California

  • March 05, 2025

    CashCall Wants 9th Circ. Redo Of Order To Pay CFPB $134M

    CashCall Inc. has asked for a rehearing of its Ninth Circuit loss that kept it on the hook for a $134 million restitution payment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that when the online lender was fined in 2016, CashCall could not relinquish its "known right" to a jury trial because the right did not exist at the time.

  • March 05, 2025

    Defense Biz Epirus Clinches $250M Funding Round

    National security-focused technology company Epirus announced Wednesday it closed an oversubscribed Series D fundraising round after securing $250 million from investors, bringing the startup's total venture funding to more than $550 million.

  • March 05, 2025

    Revived Bill To Add Judges Teed Up For Another House Vote

    The House Judiciary Committee voted out of committee three bills on Wednesday along party lines, including legislation to add more federal judgeships that the federal judiciary says are needed desperately but has become subject to partisan fighting.

  • March 05, 2025

    Seyfarth Names Real Estate Atty As Co-Lead In San Francisco

    Seyfarth Shaw LLP has named a longtime real estate attorney to be the new co-managing partner of its San Francisco office, the firm announced Wednesday.

  • March 05, 2025

    Biotech Co. Maravai Hit With Investor's Internal Controls Suit

    Health research tools company Maravai LifeSciences Holdings Inc. has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging it failed to report that it had issues with its internal reporting controls ahead of its announcement that an inaccurate report led to the misallocation of $3.9 million.

  • March 05, 2025

    UK Clears $35B Synopsys, Ansys Merger

    The Competition and Markets Authority said Wednesday it has cleared Synopsys' planned $35 billion acquisition of fellow U.S. software company Ansys under certain divestiture and monitoring conditions.

  • March 05, 2025

    Senators Press Trump's NIH Nominee On Grant Cuts, Vaccines

    Dr. Jay Bhattacharya vowed to support research into chronic diseases but repeatedly refused Wednesday to express an opinion on cost-cutting efforts at the National Institutes of Health, sidestepping bipartisan questions during a hearing on his nomination to run the biomedical research agency.

  • March 05, 2025

    Trump's NIH Cost-Cutting Measure Blocked By Judge

    A Massachusetts federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot cap indirect costs for research grants at the National Institutes of Health, rejecting the move as a rushed cost-saving measure that violates federal law governing the expenses.

  • March 05, 2025

    Pot Co. Hit With Class Action Over Unwanted Mass Texts

    A California man is suing a dispensary and cannabis delivery service in federal court, alleging that it has violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by repeatedly sending unsolicited marketing text messages.

  • March 05, 2025

    Ex-Girlfriend Of $36M Crypto Schemer Admits Hiding Profits

    The ex-girlfriend of a cryptocurrency founder who evaded taxes on a $36 million hacking scheme admitted to hiding profits from the IRS and participating in the ploy by heading shell companies and paying Los Angeles sheriff's deputies to target his enemies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Davis Wright Adds K&L Gates Energy Ace In San Francisco

    Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has added a former K&L Gates LLP attorney in San Francisco who brings over two decades of private practice and in-house experience to the firm's expanding national energy practice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Skin Care Tech Co. Files Ch. 11 With $400M Prepackaged Plan

    Skin care and beauty technology company Cutera Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas bankruptcy court Wednesday with over $429 million in debt and a prepackaged debt-swap plan to cut that number by nearly $400 million.

  • March 04, 2025

    Avalara Investor Asks 9th Circ. To Revive $8B PE Buyout Suit

    An Avalara shareholder urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive a proposed securities class action alleging the tax software company duped investors into approving a "deficient" $8.4 billion private equity buyout, arguing the trial court erred in finding Avalara's statements tied to "numerically specific metrics" weren't false or misleading.

  • March 04, 2025

    Musk Fails To Block OpenAI From Turning Into For-Profit Entity

    A California federal judge on Tuesday denied Elon Musk's bid to preliminarily bar OpenAI Inc. from converting into a for-profit entity, saying that a threshold question of whether Musk's over $44 million in donations created a charitable trust was a "toss-up."

  • March 04, 2025

    Banks To Face New Defenders Of CFPB Overdraft Rule

    A Mississippi federal judge said Tuesday that he will allow two outside nonprofits to step into litigation over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $5 overdraft fee rule and defend the Biden-era regulation against a banking industry-backed legal challenge.

  • March 04, 2025

    Chinese Theme Park Co. Can't Nix Investors' 'Hellscapes' Suit

    A California federal judge will allow investors' securities fraud claims against a Chinese amusement park operator to proceed, finding they plausibly claimed that the company inflated visitor numbers and financials for its park, causing an 89% stock price decline when the truth was eventually revealed.

