California

  • October 13, 2026

    High Court Will Not Hear Fiat Chrysler Defect Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to weigh whether an arbitrator or a court should decide the proper venue for a dispute involving a nonsignatory to an arbitration agreement in an appeal brought by Fiat Chrysler in a proposed class action over allegedly defective Jeep and Dodge headrests.

  • October 13, 2026

    High Court Sends Back $28M Roundup Verdict After Durnell

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday remanded a case involving a $28 million award to a California man who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Monsanto's Roundup weed killer, following its recent ruling that federal law barred failure-to-warn claims over the pesticide.

  • October 13, 2026

    Character.AI Files Ch. 11 With $20M Sale Bid From Disney

    Artificial intelligence entertainment platform Character Technologies has filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware with more than $50 million in debt, saying it was sunk by high operating and legal costs and plans an asset auction with a baseline $20 million bid from Disney.

  • October 13, 2026

    Justices Won't Eye 'Weaponized' Sanctions Of Election Attys

    Despite outrage among Ninth Circuit conservatives, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to scrutinize six-figure sanctions of lawyers who challenged Arizona election protocols, leaving intact discipline designed to "send a message."

  • October 09, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Q3 Deals, NYC Renos, Calif. Data Center Laws

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a look at the top real estate deals of the third quarter, and conversations with leading attorneys on older New York City buildings and new California data center laws.

  • October 09, 2026

    Anthropic Says Claude Gave False Murder Tip To Philly Cops

    Anthropic on Friday disclosed a series of incidents in which its Claude artificial intelligence tool went rogue, particularly in interactions with federal and local government websites, including an incident in which it submitted a false tip about an unsolved homicide to the Philadelphia Police Department.

  • October 09, 2026

    Warren Presses Fed For Details Of Early SVB Report Access

    The U.S. Senate Banking Committee's top Democrat is calling on Federal Reserve officials for answers after some outside experts were given an early look at a recent independent report on Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, questioning who authorized the access and how recipients were chosen.

  • October 09, 2026

    9th Circ. Sides With Forest Service In Idaho Project Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court's finding that the U.S. Forest Service ran afoul of the National Forest Management Act when it approved an Idaho project, ruling the court erred when analyzing the project's compliance with limits on road construction in areas in and around bear habitat.

  • October 09, 2026

    Calif. Commission Bumps Up 3 Judges To Appellate Posts

    California's Commission on Judicial Appointments voted to elevate three Superior Court judges to state appellate court positions in Los Angeles and Santa Ana, the commission announced Friday.

  • October 09, 2026

    Apple, Amazon Hit With New IPad Sale Antitrust Suit

    Amazon and Apple were hit with a proposed antitrust class action again on Friday in Washington federal court by customers who alleged the tech giants violated the Sherman Act through an illegal arrangement to eliminate nearly all Apple reseller competitors from Amazon, which raised prices for iPads.

  • October 09, 2026

    Payday Lender Says Baltimore Oversteps Its Power With Suit

    Dave Inc. has pushed back on a lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore, saying the municipality has exceeded its powers by using a local ordinance to accuse the payday lender of charging excessive interest rates on its products.

  • October 09, 2026

    Calif. Hotels Give Chinese Bank Path To $209M In Awards

    A California federal judge has refused to dismiss a Chinese bank's lawsuit seeking to enforce about $209 million in arbitral awards against a businessperson, ruling that hotels he bought in the state give the court jurisdiction over the case even though he doesn't live in the U.S.

  • October 09, 2026

    Calif. Jurists' Atty Tips: 'Emulate Lincoln,' 'Don't Be Boring'

    Three current and former Northern California federal judges and one Morrison Foerster LLP partner during a Federal Bar Association panel discussion Thursday gave attorneys tips on "courtroom persuasion," including knowing the judges, keeping things interesting and, like the nation's 16th president, getting quickly to the winning point.

  • October 09, 2026

    9th Circ. Says AmeriBen Data Breach Enough To Allege Injury

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived a proposed data breach class action alleging health plan administrator AmeriBen unlawfully revealed patients' information, ruling the disclosures were enough to sustain a lawsuit even if the underlying information might seem "mundane."

  • October 09, 2026

    Amazon Can't Push Back FTC Antitrust Trial

    A Washington federal judge refused Friday to delay the Federal Trade Commission antitrust trial accusing Amazon.com Inc. of creating an artificial pricing floor in online retail, forcing the company to try to navigate a potential timing overlap in parallel state court litigation from the California attorney general.

  • October 09, 2026

    Activision Gets PTAB To Invalidate IP From Gaming Fight

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has thrown out more than a dozen claims in a Milestone Entertainment gaming patent that the company accused Activision Blizzard Inc. of infringing with Candy Crush Saga and other games in a California federal court lawsuit.

  • October 09, 2026

    States Fight DOL's Ax Of Unemployment Insurance Grants

    Fourteen states sued the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Friday, alleging the U.S. Department of Labor wrongfully terminated grants intended for modernizing their unemployment insurance programs.

  • October 09, 2026

    Feds Say Calif. 'Clean Trucks' Pact Usurps Emissions Rules

    The Trump administration said Friday that California cannot usurp exclusive federal authority to set uniform motor vehicle emissions standards, urging a federal judge to strike down the Golden State's efforts to still enforce stricter emissions mandates on heavy-duty truck manufacturers in defiance of federal law.

  • October 09, 2026

    DirecTV, AGs Can't See Nexstar-Tegna Benefits Yet

    A California federal magistrate judge refused to make Nexstar and Tegna explain how their $6.2 billion merger will boost local news against streaming competition and accelerate technological transition, rejecting as premature a motion to compel from DirecTV and the bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general challenging the deal.

