California

  • July 13, 2026

    7th Circ. Nixes Clearview AI Privacy Deal Over Class Rift

    The Seventh Circuit has vacated a novel biometric privacy settlement between Clearview AI and classes of individuals who claim the company misused their public photos, saying a nationwide class representative should have signaled their agreement before the district court approved a deal containing such comparatively "meager" benefits.

  • July 13, 2026

    Netflix Wins $3M Atty Fees Over 'Objectively Baseless' IP Suit

    A California federal judge granted Netflix Inc. $3 million in attorney fees on Monday, ruling that the plaintiff in a patent suit and his attorney knew that his claims of ownership were "objectively baseless" and worked to conceal a Finnish court's determination that he did not own the patent.

  • July 13, 2026

    Ye Wants New Trial Over 'Donda' Listening Party Infringement

    The artist formerly known as Kanye West is asking a California federal judge for a new trial over infringement of an unlicensed sample, saying the composers of the sampled song were on board until after Ye played it at a 2021 listening party.

  • July 13, 2026

    9th Circ. Reiterates 'Prevailing Party' In Family Dollar ADA Suit

    A woman who won an order forcing a Family Dollar store to improve its accessibility is a "prevailing party" under the Americans with Disabilities Act and may recover attorney fees, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, saying the lower court misunderstood precedent regarding whether a plaintiff has prevailed in the litigation.

  • July 13, 2026

    Court Economist Says Epic-Google Deal Isn't Evidence-Based

    U.S. District Judge James Donato has already told Epic and Google that he's "not going to keep" going back and forth with them about changes they want to an injunction he has to issue following Epic's antitrust trial win against Google, and now a court-appointed expert has informed him she has issues with the proposed changes as well.

  • July 13, 2026

    Cannabis Companies Settle $300K Workers' Wage Deal

    A chain of marijuana dispensaries operating under the Catalyst brand has agreed to pay $300,000 in order to end claims it denied overtime pay, meal breaks and cellphone reimbursements to thousands of workers, with a Los Angeles County court giving its blessing to the settlement Friday.

  • July 13, 2026

    EPA Says Calif. Can't Stop Congress From Reviewing Waivers

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged a California federal court to reject the Golden State's "futile" suit over the Trump administration's plan to have Congress undo Clean Air Act waivers, arguing that the law not only allows for such review, it prohibits the courts from getting involved.

  • July 13, 2026

    Ex-BlackBerry Exec Keeps Alive Retaliation, Firing Claims

    A former BlackBerry executive who alleges CEO John Giamatteo sexually harassed her before he landed the top job can pursue claims for retaliation and wrongful termination against the company but not claims for gender discrimination, a California federal judge has ruled.

  • July 13, 2026

    Blue Shield Of Calif. Beats Enrollee Data Privacy Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge dismissed a proposed class action accusing Blue Shield of California of violating the federal Wiretap Act by installing Google and Meta tracking tools on its website, saying plaintiffs failed to allege that the health plan provider intercepted their highly sensitive health-related electronic communications.

  • July 13, 2026

    Hyundai Urges Arbitration Of Emergency Braking Claims

    Hyundai has urged a California federal judge to send a proposed class action over its allegedly faulty automatic emergency braking system into arbitration, arguing that the drivers accepted an arbitration provision when they agreed to the terms and conditions of its Bluelink services to obtain optional integrated connectivity features. 

  • July 13, 2026

    Sony Seeks Atty Fees After 'Bye Bye Bye' Suit Dropped

    Sony Music Holdings Inc. has asked an Atlanta federal judge to order the artist behind NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" choreography to pay its attorney fees after he dropped Sony from a copyright infringement suit, saying the case should have never been filed and was prolonged unnecessarily.

  • July 13, 2026

    CVS Toddler Wipes Mislabeled As Hypoallergenic, Suit Says

    CVS customers hit the pharmacy retail giant with a proposed false advertising class action in California federal court alleging that its "Ultra-Soft Toddler Cleansing Wipes" are deceptively labeled as being hypoallergenic, since they are formulated with added fragrance, a cosmetic allergen that serves no functional skin care purpose.

