California

  • May 21, 2026

    BigLaw Deals Scandal Puts Boston Back On White Collar Map

    A sweeping insider trading case involving information stolen from BigLaw firms shows a return to bread-and-butter white collar enforcement for Boston federal prosecutors and provides a morale lift in an office that has seen shifting priorities and staff turnover since the signature "Varsity Blues" takedown in 2019, veteran prosecutors told Law360.

  • May 21, 2026

    Hermès Urges 9th Circ. To Back Toss Of Birkin Antitrust Case

    Hermès asked the Ninth Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a suit from shoppers alleging the company illegally ties the sale of its iconic Birkin handbags to other expensive luxury items, saying the plaintiff's case reflects "a fundamental misunderstanding of tying law."

  • May 21, 2026

    Nexstar Asks 9th Circ. To Narrow Tegna Merger Block

    Nexstar urged the Ninth Circuit to narrow a preliminary injunction preventing it from fully integrating with Tegna Inc. that was issued in a challenge to the broadcasters' $6.2 billion merger by state enforcers and satellite provider DirecTV.

  • May 21, 2026

    Intuit's PTAB Win On Browsing Patent Upheld At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday approved a Patent Trial and Review Board decision that held a patent owned by Samesurf Inc. that was asserted against TurboTax maker Intuit Inc. was invalid, rejecting Samesurf's arguments that an improper claim construction was used.

  • May 21, 2026

    Meta, Others Settle Bellwether School Case Set For June Trial

    Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., TikTok Inc. and YouTube have each agreed to settle a bellwether school district's claims in social media addiction multidistrict litigation that were set for a six-week California federal jury trial beginning June 12, according to the Kentucky school district's counsel.

  • May 21, 2026

    AI Voice Recognition Biz Must Face Some Investor Claims

    Artificial intelligence and voice recognition company SoundHound AI can't shed investor claims that it hid unresolved accounting issues that led the company to delay financial reporting, though a California federal judge has trimmed some allegations from the proposed class action.

  • May 21, 2026

    Feds Want Funding Details To Fight Academic Group's Fee Bid

    The U.S. Department of Energy asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let it look at the finances of an academic organization that successfully challenged a cap on indirect research costs, questioning the source of funding for legal fees in that case and three others.

  • May 20, 2026

    Prof. Hired By J&J In 1970s Found Asbestos In Talc, Jury Told

    A former Johnson & Johnson toxicologist could not find evidence his employer turned over a report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that "unmistakably" found asbestos in the company's talc, according to a video deposition shown Wednesday to a California jury considering bellwether claims over three women's deadly ovarian cancer.

  • May 20, 2026

    Calif. Panel Says Uber Not Liable For College Student's Death

    A California appeals court declined to reinstate a mother's lawsuit blaming Uber for her daughter's death after she was hit by cars on a freeway that was miles away from where she was dropped off by an Uber driver, ruling Wednesday those intervening events are too attenuated to find the company liable.

  • May 20, 2026

    Jack In The Box Can't Dodge Franchisees' Indemnity Claim

    A Washington state judge Tuesday denied Jack in the Box Inc.'s effort to sidestep liability for job postings that allegedly violated a Washington pay transparency statute, ruling that two franchisees suing the fast-food giant adequately stated an equitable indemnity claim under California law.

  • May 20, 2026

    Top 4 Most Surprising Moments In Musk-OpenAI Trial

    The high-profile trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion wrapped Monday with a quick jury verdict in favor of OpenAI and its executives, but the three-week trial drew some surprising moments for those in the courtroom who had front row seats to the fight between billionaires.

  • May 20, 2026

    Social Media Not Proven To Harm Mental Health, Judge Told

    A statistics expert for Meta sought Wednesday to undermine the claim that social media has driven a rise in mental health conditions among teens, saying the New Mexico attorney general's key witness on the topic didn't consider alternative factors like widening access to mental health care.

  • May 20, 2026

    Investors Say BNY Mellon Let Oil Trust Payments Vanish

    Investors in a trust overseen by the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. NA sued the banking giant in state court Wednesday, saying it failed to push for transparency or enforcement actions after an oil company whose properties generated the trust's income started using a new accounting method that wiped out distributions for years.

