California

  • September 29, 2026

    Disney's Antitrust Case Against InterDigital Paused

    InterDigital has convinced a Delaware federal judge to press pause on a lawsuit brought by Disney accusing the technology development company of refusing to offer reasonable licenses on patents for video streaming.

  • September 29, 2026

    Brightline Can Tap $190M In Ch. 11 Financing, Judge Says

    Entities that own high-speed rail network Brightline Florida received a New Jersey bankruptcy judge's permission Tuesday to obtain interim access to $190 million of Chapter 11 financing in an unconventional loan package involving a nondebtor that runs the railroad.

  • September 29, 2026

    Kirkland, Cooley Steer Transom's SoundThinking Take-Private

    California middle-market private equity firm Transom Capital Group has agreed to acquire SoundThinking Inc. for up to approximately $159 million, the public safety technology company said Tuesday. 

  • September 29, 2026

    Construction Equipment Rental Antitrust Case Moves Ahead

    An Illinois federal court refused to toss a case accusing construction equipment rental companies including United Rentals, Herc and The Home Depot of using benchmarking software to inflate rental rates.

  • September 29, 2026

    Surgical Robot Co. Says 9th Circ. 'Expands' Antitrust Law

    Intuitive Surgical asked the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider a decision reviving a surgical repair company's claims that it blocked third parties from refurbishing components for its popular da Vinci surgery robot, arguing the panel created a whole new pathway to alleging monopolization of secondary markets.

  • September 29, 2026

    LA Seeks Groundwater Cleanup Costs From Manufacturers

    Los Angeles sued several manufacturers over alleged groundwater contamination from three industrial sites, saying its water department has been saddled with millions of dollars in cleanup costs in the San Fernando Basin.

  • September 29, 2026

    Google Beats Suit Over 'Pig Butchering' App Scams, For Now

    A California federal judge tossed with leave to amend Monday a proposed class action alleging Google falsely advertised its Google Play Store as safe despite allowing swarms of "pig butchering" crypto-scam apps, finding that the claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

  • September 29, 2026

    Live Nation Can't Ditch FTC's Ticket Scalping Case

    A California federal judge refused Monday to toss the Federal Trade Commission's claims Live Nation ignored ticket scalpers and failed to disclose significant Ticketmaster fees upfront, finding the suit plausibly alleges Ticketmaster didn't enforce its own resale policies and duped consumers with "ambiguous and vague" disclosures.

  • September 29, 2026

    Tax Court Approves Penalties On Captive Without Substance

    The U.S. Tax Court on Tuesday approved IRS penalties imposed on policyholders of a California company's captive insurance policy that the agency determined to be lacking economic substance, finding they failed to report the transactions in their tax returns for 2015.

  • September 29, 2026

    Feds Seek To Throw Out States' Challenge To DEI Contract EO

    The Trump administration told a Maryland federal court that it should toss a lawsuit from states challenging its implementation of an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government contracting space, arguing the order falls within well-settled law.

  • September 29, 2026

    A's Player Sues Tigers Over Exposed Fence Injury

    A third baseman ​​​​​​for Major League Baseball's Athletics is suing the Detroit Tigers, its parent company and the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority in Michigan state court, claiming they are responsible for an injury he suffered in July after sliding to catch a ball and banging his knee against a metal fence.

  • September 29, 2026

    Feds Say Pot Co. CEO Lied About Business To Get PPP Loans

    The federal government is urging a California federal judge not to throw out its suit seeking to recoup $2.5 million in PPP loans from the CEO of a group of cannabis companies, saying she hasn't denied that she sought the loans despite knowing her business was federally illegal.

  • September 29, 2026

    Latham, Wilson Sonsini Guide AMD's $8.2B World Labs Buy

    AMD has agreed to buy AI model developer and research lab World Labs in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion, acquiring a team that the chipmaker said will help bolster its efforts to develop AI infrastructure for emerging models and applications.

  • September 28, 2026

    Grok-Maker Can't Get Deepfake Suit Paused Or Transferred

    Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company must continue battling a proposed class action brought by women suing over Grok-generated deepfakes of them in sexual situations, a California federal judge ruled Monday, declining to pause or transfer the suit to Texas.

  • September 28, 2026

    ChatGPT Users' Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft Gets Trimmed

    Microsoft isn't going to be able to force into arbitration claims that it undermined OpenAI by forcing the artificial intelligence giant into using only its cloud computing, but it did convince the California federal judge overseeing the case to toss the proposed class's federal antitrust claim.

