California

  • November 26, 2024

    9th Circ. Reopens Teachers' Retirement Savings Interest Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday revived a class action accusing the Washington state pension agency of unlawfully skimming interest earned by thousands of teachers on their retirement accounts, ruling the trial court went too far when it ruled the educators' suit was untimely.

  • November 26, 2024

    Pac-12 Agreed To 'Poaching' Clause, Mountain West Insists

    The Pac-12 Conference "unconditionally" agreed to all of last year's scheduling agreement with the Mountain West Conference, including a multimillion-dollar "poaching penalty,'' Mountain West claimed in California federal court, pushing back at the Pac-12's argument that the fee for luring away five teams is illegal.

  • November 26, 2024

    Meta Wipes Out Some Claims In WDTX Patent Case

    Meta has scored a ruling from Waco's U.S. District Judge Alan Albright finding that some of the language in patents connected to a failed mobile fitness brand, asserted against Meta's virtual reality headsets, fails to hold up in court.

  • November 26, 2024

    Calif. Judge Says Flores Reporting Requirements Still In Effect

    A California federal judge said the government must resume reporting data on migrant children being held in heightened supervision facilities to human rights groups under the 1997 Flores settlement, saying the Office of Refugee Resettlement should not have ceased doing so.

  • November 26, 2024

    MLBPA, FanDuel Ink Licensing Deal After Settling Legal Spat

    The Major League Baseball Players Association, FanDuel and OneTeam Partners on Tuesday announced that they are teaming up on a product and marketing licensing agreement, a move that comes just weeks after FanDuel was dropped from an MLBPA lawsuit over the alleged use of players' photos to promote sports gambling.

  • November 26, 2024

    Paul Hastings Seeks GenapSys CEO Depo In Malpractice Suit

    Paul Hastings LLP has called on a California court to compel the founder and former CEO of GenapSys to sit for a deposition in a legal malpractice suit alleging that the firm improperly drafted board documents that invited an expensive lawsuit and led to the genetic sequencing company's "demise and liquidation."

  • November 26, 2024

    California's Top Bank, Fintech Regulator To Exit At Year's End

    The top banking and fintech regulator for California is departing from the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in a little more than a month, an agency spokesperson told Law360 on Tuesday.

  • November 26, 2024

    Disney Strikes $43M Deal To End Calif. Pay Bias Suit

    The Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay $43.25 million to settle a class action claiming the entertainment giant paid thousands of women in middle management less than their male colleagues, according to a filing in California court.

  • November 25, 2024

    Gibson Dunn Treated Crypto Client Like 'Hot Potato,' Suit Says

    Crypto trading firm Swan Bitcoin hit Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP with a malpractice lawsuit in California court Friday, alleging Gibson Dunn dumped Swan "like the proverbial 'hot potato'" in underlying trade secret litigation and tried to take on Swan's rival as a client after a lateral hire created a conflict of interest.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Judicial Panel OKs Trio Of State Appeals Court Moves

    California's Commission on Judicial Appointments on Monday unanimously approved a state appeals jurist for a presiding post and signed off on elevating a pair of Los Angeles County Superior Court judges to the state appellate bench.

  • November 25, 2024

    'Shameful': Dems Rip Credit Bureaus Over Scrapped Hearing

    Democratic senators on Monday lit into the Big Three credit bureaus for allegedly backing out of preelection commitments to testify last week before the Senate Banking Committee, calling the move "shortsighted and shameful."

  • November 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Reverse Amber Heard's Loss In Coverage Suit

    The Ninth Circuit upheld an insurer's favorable ruling Monday in its legal dispute with actress Amber Heard, affirming that she had no right to independent counsel paid for by New York Marine and General Insurance Co. in a defamation suit by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp.

  • November 25, 2024

    Tuna Price-Fixing MDL Lead Attys Awarded $86M In Fees

    A California federal judge has agreed to award a combined total of $86 million in fees and costs to lead counsel representing two classes of canned tuna buyers who reached settlements in recent months with StarKist, Dongwon Industries and Lion Capital in a decadelong price-fixing case.

  • November 25, 2024

    Pitt Ordered To Disclose Docs Jolie Says Will Prove Abuse

    A California judge overseeing a dispute between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie over a multimillion-dollar French winery ruled Monday that Pitt must disclose documents and communications that Jolie says will prove he sought to cover up his domestic violence against her and their children.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Jury Delivers $35M Verdict In Eyedrop Trademark Row

    A Tennessee pharmaceutical company convinced a California federal jury that a rival owes it about $35 million for infringing its trademarks on brands of post-surgical eyedrops.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Court Says Son Can't Take Up Dead Father's Suit

    Canada's Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. can't be held liable for injuries a man, who later died, allegedly suffered in one of its all-terrain utility vehicles, a California state appellate panel ruled, saying the trial court properly tossed the case as abandoned after the plaintiff's son failed to make himself the successor for the litigation.

