California

  • February 25, 2025

    Calif. Bar Touts Reduction In Racial Disparity In Atty Discipline

    The State Bar of California has reported what it calls "significant" shifts toward equity in attorney discipline in the five years since a watershed study showed a decades-long trend of disparity, including that Black male attorneys were more than three times as likely to be placed on probation or disbarred compared to their white counterparts.

  • February 25, 2025

    Union Pacific Cleared In Pedestrian's Injury Suit

    A California jury found Tuesday that Union Pacific Railroad Co. was not liable for an injury to a man who was walking along its railroad tracks.

  • February 25, 2025

    Silicon Valley City Planners Say Landowners Can't Duck Suit

    A company backed by a group of Silicon Valley business people looking to build a mini-city has urged a California federal court not to toss price-fixing claims against Solano County property owners, arguing that doing so at this point would be "premature."

  • February 25, 2025

    Dental Co. Biolase Drills Down On Unopposed Ch. 11 Plan

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday OK'd the Chapter 11 plan of dental technology maker Biolase Inc., which was fully consensual following changes to gain the approval of the U.S. Trustee and the official committee of unsecured creditors.

  • February 25, 2025

    Duane Morris Adds Former Federal Prosecutors In NY, Calif.

    Duane Morris LLP has expanded its trial practice group with a pair of former federal prosecutors coming aboard in San Francisco and New York.

  • February 25, 2025

    Landscaping Plant Farmer TreeSap Hits Ch. 11 With Sale Plans

    A Texas bankruptcy judge on Tuesday agreed to give interim approval for landscaping plants grower TreeSap Farms LLC to access $14 million of its debtor-in-possession financing, which it hopes to use to turn its business around ahead of a sale.

  • February 24, 2025

    'It Was An Accident': Judge Denies Shooting Wife On Purpose

    A California judge who shot his wife to death in their living room following an argument took the stand in his murder trial Monday, fighting hard to maintain his composure while explaining to jurors that his Glock discharged accidentally when he tried to set it down on the coffee table.

  • February 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Axes Fee Award In California Pizza Kitchen Hack Deal

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday scrapped an attorney fee award of $800,000 given to class counsel as part of a deal resolving data breach litigation against California Pizza Kitchen, finding that the lower court had failed to properly compare the "actual value" of the settlement — which the panel put around $950,000 — to the requested fees.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple Exec Had Doubts Over New App Store Fee Compliance

    Apple fellow Phil Schiller testified Monday during a high-stakes compliance evidentiary hearing that he had initially been concerned that Apple's decision to implement a new 27% commission on purchases made outside Apple's App Store wouldn't comply with the court's 2021 anti-steering injunction in its yearslong antitrust fight with Epic Games.

  • February 24, 2025

    Lobbyist Abramoff Testifies At Fraud Trial Against Crypto CEO

    Disgraced Washington, D.C., power broker Jack Abramoff told jurors on Monday that he participated in a conspiracy with the founder of an "anti-money laundering" cryptocurrency company accused of bilking investors out of $5 million, testifying remotely due to a recent cancer diagnosis.

  • February 24, 2025

    9th Circ. Mostly Clears The Way For Mont. Logging Project

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed portions of a Montana federal judge's decision to vacate U.S. Forest Service approval of a controversial Black Ram logging project on the Kootenai National Forest, but told the lower court it had to take a closer look at some of the environmentalists' objections.

  • February 24, 2025

    Trump Birthright Citizenship EO Must Stay Paused, States Say

    A coalition of states on Monday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to leave in place his preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship while the government appeals, arguing that the injunction merely maintains a centurylong status quo recognizing those citizenship rights.

  • February 24, 2025

    Union Pacific Says Pedestrian Was In The Wrong In Crash Suit

    Lawyers for a pedestrian allegedly hit by a Union Pacific train told a jury in closing arguments Monday that the engineer wasn't paying enough attention to the tracks ahead, while the rail giant's lawyers said the man should not have been there.

  • February 24, 2025

    'Yellowjackets' Makers Omit Overlaps With Film, Court Told

    Showtime, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and the makers of the TV show "Yellowjackets" use "self-serving descriptions" and "omit similarities" between the show and the 2015 film "Eden" in their bid to toss a suit alleging the hit series ripped off the movie, the filmmakers told a California federal court judge on Monday.

  • February 24, 2025

    Bigelow Says Class Trial Is On 'Road To Nowhere'

    Counsel for R.C. Bigelow Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to call off an upcoming class action damages trial over the tea-maker's "manufactured in the USA" labels, saying the proceeding would be a "road to nowhere" because of fatally flawed sales data.

  • February 24, 2025

    Baby Bottle Cos. Get Parts Of Microplastics Suit Tossed

    Parents who sued Philips over allegations that microplastics leach from its "BPA free" baby bottles and sippy cups saw their lawsuit partially trimmed, after a California federal judge said that the company's label isn't misleading because it doesn't promise the products are "devoid of all harmful plastic."

