California

  • October 02, 2025

    Bored Ape NFTs Aren't Securities, Judge Holds

    A California federal judge tossed a proposed securities class action against the firm behind the popular Bored Ape non-fungible token collection and its celebrity promoters, saying the token sales didn't amount to securities transactions.

  • October 02, 2025

    Tesla Can't Nix Battery Maker's Arbitration Award, Judge Rules

    A California federal judge has confirmed an arbitration award that guarantees a battery maker's right to sell its dry battery electrode equipment to parties other than Tesla, rejecting Tesla's contention that an arbitrator disregarded the law when interpreting the companies' intellectual property rights in the equipment.

  • October 02, 2025

    Pac-12's Antitrust Suit Over Exit Fees Can Go On, Judge Says

    The Mountain West Conference cannot escape a lawsuit over its demand for $55 million in "poaching" fees from the Pac-12 for luring away five universities, with a California federal judge ruling that there are plausible claims that the exit fees violate antitrust laws.

  • October 02, 2025

    Apple IP Suit Stayed As Appeal In Samsung Case Plays Out

    A California federal judge on Thursday stayed litigation claiming certain Apple touchscreen products infringe a Michigan company's patent, while the same company appeals a separate case against Samsung, but the judge tipped his hand by saying the Samsung judge's opinion tossing that dispute "made perfect sense to me."

  • October 02, 2025

    LinkedIn Sues Over Alleged 'Industrial-Scale' Data Scraping

    LinkedIn Corp. sued ProAPIs, Netswift and its co-founder Rehmat Alam in California federal court Thursday, alleging the software-makers operate "industrial-scale" data scraping mills that violate LinkedIn's terms and numerous other laws by continuously creating fake accounts to extract LinkedIn's member data, which they then sell without permission.

  • October 02, 2025

    Rust-Oleum Buyers' $1.5M Greenwashing Deal Gets Final OK

    A California federal judge on Thursday gave her final blessing to a $1.5 million settlement to a class of Rust-Oleum Corp. customers who accused the company of "greenwashing" its cleaning products with representations like "non-toxic" and "Earth Friendly," noting the deal provides significant monetary and nonmonetary benefits to the plaintiffs.

  • October 02, 2025

    Mass. Court Denies States' Bid To Block ACA Subsidy Cuts

    A Massachusetts federal court has rejected a bid by a coalition of 21 states to stay implementation of a rule that will cut Affordable Care Act subsidies and enforce enrollment restrictions, saying the states hadn't shown imminent or irreparable harm from the policy's costs or possible coverage losses.

  • October 02, 2025

    Energy Dept. Cancels $7.5B In Blue State Project Awards

    The U.S. Department of Energy said it's terminating over $7.5 billion in grants for energy projects, which are primarily clean energy projects located in blue states and include a regional hydrogen hub in California slated to receive a $1.2 billion funding commitment.

  • October 02, 2025

    Jones Day Brings Back Latham M&A Pro In Silicon Valley

    Jones Day is boosting its corporate team, announcing Thursday that it is welcoming back a Latham & Watkins LLP mergers and acquisitions expert who started his career at Jones Day as a partner in its Silicon Valley office.

  • October 02, 2025

    Calif. Law Updates Rules For Tax-Defaulted Property Sales

    California has enacted a measure conforming the process of selling tax-defaulted property to a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding Minnesota violated the Fifth Amendment by keeping proceeds from a foreclosure sale that exceeded a tax debt.

  • October 02, 2025

    Barnes & Thornburg Adds Tucker Ellis Litigator In LA

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP has expanded its West Coast team, bringing in a Tucker Ellis LLP product liability expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • October 01, 2025

    States Say DOJ Can't Tie Victim Service Funds To Immigration

    Several state attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Justice in Rhode Island federal court Wednesday over new restrictions prohibiting them from using federal funding that supports crime victims to provide services to "removable aliens," in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution's spending clause.

