California Pulse

  • Calif. Panel Won't Block Sanctions Over Firm's Anti-SLAPP Bid

    A California appeals court has upheld a trial court's denial of an anti-SLAPP motion in a lawsuit alleging a partner in one law firm tried to misappropriate fees won in an overtime suit by another law firm where he was also a partner.

  • Google Privacy Class Action Delays Irk Discovery Judge

    A California federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday with discovery delays in a years-old class action alleging Google Assistant-enabled devices surreptitiously recorded conversations, telling attorneys they've already "been around and around and around" on discovery fights, and "we need to keep this moving."

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    Fish & Richardson Adds Sterne Kessler GC In Top Legal Role

    Fish & Richardson PC has hired the general counsel at Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC as its new chief legal risk officer, who is bringing her more than 15 years of experience with intellectual property law firm risk management and compliance to the firm.

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    Stradley Ronon Brings On Marketing Pro From Morgan Lewis

    Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP has a new director of marketing and communications who previously served in similar roles at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP and at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

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    Disbarred Atty Tom Girardi Convicted Of Defrauding Clients

    A California federal jury on Tuesday convicted disbarred attorney Tom Girardi on all four counts of wire fraud, finding that the former titan of the plaintiffs bar misappropriated $15 million of his clients' settlement funds.

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    Approach The Bench: Justice Earls On Speaking Out

    North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls still believes in the importance of informing the public about the judiciary, but these days she's a little more careful about what she says.

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    Weil Adds Ex-Kirkland, Massumi + Consoli PE Pro In Calif.

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP is expanding its California team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Massumi + Consoli LLP private equity expert as a partner in its recently opened Los Angeles office.

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    9th Circ. Chief Judge Cleared Of Judicial Misconduct Claims

    The Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit on Friday cleared its chief judge of judicial misconduct claims alleging she failed to timely investigate a Los Angeles judge's decision to have a lawyer handcuffed and detained during contempt proceedings, finding the allegations were unfounded.

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    Law Firm Revenue Rose At 'Historic' Rate In 2024's First Half

    U.S. law firm revenue was up 11.4% during the first half of 2024 compared to this time last year, marking one of the industry's best first halves in memory, second only to 2021, according to survey results released Monday by Wells Fargo Private Bank.

  • Brownstein Hires State Gov't Relations Duo In Sacramento

    Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP has hired two policy directors in Sacramento, who will bring more than 25 years of combined experience working with California lawmakers and business leaders to the firm, according to a Monday announcement.

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    Semiconductor Biz MaxLinear Cuts GC Job To Save Costs

    Semiconductor business MaxLinear Inc. recently reported that it has eliminated its general counsel and chief compliance officer post as a cost savings move.

  • Girardi Says High Court Holding Should Gut His Fraud Case

    Tom Girardi has urged a California federal judge to toss the majority of the wire fraud charges he is facing ahead of closing arguments in his trial, saying a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case demonstrates he was charged for nothing more than receiving legally required wire transfers.

  • LegalShield Used AI To Record Clients, Suit Says

    Online legal service company LegalShield has been letting a call center software company use artificial intelligence to intercept, analyze and record its customer calls and chats, according to a lawsuit recently pulled into California federal court.

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    ABA Guides Lawyers On Avoiding Criminal Transactions

    Just over a year after the American Bar Association formalized long-standing due diligence rules for attorneys' interactions with clients, an ABA committee on Friday released its first ethics opinion providing guidance on interpreting the rules amendment.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Richards Layton's handling of a suit over Tesla's Texas relocation and Wiley's representation of an American solar panel makers' interest group lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from Aug. 9 to 23.

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    Messner Reeves Commercial Litigator Jumps To Gordon Rees

    A former Messner Reeves LLP partner has jumped to Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP in San Diego to bolster its services in product and general liability matters, catastrophic brain injury cases and commercial litigation.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry had another action-packed week as BigLaw firms expanded practices, shook up partnership models, and outlined new policies on office attendance. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Fillmore Law Firm LLP, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center and the Business Roundtable lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Texas federal judge blocked a Federal Trade Commission ban on noncompete agreements in employment contracts.

  • Calif. Atty Can't Beat Sanctions In Geragos Malpractice Suit

    A California state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed $23,000 in sanctions for discovery violations on the part of a lawyer representing clients in a malpractice case against Hollywood litigator Mark Geragos.

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    Women Attys Mobilizing For Harris Say They Can't Sit This Out

    As Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to become the first female president, women in BigLaw and the broader legal community are rallying behind her, motivated by issues such as reproductive rights.

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    Tom Girardi Takes The Stand In His Criminal Fraud Trial

    Disbarred attorney Tom Girardi took the stand Thursday in his California federal fraud trial and denied stealing from any of his clients, while also showing a strong grasp of past events and people but claiming to have no memory of the trial's witnesses and key moments, or to even know his own lawyer's name.

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    Meet The 'Larger Than Life' Atty Defending Hunter Biden

    The renowned attorney representing Hunter Biden at his upcoming criminal tax trial is a "larger than life" figure whose ability to connect with a jury, legal acumen and media savvy have made him a go-to lawyer for celebrities and high-profile cases, according to those who know him.

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    'Beloved By Everyone': Attys Recall Clifford Chance's Morvillo

    Clifford Chance LLP partner Christopher Morvillo, who died this week after a luxury yacht he was on sank off the coast of Sicily, is being remembered not only as a lion of the legal community but also as an "extraordinary human being" and a "Renaissance man" who was devoted to his family.

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    WilmerHale Adds Nonequity Partnership Tier

    Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP has become the latest BigLaw shop to create a nonequity partnership tier, the firm confirmed Thursday.

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    Perkins Coie Leader On 'Bold' Rebrand And Strategic Growth

    Perkins Coie LLP recently launched a new branding initiative, including a redesigned website, to better reflect its forward-looking and innovative reputation. Law360 Pulse spoke with Managing Partner Bill Malley about the rebranding strategy, its alignment with the firm’s goals, and its impact on future business development.

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Expert Analysis

  • Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities? Author Photo

    While involvement in internal firm initiatives can be rewarding both personally and professionally, associates' billable time requirements don’t leave much room for other work, meaning they must develop strategies to ensure they’re meeting all of their commitments while remaining balanced, says Melanie Webber at Fisher Phillips.

  • Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets Author Photo

    Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together Author Photo

    It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.

  • 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.

  • Series

    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.

  • Series

    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.

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