  • October 09, 2026

    'A Moral Hazard': Kalshi Drug Trial Bets Spark Ethical Qualms

    Kalshi Inc. opening prediction markets for clinical drug trials has raised a host of compliance concerns for attorneys, including the risk of insider trading among the wide swaths of stakeholders in the know about the trials, as well as the danger of compromising the trials themselves.

  • October 09, 2026

    Feds Again Turn To 9th Circ. In Fight Over ICE Facility

    The Trump administration said Friday it will ask the Ninth Circuit to overturn a trial court decision requiring ICE to give independent monitors access to conduct inspections and electronic records for detained immigrants at a lockup in Adelanto, California, where a judge has twice called for conditions to be improved.

  • October 09, 2026

    US Trustee Questions Releases In SF Archdiocese Ch. 11 Plan

    The U.S. Trustee's Office asked a California bankruptcy judge to reject the Archdiocese of San Francisco's Chapter 11 plan disclosure unless it explains why sexual abuse claimants must waive their claims to benefit from the plan.

  • October 08, 2026

    Taro Pharma Says MDL Deal Bars States' Duplicative Claims

    Taro Pharmaceuticals USA asked a Connecticut federal judge to toss generic-drug price-fixing claims brought by a coalition of states on behalf of consumers that are duplicative of claims the consumers have already resolved through settlements in separate multidistrict litigation.

  • October 08, 2026

    Pasadena Worker Accuses 9th Circ. Of 'Lies' In COVID Ruling

    A Pasadena police employee on Thursday failed to convince the Ninth Circuit to give him a second shot at suing the city over its COVID-19 vaccination policy, rejecting his argument that a panel decision in the matter was "rife with lies, misstatements, material omissions and total fabrications."

  • October 08, 2026

    New USPTO GC Vows Government Won't 'Micromanage' IP

    John Duffy, the new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office general counsel and acting solicitor, told patent professionals gathered in San Francisco on Thursday that the economic use of patent rights is best handled by the private sector and that governments here and elsewhere shouldn't "micromanage the commerce of intellectual properties."

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Shareholder Derivative Litigation Needs A Better Framework

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    Uncoordinated, multiforum shareholder derivative litigation is a growing issue for corporate defendants that have little to no recourse for organizing and consolidating actions, but several commonsense steps should be utilized to preempt such disputes, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Occupier Contract Strategies For Locking In Expansion Rights

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    In a market defined by record-setting demand, shrinking availability and rising rents, large commercial office occupiers must treat expansion space planning as a strategic priority, including by auditing existing rights, understanding the competitive landscape within their buildings and exploring creative lease provisions, says Josh Winefsky at HSF Kramer.

  • How State, Local Rules Are Expanding Debt Collection Reach

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    Consumer protection rules recently enacted by several states signal that the rules of debt collection are being rewritten at a pace that should command the attention of every creditor, servicer, debt buyer, collection agency and collection law firm operating across state lines, says Weldianne Scales at Reed Smith.

  • 2 AI Washing Rulings Apply Familiar Securities Fraud Rules

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    Two recent federal court decisions to allow AI washing complaints to proceed begin to clarify the line between nonactionable optimism and actionable misstatements by framing the core issue as not overstating the promise of artificial intelligence, but misrepresenting the current state of a company's products, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • A New Regulatory Environment For PE In Calif. Healthcare

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    The California Office of Health Care Affordability's proposed revisions to its cost and market impact review regulations, amid broader state scrutiny of private equity-backed healthcare arrangements, represent a qualitative shift in California's regulatory posture toward institutional healthcare investment, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • CFIUS' Mandate Misses Foreign Risk In Project Subcontracts

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    Recent calls for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review equity transactions like the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. deal miss a consequential oversight gap — CFIUS' inability to review the subcontracting layer of U.S. infrastructure projects, says Thibaut Giret at Alstef Group.

  • AI Governance Tips For Avoiding Securities Suits

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    A recent securities class action in California federal court against lending platform Upstart highlights how statements about artificial intelligence are increasingly being scrutinized not only by regulators, but also by shareholders, meaning companies should ensure oversight frameworks keep pace with the technology, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • How Cos. Can Prep For Ultra-Processed Food Legal Risks

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    A wave of litigation and government scrutiny directed against ultra-processed foods is now gaining momentum, following patterns seen previously in other industries — and food companies that recognize those patterns early will be better positioned to manage the increasing risks, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • Pregnancy Bias Suits Highlight EEOC's Expanding Reach

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    Recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suits show that enactment of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has drawn scrutiny to a wider range of employment decisions and an increasing focus on individual decisions as indicators of whether an employer's policies comply with evolving federal requirements, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several noteworthy financial services developments to California, including activity around a commercial finance oversight bill, the former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head's appointment to lead a new consumer agency, and a ruling reinforcing viable bank-fintech partnerships, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • What Ex-CFPB Head's Calif. Role May Foretell For Oversight

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's selection of former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra to lead a new consumer agency signals tougher state financial services oversight, especially for fintechs, as well as heightened enforcement activity and larger penalties, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Immigration Ruling Maps Alternative To Universal Injunctions

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    A Rhode Island federal court's decision in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS vacating policies that froze key immigration adjudications for nationals of 39 countries, and paused asylum applications altogether, suggests how practitioners might press for the Administrative Procedure Act's bad faith exception to record review and seek vacatur as a viable alternative to universal injunctions, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

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