  • March 04, 2025

    3 Takeaways From The High Court's SF Water Permit Ruling

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling siding with San Francisco to strike down parts of a federal water pollution permit demonstrated a majority of justices' reluctance to force permit holders to interpret gray areas that could get them in trouble.

  • March 04, 2025

    Semiconductor Co. Faces Suit Over Apple Biz Loss, AI Hype

    Semiconductor maker Skyworks Solutions Inc. was hit Tuesday with a proposed investor class action alleging it hurt investors by downplaying the risks posed by the loss of business from iPhone maker Apple, a major customer, and overplaying the strength of artificial intelligence to its business.

  • March 04, 2025

    Blockchain Org. Wins $3.5M Fees From Trader's Seized Assets

    Crypto project the ICON Foundation is set to receive $3.5 million in attorney fees and costs after it successfully turned the tables on a user who sued the project after it took action to freeze millions of tokens he created by exploiting a bug in the project's software.

  • March 04, 2025

    Gov't Says 2 Lab Owners Billed $40M In COVID Test Scheme

    Federal prosecutors opened their case Tuesday against two laboratory owners, telling jurors in Florida that they ran a more than $40 million scheme to submit medically unnecessary COVID-19 testing claims to healthcare benefit programs.

  • March 04, 2025

    PTAB Orders Mostly Backing Apple, Others Upheld On Appeal

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions that Apple and others had shown most claims of a patent on using cameras to sense gestures by users are invalid, but said the board correctly upheld two claims.

  • March 04, 2025

    Phillips 66 'Trickery' Merits $1.2B More Damages, Judge Told

    A startup that won a $605 million trade secrets verdict against oil giant Phillips 66 argued Tuesday in California state court that its would-have-been acquirer owes an additional $1.2 billion for reprehensible conduct, including by in-house counsel who supposedly made "efforts to cover up" information theft.

  • March 04, 2025

    Intel Beats Investor Suit Over 'Foundry' Losses, For Now

    Intel Corp. has beaten a proposed securities class action accusing it of misleading investors about the financial health of its so-called foundry segment, with the court finding Intel made all required disclosures regarding the segment's performance.

  • March 04, 2025

    Albright Rejects Transfer Bid In Another Apple Patent Feud

    U.S. District Judge Alan Albright rejected Apple and Qualcomm Inc.'s bid to transfer Red Rock Analytics' patent suit against them from the Western District of Texas to the Northern District of California, saying in a redacted order made public Tuesday that the tech companies have not established the case "would be clearly more convenient" in the preferred venue.

  • March 04, 2025

    Disney Animator Tells Jury 'Moana' Was His Original Idea

    A longtime animation director for The Walt Disney Co. testified in California federal court Tuesday that his blockbuster movie "Moana" was inspired by Polynesian mythology and extensive research into the region and its culture, not the work of another artist now suing for copyright infringement.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Series

    Adventure Photography Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Photographing nature everywhere from Siberia to Cuba and Iceland to Rwanda provides me with a constant reminder to refresh, refocus and rethink the legal issues that my clients face, says Richard Birmingham at Davis Wright.

  • What Vinyl Acetate's Prop 65 Listing Means For Cos.

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    California's recent move to add vinyl acetate to the Proposition 65 list of carcinogens, with enforcement starting later this year, will have sweeping compliance and risk implications for businesses in the retail, food and beverage, paint, adhesive, industrial manufacturing, and personal care product industries, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Opinion

    Commercial Tree Thinning Should Be Part of Wildfire Control

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    The devastating wildfires currently afflicting California make it clear that the U.S. Forest Service should step up its use of methods including commercial tree removal to lower fire risk — but litigation that drags on for years stymies many of these efforts and endangers the public, says Jeffrey Beelaert at Givens Pursley.

  • High Court Could Further Limit Deference With TCPA Fax Case

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    The Supreme Court's decision to hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a case involving alleged junk faxes that centers whether district courts are bound by Federal Communications Commission rules, offers the court a chance to possibly further limit the judicial deference afforded to federal agency interpretations of statutes, says Samantha Duke at Rumberger Kirk.

  • 5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates

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    In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.

  • More Environmental Claims, More Greenwashing Challenges

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    As companies prepare for the 2025 greenwashing landscape, they should take heed of a D.C. appellate decision that shows that environmental claims are increasingly subject to attack and provides plaintiffs with a playbook for challenging corporate claims of sustainability, say attorneys at Sidley.

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