California

  • June 11, 2024

    Paramount Asks Court To Send 'Top Gun' IP Suit Packing

    Paramount Pictures has asked a California federal court to dismiss a right of publicity complaint from the actor who played Henry "Wolfman" Ruth in the original "Top Gun" movie, saying his claim over a photo of his character included in the film's sequel without his permission falls squarely under the so-called Rogers test, a free speech doctrine that protects expressive works.

  • June 11, 2024

    Jones Day Lands Alston & Bird Financial Markets Atty In LA

    Jones Day announced Tuesday it brought on an Alston & Bird partner who started his decades-long legal career at Jones Day and will now work out of the firm's offices in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, strengthening its financial markets practice.

  • June 11, 2024

    JPML Consolidates GM, LexisNexis Driving Data Suits In Ga.

    Drivers claiming that their auto insurance rates increased after General Motors and its OnStar unit collected driving data without consent and shared the information with LexisNexis Risk Solutions will have their suits consolidated in Georgia federal court, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled.

  • June 11, 2024

    WilmerHale Lands Latham Atty To Help Lead Life Sciences

    WilmerHale has added a partner in Palo Alto, California, who is an expert in complex strategic collaboration and licensing transactions, to co-chair its life sciences practice group, the firm said Tuesday.

  • June 11, 2024

    GRSM50 Adds Labor And Employment Pro In San Diego

    Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP has hired as a partner for its employment law practice an attorney with prior private practice experience who has also worked for multiple companies and a labor union during her more than 20-year career.

  • June 11, 2024

    Wilson Sonsini-Led Yext Paying Up To $220M For Hearsay

    Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC is advising Yext Inc. on a new agreement to acquire Latham & Watkins LLP-repped Hearsay Systems, a client engagement platform for financial services, for $125 million and up to an additional $95 million if certain performance metrics are hit.

  • June 10, 2024

    Calif. Targets Oil Giants' Profits In Amended Climate Suit

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday tweaked the state's climate deception suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP to also target the oil and gas companies' "illegally obtained" profits under a recently enacted state law.

  • June 10, 2024

    Weinstein Calls Accuser 'Brazen Liar' In Calif. Criminal Appeal

    Harvey Weinstein told a California appellate court that prejudicial rulings deprived him of a fair trial in the Golden State, arguing in his opening brief that the jury wrongfully heard evidence of uncharged sex assault offenses but never heard evidence that would have exposed his accuser as a "brazen liar."

  • June 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Partially Revives Puget Sound Pollution Row

    The Ninth Circuit sided with an environmental group Monday in a regulation enforcement case against the Port of Tacoma, Washington, partially overturning a lower court to find previous iterations of state stormwater permitting rules do extend across marine cargo terminals and other transportation facilities.

  • June 10, 2024

    Fox Views NFL Sunday Ticket As 'Existential' Threat, Jury Told

    A retired executive with Fox Sports testified Monday in a trial over multibillion-dollar antitrust claims brought against the NFL by Sunday Ticket subscribers that his network asked the league to agree to specific Sunday Ticket pricing because it viewed the DirecTV television package as an "existential" threat.

  • June 10, 2024

    Ex-LA Chinatown Bank CFO Gets 3 Years For Embezzlement

    The former chief financial officer of a bank based in Los Angeles' Chinatown has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud for embezzling more than $700,000 from his employer.

  • June 10, 2024

    Fat Brands Faces Investor Suit Over $47M Loan Scheme

    Fat Brands and its executives face a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that they falsely claimed to be cooperating with governmental probes into their CEO's spending $47 million on company loans while skirting taxes, leading stock prices to plunge last month when criminal charges were announced.

  • June 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-City Worker's Accommodation Suit

    The Ninth Circuit declined Monday to revive an employee's suit alleging the city he worked for used an argument he had with police officers as a cover-up to fire him because he requested leave to treat a knee injury, ruling that the worker lacked proof of prejudice.

  • June 10, 2024

    Apple IPhone Antitrust MDL Heads To NJ, Where DOJ Is Suing

    Apple customers accusing the company of locking in iPhone users through anticompetitive agreements will have their cases consolidated in New Jersey, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled Friday, finding the parties can coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement action there to avoid duplicative discovery and inconsistent rulings.

  • June 10, 2024

    Bloomberg's Utility Bond Changes Hurt Consumers, Suit Says

    Bloomberg LP was hit with a proposed class action by California and Texas electricity customers who claim the company reclassified certain bonds issued by utility companies to elevate their perceived risk and hike interest rates, a move they say benefited institutional investors but imposed increased costs on electricity customers.

  • June 10, 2024

    Calif. Cannabis Co. Stiiizy Wants Delta-8 Product Suit Tossed

    A California cannabis company urged an Illinois federal judge to toss a consumer-led false advertising lawsuit alleging it put higher levels of THC in its vape pens than federally allowed, saying the buyers didn't even purchase the one product that was allegedly tested.

  • June 10, 2024

    9th Circ. Doubts Suit Challenging US Military Aid To Israel

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Monday of reviving a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's support for Israel's military efforts in Gaza, with two judges saying the injunctive relief requests are "extraordinary" and broad, and a third judge saying reviving the case would essentially have courts running the U.S. military.

