California

  • August 20, 2026

    TikTok's Ex-Legal Head Made Racist Comments, Suit Says

    TikTok and its former head of global legal operations have been accused in a California state court lawsuit of harassment and discrimination based on race and sex by a former legal department employee who claims the executive subjected her and other nonwhite colleagues to an "unrelenting campaign of harassment."

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Can-Am Fuel Claims Against Sinclair, Glovis

    A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday revived Can-Am Fuel Distribution LLC's federal franchise claims against Sinclair Oil LLC and Glovis America Inc., holding the companies' licensing agreements are covered by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act despite an "unusual variation" in the parties' relationship.

  • August 20, 2026

    Adviser, Startup To Pay SEC $266K For Taking Client Data

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a nearly $266,000 judgment against a California-based investment adviser and his firm, and banned him from practicing for three years after he allegedly emailed himself confidential client information from his former employer and used it to launch his own investment firm.

  • August 20, 2026

    Lenders Sue Over $1M Loan Tied To Cannabis Farm

    A group of California lenders is trying to claw back a $1 million loan that was supposed to launch a cannabis farm in Miranda, claiming they learned too late that the property had already lost its permits to grow and that the borrowers had misused most of the loan proceeds.

  • August 20, 2026

    Defunct Tax Startup CEO Barred From Deceiving Investors

    A California federal judge prohibited the CEO of a defunct tax compliance startup who was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of swindling $13 million from investors from deceiving anyone or disseminating false information regarding investments in violation of securities laws.

  • August 20, 2026

    Snap Must Face YouTube Creators' DMCA AI Scraping Suit

    A California federal judge has denied a bid from the company that owns video-messaging app Snapchat to escape allegations from a group of YouTube creators that their content was illegally ingested to train artificial intelligence, saying the YouTubers had sufficiently laid out how users encounter measures meant to protect videos.

  • August 20, 2026

    Judge Denies Bid To Move AT&T ERISA Case To State Court

    A California federal judge has denied a former AT&T employee's bid to move his class action suit alleging violations of state labor law over a tobacco surcharge on employee health plans from federal to state court.

  • August 20, 2026

    Estee Lauder's TM Suit 'Full Of Detail,' Judge Tells Walmart

    A California federal judge said Thursday he is skeptical of Walmart's motion to dismiss much of Estee Lauder's lawsuit accusing the retail giant of selling infringing beauty products online, saying he is unsure the pleadings are inadequate at this stage because he found them "chock full of detail."

  • August 20, 2026

    DOJ Pot Shift Changes LA Licensing Challenge, 9th Circ. Told

    A California attorney who has challenged state and local cannabis licensing policies across the country on the grounds that they discriminate against out-of-state entrants told the Ninth Circuit that recent federal shifts on medical marijuana mean the dormant commerce clause should apply to the once-federally illicit industry.

  • August 20, 2026

    Amgen Reaches Deal To End Ex-Worker's Tobacco Fee Fight

    Biotech giant Amgen Inc. struck a deal to end a proposed class action alleging a $150-a-month fee on the health plans of employees who used tobacco violated federal benefits law, according to a filing in California federal court Thursday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Trade Groups Back Apple In 9th Circ. Class Decert. Fight

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade and advocacy groups backed Apple Wednesday with amicus briefs telling the Ninth Circuit to reject an appeal from consumers looking to undo the decertification of a class of roughly 200 million people in an antitrust case targeting App Store policies.

  • August 20, 2026

    Lakers Sale Fight Offers M&A Lessons For Family Businesses

    The agreement by former Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner to acquire the Los Angeles Lakers at a record $12.5 billion valuation appeared, at first, to be another example of the seemingly endless rise in professional sports franchise values.

  • August 20, 2026

    Johns Hopkins Hit With Sex Discrimination, Retaliation Suit

    Johns Hopkins University was hit with a complaint in California federal court alleging it impaired a graduate student's educational access and retaliated against her after she returned from a pregnancy-related leave and accused her former adviser of sexual misconduct.

  • August 20, 2026

    Sangamo Ch. 11 Auction Nets $238M In Offers

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge Thursday agreed to approve a trio of sales that will bring in $52 million in cash for Sangamo Therapeutics, after attorneys representing the life sciences group told the court a competitive Chapter 11 auction ended with four winning bids worth over $238 million.

  • August 20, 2026

    UnitedHealthcare Beats User's Data Privacy Suit, For Good

    UnitedHealthcare Services Inc. permanently beat a proposed class action alleging that its website's third-party tracking pixels shared information about its visitors, after a California federal judge said Wednesday that "the mere collection of plaintiff's generic insurance browsing data is not enough to demonstrate" concrete injury.

  • August 20, 2026

    CREXi Drops 9th Circ. Challenge To Quinn Emanuel DQ

    Property listing company Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. has moved to dismiss its own Ninth Circuit mandamus petition, which challenged a lower court's disqualification of CREXi's counsel, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, from a legal battle against rival CoStar.