  • October 01, 2025

    Accellion Breach Plaintiffs Get Cert. For Narrow Subclasses

    A California federal judge has agreed to allow plaintiffs to proceed with five subclasses in their dispute with Accellion over allegations the company failed to protect against cyberattacks on its file-sharing software, while finding that a lack of "cohesion" doomed their chances to certify a broader negligence class of roughly 5 million breach victims. 

  • October 01, 2025

    Alphabet CLO Urges Europe To Clear Hurdles For AI

    Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer for Google and Alphabet, on Wednesday called on the European Union to do away with "regulatory complexity" as global competition in artificial intelligence intensifies, saying European businesses are finding regulation to be their biggest hurdle to investment in the bloc.

  • October 01, 2025

    Captive Audience Ban Meets Starkly Different Fate In Calif., Ill.

    A California federal judge preliminarily blocked a new state law that prohibits employers from holding so-called captive audience meetings on Tuesday, the same day that an Illinois federal judge tossed a lawsuit challenging a similar state law in the Prairie State.

  • October 01, 2025

    Ex-Akerman Employment Partner Accuses Firm Of Race Bias

    A veteran employment attorney alleges in a California state lawsuit that Akerman LLP treated her less favorably than her non-Latino and male colleagues, including requiring her to deliver bad news to other attorneys' clients and not giving her adequate support staff, before firing her in retaliation for taking medical leave.

  • October 01, 2025

    Prosecutors, Defense Face Confrontation Crisis After Smith

    As state courts grapple with the U.S. Supreme Court's broadened application of the Sixth Amendment's confrontation clause, unwary prosecutors and defense attorneys could easily end up in an evidentiary bind.

  • October 01, 2025

    US, Copper Co. Ask 9th Circ. To Spike Land Transfer Appeal

    The U.S. government and a copper company have asked the Ninth Circuit to dismiss conservation groups' and an Apache tribe's appeal of an Arizona federal judge's decision to uphold a federal law authorizing a land exchange.

  • October 01, 2025

    PG&E Brass, Underwriters Get Investors' Wildfire Suit Tossed

    A California federal judge has thrown out a proposed investor class action against PG&E officers, directors and underwriters that blamed stockholder losses following deadly wildfires on previous statements by PG&E officials about the utility's safety practices, but said they could try a fifth time.

  • October 01, 2025

    LA Pot Cos. Kept Tips, Denied Breaks, Budtender Claims

    The owners of the Herbarium chain of dispensaries in Los Angeles fired a budtender after she spoke up about unpaid overtime, the lack of lunch breaks and stolen tips, according to a wrongful termination suit and a proposed class action she filed in state court.

  • October 01, 2025

    OpenAI Blasts X's Suit Over Apple Deal As 'Lawfare' Campaign

    Apple Inc. and OpenAI Inc. have asked a Texas federal court to toss an antitrust case from X targeting a deal to integrate ChatGPT into iPhones, with OpenAI saying X's billionaire owner Elon Musk is waging a multipronged "lawfare" campaign against it.

  • October 01, 2025

    Calif. Importer, Son Both Get Prison For $8M Customs Fraud

    A California federal judge sentenced a Los Angeles Fashion District business owner and his son to more than eight years and seven years in prison, respectively, after they were found guilty of ducking more than $8 million in customs duties and failing to report over $17 million in cash transactions on tax returns.

  • October 01, 2025

    Nirvana Defeats Child Pornography Case Over Album Cover

    A California federal judge has ended a case over child pornography claims brought by a man who was depicted as a naked infant on the cover of Nirvana's 1991 album "Nevermind," saying he was having "a difficult time understanding" the argument that the image depicted the plaintiff as a sex worker reaching for a dollar.

  • October 01, 2025

    NFL Arbitration In Coaches' Bias Suit Paused During Redo Bid

    The NFL's arbitration process in former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores' racial discrimination dispute will be paused while his motion to reconsider the ruling compelling the arbitration is being decided, a New York federal judge has ordered.

