California

  • August 19, 2026

    XAI Sued Over Grok's Alleged Creation Of CSAM Deepfakes

    Elon Musk's xAI failed to implement industry-standard safeguards on its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok and knowingly allowed it to be used to create deepfakes of real children depicted in child sexual abuse material, according to a proposed class action filed in California federal court.

  • August 19, 2026

    EPA Waiver Review Could Upend Rulemaking, Judge Signals

    A D.C. federal judge predicted Wednesday that there could be wide-ranging implications for oversight of agency rulemaking if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowed to put California emissions waivers up for congressional review more than a decade after they were first granted.

  • August 19, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Initial Arbitration No Obstacle To EFAA

    A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that a fired biopharmaceutical executive could quit arbitration and file a suit claiming her boss subjected her to gender-based harassment, finding the pivot was fair game under a law that shields sex misconduct disputes from out-of-court resolutions.

  • August 19, 2026

    'Bob's Burgers' Actor Sues Lucid Over 'Lemon' SUV

    Comedian and "Bob's Burgers" star Eugene Mirman has sued California-based electric automaker Lucid in Massachusetts state court for leasing him a "lemon" last year.

  • August 19, 2026

    Google Beats Class Suit Over Free Workspace Promises

    Google has defeated a class action alleging it reneged on its promise to offer free access to its business-productivity tools, formerly known as Google Apps, with a California federal judge saying the contracts with users affirmatively authorized the company to stop offering a free version of the service. 

  • August 19, 2026

    OpenAI Opposes Early Discovery In Apple Trade Secret Suit

    OpenAI and two of its employees have asked a California federal court to reject Apple's bid for expedited discovery in its trade secret lawsuit accusing OpenAI of using former Apple employees to obtain confidential information, arguing that discovery will begin soon enough.

  • August 19, 2026

    Paramount Judge Urges Parties To Be 'More Reasonable'

    A California federal judge overseeing the challenge to Paramount Skydance's $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition brought by the Writers Guild of America and state attorneys general urged the parties Wednesday to be "much more reasonable" with discovery disputes, warning that if they aren't, "you will find yourself asked to engage a special master."

  • August 19, 2026

    Paramount Viewers Stuck With Bringing Amended Suit

    A California federal judge refused Tuesday to reconsider dismissing a consumer complaint challenging Paramount's completed merger with Skydance and its planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, holding that the filing of an amended complaint mooted the motion.

  • August 19, 2026

    Chipotle Beats Investor Suit Over Viral Burrito Size Backlash

    Chipotle Mexican Grill has permanently beaten an investor suit tied to social media-fueled complaints about its portion sizes, with a California federal judge finding that the suit failed to plausibly plead its securities fraud theories.

  • August 19, 2026

    Clark Hill Adds 3-Atty International Trade Team From Crowell

    Clark Hill PLC announced on Wednesday that it had bolstered its international law, trade and transaction practice with the addition of three Crowell & Moring LLP lawyers who have worked together for more than 20 years.

  • August 19, 2026

    Deloitte Can't Shake Leave Bias Suit From Ex-Manager

    A California federal court has refused to dismiss a proposed class action accusing Deloitte Consulting LLP of penalizing employees through a performance evaluation system that shortchanges the compensation of workers who take parental or pregnancy leave.

  • August 19, 2026

    Med Co. Director's Fiduciary Claims Not Covered, Judge Says

    A Nationwide unit had no duty to defend or indemnify a medical diagnostics company's directors against another director and shareholder's fiduciary breach allegations, a California federal court ruled, saying coverage was barred by an "insured v. insured" exclusion.

  • August 19, 2026

    Delivery Driver Loses Class Cert. Bid In Misclassification Suit

    A delivery driver who accused a logistics company of misclassifying him and thousands of other California workers as independent contractors cannot get his proposed class certified, a federal court found, finding the variation in the drivers' operations prevents them from resolving their claims on a classwide basis.

  • August 18, 2026

    Lady Gaga Beats Surf Brand's 'Mayhem' TM Infringement Suit

    A California federal judge Tuesday granted Lady Gaga's bid to toss a surf and lifestyle brand's lawsuit accusing her of infringing a "Mayhem" mark on her merchandise, saying the brand failed to sufficiently allege that the pop star's use of the mark explicitly misled consumers.

