California

  • November 19, 2024

    Online Lenders, Contractor Face Service Members' Fraud Suit

    California-based contractor Multitaskr Construction Inc. and several online lending companies were hit with a consumer lawsuit in California federal court alleging they conspired to originate lucrative fraudulent loans for home improvement projects that were never completed.

  • November 19, 2024

    Cannabis Bag Co.'s Suit Against Marketing Firm Survives

    The manufacturer of specialized bags used to store marijuana will get to proceed with its lawsuit against a cannabis industry–focused branding firm, a federal judge in Seattle ruled, saying the suit plausibly claims the marketing agency buried the manufacturer's online search ranking by crashing its website.

  • November 19, 2024

    Calif. Judge OKs Biggest Family Separation Settlement Yet

    A California federal judge has approved a final settlement for minors in a lawsuit seeking damages for emotional distress caused by family separations under the Trump administration's zero tolerance border policy, saying the settlements "appear to represent the largest amounts achieved thus far by plaintiffs in family separation cases."

  • November 19, 2024

    9th Circ. Grapples With $56M Verdict In TM Beer Battle

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday weighed whether to uphold a $56 million trial victory for Stone Brewing over allegations that MillerCoors infringed the "Stone" mark with its Keystone beer, with judges digging into questions about whether Stone Brewing filed the suit late.

  • November 19, 2024

    Yoga Teacher Gets 7½ Years For Defrauding Mentally Ill Doctor

    A yoga instructor who helped defraud $2.7 million from a mentally ill doctor by moving into his Malibu home and feeding him psychedelic drugs was sentenced to 90 months in prison by a California federal judge Tuesday, more than twice the time recommended by prosecutors.

  • November 19, 2024

    Costco Shoppers Say Kirkland Fish Oil Pills Hide Heart Risks

    Costco shoppers filed a putative false advertising class action in California federal court Monday accusing the big-box retailer of misleading consumers to believe its Kirkland brand of fish oil omega-3 supplements have heart health benefits, despite there being increased risks associated with fish oil, including atrial fibrillation.

  • November 19, 2024

    Alaska Airlines Fights Emergency 9th Circ. Bid To Halt Merger

    Alaska Airlines has urged the Ninth Circuit not to grant an emergency motion blocking its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, saying the request was filed by flyers and travel agents "without an emergency" after they waited for four months to try to enjoin the airlines from merging.

  • November 19, 2024

    Calif. Biotech Firm Vera Taps Veteran Chief Legal Officer

    Biotechnology firm Vera Therapeutics is welcoming a new chief legal officer in advance of an anticipated biologics submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a treatment targeting an autoimmune kidney disease.

  • November 19, 2024

    Neb. AG Expands Electric Trucks Fight To Volvo, Daimler

    However a federal court challenge to California's phaseout of gasoline and diesel trucks plays out, Nebraska's attorney general wants to make sure that Volvo, Daimler and other semitruck giants don't eliminate traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles, filing a Nebraska state court antitrust suit Tuesday describing phaseout commitments as anticompetitive collusion.

  • November 19, 2024

    Graham Capital Sues To Stop Ex-Exec's Return To Competitor

    Graham Capital Management LP, a Connecticut investment firm with more than $19 billion in assets under management, is asking a Connecticut state trial court judge to block a former managing director from working in California for a competitor that previously employed him in Connecticut for 11 years.

  • November 19, 2024

    Cravath-Led Robinhood To Acquire TradePMR In $300M Deal

    Stock trading app Robinhood Markets Inc., advised by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, on Tuesday announced plans to buy registered investment adviser-focused custodial and portfolio management platform TradePMR, led by Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $300 million.

  • November 19, 2024

    Undefined Terms Cinch Cloudera's Win In 'Cloudy' Fraud Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action against Cloudera Inc. alleging the data management and analytics company duped investors into buying stock at artificially inflated prices, saying the suit didn't substantiate its falsity claims with clear definitions for terms like "cloud native."

  • November 19, 2024

    Truck Insurance Must Arbitrate Asbestos Coverage Claims

    Truck Insurance Exchange must arbitrate its dispute with a group of reinsurers over coverage for asbestos bodily injury claims filed against Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, a California federal judge ruled, saying there was "little difficulty" in concluding that the case falls within the parties' arbitration agreement.

  • November 19, 2024

    SF Urges Calif. Panel To Rethink Waymo City Approval

    The city and county of San Francisco urged a California appellate court Tuesday to find the California Public Utilities Commission abused its discretion in allowing Waymo to operate self-driving vehicles on city streets without imposing requirements, arguing "there are no guardrails" even though the cars pose serious safety hazards.

  • November 19, 2024

    Advertisers Fight Google's Arbitration Bid In Ad Tech MDL

    A pair of advertisers seeking to represent a class in multidistrict litigation accusing Google of monopolizing key digital ad technology are fighting a bid to push their claims to arbitration, arguing Google's arbitration agreements are unenforceable.

  • November 19, 2024

    LA Waterkeeper Sues Union Pacific Over Pollution Controls

    The Los Angeles Waterkeeper slapped Union Pacific Railroad Co. with a complaint in California federal court, alleging the company's failure to implement pollution controls at four industrial facilities has led to hazardous discharges of heavy metals and oils into the San Jose Creek, San Gabriel River and other bodies of water.

  • November 19, 2024

    Calif. Man Wants 9th Circ. To Rehear LG Battery Decision

    A California man who alleges that a faulty LG Chem Ltd. 18650 lithium-ion battery melted the skin off his hand is asking the Ninth Circuit for an en banc rehearing of a decision dismissing his defect claims against the company, saying the panel broke with other circuits and binding precedent by finding that California courts did not have jurisdiction over the Seoul-based company.