  • October 01, 2025

    Ford Loses Bid To Overturn $13M Verdict In IP Dispute

    A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday said he wouldn't touch a verdict awarding $13 million to a California-based vehicle technology supplier that alleged Ford Motor Co. profited from misappropriating a trade secret related to the supplier's interface module product, finding the jury had "substantial" evidence to find in favor of the tech company.

Expert Analysis

  • Managing Risks As State AGs Seek To Fill Enforcement Gap

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    Given an unprecedented surge in state attorney general activity resulting from significant shifts in federal enforcement priorities, companies must consider tailored strategies for navigating the ever-evolving risk landscape, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion

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    In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

  • Litigation Inspiration: How To Respond After A Loss

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    Every litigator loses a case now and then, and the sting of that loss can become a medicine that strengthens or a poison that corrodes, depending on how the attorney responds, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Tips For Cos. From California Climate Reporting FAQ

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    New guidance from the California Air Resources Board on how businesses must implement the state's sweeping climate reporting requirements should help companies assess their exposure, understand their disclosure obligations and begin documenting good-faith compliance efforts, says Thierry Montoya at Frost Brown.

  • What Calif. Insurance Ruling Means For Smoke Damage Limits

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    As California continues to grapple with an increasing number of wildfire claims, a state court's recent Aliff v. California FAIR Plan decision serves as a clear directive to insurers that policy language that narrows the scope of fire coverage below the California Insurance Code's minimum standards is impermissible, say attorneys at Wood Smith.

  • How NJ's Proposed Privacy Rules Could Reshape AI Data Use

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    Although not revolutionary, New Jersey's proposed privacy rules would create obligations around the management and processing of consumer personal data that will require careful planning before they can be successfully implemented, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

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    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • What 9th Circ. Ruling Shows About Rebutting SEC Comments

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    The Ninth Circuit's June opinion in Pino v. Cardone Capital suggests that a company's lack of pushback to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comment may be evidence of its state of mind for evaluating potential liability, meaning companies should consider including additional disclosure in SEC response letters, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Business Takeaways Following CCPA Enforcement Actions

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    Advisories and recent enforcement activity by the California Privacy Protection Agency against Honda and Todd Snyder underscore the agency's enforcement interest in the intersection of data minimization and consumer rights, and could make it more challenging for a business to provide a streamlined consumer rights process, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Compliance Lessons From 1st-Ever Product Safety Sentences

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    A California federal judge’s recent sentencing of two former Gree USA executives in a landmark Consumer Product Safety Act case serves as a reminder of the federal government’s willingness to pursue criminal prosecution of individuals who fail to report safety hazards, as well as companies’ need to strengthen their reporting and compliance programs, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • 9th Circ. Decisions Help Clarify Scope Of Legal Lab Marketing

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    Two Ninth Circuit decisions last week provide a welcome development in clarifying the line between laboratories' legal marketing efforts and undue influence that violates the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, and offer useful guidance for labs seeking to mitigate enforcement risk, says Joshua Robbins at Buchalter.

  • Feds' Shift On Reputational Risk Raises Questions For Banks

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    While banking regulators' recent retreat from reputational risk narrows the scope of federal oversight in some respects, it also raises practical questions about consistency, reputational management and the evolving political landscape surrounding financial services, say attorneys at Smith Anderson.

  • What 9th Circ. Cracker Barrel Ruling Means For FLSA Cert.

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    The Ninth Circuit's decision in Harrington v. Cracker Barrel suggests a settling of two procedural trends in Fair Labor Standards Act jurisprudence — when to issue notice and where nationwide collectives can be filed — rather than deepening circuit splits, says Rebecca Ojserkis at Cohen Milstein.

  • Defense Lessons From Freshworks' Win In Post-IPO Case

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    A California federal court’s recent decision to grant Freshworks’ summary judgment bid in a proposed investor class action helpfully clarifies two important points for defendants facing postoffering securities claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • 'Loss' Policy Definition Is Key For Noncash Settlements

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    A recent Delaware decision in AMC Entertainment v. XL Specialty Insurance, holding that the definition of loss includes noncash settlement payments, is important to note for policyholders considering other settlement options — like two other class actions that recently settled for vouchers, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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