  • February 24, 2025

    Unions, Groups Say Fed. Employees '5 Things' Email Illegal

    A group of unions challenging the federal layoff order said the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's controversial request for federal employees to include in a weekly email five things they accomplished flouts federal law, amending their lawsuit in California federal court.

  • February 24, 2025

    Judge Finds No Reason To Recuse From Trans Athlete Case

    A Colorado federal judge refused to step down from a lawsuit seeking to block a transgender woman from competing on a collegiate women's volleyball team, writing in an order Monday that he has given the plaintiffs "free reign" to make their arguments without requiring use of specific pronouns.

  • February 24, 2025

    'Varsity Blues' Suit Against USC An 'Uphill Battle,' Judge Says

    A Los Angeles judge said Monday that while a private equity investor's fraud suit against USC over his prosecution in the "Varsity Blues" case will likely make it past the pleading stage, he will later face an "uphill battle" given how much time has passed since the high-profile college admissions scandal.

  • February 24, 2025

    Filmmaker Seeks New IP Trial Against Shyamalan, Others

    A filmmaker has asked for a new copyright infringement trial against writer-director M. Night Shyamalan and his co-defendants Friday after a jury found that they did not have access to the film she claimed they infringed, arguing that the court failed to answer a crucial question from the jury before the verdict was delivered.

  • February 24, 2025

    Venable Litigator Jumps To Steptoe In California

    Steptoe LLP continues growing its West Coast team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Venable LLP commercial trial lawyer as a partner in its Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple Antitrust Ace Returns To Latham In Bay Area

    Latham & Watkins LLP announced Monday that it has welcomed back an attorney who was working as in-house counsel for Apple to bolster its antitrust and competition practice and enhance its efforts to handle monopolization cases.

  • February 24, 2025

    Ex-Sheppard Mullin Media Atty Joins O'Melveny In Calif.

    An entertainment attorney with expertise representing stakeholders on all sides of deal negotiations has moved his practice recently to O'Melveny & Myers LLP's office in the Los Angeles area after more than six years with Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.

  • February 24, 2025

    Apple To Invest $500B In US Over 4 Years As Tariffs Mount

    Apple said Monday that it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, weeks after President Donald Trump placed a 10% tariff on goods from China, where the company sources components for its products, and threatened tariffs on semiconductors.

  • February 24, 2025

    Museum Cleared To Fire Hurt Worker After 4 Leave Extensions

    A California appeals court declined to revive a former HVAC technician's suit claiming the J. Paul Getty Trust illegally fired him while recovering from an on-the-job leg fracture, saying terminating him instead of granting a fifth request for indefinite medical leave was reasonable.

Expert Analysis

  • 2nd Circ. Provides NY Pathway For Fighting Foreign Infringers

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    A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provides a road map for expeditiously obtaining personal jurisdiction in New York against foreign trademark infringers based on a single purchase of counterfeit goods, meaning the Second Circuit could now be the preferred venue for combating foreign infringement, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.

  • How A Trump Win Might Affect The H-1B Program

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    A review of the Trump administration's attempted overhaul of the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program suggests policies Donald Trump might try to implement if he is reelected, and specific steps employers should consider to prepare for that possibility, says Eileen Lohmann at BAL.

  • Compliance Considerations For Calif. Child Labor Audit Law

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    California employers will need to conduct a fact-intensive analysis to determine whether a new state law that imposes transparency rules for child labor audits applies to their operations, and should look out for regulatory guidance that answers open questions about deadlines and penalties, says Sylvia St. Clair at Faegre Drinker.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case

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    The recently settled dispute between Amtrak and its insurers over sublimit coverage illustrates that parties with unclear manuscript policies may wish to avoid litigation in favor of settlement — as the New York federal court declined to decide the case by applying prior term interpretations, says Laura Maletta at Chartwell Law.

  • Harris Unlikely To Shelve Biden Admin's Food Antitrust Stance

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    A look at Vice President Kamala Harris' past record, including her actions as California attorney general, shows why practitioners should prepare for continued aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly in the food and grocery industries, if Harris wins the presidential election, says Steve Vieux at Bartko.

  • 3rd Circ. Hertz Ruling Highlights Flawed Bankruptcy Theory

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    The Third Circuit, in its recent Hertz bankruptcy decision, became the latest appeals court to hold that noteholders were entitled to interest before shareholders under the absolute priority rule, but risked going astray by invoking the flawed theory of code impairment, say Matthew McGill and David Casazza at Gibson Dunn.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • The Complex Challenges Facing Sustainable Food Packaging

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    More and more states are requiring recycled content to be used in product packaging, creating complex technological and regulatory considerations for manufacturers who must also comply with federal food safety requirements, say Peter Coneski and Natalie Rainer at K&L Gates.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future

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    As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.

  • New Law May Move Calif. Toward Fashion Sustainability

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    California’s recently signed Responsible Textile Recovery Act seeks to increase sustainability innovation in the fashion industry, but it could also create compliance hurdles for brands, especially smaller fashion houses that do not have ample resources, say Warren Koshofer and Maggie Franz at Michelman & Robinson.

  • Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know

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    As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

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