California Pulse

  • Farrow, Foley & Walia

    Michelman & Robinson Taps Litigation, Practice Group Heads

    Los Angeles-headquartered Michelman & Robinson LLP has tapped a trio of new leaders for its firm, including a new litigation department chair and two practice group heads.

  • David L. Cheng

    FordHarrison Taps Wage-Hour Leader To Helm LA Shop

    FordHarrison LLP named the leader of its wage and hour practice to take over as managing partner in the firm's Los Angeles office, turning to an attorney who started at the firm over a decade ago as an associate.

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    Girardi Denied Bid To Delay Client Theft Trial To October

    A California federal judge rejected disgraced lawyer Tom Girardi's motion to have his closely watched wire fraud trial moved to October from its current August start date, determining that he was unable to provide a genuine reason as to why proceedings should be pushed back two months.

  • Ex-Venable Trusts And Estates Partner Joins Stradling In LA

    Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth PC announced that it launched a trusts and estates practice with the hiring of an experienced Los Angeles-based partner from Venable LLP.

  • Calif. Judge Admonished For Saying Victim Smelled Of Pot

    A California state judge was publicly admonished for making a series of inappropriate remarks in court, including one instance where he said a victim smelled of marijuana, according to a decision by the California Commission on Judicial Performance.

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    K&L Gates Employment Attys Join Shook Hardy In LA

    Shook Hardy announced Wednesday it hired a pair of longtime K&L Gates employment litigators as partners in the firm's fast-growing Los Angeles office.

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    ArentFox Schiff Lands IP Atty From Morgan Lewis In SF

    ArentFox Schiff LLP has added a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP associate in the firm's office in San Francisco, strengthening its intellectual property practice with a former prosecutor and litigator who helped a client win a $268 million award.

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    Haynes Boone's Office Moves Put Spotlight On Atty Wellness

    In relocating eight of its 19 locations over the past two years, international law firm Haynes and Boone LLP developed a set of standards for the new spaces that prioritize efficiency and attorney wellness. Law360 Pulse recently sat down with Chief Operating Officer Dave Boden to discuss the relocations and the firm's priorities for their design.

  • Glaser Weil Atty Fee Arbitration Award Upheld In Calif. Appeal

    A Los Angeles-area entrepreneur cannot escape a $462,000 legal fee arbitration judgment in favor of his former legal counsel, a California appellate panel determined, finding that a trial court was correct to approve the amount after he failed to appear at the arbitration, despite his claims of being bedridden due to COVID-19.

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    Russo Bros.' Media Company Hires Ex-Amazon Studios Atty

    AGBO, the media company co-founded by brother directors Anthony and Joe Russo, announced Wednesday that it had recruited as chief legal officer a seasoned entertainment and media in-house lawyer who has held senior positions at Amazon MGM Studios and HBO.

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    Law Firms Upsizing M&A Teams For Expected Deals Rebound

    With the deals market showing signs of recovery, law firms are once again actively hunting top corporate lawyers, especially those skilled in mergers and acquisitions and private equity, as they seek to get ahead of the anticipated uptick in transactional activity.

  • Smirnov Wants David Weiss DQ'd After Trump Docs Ruling

    Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov said Monday that a Florida federal judge's order disqualifying the special prosecutor in the Donald Trump classified documents case means special counsel David Weiss should also be disqualified from Smirnov's case, according to a motion filed in California federal court.

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    Tesla Swaps Cravath Out, WilmerHale In For Antitrust Defense

    WilmerHale has taken over from Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP as counsel for Tesla in a proposed class action in California federal court alleging the company runs an unlawful monopoly on parts for its electric vehicles.

  • Brian Maxwell

    Procopio Gets Experienced HR Pro From Deloitte

    Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch LLP announced Tuesday that it has hired as its new chief human resources officer an HR pro who worked at professional services giant Deloitte for more than two decades.

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    California Atty Accused In $282M Theft Put On Inactive Status

    A California lawyer who's accused of stealing as much as $282 million from debt relief clients has been placed on involuntary inactive status, and bar discipline authorities say he deserves to lose his license permanently.

  • Clifford Forrester

    Jackson Lewis Adds Tech Officer From Citrin Cooperman

    Jackson Lewis PC has brought aboard a new chief technology officer with decades of law firm-focused information technology and management experience, who most recently held the role of chief digital officer for professional services firm Citrin Cooperman.

  • Groups Slam UC Berkeley's 'Misreading' Of Antisemitism Case

    Jewish organizations suing the University of California, Berkeley, and its law school for allegedly tolerating an antisemitic culture on campus fought to keep their suit alive this week in the face of a motion to dismiss, maintaining their claims are ripe despite UC Berkeley's "bold misreading" of the case.

  • Alison Finley

    Universal Music Exec Joins Pierson Ferdinand In Los Angeles

    Alison Finley had always loved music, but she didn't know she could be an attorney in the industry until her first year at New York Law School when she walked into a panel on music.

  • Whirlpool CLO Joins Calif. Tech Biz Lam Research

    The former chief legal officer at Whirlpool Corp. has jumped to Fremont, California-based Lam Research Corp. as its top attorney, the company said Tuesday.

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    The 2024 Diversity Snapshot: What You Need To Know

    Law firms' ongoing initiatives to address diversity challenges have driven another year of progress, with the representation of minority attorneys continuing to improve across the board, albeit at a slower pace than in previous years. Here's our data dive into minority representation at law firms in 2023.

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    The 2024 Diversity Snapshot: Representation in the Ranks

    Attorneys of color now represent 27.6% of nonpartners at law firms, a new high-water mark for the industry. But progress has lagged higher up. Here's a more detailed look at the representation of minority attorneys at the associate and partner levels.

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    The 2024 Diversity Snapshot: How Firms Stack Up

    Data from Law360 Pulse's law firm survey reveals that while firms are continuing to diversify their attorney ranks, progress has slowed. Just 15.6% of firms top the benchmarks for the 2024 Diversity Snapshot ranking — a lower percentage than last year. Here’s the latest look at how diversity in law firms' headcounts compares with what it could be based on the potential marketplace of new hires.

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    These Firms Have The Most Diverse Equity Partnerships

    Law360’s law firm survey shows that firms' efforts to diversify their equity partner ranks are lagging. But some have embraced a broader talent pool at the equity partner level. Here are the ones that stood out.

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    Does Work-Life Balance Apply To BigLaw Partners?

    Have initiatives and programs to address work-life balance reached the equity partnership, or is it still the exception in the legal industry?

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    JD Vance's Wife Leaves Munger Tolles As Campaign Launches

    Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance, has resigned as a litigator at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, her now-former law firm told Law360 on Monday afternoon, presumably to trade her Washington, D.C.- and San Francisco-based litigation career for the campaign trail.

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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.

  • 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.

  • Series

    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.

  • 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.

  • Series

    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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