California

  • June 18, 2024

    Cancer Test Company DermTech Hits Ch. 11, Seeking Sale

    California-based dermatologic test maker DermTech Inc. hit Chapter 11 Tuesday in Delaware and said it would be laying off about 20% of its workforce as it seeks to sell its assets.

  • June 18, 2024

    Electric Vehicle Startup Fisker Hits Ch. 11 With Sale Plans

    Electric vehicle company Fisker Group Inc. has petitioned for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court with more than $100 million of debt, months after the collapse of a potential partnership with a major automaker imperiled the startup's attempts to raise new financing.

  • June 17, 2024

    NFL Commish Goodell Takes Stand To Deny TV Price Controls

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified Monday in front of a California federal jury considering multibillion-dollar antitrust claims against the league that the NFL does not control the price of DirecTV's Sunday Ticket with any secret deals, insisting instead that the broadcast strategy is shouted "from the mountaintops."

  • June 17, 2024

    'What Am I Supposed To Do?': Epic-Apple Doc Row Irks Judge

    A California federal judge presiding over Epic Games' high-stakes antitrust compliance fight against Apple expressed frustration Monday with the parties' disagreement over the scope of Apple's document production, asking counsel repeatedly "What am I supposed to do?" and "Do I need to get somebody on the stand to explain this?"

  • June 17, 2024

    Calif. Becomes Last State To Ink Deal Over Blackbaud Breach

    Blackbaud Inc. has agreed to pay $6.75 million to resolve data security claims brought by California's attorney general, who was the only one to sit out a nearly $50 million settlement that the software provider reached last year with every other state over a 2020 ransomware attack that affected thousands of its customers.

  • June 17, 2024

    Excess Insurers May Need To Pay In Kaiser Asbestos Dispute

    A policyholder can tap into first-layer excess policies as soon as the primary coverage for that period is exhausted, the California Supreme Court ruled, potentially implicating several first-level excess insurers to contribute to coverage for underlying asbestos exposure claims against Kaiser Cement and Gypsum Corp.

  • June 17, 2024

    FTC Says Adobe Uses Fee To Trap Consumers In Subscription

    Adobe Inc. has for years deceived customers by keeping them in the dark about an early termination fee for its most lucrative subscription plan, making it difficult to cancel and trapping consumers in subscriptions they no longer want, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Monday.

  • June 17, 2024

    PennyMac 'Shocked' Investors With Post-Libor Fix, Suit Says

    PennyMac's mortgage investment arm has been hit in California federal court with a proposed class action accusing it of using last year's discontinuation of Libor to unfairly and unlawfully lock in a lower dividend for some of its preferred stock, stiffing investors out of millions.

  • June 17, 2024

    USC Allegedly Used 'Junk Science' On Black Kidney Patients

    The University of Southern California secretly has been using a "junk science" scoring formula that hurts Black patients' eligibility to receive kidney transplants, according to a putative class action in California federal court.

  • June 17, 2024

    'Anderson Method' Copyright Claim Gets Cut Ahead Of Trial

    A California federal judge has handed Tracy Anderson's former employee Megan Roup a summary judgment win on the celebrity fitness trainer's copyright claim accusing Roup of ripping off her "Tracy Anderson Method" exercise routines, but concluded a jury should decide Anderson's sole remaining breach-of-contract claim in an upcoming November trial.

  • June 17, 2024

    Ex-CNBC Pundit Caught After Years Of Dodging Fraud Claims

    A former frequent CNBC guest who became a fugitive for nearly three years after being accused of defrauding investors has been arrested and faces a seven-count indictment, California federal prosecutors said Monday.

  • June 17, 2024

    9th Circ. Says Facebook 'Face Signatures' Not Subject To BIPA

    The Ninth Circuit sided with Meta Platforms on Monday by declining to revive an Illinois resident's proposed class action accusing Facebook of breaking the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, ruling that the "face signature" at issue isn't protected by the law because it cannot be used to identify someone.

  • June 17, 2024

    SEC Alleges Texas Man Offered Virgin Sham $200M 'Lifeline'

    Securities regulators sued a venture capitalist and his investment firm in Texas federal court Monday, accusing the firm of making a bogus offer to invest $200 million into Virgin Orbit last year despite having less than $1 in its bank account and causing stock prices to swell before plummeting when the deal collapsed.

  • June 17, 2024

    SEC Fines Unlicensed Brokers $2.7M In Microcap Stock Case

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered two unlicensed brokers, including one from Florida, to collectively pay a $2.7 million fine for allegedly scamming elderly people into buying microcap shares in companies and lying that the stock was being offered to them at a discount.

  • June 17, 2024

    Huawei Slams Netgear's 'Tenuous' RICO Case

    Huawei has responded to a racketeering and antitrust case from a major U.S. maker of Wi-Fi routers by calling it "rife with tenuous legal and factual claims" and comparing its reworking of patent infringement allegations to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's failed antitrust case against Qualcomm.

  • June 17, 2024

    LA City Atty Accused Of Retaliating Against Criminal Chief

    The former criminal chief of the Los Angeles city attorney's office is seeking more than $1 million over claims she faced a "barrage of retaliation" and was unfairly placed on leave after reporting the city attorney's alleged excessive on-the-job alcohol consumption, her refusal to prosecute certain companies and other purported misconduct.

  • June 17, 2024

    Tesla Slaps Supplier With $1B EV Battery Trade Secrets Suit

    Tesla is accusing one of its suppliers of corporate espionage in a $1 billion California federal lawsuit, saying that Matthews International has even tried to claim it invented the stolen trade secrets for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries by incorporating the confidential information into patent filings.

