay for losses before a required appraisal to resolve disagreements, highlighting the importance of appraisal provisions and how they could limit potential policyholder challenges. Here, Law360 speaks to Colin Kemp, an insurance recovery attorney for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, about Mount Vernon Specialty Insurance Co.'s procedural victory and its implications for coverage challenges.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Tell DOJ Musk May Be Strong-Arming X Advertisers

    Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have warned the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission that billionaire Elon Musk might be using his position in the Trump administration to bully companies that advertise on his social media platform, X.

  • March 06, 2025

    Hunter Biden Seeks To Drop Data Hack Suit Over Money Woes

    Hunter Biden on Wednesday requested that a California federal court let him dismiss his lawsuit accusing a former Trump White House aide of hacking his data as part of a campaign targeting the Biden family, saying "significant debt in the millions of dollars range" has left him unable to continue litigation.

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurers Seek Toss Of Meta's Social Media MDL Coverage Suit

    A group of insurers urged a California federal court to either toss or stay Meta's suit seeking to pause all coverage litigation regarding underlying claims that the company deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, saying the first-to-file rule applies to the carriers' Delaware state court suit.

  • March 06, 2025

    Music Streaming Lyrics Co. Hits Rival With $1B Antitrust Suit

    LyricFind Inc. slapped Musixmatch SpA with a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit in California federal court, calling the rival a monopolist in the market for providing lyrics to digital services companies like Spotify and saying Musixmatch inked a deal with Warner Chappell Music Inc. that essentially pushes LyricFind and others out of the market.

  • March 06, 2025

    E.L.F. Beauty Hit With Investor Suit After Muddy Waters Report

    Cosmetics giant e.l.f. Beauty's shareholders filed a proposed class action in California federal court on Thursday, accusing the company of overstating its revenue while hiding growing inventory issues due to inadequate sales — troubles that investment research firm Muddy Waters revealed in a November report that caused share prices to plunge.

  • March 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes Challenge To Wash. Abortion Coverage Law

    A split Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected a Christian church's challenge to a Washington state law requiring employer health plans to cover abortion services, saying the church could invoke its religious beliefs to skirt the challenged obligations.

  • March 06, 2025

    Reuters Won't Have To Turn Over Meta AI Deal To Authors

    A California federal judge has sided with Reuters News & Media Inc. that it doesn't have to turn over its multi-year licensing agreement with Meta Platforms Inc. to use its news content in Meta's AI chatbot to authors suing OpenAI Inc. for allegedly using their books to train OpenAI's large language models.

  • March 06, 2025

    States Say Teacher Training Grants Are Caught In DEI Dragnet

    A group of eight states sued the U.S. Department of Education in Massachusetts federal court Thursday, seeking reinstatement of $600 million in teacher training and placement grants they say were unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration as diversity initiatives.

  • March 06, 2025

    The Antitrust Litigation Surrounding NAR's Industry Rules

    A year and a half after a Missouri federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors inflated fees for home sellers, the Eighth Circuit is evaluating a series of settlements in wake of the decision while the Justice Department pursues its own antitrust investigation with a court's blessing.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Intro Their Own Version Of The JUDGES Act

    Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee reintroduced a version of the JUDGES Act on Thursday that would not take effect until after the next president is elected, unlike a version from their Republican counterparts that would take effect this year.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Administration Ordered To Release Funds To States

    A Rhode Island judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding funds from states, saying an executive order freezing federal grants, loans and other payments approved by Congress "fundamentally undermines" the separation of powers and is causing irreparable harm.

  • March 06, 2025

    O'Melveny Antitrust Pro Jumps To Paul Hastings In LA

    Paul Hastings LLP is expanding its West Coast team, announcing Thursday it is bringing in an O'Melveny & Myers LLP antitrust litigator as a partner in a Los Angeles office.