  • July 13, 2026

    First Hawaiian To Purchase TriCo In $2B All-Stock Bank Deal

    First Hawaiian Inc. said Monday it will acquire California-based TriCo Bancshares in an all-stock deal valued at just over $2 billion, expanding its mainland U.S. presence and creating a combined banking institution with roughly $34 billion in assets.

  • July 13, 2026

    23andMe Bankruptcy Plan Bars Data Breach Suit In Calif.

    A Missouri bankruptcy judge has told attorneys representing California the state can no longer press its data breach lawsuit against the reorganized 23andMe, finding the state court action is barred by the company's confirmed Chapter 11 plan.

  • July 13, 2026

    Amazon Settles With AI Worker Who Alleged It Ignored IP Law

    A Los Angeles judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday by an artificial intelligence researcher who alleged the company ignored numerous laws in a frantic attempt to catch up to its artificial intelligence rivals after the parties reached an out-of-court settlement.

  • July 13, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Revives Google Fight Against Voice Tech Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Monday gave Google a new chance to invalidate a patent covering a voice-operated internet browsing system, saying the Patent Trial and Appeal Board needs to take another look at the company's challenge.

  • July 13, 2026

    Buchalter Taps Firmwide Litigation Chair To Lead LA Office

    Buchalter PC has tapped its firmwide chair of litigation, who has spent almost a decade with the firm on complex business disputes, commercial real estate litigation and intellectual property matters, as the new managing partner of its Los Angeles headquarters.

  • July 13, 2026

    12 Democratic AGs Challenge Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

    A dozen Democratic attorneys general on Monday sought to block Paramount Skydance's proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing in a California federal court challenge that the deal threatens competition for film distribution and basic cable.

  • July 10, 2026

    Intuit Hid True Status Of TurboTax Business, Investor Alleges

    Intuit touted a "momentum" across its businesses while hiding that its TurboTax business was, in reality, poorly performing, an investor alleged in a proposed class action filed Friday in California federal court that also accuses the financial software company's CEO of fraudulently enriching himself by more than $36 million.

  • July 10, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Housing Bill, Opportunity Zones, Florida

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including the latest on the federal housing bill, the rollout of Opportunity Zones 2.0, and a look at Florida at the midyear.

  • July 10, 2026

    Davis Wright Atty Hit With Sanctions After Winning Sanctions

    After defending six-figure sanctions of plaintiffs lawyers for "a reckless course of prolonging litigation," a Davis Wright Tremaine LLP attorney is facing his own six-figure sanctions, with a California magistrate judge finding he "unnecessarily burdened" opposing counsel despite warnings dating back years about "improper litigation tactics."

  • July 10, 2026

    Quince Seeks $1.8M After 'Exceptional' Ugg IP Trial

    "Luxury lookalike" retailer Quince has asked a California federal judge to order Deckers Outdoor Corp. to pay $1.8 million in legal fees and costs in what it called an "exceptional" case after a jury found Deckers' design patent for its Ugg Classic Ultra Mini Boot was invalid.

  • July 10, 2026

    States' Stopgap Suit Aims To Shield K-12 Mental Health Grants

    Washington and 14 other states launched a preemptive lawsuit Friday to stop the Trump administration from ending federal grants for mental health programming in public schools, seeking to preserve the funding if the U.S. Department of Education succeeds in asserting new grounds for canceling the grants in a related case.

  • July 10, 2026

    Kalshi's Contracts 'Sound Like A Bet,' 9th Circ. Judge Says

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared open Friday to preliminarily blocking Kalshi and Robinhood from offering sports contracts on tribal land, with one judge saying Kalshi's contracts "sound like a bet" subject to Native American gambling laws and another saying it "wouldn't be so unreasonable" to exclude tribes from federal oversight in this area.

  • July 10, 2026

    Nexstar-Tegna Merger Challenge Gets July 2027 Trial Date

    A California federal judge has scheduled an early July 2027 trial date in DirecTV and a coalition of states' lawsuit seeking to stop Nexstar Media Group Inc.'s integration with rival broadcast company Tegna Inc.

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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