California Pulse


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    Orrick Brings On 3-Atty A&O Shearman Energy Team

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Wednesday that the firm has bulked up its energy platform with three former Allen Overy Shearman Sterling attorneys who have come aboard as partners in California, Washington state and Texas.

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    Knobbe Martens To Give Special Spring Bonuses Up To $25K

    Knobbe Martens will be paying special spring bonuses to all associates and counsel based on the year of partnership consideration, the intellectual property and technology law firm said Wednesday.

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    DLA Piper Adds Litigator And Ex-Baseball Pro From Quinn Emanuel

    DLA Piper continues expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP commercial litigator, who previously was a professional baseball player, as a partner in its San Francisco office.

  • Jury Won't Tour Living Room Where Calif. Judge Shot Wife

    A California state judge facing trial this week on charges of murdering his wife lost his bid to have jurors tour the living room of the house where she was shot to death, after a Los Angeles County judge ruled Tuesday that there's sufficient photographic evidence of the scene.

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    State Judges See Uneven Gains In Post-Lockdown Pay Hikes

    State judges received an average 5% raise last year — a "significant" improvement over the 1% to 2% raises on offer during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — but those pay increases were spread unequally across the country, with some state judges earning much higher salaries while the pay for others stagnated, according to a recent survey.

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    Weakened CFPB Prompts Ballard Spahr To Form State Team

    Ballard Spahr LLP announced Tuesday that it has formed a new state attorneys general consumer finance response team in response to the Trump administration's efforts to effectively shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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    Sidley Expands In Calif. With Latham Emerging Cos. Atty

    Sidley Austin LLP is expanding its West Coast team, bringing in a Latham & Watkins LLP emerging companies specialist as a partner in its San Francisco Bay Area offices.

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    Squire Patton Adds LA, London Partners To Global Board

    A trial lawyer and a specialist energy attorney are the two latest members elected to serve on Squire Patton Boggs LLP's global board, the firm announced Tuesday.

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    Carlton Fields Expands Compliance Consulting Arm

    Carlton Fields' consulting arm announced that an experienced compliance executive with more than 30 years of experience has joined as its new chief compliance leader.

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    Amid Lateral Tussle, BigLaw Firms Eye 'Boomerang Partners'

    As many law firms continue to tap lateral partner hires to achieve their strategic goals, a handful of firms are focusing on attracting departed partners to return, a once rare phenomenon some say appears to be picking up steam.

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    Former US Atty In California Returns To Munger Tolles In LA

    Munger Tolles & Olson LLP announced Tuesday it is welcoming back a former U.S. attorney who was previously with the firm, as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • Munger Tolles Gets $10M Retainer To Rep LA In Fire Litigation

    Munger Tolles & Olson LLP has signed a $10 million retainer agreement to represent the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in a series of lawsuits alleging it irresponsibly left a local reservoir empty ahead of last month's devastating Palisades Fire.

  • Buchalter, Parker Milliken Get Stay In $19M Theft Suit

    A California judge on Friday granted a stay to Buchalter PC and Parker Milliken Clark O'Hara & Samuelian APC while the law firms appeal a decision denying their bid to arbitrate a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to help their client bilk nearly $20 million from some trusts in a Ponzi scheme.

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    White House Fires 2 Calif. US Attorneys Picked By Biden

    President Donald Trump directed the White House to fire the two remaining Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys in California on Wednesday in his latest push to purge the U.S. Department of Justice of officials appointed under the Biden administration.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Delaware federal judge ruled that tech startup ROSS Intelligence infringed copyrighted material from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform to create a competing legal research tool powered by artificial intelligence.

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    Meet The Dropout Turned Atty Defending Judge In Murder Trial

    As a California state judge prepares to go on trial Tuesday on charges of murdering his wife, in his corner will be attorney Cameron Talley, a onetime high school dropout and former boxer who uses his ADHD to his advantage in the courtroom.

  • Concentrix GC Gets 10% Pay Bump To Move Closer To Median

    Business technology company Concentrix Corp. boosted its general counsel's pay by 10% in 2024, in what it described as a bid to address the "significant difference" between her salary and the median compensation among the company's peers, according to recent documents lodged with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

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    Sumo Logic Atty Rejoins Wilson Sonsini As GC In Residence

    Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC has launched a general counsel in residence program with the addition of the former legal leader for Sumo Logic Inc. and Informatica Inc.

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    Berry Producer Driscoll's First-Ever GC To Retire This Year

    Driscoll's first general counsel and human resources leader is set to retire from the berry producer after a decade with the company.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry had another action-packed week as BigLaw firms expanded their practices and President Donald Trump flexed his executive power with new appointments and policies. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Womble Bond Adds BakerHostetler Business Partner In Irvine

    Womble Bond Dickinson has hired a former BakerHostetler partner, who joined the firm's business litigation practice group as a partner in Irvine, California.

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    Love And Law: How 2 Busy Lawyers Keep The Spark Alive

    Nurturing a romantic relationship over many years can be challenging for anyone, let alone someone who has intense demands related to their careers the way many successful attorneys do. Here, two successful partners share some quick tips on how they each juggle their decades-long marriages alongside busy practices.

