California Pulse


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    Womble Bond Adds Foley & Lardner Corporate Ace In SF

    Womble Bond Dickinson has hired a California-based attorney from Foley & Lardner who advises clients in technology, healthcare, energy and other industries on corporate and transactional matters.

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    Legal Jobs Down As Gov't Work Dries Up Under Trump

    Following modest gains at the beginning of the year, the U.S. legal sector lost 3,300 jobs in February, according to preliminary data released Friday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal sector started March with a downpour of big industry news, including leadership shuffles, office closures and group lateral moves. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

  • Amid Court Setbacks, Trump Wants Foes To Foot Legal Bills

    With judges hitting the brakes on the White House's aggressive agenda, President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to up the ante with his legal adversaries by seeking legal costs and damages if his administration ultimately prevails after initial setbacks in litigation.

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    East Coast Promos Lead Mid-Law Partnership Classes In 2025

    While the number of Mid-Law partnership promotions remained relatively stable this year, a handful of East Coast markets saw substantial growth, while other traditional hotbeds, such as California, experienced a decline in numbers, a Law360 Pulse analysis has found.

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    2025 Mid-Law Partner Classes See Bigger Share Of Women

    The percentage of women in Mid-Law partnership classes ticked upward in 2025, in what experts say may be a sign that efforts to boost women's representation in law firms are paying off, though the picture remains complicated, a Law360 Pulse analysis has found.

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    Biggest Takeaways From 2025's Mid-Law Partner Classes

    Partner class sizes among Mid-Law firms held steady in 2025 from the year prior, with experts saying firm leaders are likely being cautious about promotions in the face of uncertainty around the economy and artificial intelligence, according to a Law360 Pulse analysis.

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    Perkins Coie Life Sciences Ace Joins Gunderson Dettmer

    Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP is expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a Perkins Coie LLP life sciences transactions attorney as a partner in its Northern California offices.

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    Entertainment Atty Joins Pierson Ferdinand's Expanding Roster

    Pierson Ferdinand LLP announced Wednesday a veteran entertainment attorney with more than 30 years of experience, including a stint in-house with Sony, has joined the firm's global media, entertainment and sports practice as a Los Angeles-based partner.

  • Which GCs Sold Stock In February? Netflix's Scored Big

    Netflix Inc.'s David Hyman sold over $63 million worth of his company's stock in early February, surpassing the combined total for top lawyers at Live Nation Entertainment, Carlyle Group and Walmart Inc., who each earned between $8.1 million and $14.1 million in stock sales.

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    O'Melveny Antitrust Pro Jumps To Paul Hastings In LA

    Paul Hastings LLP is expanding its West Coast team, announcing Thursday it is bringing in an O'Melveny & Myers LLP antitrust litigator as a partner in a Los Angeles office.

  • Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

    With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

  • Justices Asked To Recuse Fitbit Judge Over Google Ties

    A Silicon Valley-based patent-holding company that lost its infringement case against Fitbit is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California federal judge and her husband's financial ties to Fitbit parent Google are so strong that "if these circumstances do not warrant recusal ... then nothing does."

  • Jay-Z, Buzbee Dispute Threats, Confession In Rape Case

    The monthslong legal feud between Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and prominent plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee has reached a new pitch, as Carter claims to have evidence proving he did not rape a 13-year-old alongside disgraced rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, while Buzbee claims Carter is trying to menace the victim into silence.

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    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.

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    ABA Says Attys Victimized By Clients May Share Certain Info

    An attorney who is a victim of a crime perpetrated by a client or prospective client may disclose client information "to the extent reasonably necessary to report a crime," the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has found in its latest ethics opinion, released Wednesday.

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    Weil Unveils New Leadership After Recent Departures

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP announced Wednesday that it is shifting several leaders of its practices, departments and offices, weeks after updating its governance structure and in the wake of several recent high-profile departures.

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    Ex-BigLaw Chair: 'You Can't Outgrow Your Infrastructure'

    After the law firm he founded in 2001, Goldberg Segalla LLP, saw massive growth under his two decades of leadership, Richard J. "RJ" Cohen Sr. said one major lesson he learned is that law firms need to ensure they don't outgrow their infrastructure and administrative teams.

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    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.

  • 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.

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    Broadcom CLO's Pay Jumps To $29M, Nearly Doubling

    Tech giant Broadcom Inc.'s chief legal officer took home almost $29 million in total compensation for 2024 — a figure nearly twice what he received the year before, and one that should put him at or near the top of the list of the most highly paid general counsel at U.S. public companies.

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    Gibson Dunn Litigator Jumps To Allen Matkins In California

    Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP is growing its California team, bringing in a Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP commercial litigator as a partner in its Orange County office.

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    Bay Area Real Estate, Enviro Partner Rejoins Hanson Bridgett

    A San Francisco land use and environmental attorney has rejoined California firm Hanson Bridgett LLP after six years working for the cities of Berkeley and Cupertino.

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    Leech Tishman Adds LA-Based Litigator Duo

    Leech Tishman has announced that a pair of Los Angeles-based entertainment and business litigators have joined the firm as partners from a local boutique.

  • Calif. Bar Staff Asks Board To Ditch Meazure's July Exam

    The State Bar of California recommended to its board of trustees to forgo its current partnership with bar exam administer ProctorU Inc., doing business as Meazure Learning, ahead of the July 2025 test following the disastrous rollout of its February exam, which prompted a nationwide class action filed in California federal court last week.

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Expert Analysis

  • How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers Author Photo

    A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.

  • A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy Author Photo

    Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.

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    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter Author Photo

    Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job? Author Photo

    Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law Author Photo

    Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge Author Photo

    With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.

  • Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law Author Photo

    With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.

  • Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know Author Photo

    The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly? Author Photo

    Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.

  • Yada, Yada, Yada: The Magic Of 3 In Legal Writing Author Photo

    Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.

  • How Firms Can Stop Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data Security Author Photo

    In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.

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