California

  • May 21, 2026

    Apple Wants Justices To Review Epic Games Contempt Order

    Apple Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on exactly when and how civil contempt sanctions can be issued for violating a court order, arguing that the Ninth Circuit missed the mark by upholding such sanctions against Apple in its App Store battle with Epic Games.

  • May 21, 2026

    OpenAI Ouster About Governance, Not Bad Counsel, Pros Say

    Witness testimony offered during a recent high-profile jury trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit restructuring accused the artificial intelligence company's nonprofit board of following bad legal advice when it fired CEO Sam Altman in 2023, although experts say the incident was more likely the product of poor governance rather than lousy legal counsel.

  • May 21, 2026

    Citron Founder's Tweets Impacted Stock Prices, LA Jury Told

    A former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission financial economist testified Thursday in the criminal securities fraud case against Citron Research founder Andrew Left, telling a California federal jury that allegedly deceptive tweets posted by the "activist investor" clearly had a "statistically significant" impact on companies' stock prices.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta Defeats App Users' Location Data Privacy Suit For Good

    A California federal judge Thursday shut down for good a proposed class action accusing Meta Platforms of illegally collecting location data from users of third-party apps that installed the company's tracking software, again finding the complaint doesn't plausibly allege that Meta knew it didn't have permission to access this data.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta Expert Says $27M Is Better Number For Abatement

    An economics expert for Meta testified Thursday against New Mexico's desired $3.7 billion plan to abate social media's harm to mental health, calling it more "a spending plan" than one for abatement and claiming $27 million will do the job.

  • May 21, 2026

    J&J Used Ellipsis To Nix Asbestos In Report To FDA, Jury Told

    Johnson & Johnson used an ellipsis to eliminate a professor's finding of asbestos in its talc in a report submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a video deposition shown Thursday to a California jury considering bellwether claims over three women's deadly ovarian cancer.

  • May 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Judge Overstepped In Fluoride Risk Case

    A Ninth Circuit panel scrapped a ruling that directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to address potentially unsafe levels of drinking water fluoridation, concluding a California federal judge improperly commandeered the case.

  • May 21, 2026

    AT&T Sues Calif. To End Copper Wire Service Requirements

    AT&T asked a California federal court to preempt state regulations that require it to continue offering "plain old telephone service" to new customers, saying it needs to retire the "outdated" system to move forward with plans to devote $19 billion on modern telecom tech in the Golden State.

  • May 21, 2026

    Calif. Resort Developer Gets OK For Ch. 11 Plan After Deal

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Thursday approved SilverRock Development's Chapter 11 plan after hearing the California property developer had reached a global agreement resolving objections to the sale of its land and the distribution of the proceeds.

  • May 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Told To Reject J&J Unit's $442M Antitrust Appeal

    Cardiac catheter refurbisher Innovative Health urged the Ninth Circuit to reject the appeal from Johnson & Johnson's Biosense Webster unit seeking to upend its $442 million antitrust judgment, saying the lower court rightly found that Biosense forced hospitals to avoid refurbished catheters in favor of its own.

  • May 21, 2026

    Fraudster's Australian Prison Time Doesn't Cut US Sentence

    A convicted investment fraudster from California can't point to his time awaiting extradition in an Australian prison to get a new, shorter sentence, the Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday.

  • May 21, 2026

    Live Nation Reaches Deal With Families Of Slain Concertgoers

    Entertainment giant Live Nation will settle a lawsuit from the families of two concertgoers slain in a 2023 shooting at the Beyond Wonderland music festival, the families announced in a Washington state court filing Wednesday ahead of a trial set to begin June 1.

  • May 21, 2026

    Consumers Want Prelim Block On Paramount-Warner Bros.

    Consumers challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery asked a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily block the transaction while the case proceeds, arguing the threat of higher streaming costs and reduced news competition is too great, and it will be too hard to unscramble the egg after trial.

  • May 21, 2026

    Newsom Order Eyes Labor Protections Amid AI Growth

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued what his office called a "first-in-the-nation" executive order aiming to shore up state labor policies in an effort to prepare workers and businesses in the event of mass workforce disruption caused by artificial intelligence.

  • May 21, 2026

    Wells Fargo's $85M 'Sham' Hiring Investor Deal Gets Final OK

    Wells Fargo & Co. and its investors have gotten a final nod for their $85 million deal settling claims the bank conducted "sham" job interviews to meet diversity quotas.