  • September 28, 2026

    Calif. Attys Face New Penalties For Paying To Recruit Clients

    Lawyers convicted of felony "capping" — or illegally paying for client recruitment — in California will now face a $25,000 civil penalty and face disbarment under a bill signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

  • September 28, 2026

    Calif. Governor Vetoes Broad Ban On Sensitive Data Sales

    California's governor has refused to sign off on legislation that would have made the state the latest to restrict the sale and sharing of consumers' geolocation, biometric and other sensitive information, saying the proposed "categorical ban" on these online data practices was "a step too far."

  • September 28, 2026

    Apple Briefs Set Stage For Challenge To Record $5.7B Verdict

    Friday's $5.7 billion verdict against Apple Inc. for infringing Taction Technology Inc.'s vibration technology patents is the largest in history, eclipsing many others that have been overturned, and filings by Apple preview its arguments for why this one should meet the same fate.

  • September 28, 2026

    Wash. Can Pursue Gold Mine Pollution Claims, 9th Circ. Says

    A Ninth Circuit panel revived Washington state's Clean Water Act lawsuit against the operator of the Buckhorn Mountain gold mine Monday, reversing a district court's ruling that the state's claims were barred because of another plaintiff's settlement in the consolidated case.

  • September 28, 2026

    Netflix Gets Atty Fees From Ramey For 'Bad Faith' Conduct

    A California federal judge Monday refused to let intellectual property attorney Bill Ramey off the hook for paying Netflix's attorney fees, attributing nearly $1.4 million to the Houston-based attorney's misconduct, including the concealment of the fact that his client didn't own a patent they accused Netflix of infringing.

  • September 28, 2026

    Lucid Investors Get Class Cert. In Production Forecast Suit

    Investors in electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. were granted class certification in their suit alleging they suffered damages when the company disclosed it was not on track to meet its 2022 vehicle output projections.

  • September 28, 2026

    Newsom Signs Calif. Pesticide PFAS Tracking Bill Into Law

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law new regulations requiring state officials to track and publicly disclose when pesticides that are used on state produce contain "forever chemicals."

  • September 28, 2026

    Paramount, States Urge Court To Approve Merger Deal

    State enforcers and Paramount Skydance responded Monday to several questions raised by a lawmaker over a settlement ending the states' challenge of Paramount's deal for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., telling a California federal court there's no need for a full-blown review.

  • September 28, 2026

    Black Tesla Workers In Calif. Fired At Higher Rates, Judge Told

    An economics professor testified in a California state bench trial Monday over the California Civil Rights Department's claims Tesla fostered racism at its Fremont factory that he found Tesla's Black workers in California are paid 4.37% less, and involuntarily terminated at a 75% higher rate, than their white counterparts.

  • September 28, 2026

    'Migration' Copying Suit Is For The Birds, Mike White Says

    Universal City Studios, Illumination Entertainment and "White Lotus" creator Mike White urged a California federal judge Monday to toss a writer's lawsuit claiming they stole his script for the 2023 film "Migration," saying the movie is not substantially similar to the unpublished screenplay, and the complaint does not plausibly allege that they had access to it.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • A Potential Turning Point For Short-And-Distort Claims

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    A California federal jury's conviction of Andrew Left signals that the historically blurry line between securities fraud and legitimate criticism of companies is growing clearer, and that there is a viable recourse against so-called short-and-distort campaigns intended to create a false impression of the market, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 10 Years, 150 Cases: The Rise And Fall Of Post-Halo Damages

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Halo v. Pulse in 2016, patent practitioners predicted that enhanced damages would become easier to win, but analysis of every contested district court ruling on a motion for enhanced damages in the last 10 years shows that courts have shown increasing restraint, say attorneys at Reichman Jorgensen.

  • How Maine's Expanded Health Deal Reviews Complicate M&A

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    A pair of recently approved Maine competition laws establish notice and approval requirements for certain healthcare transactions and expand state antitrust oversight, creating new hurdles for dealmakers as states take a more aggressive role in policing healthcare consolidation, especially involving private equity, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • GM Privacy Penalty Signals A Change In Calif. Enforcement

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    General Motors' $12.75 million settlement with the California attorney general over its sale of driving behavior and geolocation data to brokers shows that disclosures and user choice may no longer be enough to define permissible data use, says Sonja Arndt-Johnson at Buchalter.

  • Leveraging AI In MDL Discovery And Case Management

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    Generative and agentic artificial intelligence tools can help teams organize and digest the vast volume of documents inherent to multidistrict litigation, but workflows must be designed to maximize the tools' strengths and maintain human control of key operational and ethical factors, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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