  • June 10, 2024

    Full 9th Circ. Rules AB5 And Its Exemptions Are Lawful

    The California Legislature had a plausible reason for creating certain carveouts from a state law governing whether workers are employees or independent contractors, the full Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, departing from a panel's decision that Assembly Bill 5 disfavors companies such as Uber.

  • June 11, 2024

    UPDATED: Court Says Eastman Disbarment Order Filed In Error

    A California federal court has nixed an order disbarring former Donald Trump lawyer John C. Eastman from the venue, saying in a notice filed Tuesday that the document was filed by mistake.

  • June 10, 2024

    Cooley Adds Comp Partners From Cadwalader, Wilson Sonsini

    Cooley LLP announced the addition of two partners from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC on Monday, touting their combined five decades of experience in compensation and benefits.

  • June 10, 2024

    9th Circ. To Hear Args In Psilocybin Right-To-Try Case

    A Ninth Circuit panel will hear oral arguments in August in an appeal brought by a Seattle doctor seeking to administer psilocybin to terminal cancer patients under state and federal right-to-try laws.

  • June 10, 2024

    Snap Slams Connecticut Girl's Renewed Sex Assault Suit

    A renewed lawsuit alleging that Snapchat's Bitmoji avatars make it easier for sexual predators and other malicious individuals to groom minors must be dismissed again, Snap Inc. told a Connecticut state court, because the new complaint retreads the same allegations the court already tossed out.

  • June 10, 2024

    Justices Call For Do-Over In 9th Circ. Bank Preemption Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tossed a Ninth Circuit decision rejecting federal preemption of a California state interest-on-escrow law for Flagstar Bank, ordering a do-over in the case following the high court's recent ruling on preemption standards in a similar case involving Bank of America.

  • June 10, 2024

    Another Ex-Sheppard Mullin IP Atty Joins Dickinson Wright

    Dickinson Wright PLLC has added another intellectual property attorney from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP to its Silicon Valley office, saying Monday that she arrives with more than 1,000 past U.S. and international patent matters under her belt.

  • June 10, 2024

    Justices To Hear Meta Investor Suit Over Risk Disclosures

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear Meta Platforms' petition regarding the Ninth Circuit's decision to partially revive investors' claims over the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal, after the tech giant argued the appellate panel adopted "extreme outlier positions."

Expert Analysis

  • Bracing Cos. For Calif. Privacy Agency's Restored Authority

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    A recent California state appeals court decision greenlights the California Privacy Protection Agency's enforcement of certain consumer privacy regulations, which may speed up compliance requirements, so businesses considering use of artificial intelligence, for instance, may want to reassess their handling of privacy notices and opt-out requests, say Kevin Angle and Matthew Cin at Ropes & Gray.

  • 7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves

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    As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.

  • 2 Emerging Defenses For Website Tracking Class Actions

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    Putative class actions premised on state wiretapping statutes that bar website activity tracking continue to be on the rise, but they are increasingly being dismissed on two procedural grounds, says Sheri Pan at ZwillGen.

  • No AI FRAUD Act Is A Significant Step For Right Of Publicity

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    The No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act's proposed federal right of publicity protection, including post-mortem rights, represents a significant step toward harmonizing the landscape of right of publicity law, Rachel Hofstatter and Aaron Rosenthal at Honigman.

  • Series

    Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.

  • After TikTok, Tiptoeing Toward Patent Transfer Alignment

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    Following the Fifth Circuit's TikTok decision, which aimed to standardize transfer analysis in patent cases, the Federal Circuit and Texas federal courts facing transfer requests have taken small steps to consider the practical realities of patent litigation, reinforcing the intensely factual focus of the analysis, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • Bank Secrecy Act Lessons For Casinos After DOJ Settlements

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlements with the MGM Grand and Cosmopolitan casinos, resolving an investigation into alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, signal a shift in the DOJ's enforcement focus and provide insight into potential pitfalls in anti-money laundering compliance programs, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Setting The Stage For High Court BofA Escrow Interest Case

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    Dori Bailey and Curtis Johnson at Bond Schoeneck examine relevant legislation and case law dating back 200 years ahead of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Cantero v. Bank of America, the outcome of which will determine whether state laws governing mortgage escrow accounts can be enforced against national banks.

  • Using Arbitration And Class Waivers As Privacy Suit Tools

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    Amid a surge in data breach class actions over the last few years, several federal court decisions indicate that arbitration clauses and class action waiver provisions can be possible alternatives to public court battles and potentially reduce the costs of privacy litigation, say Mark Olthoff and Courtney Klaus at Polsinelli.

  • Future Not Looking Bright For Calif. Employee Nonsolicits

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    California's new legislation imposing potentially harsh consequences on employers for attempting to enforce noncompetes raises questions about the fate of employee nonsolicitation agreements — and both federal and state court decisions suggest the days of the latter may be numbered, say Anthony Oncidi and Philippe Lebel at Proskauer.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • 5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach

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    Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: February Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five notable circuit court decisions on topics from property taxes to veteran's rights — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including class representative intervention, wage-and-hour dispute evidence and ascertainability requirements.

  • A Look Ahead For The Electric Vehicle Charging Industry

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    This will likely be an eventful year for the electric vehicle market as government efforts to accelerate their adoption inevitably clash with backlash from supporters of the petroleum industry, say Rue Phillips at SkillFusion and Enid Joffe at Green Paradigm Consulting.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

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