  • May 21, 2026

    BigLaw Deals Scandal Puts Boston Back On White Collar Map

    A sweeping insider trading case involving information stolen from BigLaw firms shows a return to bread-and-butter white collar enforcement for Boston federal prosecutors and provides a morale lift in an office that has seen shifting priorities and staff turnover since the signature "Varsity Blues" takedown in 2019, veteran prosecutors told Law360.

  • May 21, 2026

    Hermès Urges 9th Circ. To Back Toss Of Birkin Antitrust Case

    Hermès asked the Ninth Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a suit from shoppers alleging the company illegally ties the sale of its iconic Birkin handbags to other expensive luxury items, saying the plaintiff's case reflects "a fundamental misunderstanding of tying law."

  • May 21, 2026

    Nexstar Asks 9th Circ. To Narrow Tegna Merger Block

    Nexstar urged the Ninth Circuit to narrow a preliminary injunction preventing it from fully integrating with Tegna Inc. that was issued in a challenge to the broadcasters' $6.2 billion merger by state enforcers and satellite provider DirecTV.

  • May 21, 2026

    Intuit's PTAB Win On Browsing Patent Upheld At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday approved a Patent Trial and Review Board decision that held a patent owned by Samesurf Inc. that was asserted against TurboTax maker Intuit Inc. was invalid, rejecting Samesurf's arguments that an improper claim construction was used.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta, Others Settle Bellwether School Case Set For June Trial

    Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., TikTok Inc. and YouTube have each agreed to settle a bellwether school district's claims in social media addiction multidistrict litigation that were set for a six-week California federal jury trial beginning June 12, according to the Kentucky school district's counsel.

  • May 21, 2026

    AI Voice Recognition Biz Must Face Some Investor Claims

    Artificial intelligence and voice recognition company SoundHound AI can't shed investor claims that it hid unresolved accounting issues that led the company to delay financial reporting, though a California federal judge has trimmed some allegations from the proposed class action.

  • May 21, 2026

    Feds Want Funding Details To Fight Academic Group's Fee Bid

    The U.S. Department of Energy asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let it look at the finances of an academic organization that successfully challenged a cap on indirect research costs, questioning the source of funding for legal fees in that case and three others.

  • May 20, 2026

    Prof. Hired By J&J In 1970s Found Asbestos In Talc, Jury Told

    A former Johnson & Johnson toxicologist could not find evidence his employer turned over a report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that "unmistakably" found asbestos in the company's talc, according to a video deposition shown Wednesday to a California jury considering bellwether claims over three women's deadly ovarian cancer.

  • May 20, 2026

    Calif. Panel Says Uber Not Liable For College Student's Death

    A California appeals court declined to reinstate a mother's lawsuit blaming Uber for her daughter's death after she was hit by cars on a freeway that was miles away from where she was dropped off by an Uber driver, ruling Wednesday those intervening events are too attenuated to find the company liable.

  • May 20, 2026

    Jack In The Box Can't Dodge Franchisees' Indemnity Claim

    A Washington state judge Tuesday denied Jack in the Box Inc.'s effort to sidestep liability for job postings that allegedly violated a Washington pay transparency statute, ruling that two franchisees suing the fast-food giant adequately stated an equitable indemnity claim under California law.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Rules In 10 Weeks: Inside Genius Act's Implementation Blitz

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    Regulators have proposed five Genius Act rules in a striking span of 10 weeks, building a stablecoin framework that, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at its operational center, will shape oversight and force issuers, banks and fintechs to take action as deadlines approach, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Series

    NY Times Word Puzzles Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Every morning I let The New York Times humble me with word games, which offer a chance to recalibrate my brain before the day's chaos arrives and remind me that a solution — whether to a puzzle or employment law issue — almost always exists once I find the right angle, says Amy Epstein Gluck at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

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    Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Sentencing Tips For Defending Crypto Conspiracy Cases

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    The sentencing of Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison for laundering money in a cryptocurrency conspiracy illustrates that defense attorneys representing clients in multidefendant crypto cases need to understand the mechanics of conspiracy liability, loss attribution and restitution exposure before they reach the sentencing table, says Joseph De Gregorio at Sentencing Advocacy.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Operational AI Washing: A New Securities Class Action

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    In rising claims of operational AI washing — plaintiffs alleging that artificial intelligence was invoked to explain corporate business decisions in ways that may obscure underlying financial distress — earnings calls, restructuring disclosures and board-level communications will serve as key defense evidence, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

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