  • May 20, 2026

    Pinterest Hit With Derivative Suit Over Tariff Impacts

    Executives and directors of social media platform Pinterest Inc. have been hit with an investor's derivative suit in California federal court accusing them of damaging the company by concealing the impact the U.S. tariffs were having on Pinterest's advertising partners.

  • May 20, 2026

    Live Nation Can't Split Festival Shooting Trial Into 2 Phases

    A Washington state judge denied Live Nation's effort to split an upcoming trial over a 2023 music festival shooting into separate liability and damages phases, siding with victims' family members who argue they would be unfairly prejudiced by bifurcating the case.

  • May 20, 2026

    Salad JV Partner Sued Over Cash Distribution Freeze

    Taylor Fresh Foods Inc. sued Fresh Express Vegetable LLC in Delaware Chancery Court Wednesday, accusing its joint venture partner of improperly withholding millions of dollars in required cash distributions while trying to force out the venture's longtime chief executive.

  • May 20, 2026

    Blank Rome Adds 2 Infrastructure Pros To LA Office

    Blank Rome LLP has hired two attorneys from Norton Rose Fulbright and Nossaman LLP as partners for its real estate team in Los Angeles, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • May 20, 2026

    GM, Drivers Spar Over AC Defect Class Certification

    Automaker General Motors Co. and drivers seeking class certification over alleged air conditioning problems were sharply questioned by a Michigan federal judge Wednesday who pressed both sides on whether the claims can truly generate "common answers" across proposed statewide classes covering thousands of truck and SUV owners. 

  • May 20, 2026

    Plaintiffs Not To Blame For Monsanto Pesticide Suit Delay

    Three women whose mother died from breast cancer have persuaded a California appeals court to reinstate their wrongful death lawsuit against pesticide maker Monsanto, ruling that the trial judge abused his discretion by dismissing the case when the company suffered no prejudice from the delay in prosecution.

  • May 20, 2026

    Kia Can't Escape Pa. Oil Ring Defect Suit

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday rejected Kia America Inc.'s bid to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that it sold Soul and Seltos vehicles with a defect in their engines' piston oil rings.

  • May 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Tough On HP 401(k) Forfeiture Suit Revival Bid

    The Ninth Circuit appeared reluctant Wednesday to revive a suit alleging that HP Inc. violated federal benefits law by using forfeited 401(k) funds to defray employer-side contribution obligations, with judges questioning whether plan participants backed up allegations that the tech company hadn't been sufficiently loyal or prudent.

  • May 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Questions Jack Daniel's TM Win Over 'Bad Spaniels'

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday questioned whether Jack Daniel's proved that any mark beyond its name was famous enough to support a tarnishment ruling against VIP Products' poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy, while pressing both sides on whether courts should compare the parties' marks alone or also consider the toy's bottle-like design and crude humor.

  • May 20, 2026

    Adobe Worker's Spouse Traded On Semrush Buy, SEC Says

    A Silicon Valley project manager will pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $2 million after self-reporting that he traded on his spouse's insider knowledge that software giant Adobe Inc. was preparing to acquire a digital marketing platform.

  • May 20, 2026

    Hagens Berman Says Apple Smear Job Can't Stop Withdrawal

    Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP urged a California federal judge to allow one of its named plaintiffs to withdraw from an Apple iCloud antitrust case, saying Apple Inc.'s filed opposition is rife with "misdirection and ad hominem" attacks and not about the merits of the dispute but "smearing opposing counsel."

  • May 20, 2026

    SpinX Says Social Casino Suit Belongs In Arbitration

    A Hong Kong company that publishes free "social casino games" has asked a California federal court to send to arbitration a proposed class action accusing it of violating state gambling laws, saying the lead plaintiff agreed to arbitrate when he first opened the apps.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Rules In 10 Weeks: Inside Genius Act's Implementation Blitz

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    Regulators have proposed five Genius Act rules in a striking span of 10 weeks, building a stablecoin framework that, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at its operational center, will shape oversight and force issuers, banks and fintechs to take action as deadlines approach, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Series

    NY Times Word Puzzles Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Every morning I let The New York Times humble me with word games, which offer a chance to recalibrate my brain before the day's chaos arrives and remind me that a solution — whether to a puzzle or employment law issue — almost always exists once I find the right angle, says Amy Epstein Gluck at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

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    Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 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.

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