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California
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July 30, 2024
SF Fed Tells 9th Circ. Banks Not Entitled To Master Accounts
The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank told the Ninth Circuit that it was not obligated to give a master account to an Idaho trade finance fintech, arguing federal law does not make these payment system gateways available to everyone regardless of risk.
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July 30, 2024
Psychedelics And The Law: A Midyear Review
A groundbreaking effort to secure federal approval for a psychedelic medication hit an unexpected snag. Religious groups asserting the right to access controlled substances had mixed success in federal court. Physicians seeking to administer psilocybin to terminally ill patients will finally have their day in court. Here are the major developments in psychedelics law from the first half of 2024.
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July 30, 2024
Pot Cos. Can't Push RICO Claims Against Calif. City
A California federal judge has thrown out racketeering claims by six cannabis companies that accuse the city of Cudahy of illegally assessing fees, saying that because Congress listed cultivation and sale of cannabis under the definition of racketeering, they can't recover damages.
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July 30, 2024
Lewis Brisbois Settles One LA Bias Suit, Another Continues
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has ended a former partner's race and disability bias suit, announcing a settlement in Los Angeles Superior Court, while continuing to push for arbitration in a separate discrimination suit, also filed in Los Angeles, where a former equity partner has accused the firm of gender discrimination and "unethical billing."
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July 30, 2024
MoFo Lands Akin Gump Appellate Pro In San Francisco
Morrison Foerster LLP is expanding its litigation team, announcing Tuesday it is bringing in a former San Francisco city attorney most recently with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as a partner in its San Francisco office.
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July 30, 2024
9th Circ. Revives Union Carpenters' Retirement Fight
The Ninth Circuit revived a suit by carpenters alleging union pension trustees broke federal benefits law by investing retirement plan assets in dicey index funds that lost over $250 million in the 2020 market downturn, finding Tuesday that the workers' mismanagement claims should proceed to discovery.
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July 29, 2024
Calif. High Court Says Co-Worker's Slur Can Be Harassment
The California Supreme Court on Monday revived a race bias suit brought by a longtime employee of the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, finding that her co-worker's one-time use of a racial slur may indeed have been so severe that it created a hostile work environment.
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July 29, 2024
Live Nation Judge Tightens In-House Counsel's Access To Docs
A New York federal judge imposed new restrictions Monday on Live Nation in-house counsel's access to documents and testimony from witnesses from its rivals in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit, tightening a days-old two-tiered system after hearing concerns from those competitors.
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July 29, 2024
9th Circ. Partly Revives BofA Customers' ATM Fee Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Monday partially reinstated a proposed class action alleging Bank of America charged out-of-network fees for balance inquiries customers said they didn't know they authorized on ATMs, finding customers can be charged under their contract only if it's clear they sought the information and initiated the transaction.
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July 29, 2024
Rapper 6ix9ine Should Pay $73K For 'Stoopid' IP, Judge Says
Tekashi 6ix9ine should pay a Miami rapper more than $73,000 in copyright infringement damages plus attorney fees, a New York federal judge has recommended, finding that default judgment is appropriate because 6ix9ine has willfully failed to litigate the suit.
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July 29, 2024
Wells Fargo Can't Escape Investors' Sham Diverse Hiring Suit
A California federal judge refused to throw out a proposed securities class action against Wells Fargo alleging it conducted sham interviews to meet diversity targets that triggered a stock drop when the truth came to light, finding Monday that the investors had plausibly alleged the bank's ill-will.
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July 29, 2024
UCLA Faces Likely Preliminary Injunction Over Gaza Protests
A California federal judge said Monday that he plans to issue a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by three Jewish UCLA students who allege they were discriminated against during a campus protest over Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, but he wants the parties to try first to craft one.
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July 29, 2024
9th Circ. Axes Limit On DOL Denying Calif. Agencies Grants
The U.S. Department of Labor can shut California transit agencies out of a federal grant because of a conflict between a state pension law and a federal transit law, with the Ninth Circuit lifting a ban Monday on the agency denying grant applications because of that conflict.
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July 29, 2024
USPS Backs Oshkosh's Sealing Bid In New Vehicle Plan Case
The U.S. Postal Service on Friday backed Oshkosh Defense's request to seal their confidential supplier contract terms in litigation challenging the agency's decision to replace its aging delivery fleet with only 62% electric vehicles, arguing rivals could use the information to undercut the USPS when negotiating their own supplier contracts.
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July 29, 2024
CIM Group Funds $2.1B Real Estate Investment Platform
Real estate and infrastructure owner CIM Group on Monday announced that it has provided financing for the formation of a $2.1 billion investment platform called Round Hill Capital Ventures, which has acquired contracts for the assets previously managed by Round Hill Capital.
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July 29, 2024
'Simpsons' Creator Owes Pay, Ignored Harassment, Suit Says
"The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and his wife, Agustina Picasso, didn't do anything to stop the sexual harassment their former house manager told them she faced, while also cheating her out of wages, the worker said.