  • November 25, 2024

    Microsoft-Activision Atty Snubs $15M Class Fee In Del. Suit

    An attorney for Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard Inc. on Monday downplayed the benefits from an ongoing stockholder suit seeking $15 million for mid-case fixes to the two companies' $68.7 billion merger, saying the action's modest advantages should be weighed more as disclosure matters than a deal rescue.

  • November 25, 2024

    Giant Emerald Can Return To Brazil, DC Judge Rules

    A massive and storied emerald smuggled into the United States two decades ago is one step closer to returning to Brazil after a D.C. federal judge granted the U.S. Department of Justice's request to forfeit the gem to its home country.

  • November 25, 2024

    Colo. Judge Won't Keep SJSU Trans Athlete From Tournament

    A Colorado federal judge on Monday refused to prohibit a San Jose State University transgender volleyball athlete from competing, shutting down a bid from a group of female players in the sport hoping to secure a preliminary injunction against the Mountain West Conference.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Panel Scraps Ex-Medical Supply Exec's $533K Fee Win

    A California appeals court has found that an Orange County judge was wrong to order a medical supply company to pay out half a million dollars in legal fees to a former executive who a jury found took confidential files out the door with him.

  • November 25, 2024

    Tesla Nears Deal In Trade Secret Suit Against EV Rival Rivian

    Tesla said in a notice filed in California state court that it would be settling its lawsuit accusing rival electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive of recruiting its employees, who allegedly took Tesla's trade secrets with them to the defendant to use for its plans to release an electric truck.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Gov. Promises EV Tax Credit If Trump Axes Federal

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said that he's preparing to save electric vehicle tax credits — at least for residents of his state — if the Trump administration and a Republican Congress eliminate federal ones.

  • November 25, 2024

    'Sham' Patent Charges Bog Down Holiday Light Fight

    Amid a multi-front intellectual property fight between a China-based holiday light manufacturer and a so-called "patent troll," the company told a Georgia judge Monday that the patent holder had impermissibly tried to engineer jurisdiction by signing over to itself one of the patents at issue just minutes before filing its counterclaim.

  • November 25, 2024

    Calif. Board Seeks Comment On AI Rules Amid Pushback

    The California Privacy Protection Agency on Friday opened the public comment period for its latest rulemaking package proposing expansive draft rules regulating technologies fueled by artificial intelligence — including in the employment, education, healthcare, consumer protection, banking and insurance contexts — which business groups have already criticized as being overly broad and burdensome.

  • November 25, 2024

    Beyond Meat Told It's Likely To Beat Production Woe Suit

    A Los Angeles federal judge appeared poised Monday to toss, for good, a reworked investor class action accusing Beyond Meat of concealing major problems with its efforts to scale production on plant-based meat substitutes for fast food chains like McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut.

Expert Analysis

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Calif. Ruling Heightens Medical Product Maker Liability

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    The California Supreme Court's decision in Himes v. Somatics last month articulates a new causation standard for medical product manufacturer liability that may lead to stronger product disclosures nationwide and greater friction between manufacturers and physicians, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Constitutional Protections For Cannabis Companies Are Hazy

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    Cannabis businesses are subject to federal enforcement and tax, but often without the benefit of constitutional protections — and the entanglement of state and federal law and conflicting judicial opinions are creating confusion in the space, says Amber Lengacher at Purple Circle.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Various Paths For Labor And Employment Law

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    Labor and employment law leans heavily on federal agency guidance, so the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to toss out Chevron deference will ripple through this area, with future workplace policies possibly taking shape through strategic litigation, informal guidance, state-level regulation and more, says Alexander MacDonald at Littler.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • After Chevron

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard in June, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 37 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Navigating Scrutiny Of Friendly Professional Corps. In Calif.

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    In light of ongoing scrutiny and challenges to private equity participation in the California healthcare marketplace, particularly surrounding the use of the friendly professional corporation model, management services organizations should consider implementing four best practices, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter of 2024 in California, which saw efforts to expand consumer protection legislation and enforcement actions in areas of federal focus like medical debt and student loans, demonstrated that the state's role as a trendsetter in consumer financial protection will continue for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Calif. Long-Tail Ruling Continues Policyholder-Friendly Trend

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    The California Supreme Court's recent ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum, rejecting horizontal policy exhaustion, was the latest in a string of its decisions involving insurance coverage for continuous or progressive injury claims that favor policyholders, say Billie Mandelbaum and David Goodwin at Covington.

  • A Case Study For Calif. Cities In Water Utility Takeovers

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    With growing water scarcity and drier weather looming, some local governments in California have sought to acquire investor-owned water utilities by eminent domain — but the 2016 case of Claremont v. Golden State Water is a reminder that such municipalization attempts must meet certain statutory requirements, say attorneys at Nossaman.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

  • Justices' Removal Ruling Presents Hurdles, But Offers Clarity

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Campos-Chaves v. Garland and two other consolidated cases endorses a multistep notice practice that could impair noncitizens' access to adequate judicial notice, but its resolution of a longstanding circuit split also provides much-needed clarity, says Devin Connolly at Reeves Immigration Law Group.

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