  • November 19, 2024

    Calif. Judges Get 'Road Map' For Recall, Election Comments

    A California Supreme Court committee on Tuesday laid out a "road map" for judges to make comments during an election or recall with respect to decisions that come under fire, saying they must follow ethics rules with such remarks. 

  • November 19, 2024

    Ballard Spahr Brings On Former Federal Prosecutor In LA

    Ballard Spahr LLP is expanding its consumer finance services team, announcing Tuesday that a former assistant U.S. attorney is joining its Los Angeles office as of counsel.

  • November 19, 2024

    SAG-AFTRA Says Producer Owes $163K Over Romania Shoot

    A production company owes money to the actors on a 2019 action film because it violated a labor agreement by shooting scenes in Romania, SAG-AFTRA told a California federal court, seeking enforcement of an arbitration award in the union's favor.

  • November 19, 2024

    McDermott Adds IP Pro From Gibson Dunn In Los Angeles

    McDermott Will & Emery LLP announced Tuesday that it has hired partner Timothy Best from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP to help bolster its intellectual property practice group, especially its efforts serving life sciences and biotechnology clients.

  • November 18, 2024

    'You Stepped Over The Line': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel Atty

    A California federal judge told a Quinn Emanuel partner defending Natera Inc. at trial Monday in Guardant Health Inc.'s false advertising case that she'd be sanctioned over her questioning of a Natera expert about Guardant's alleged damages, saying, "You stepped over the line, and you did it several times."

  • November 18, 2024

    Apple Gets Some AirTag Stalking Claims Tossed, For Now

    The California federal judge overseeing a proposed class action accusing Apple of failing to safeguard its AirTag tracking device from being abused by stalkers on Monday tossed product liability claims brought by consumers outside of California, saying Golden State law calls for the "place of the wrong" to take precedence.

  • November 18, 2024

    SEC Says Calif. Atty, His Wife Stole $2.2M To Buy House

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday accused a Los Angeles-area attorney of scheming to control publicly traded penny stock companies and then stealing $2.2 million from one of those companies to buy a home with his wife, according to a complaint filed in California federal court.

  • November 18, 2024

    Pol Says Ex-Staffer 'Indicated' Link To Chandra Levy's Killing

    A California state senator accused by her former chief of staff of sexual harassment fired back with a countersuit alleging he stole $50,000 from her campaign, abused drugs and "indicated" to her that he is responsible for the notorious unsolved homicide of Chandra Levy.

Expert Analysis

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step

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    From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Alice Step 2 Trends Show Courts' Extrinsic Evidence Reliance

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    A look at recent trends in how district courts are applying Step 2 of the Alice framework shows that courts have increasingly relied on extrinsic evidence to help determine whether a claimed invention is "well-understood, routine, and conventional," says Jonathan Tuminaro at Sterne Kessler.

  • What To Know As Children's Privacy Law Rapidly Evolves

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    If your business hasn't been paying attention to growing state and federal efforts to protect children online, now is the time to start — there is no sign of this regulation slowing down, and more aggressive enforcement actions are to be expected in the coming year, says Susan Rohol at Willkie Farr.

  • What Cos. Should Know About New Global Plastics Regs

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    As the global regulatory landscape for plastics and recycling changes rapidly — with new policies coming into effect in California, at the federal level, in the European Union and at the United Nations — businesses that operate across jurisdictions must stay informed to remain compliant, mitigate legal risk and achieve stewardship goals, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • How Calif. Ruling Alters Worker Arb. Agreement Enforcement

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    The California Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ramirez v. Charter Communications should caution employers that while workers’ arbitration agreements will no longer be deemed unenforceable based on their number of unconscionable provisions, they must still be fair and balanced, says Sander van der Heide at CDF Labor.

  • The Rise Of State And Local Environmental Leadership

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    While Congress is deadlocked, and a U.S. Supreme Court with a hostility toward the administrative state aggressively dismantles federal environmental oversight, state and local governments are stepping up with policies to shape a more sustainable future for all species, says Jonathan Rosenbloom at Albany Law School.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • 2 Lessons From Calif. Overtime Wages Ruling

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    A California federal court's recent decision finding that Home Depot did not purposely dodge overtime laws sheds light on what constitutes a good faith dispute, and the extent to which employers have discretion to define employees' workdays, says Michael Luchsinger at Segal McCambridge.

  • New State Climate Liability Laws: What Companies Must Know

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    New legislation in Vermont and New York creating liability and compliance obligations for businesses deemed responsible for climate change — as well as similar bills proposed in California, Massachusetts and Maryland — have far-reaching implications for companies, so it is vital to remain vigilant as these initiatives progress, say Gregory Berlin and Jeffrey Dintzer at Alston & Bird.

  • Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review

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    Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

  • Utilizing Liability Exemption When Calif. Cities Lease Property

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    With rising costs pushing California municipalities to lease real estate assets instead of purchasing them, municipalities should review the ample case law that supports certain exceptions to California Constitution Section 18(a) requirements, providing that certain long-term lease obligations are not considered to be liabilities, says Steven Otto at Crosbie Gliner.

  • Despite Calif. Delays, Climate Disclosure Rules Are Coming

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    Progress continues on state, federal and international climate disclosure regimes, making compliance a key concern for companies — but the timeline for implementation of California's disclosure laws remains unclear due to funding and timing disputes, says David Smith at Manatt Phelps.

  • Dueling Calif. Rulings Offer Insight On 401(k) Forfeiture Suits

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    Two recent decisions from California federal courts regarding novel Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims around 401(k) forfeitures provide early tea leaves for companies that may face similar litigation, offering reasons for both optimism and concern over the future direction of the law, say Ashley Johnson and Jennafer Tryck at Gibson Dunn.

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