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    Thompson Hine Partner Wants To Help You Find True Love

    Heidi B. Friedman, co-chair of Thompson Hine LLP’s environmental, social and governance collaborative, has a side gig playing Cupid. She talked to Law360 Pulse about her new book, "Love Lessons: 104 Dates and the Stories that Led Me to True Love."

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    NY Leads Lateral Associate Pay Growth, Up $100K In 5 Years

    Competition for lateral associates in top U.S. legal markets, including New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., has soared over the past five years, as law firms compete fiercely for top talent, according to a recent report from global legal recruitment firm Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • SoCal Judge Admonished For 'Demeaning' Female Lawyers

    A Southern California judge was publicly reprimanded by the state's judicial discipline agency Thursday for a yearslong "pattern of discourteous, undignified and impatient behavior" toward female attorneys, including the use of profanities and inappropriate gestures meant to convey the act of pumping breast milk. 

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Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Law Firms Stressing Work-Life Balance Are Missing The Mark Author Photo

    Law firms struggling to attract and retain lawyers are institutionalizing work-life balance through hybrid work models, but such balance is elusive in a client services and tech-dependent world, underscoring the need for firms to instead aim for attorney empowerment and true balance within — not outside — the workplace, says Joe Pack at Pack Law.

  • A Law Student's Guide To Thriving As A Summer Associate Author Photo

    Summer associates are expected to establish a favorable reputation and develop genuine relationships in a few short weeks, but several time management, attitude and communication principles can help them make the most of their time and secure an offer for a full-time position, says Joseph Marciano, who was a 2022 summer associate at Reed Smith.

  • Burnout Prevention Requires Effort From Attys And Firms Author Photo

    To avoid physical and emotional exhaustion, attorneys must respect their own and their colleagues' personal and professional boundaries, but law firms must also play a role in discouraging burnout culture — especially if they are struggling with attorney retention, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • How I Owned My Power As An Asian American Woman In Law Author Photo

    Gibson Dunn's Debra Yang shares the bumps in her journey to becoming the first female Asian American U.S. attorney, a state judge and a senior partner in BigLaw, and how other women can face their self-doubts and blaze their own trails to success amid systemic obstacles.

  • Successful In-House Alt Legal Services Start With 4 Questions Author Photo

    Law firms that are considering creating an in-house alternative legal service provider should focus not on recapturing revenue otherwise lost to outside vendors, but instead consider how a captive ALSP will better fulfill the needs of their clients and partners, say Beatrice Seravello and Brad Blickstein at Baretz & Brunelle.

  • 3 Reasons To Embrace Jargon In Legal Marketing Content Author Photo

    Ignore what you've been told about jargon — adding insider industry terms to your firm's marketing and business development content can persuade potential clients that you have the specialized knowledge they can trust, says Wayne Pollock at Law Firm Editorial Service.

  • Future Lawyers Expect DEI Commitments Beyond Recruiting Author Photo

    To attract future lawyers from diverse backgrounds, firms must think beyond recruiting efforts, because law students are looking for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that invest in employee professional development and engage with students year-round, says Lauren Jackson at Howard University School of Law.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can Law Students Build Real-World Skills? Author Photo

    Allison Coffin at Akin Gump discusses how summer associates going back to school can continue to develop real-world lawyering skills by leveraging the numerous law school resources that support professional development both inside and outside the classroom.

  • How Firm Leaders Can Build And Sustain Culture Author Photo

    In uncertain and challenging times, law firm leaders can build and sustain culture by focusing attention on mission, values and leadership development, and applying a growth mindset across their firms, says Scott Westfahl at Harvard Law.

  • The Case That Showed Me The Value Of E-Discovery Plans Author Photo

    Robert Keeling at Sidley reflects on leading discovery in the litigation that followed the historic $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger and how the case highlighted the importance of having a strategic e-discovery plan in place.

  • Opinion

    CLE Accreditation Should Be Tied To Learning Outcomes Author Photo

    Given the substantial time and money lawyers put toward mandatory continuing legal education, CLE regulators and providers should be held to accreditation standards that assess learning outcomes, similar to those imposed on law schools and continuing medical education providers, says Rima Sirota at Georgetown Law.

  • Why You Should Leverage AI For Privilege Review Author Photo

    While many lawyers still believe that a manual, document-by-document review is the best approach to privilege logging, certain artificial intelligence tools can bolster the traditional review process and make this aspect of electronic document review more efficient, more accurate and less costly, say Laura Riff and Michelle Six at Kirkland.

  • Persuading The Court With Visual Aids In Written Argument Author Photo

    Robert Dubose at Alexander Dubose describes several categories of visuals attorneys can use to make written arguments easier to understand or more persuasive, and provides tips for lawyers unused to working with anything but text.

  • BigLaw Vs. Mid-Law Summer Programs: The Pros And Cons Author Photo

    There are major differences between BigLaw and Mid-Law summer associate programs, and each approach can learn something from the other in terms of structure and scheduling, the on-the-job learning opportunities provided, and the social experiences offered, says Anna Tison at Brooks Pierce.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Take Time Off? Author Photo

    David Kouba at Arnold & Porter discusses how attorneys can prioritize mental health leave and vacation despite work-related barriers to taking time off.

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