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July 29, 2024
Amex Inks $3M Deal To Settle Girardi Bankruptcy Suit Claims
American Express reached a $3 million deal to settle claims brought by the Girardi Keese bankruptcy trustee accusing the credit giant's banking unit and another subsidiary of enabling $50.25 million in fraudulent transfers as part of the now-defunct law firm's scheme to defraud creditors.
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July 29, 2024
9th Circ. Rules Ch. 7 Debtor Can't Exempt Home From Estate
The Ninth Circuit ruled that a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case in Washington state cannot pursue above-limit homestead exemption and that the remaining proceeds of her property should go to the bankruptcy estate, reversing the bankruptcy appellate panel's decision in 2022.
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July 29, 2024
Realtor.com Parent Fights Uphill For CoStar Injunction
A California federal judge appeared skeptical Monday of a preliminary injunction request from Realtor.com's parent company seeking to block rival CoStar from misappropriating trade secrets and unlawfully accessing its computers, saying the alleged theft doesn't appear to involve a secret "formula" but rather website content.
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July 29, 2024
Insurer Must Pay Defamation Defense Costs, Co. Says
An online health services company told a California federal court that a Hanover Insurance unit must help cover the "tens of millions of dollars" the company incurred while litigating an underlying defamation counterclaim and pursuing its own affirmative claims, calling the defense counsel the insurer installed "woefully inadequate."
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July 29, 2024
Medical Co. Fights To Reboot Arbitration Bid At 9th Circ.
A private-equity owned medical product maker urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to reverse a finding that a truck loader's proposed class wage claims are exempt from federal arbitration law, arguing that the court erred in finding that she engaged in interstate commerce based on "super flimsy evidence" and is exempt.
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July 29, 2024
Calif. Panel Weighs Guidance On Judges' School Fundraising
On Monday, the California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions released its latest draft opinion, soliciting public input in proposed guardrails for judicial officers' personal participation in their children's school fundraising efforts.
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July 29, 2024
Western Digital Hit With $262M Verdict Over Data Storage IP
A California federal jury found Friday that hard drive behemoth Western Digital owes MR Technologies more than $262 million in royalties for infringing its patents for increasing storage capacity on disk drives, after nearly two weeks of trial and four hours of deliberations.
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July 29, 2024
TikTok Loses Bid To Have Chinese Co. Identify Trade Secrets
A California federal court has denied TikTok's bid to force Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co. Ltd. to further identify trade secrets in a complaint that accuses the social media platform of stealing them, with the judge saying that the suit includes enough information for now and that discovery should proceed quickly.
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July 29, 2024
Hunter Biden Attys Say They Didn't Mislead Judge In Tax Case
Hunter Biden's attorneys told a Los Angeles federal judge that while several statements in their motion to dismiss tax charges against the president's son were worded "perhaps inartfully," they never intended to mislead the court in a way that would merit sanctions.
Expert Analysis
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'Fat Leonard' Case Shows High Bar For Rescinding Guilty Plea
Prosecutors’ recent move in the “Fat Leonard” bribery case, supporting several defendants’ motions to withdraw their guilty pleas, is extremely unusual – and its contrast with other prosecutions demonstrates that the procedural safeguards at plea hearings are far from enough, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers
A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.
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Series
Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.
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How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling
In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.
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Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story
Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.
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Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year ranging from salvage vehicle titling to rate discrimination based on premium-setting software.
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Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws
Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.
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Opinion
Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation
As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.
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New Federal Bill Would Drastically Alter Privacy Landscape
While the recently introduced American Privacy Rights Act would eliminate the burdensome patchwork of state regulations, the proposed federal privacy law would also significantly expand compliance obligations and liability exposure for companies, especially those that rely on artificial intelligence or biometric technologies, says David Oberly at Baker Donelson.
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Social Media Free Speech Issues Are Trending At High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision examining what constitutes state action on social media can be viewed in conjunction with oral arguments in two other cases to indicate that the court sees a need for more clarity regarding how social media usage implicates the First Amendment, say attorneys at Kean Miller.
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PE-Healthcare Mergers Should Prepare For Challenges
State and federal regulators are increasingly imposing new requirements on healthcare transactions involving private equity partners, with mergers that would have drawn little scrutiny a few years ago now requiring a multijurisdictional risk analysis during the deal formation process, say attorneys at Stinson.
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Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert
As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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Drafting Calif. Cannabis Management Services Agreements
Meital Manzuri and Alexis Lazzeri at Manzuri Law explore the ways in which management services agreements function in the California commercial cannabis industry, and highlight a few specific terms and conditions that are crucial when drafting these agreements.
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Series
Walking With My Dog Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Thanks to my dog Birdie, I've learned that carving out an activity different from the practice of law — like daily outdoor walks that allow you to interact with new people — can contribute to professional success by boosting creativity and mental acuity, as well as expanding your social network, says Sarah Petrie at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
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What Calif. Eviction Ruling Means For Defaulting Borrowers
A California appellate court's recent decision in Homeward Opportunities v. Taptelis found that a defaulting borrower could not delay foreclosure with an improperly served notice of pendency of action, but leaves open a possibility for borrowers to delay eviction proceedings merely by filing lawsuits, say Anne Beehler and Krystal Anderson at Holland & Knight.