  • March 05, 2025

    Rival Cos. Called 'Empower' Agree To End TM Fight, For Now

    Empower Annuity Insurance Co. of America and Empower Finance Inc. agreed to end, for now, their trademark infringement dispute over the "Empower" mark, over a year after a Colorado federal judge found customer confusion was "unlikely" in the financial services sector and refused to order Empower Finance to change its name.

  • March 05, 2025

    Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

    With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

  • March 05, 2025

    PTAB Bar Urges Congress, Lutnick To Protect USPTO Workers

    The PTAB Bar Association is calling on intellectual property leaders in Congress, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Trump administration initiatives to freeze hiring and require in-person work.

  • March 05, 2025

    Starbucks Let Hot Drink Spill On Driver, Jury Hears

    Starbucks went to trial Wednesday over a delivery window drink pickup gone wrong, as lawyers for a driver who had scalding water spill in his lap told a Los Angeles jury the coffee giant's employee left one of three cups "not safely secured" in a cardboard drink holder.

  • March 05, 2025

    Coinbase Investor Drops Direct Listing Suit After Slack Ruling

    A Coinbase investor Wednesday dropped a proposed class action accusing the cryptocurrency platform and its top brass of offering false and misleading materials that caused its stock price to plummet following the company's debut with an $86 billion valuation, after the Ninth Circuit tossed a similar case against Slack Technologies.

Expert Analysis

  • Reg Waiver Eases Calif. Rebuilding, But Proceed With Care

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order suspending some environmental review and permitting requirements for the reconstruction of homes and businesses damaged by recent wildfires may streamline rebuilding efforts, but will require careful navigation of the evolving regulatory landscape, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.

  • The Post-Macquarie Securities Fraud-By-Omission Landscape

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 opinion in Macquarie v. Moab distinguished inactionable "pure omissions" from actionable "half-truths," the line between the two concepts in practice is still unclear, presenting challenges for lower courts parsing statements that often fall within the gray area of "misleading by omission," say attorneys at Katten.

  • AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

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    Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

  • A View Of The Shifting Insurance Regulatory Landscape

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    Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland explore how the Federal Insurance Office's climate report, the new presidential administration and the California wildfires might affect the insurance regulatory landscape.

  • When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law

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    In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Engaging With Feds On Threats To Executives, Employees

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    In an increasingly polarized environment, where companies face serious concerns about how to protect executives and employees, counsel should consider working with federal law enforcement soon after the discovery of threats or harassment, says Jordan Estes at Gibson Dunn.

  • The Risk And Reward Of Federal Approach To AI Regulation

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    The government has struggled to keep up with artificial intelligence's furious pace, but while an overbroad federal attempt to adopt a more unified approach to regulating AI poses its own risks, so does the current environment of regulatory uncertainty, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering

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    Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.

  • Top 10 Healthcare And Life Sciences Issues To Watch In 2025

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    Under the new Trump administration, this coming year may benefit some healthcare and life sciences stakeholders, while creating new challenges for others amid an increasingly complex regulatory environment, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Why Trump's FTC May Not U-Turn On Robinson-Patman

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent revival of Robinson-Patman Act enforcement may well be here to stay under the Trump administration — albeit with some important caveats for businesses caught in the government's crosshairs, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations

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    In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.

  • A Look At Shifting Legal Landscape For Data Brokers

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    An increasingly complex legal landscape at both the federal and state levels has expanded the types of businesses classified as data brokers, so consumer-facing businesses should consider their designations under these new regulations and any consequences for compliance and business operations, say attorneys at Morrison Foerster.

  • State AG Enforcement Is Poised For Another Pivot In 2025

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    Backed by a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the Trump administration intends to make substantial policy changes, and attorneys general of both parties around the country are preparing their response playbooks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Del. Dispatch: Lessons From Failed Albertsons-Kroger Merger

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    The allegations in Albertsons' lawsuit against Kroger following the grocery stores' blocked merger demonstrate how a target company can best ensure that a buyer timely and effectively complies with its obligations to pursue the necessary regulatory approvals for a deal, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

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