  • August 18, 2026

    Uber Eats To Pay $4.4M To End Seattle Wage Theft Claims

    Uber Eats will again fork out millions of dollars to settle allegations from Seattle officials that the food delivery giant failed to pay its couriers what they're owed under municipal app-based worker laws, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards announced Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    Zuckerberg Waved Off Filter Criticism, Tenn. Jury Hears

    A former Meta executive overseeing responsible innovation testified Tuesday that Mark Zuckerberg iced out her thoughts regarding the harm to teens of cosmetic surgery image filters, but said generally the company's employees are well intentioned when it comes to user safety.

  • August 18, 2026

    BofA Loses Bid To Exit COVID-Era Calif. Benefits Card MDL

    A California federal judge largely denied Bank of America's bid for an early win in multidistrict litigation over allegations the bank mishandled reports of unauthorized ATM transactions on unemployment benefits cards issued during the pandemic, according to an opinion unsealed Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    'Profits Won': States Say Meta Targeted Kids As Trial Opens

    An attorney for more than two dozen states told a California federal jury during opening statements Tuesday that Meta hid what it knew about social media's mental health harms and prioritized profits over safety in a yearslong effort to hook kids on its platforms, while Meta defended its safety practices as best-in-class.

  • August 18, 2026

    Snap Says Pixel Suit Refiled To Avoid Skeptical Calif. Judge

    Snap is pushing to move a proposed pixel-tracking class action from federal court in Los Angeles to San Francisco, arguing that the dispute "bears all the hallmarks of strategic forum selection designed to avoid" litigating in front of a Northern District of California judge who's called the state's wiretap statute "a total mess."

  • August 18, 2026

    Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

    The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 18, 2026

    Judge Cancels $82M Navy Base Operations Services Contract

    A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge ordered the Navy to cancel an $82 million contract for base operations support services at Naval Base Coronado in Southern California, finding the Navy failed to consider the winning contractor's negative performance under a prior contract.  

  • August 18, 2026

    Intuit Hid AI, Mailchimp Woes From Investors, Suit Says

    TurboTax distributor Intuit Inc. has been hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of falsely telling investors that it was well-positioned to integrate generative artificial intelligence tools even though the technology was actually diminishing Intuit's primary businesses.

  • August 18, 2026

    Netflix Says Tyra Banks Signed Away Editorial Control Of Doc

    Netflix and the producers behind a docuseries about "America's Next Top Model" asked a California federal judge to dismiss Tyra Banks' defamation lawsuit, arguing her allegations are nothing more than "complaints about ordinary editorial decisions" that are protected by free speech laws.

  • August 18, 2026

    OnlyFans Creator Sues MrBeast, Amazon For Bogus Rules

    A staffer for the 2024 MrBeast Games allegedly told a contestant she must delete her OnlyFans, which netted $60,000 a year, or be kicked out of the $5 million competition despite no one else being forced to do this, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Court that seeks damages from the show and Amazon.

  • August 18, 2026

    PE Music Rights Co. Sues Anthropic, Suno Over AI Training

    Private equity music publisher Round Hill Music has sued Anthropic, Suno and web-scraping provider Bright Data in separate federal lawsuits in California, accusing the companies of "rampant commercial copying" of thousands of its copyrighted songs and lyrics without permission to build and train artificial intelligence systems.

Expert Analysis

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Sentencing Tips For Defending Crypto Conspiracy Cases

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    The sentencing of Evan Tangeman to 70 months in federal prison for laundering money in a cryptocurrency conspiracy illustrates that defense attorneys representing clients in multidefendant crypto cases need to understand the mechanics of conspiracy liability, loss attribution and restitution exposure before they reach the sentencing table, says Joseph De Gregorio at Sentencing Advocacy.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Operational AI Washing: A New Securities Class Action

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    In rising claims of operational AI washing — plaintiffs alleging that artificial intelligence was invoked to explain corporate business decisions in ways that may obscure underlying financial distress — earnings calls, restructuring disclosures and board-level communications will serve as key defense evidence, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • 1st Surveillance Pricing Law In Md. Reflects Broader Scrutiny

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    A new law will make Maryland the first state to target data-driven or surveillance-based price manipulation, highlighting increased scrutiny from federal and state enforcement agencies and policymakers as they consider whether new laws are required to regulate dynamic pricing, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Understanding The Insider Trading Gap In Prediction Markets

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    While the first-ever insider trading indictment involving a prediction market — the recent prosecution of a service member involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro — comprised extreme facts and straightforward legal theories, future cases will test the bounds of insider trading law, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

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