  • June 17, 2024

    Clients Say McGrath Kavinoky 'Bullied' Them Into Abuse Deal

    California firm McGrath Kavinoky LLP, which inked more than $374 million in settlements for women who say they were sexually abused by a UCLA Health gynecologist, misled its clients and "bullied" them into accepting far smaller amounts than they were promised, according to a lawsuit in state court by two ex-clients.

  • June 17, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Proposed amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law that were prompted by several recent Chancery Court rulings sailed through the state Senate last week despite loud opposition from corporate law professors and other Chancery Court watchers, and Tesla shareholders filed two new suits against CEO Elon Musk. 

  • June 17, 2024

    McDonald's Nears Fee Win For Beating $100M Fraud Suit

    A California state judge has tentatively granted McDonald's request for over $231,000 in fees after winning an anti-SLAPP victory against Byron Allen's suit claiming that it fraudulently pledged to increase spending on Black-owned media, but the judge asked the restaurant Monday to submit a proposed judgment to account for its work in filing the fee request.

  • June 17, 2024

    Supreme Court Won't Revisit Calif. Law Arbitration Issue

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to revisit a case dealing with the arbitration of claims brought under a California law enabling workers to sue on behalf of the state and other workers for labor violations, an issue the justices decided on in 2022.

  • June 17, 2024

    Justices Pass On Revisiting PAGA Arbitration Issue

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take another look at the fate of nonindividual claims under California's Private Attorneys General Act when individual claims go to arbitration in a case involving Uber that was previously before the high court.

  • June 17, 2024

    Justices To Hear Nvidia Case On Securities Pleading Standard

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived investors' claims over chipmaker Nvidia's crypto mining sales, giving the high court a chance to weigh in on the pleading requirements needed to sustain a shareholder class action.

  • June 14, 2024

    Electronics Cos. Fight 'Drastic' $2B Price-Fixing Default

    Irico Group and a subsidiary on Thursday opposed a special masters report recommending the Chinese electronics companies should be on the hook for over $2 billion in default judgment in litigation alleging they participated in a cathode ray tube price-fixing conspiracy, telling a California federal court the remedy is "drastic" and unwarranted.

  • June 14, 2024

    Russian Businessman's Fight To Enforce $92M Award Ends

    A Russian businessman's decade-long fight to enforce a $92 million arbitral award — a dispute that spurred the U.S. Supreme Court to let him forge a new path to enforcing foreign arbitral awards — finally came to an end this week, as the parties inked a settlement on the eve of a racketeering trial.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ. TM Ruling Expands Courts' Role In Application Cases

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    The Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in BBK Tobacco v. Central Coast Agriculture is the first time a federal appeals court has explicitly authorized district courts to adjudicate pending trademark applications, marking a potentially significant expansion of federal courts' power, says Saul Cohen at Kelly IP.

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • The Multifaceted State AG Response To New Technologies

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    In response to the growth of technologies like artificial intelligence, biometric data collection and cryptocurrencies across consumer-facing industries, state attorneys general are proactively launching enforcement and regulatory initiatives — including bipartisan investigations and new state AI legislation, say Ketan Bhirud and Emily Yu at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Broadway Ruling Puts Discrimination Claims In The Limelight

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    A New York federal court's recent decision in Moore v. Hadestown Broadway that the employers' choice to replace a Black actor with a white actor was shielded by the First Amendment is the latest in a handful of rulings zealously protecting hiring decisions in casting, say Anthony Oncidi and Dixie Morrison at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea

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    A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.

  • 4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best

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    As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.

  • The Tricky Implications Of New Calif. Noncompete Laws

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    Two new California noncompete laws that ban certain out-of-state agreements and require employers to notify certain workers raise novel issues related to mergers and acquisitions, and pose particular challenges for technology companies, says John Viola at Thompson Coburn.

  • Conn. Bankruptcy Ruling Furthers Limitation Extension Split

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    A recent Connecticut bankruptcy court decision further solidifies a split of authority on whether Bankruptcy Rule 9006(b) may be used to extend the limitations period, meaning practitioners seeking to extend should serve the motion on all applicable parties and, where possible, rely on the doctrine of equitable tolling, says Shane Ramsey at Nelson Mullins.

  • Calif. Ruling Shows Limits Of Exculpatory Lease Clauses

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    A California court's recent decision in Epochal Enterprises v. LF Encinitas Properties, finding a landlord liable for failing to disclose the presence of asbestos on the subject property, underscores the limits of exculpatory clauses' ability to safeguard landlords from liability where known hazards are present, say Fawaz Bham and Javier De Luna at Hunton.

  • What Nevada 'Superbasin' Ruling Means For Water Users

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    The Nevada Supreme Court's recent decision in Sullivan v. Lincoln County Water District, affirming that the state can manage multiple predesignated water basins as one "superbasin," significantly broadens the scope of water constraints that project developers in Nevada and throughout the West may need to consider, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    The first quarter of the year brought the usual onslaught of new regulatory developments in California — including a crackdown on junk fees imposed by small business lenders, a big step forward for online notarizations and a ban on predatory listing agreements, says Alex Grigorians at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Breaking Down California's New Workplace Violence Law

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    Ilana Morady and Patrick Joyce at Seyfarth discuss several aspects of a new California law that requires employers to create and implement workplace violence prevention plans, including who is covered and the recordkeeping and training requirements that must be in place before the law goes into effect on July 1.

  • Series

    Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

  • How Suit Over An AI George Carlin May Lead To Legislation

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    George Carlin’s estate recently sued a company over an artificial intelligence-generated podcast allegedly impersonating the late comedian, highlighting the importance of much-needed state and federal protection against unauthorized representations of an individual’s image in the time of AI, say Anna Chauvet and Maxime Jarquin at Finnegan.

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