California Pulse

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    Womble Bond Adds IP Litigator In LA

    A patent attorney specializing in software and technology innovations has moved his practice to Womble Bond Dickinson LLP's Los Angeles office after more than 12 years with Ladas & Parry LLP.

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    5 'Fat Leonard' Bribery Pleas Axed Over Misconduct

    A California federal judge has agreed to toss felony plea deals for five former U.S. Navy officers who admitted they took bribes from the Malaysian defense contractor known as "Fat Leonard," after the government acknowledged prosecutorial missteps had tainted the high-profile case.

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    Law360 Names Attys Who Moved Up The Firm Ranks In Q1

    A promotion to partner or election to practice group chair means a slew of new responsibilities and also lots of well-deserved recognition. Law360 reveals the list of attorneys whose commitment to legal excellence earned them highly coveted spots in the law firm leadership ranks. Find out if your old legal friends — or rivals — moved up in the fourth quarter of last year.

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    LA Investor Sues Greenberg Glusker Over 'Appalling' Filings

    A Los Angeles investor has filed a suit against Greenberg Glusker and two of its partners for allegedly bungling his defense in an underlying suit brought by his stepson, accusing the firm of sharing a draft complaint prior to filing and including inaccuracies and unnecessary personal attacks in another filing, while also pressuring him to accept a bad settlement.

  • Networking App Nextdoor Promotes Atty To Lead Legal Team

    Nextdoor has promoted an in-house attorney who has been with the social networking company for more than five years to serve as its top attorney.

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    Ropes & Gray Tech Leader Joins Silicon Valley IP Boutique

    Intellectual property boutique Turner Boyd Seraphine LLP announced Tuesday that a Ropes & Gray LLP IP litigator has joined the Silicon Valley firm as partner.

  • X Corp., Hate Speech Watchdog Settle Atty Fees Bid

    A California federal judge Tuesday signed off on an agreement that X Corp. and the Center for Countering Digital Hate reached to resolve the nonprofit organization's bid for $300,000 in attorney fees following a successful defense against the Elon Musk-led social media platform's claims that the center used improper tactics to write one of its articles.

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    Ex-LA DA Sues State Farm Over Gun Incident Legal Fees

    Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey sued her insurer in California state court Tuesday, alleging State Farm cost her more than $2.1 million by failing to cover legal fees when she and her late husband were sued because he brandished a gun against protesters at their home.

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    'Visibility Is Vital': LA Top Judge Honored For Diversity Efforts

    Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner, who recently received an award for her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion within the legal profession, adheres to the mantra that "if you can see it, you can believe it and you can achieve it."

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    ABA Faces Racial Bias Complaint Over Diversity Programs

    A conservative nonprofit on Tuesday hit the American Bar Association with a Title VI complaint, claiming a handful of "nefarious" ABA-led programs meant to connect minority law school students with judges are "racially discriminatory."

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    Singleton Schreiber Adds Injury Litigator Who Took On J&J

    An experienced personal injury attorney who was part of the Beasley Allen legal team working on the talcum powder litigation against Johnson & Johnson has joined Singleton Schreiber LLP.

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    Attys With AI Skills Command Pay Bumps In The US, UK

    Lawyer job listings that require artificial intelligence skills carry a wage premium of up to 49% higher in some markets, according to a report released Tuesday.

  • DOJ, VW Ask 9th Circ. To Void Jones Day Docs Release Order

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Volkswagen have told the Ninth Circuit that forcing them to release confidential Volkswagen documents that were part of a Jones Day investigation into the automaker's 2015 emissions-cheating scandal would have far-reaching, chilling implications for federal criminal prosecutions.

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    Is The Sky The Limit For BigLaw Billing Rates?

    Data continues to pile up demonstrating large law firms' success in raising their billing rates at a historic pace while also continuing to command ever-larger portions of in-house legal departments' spending, which seems to point to a seemingly unfettered ability to raise rates.

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    Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023

    The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.

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    The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms

    The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.

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    ABA's Education Section Endorses Alternative Atty Licensing

    The American Bar Association's national accrediting arm for law degree programs announced during a council meeting Friday the adoption of a report that effectively recognizes alternative methods of attorney licensing outside the bar exam.

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    Courts' 'Wait And See' On Deepfake Rule Gets Mixed Reviews

    A new evidentiary rule for dealing with artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes is unnecessary right now, according to a federal judiciary committee, but the courts' "wait and see" approach may be too cautious, some experts told Law360 Monday.

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    Goodwin Adds Sidley Startup, Climate Tech Ace In Calif.

    Goodwin Procter LLP is expanding its technology team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Sidley Austin LLP startup and climate tech specialist as a partner in its Silicon Valley office.

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    Snell & Wilmer Lands Hahn Loeser Employment Pro In Calif.

    Snell & Wilmer LLP has added a Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP partner in San Diego, strengthening its labor and employment practice.

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    SunPower CLO Moves To Top Legal Spot At Infinera

    Telecom equipment company Infinera Corp. announced a new legal chief on Monday whose resume includes close to 25 years of in-house experience, including most recently as executive vice president and chief legal officer of SunPower Corp.

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    Girardi Wants To Probe Jurors' 'Real Housewives' Exposure

    Public defenders for Tom Girardi want to ask prospective jurors in his upcoming fraud trial whether they have seen his wife's reality television show and news reporting about his law firm's massive scandal, according to a recent motion in Los Angeles federal court.

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    Retired Santa Cruz County, California, Judge Moves To JAMS

    The alternative dispute resolution service JAMS has expanded its mediation team, announcing last week it added a former California state judge as a mediator.

  • Calif. OKs Rule For Judges To Work Remotely In Civil Cases

    California's Judicial Council on Friday approved a new rule of court to allow judges to preside remotely under limited circumstances over civil proceedings from a location other than a courtroom.

  • Calif.'s Top Judge Launches Task Force To Probe AI Uses

    California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero has created a new task force to look into how generative artificial intelligence could benefit the court system and its users, while also evaluating its potential risks, the court announced Friday.

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Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 5 Life Lessons From Making Partner As A Solo Parent Author Photo

    Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage? Author Photo

    Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.

  • Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career Author Photo

    Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.

  • Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use Author Photo

    ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

  • Opinion

    We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds Author Photo

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

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