  • August 20, 2026

    Eastman Among 16 Calif. Attys Disbarred In Q2 2026

    The State Bar of California removed the licenses of 16 attorneys between April and June of this year over a broad spectrum of ethical breaches ranging from the high-profile case of John Eastman attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, to a lawyer found to be in possession of child sex abuse images.

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Widens Arbitration Split, But Will High Court Step In?

    The Ninth Circuit issued a decision last week foreclosing the use of the legal concept that a dispute over the enforcement of an international arbitral award might be better heard elsewhere, contributing to a circuit split that could result in the U.S. Supreme Court finally addressing an issue it has previously eschewed.

  • August 19, 2026

    Firms Cut From $101M Anthropic Atty Fees Appeal To 9th Circ.

    Two law firms involved in securing artificial intelligence company Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement with a class of authors and publishers are appealing to the Ninth Circuit an order excluding them from attorney fees awarded to court-appointed class counsel.

  • August 19, 2026

    Social Media Use Has Addiction Hallmarks, Meta Jury Told

    A psychologist told a Tennessee jury considering claims against Meta on Wednesday that it's well accepted in his field that social media use can cause behavior that looks like addiction, and social media is a challenging presence in the lives of 15% to 20% of his patients.

  • August 19, 2026

    Davis Wright Vets Scolded: Don't Tell Foes 'How To Run Firm'

    Davis Wright Tremaine LLP veterans have failed to dodge six-figure sanctions in a prominent discovery donnybrook, and a California magistrate judge added invective to the financial injury, lambasting "troubling" omissions in case citations and heavy-handed "nitpicking" akin to commandeering an adversary's law firm.

  • August 19, 2026

    Amazon Wants Full 9th Circ. To Rethink Block On Perplexity AI

    Amazon is pressing the full Ninth Circuit to consider a lower court's injunction preventing Perplexity's "uniquely reckless" artificial intelligence tool from purchasing items for users on Amazon, arguing that a panel erred in lifting the block earlier this month.

  • August 19, 2026

    Zuckerberg Can't Be Trusted On Kids' Safety Online, Jury Told

    A Meta whistleblower testified Wednesday in a California federal jury trial over states' claims Meta hid social media's harms that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ignored calls for Meta to prioritize kids' safety while publicly touting Meta's safety practices, saying "I feel that you just cannot trust Mark Zuckerberg with kids."

  • August 19, 2026

    9th Circ. Sides With PennyMac In Fixed LIBOR Fallback

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday rejected a shareholder's claim that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust was required to replace discontinued LIBOR with a newer floating rate when calculating preferred-share dividends, holding that the federal LIBOR Act allowed for a contractual fixed fallback rate.

  • August 19, 2026

    Scribd To Pay $3M To End Wash. Wage Scale Class Action

    Document hosting service Scribd Inc. will pay $3 million to resolve a class action accusing the tech company of violating Washington state law by failing to include pay information on job postings, according to a settlement agreement given preliminary approval by a King County Superior Court judge.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

  • 9th Circ.'s Silence Prolongs Uncertainty On Cemex Framework

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    By affirming a bargaining order in Cemex Construction Materials v. National Labor Relations Board without opining on the NLRB’s 2023 expansion of its authority to issue such orders, the Ninth Circuit avoided direct conflict with the Sixth Circuit’s rejection of the same framework, prolonging uncertainty for employers facing union elections, say attorneys at Dinsmore & Shohl.

  • Surveying The CFTC Campaign To Control Prediction Markets

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is simultaneously asserting exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets and signaling aggressive enforcement within them, a combination that will reshape the regulatory landscape for event contract platforms — pending the outcome of several court cases throughout the country and a likely circuit split, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Safeguarding RWI Coverage As Materiality Focus Persists

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    As first-quarter broker claims reports reveal that materiality disputes remain a key driver of representations and warranties insurance claims, the scarce case law in this area indicates that including a materiality scrape provision in an RWI policy may aid policyholders with recovery, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

  • How Oregon Ruling Affects Federal Gender Care Crackdown

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    In a favorable development for healthcare providers, an Oregon federal court recently vacated certain U.S. Department of Health and Human Services restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, but the government's broader campaign against this care, including proposed rulemaking and agency investigations, leaves significant uncertainty, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Opinion

    Congress Should Ax Privacy Bill For Not Shielding Consumers

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    The SECURE Data Act should be rejected because, despite Congress' claims, it would not meaningfully rein in data practices, but instead would weaken enforcement, eliminate stronger protections and prioritize data extraction over consumer protection and accountability, say attorneys at DiCello Levitt.

  • AI Data Center Boom May Spur Wave Of Toxic Tort Suits

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    Nascent litigation matters against data center operators, set against limited government regulation and a growing body of public health research, suggests we may be on the cusp of an era of mass toxic tort claims, with a liability framework firmly rooted in precedent from other industries, says Benjamin Heller at RFZ Law.

  • A Core Weakness In The Challenge To Birthright Citizenship

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    The government’s recent oral arguments against birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara would have the Supreme Court use modern immigration classifications as markers for a constitutional boundary that is not expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, making the theory easier to administer but weaker as a matter of text and history, says attorney Tara Kennedy.

  • 2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

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    The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

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