California

  • August 24, 2026

    Feds Cut Colo. River Basin Water For 2 Years Amid Drought

    The U.S. Department of the Interior has finalized a 10-year framework for Colorado River operations that will reduce water delivery to Arizona, California and Nevada by 1.25 million acre-feet for two years, as reservoirs dive to lows not seen since their 1963 construction due to ongoing drought conditions.

  • August 24, 2026

    Founder Of Crypto Startup Block Bits Convicted Of Fraud

    A California federal jury on Monday held that cryptocurrency startup founder Japheth Dillman deceived Block Bits investors by falsely claiming the company's auto-trading platform was up and running, following a trial in which his co-founder testified against him under a plea agreement.

  • August 24, 2026

    Interference Cross-Claims Tossed In Pot Sale Contract Suit

    A Los Angeles judge has thrown out several interference cross-claims in a contract dispute over cannabis product distribution rights, finding that distributor Broadway Alliance hadn't sufficiently alleged that Stella Farms deliberately sabotaged its relationships with third parties.

  • August 21, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Retail, Hospitality Leaders Weigh In

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including interviews with real estate attorneys about the latest trends in the retail and hospitality sectors, among others.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Rules Workers' Vaccine Bias Suit Must Go To Trial

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that a jury must decide workers' religious-discrimination claims against the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, finding the lower court erred in concluding the agency accommodated the workers' religious-exemption requests from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate by offering them limited reassignment options.

  • August 21, 2026

    Crypto Co. Founder's Atty Tells Jury Biz Partner Lied, Not Him

    A cryptocurrency firm's founder deceived investors by claiming his company's auto-trading platform was up and running, a federal prosecutor told a California federal jury during closing arguments Friday, while the defendant's lawyer said his client was not trying to cheat anyone and called the government's cooperating witness "a stone cold liar."

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Tosses Calif. Ghost Gun Suit Over Standing

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday vacated a lower court ruling that struck down part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ghost gun regulation, finding California and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence lacked standing to sue on the grounds that the regulation did not go far enough in defining various "ghost gun" parts.

  • August 21, 2026

    Produce Co. Says Staffing Firm Owes Defense In Pot Test Suit

    Plant-based protein food producer Myrtle Greens says it shouldn't be on the hook in a hiring discrimination lawsuit filed by a man who was turned away from a delivery job due to a positive drug test, arguing that all hiring is done by a third-party contractor that allegedly agreed to indemnify the food-maker.

  • August 21, 2026

    Natural Fish Co.'s Sardines Contain Arsenic, Says Suit

    Natural canned seafood company Wild Planet Foods Inc. was hit with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that its sardines contain dangerous levels of arsenic above the state's Proposition 65 threshold and exceeding the levels found in competitors' products.

  • August 21, 2026

    Amazon Uses Twitch Streamers' Content To Train AI, Suit Says

    Twitch and Amazon were hit with a proposed class action in California federal court Thursday by a Twitch streamer who says the companies are exploiting and using his live broadcasts, images and recorded videos to train Amazon's generative AI models by default, without obtaining their consent.

  • August 21, 2026

    Trump Seeks Justices' Review Of DEI Grant Termination Case

    The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision requiring the federal government to reinstate research grants that were terminated due to presidential orders against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

  • August 21, 2026

    Calif. Panel Creates Exception To Successive Prosecution Ban

    A California state appeals court panel has upheld the convictions of a man who illegally bought large-capacity magazines, creating a new exception to a rule barring successive prosecutions for multiple related crimes that have already resulted in judgments.

  • August 21, 2026

    Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

    The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

  • August 21, 2026

    TikTok Inks $400M Deal With DOJ To End Kids' Privacy Suit

    TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to resolve the U.S. Department of Justice's claims that the short-form video platform illegally collected personal information from kids under 13, marking one of the largest recoveries ever obtained under the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the feds said Friday.

  • August 21, 2026

    Apple's ICloud Private Relay Leaks User IP Address, Suit Says

    Apple misleads paying iCloud+ subscribers into believing its Private Relay feature hides their IP addresses and browsing activity in its default web browser, Safari, but flaws in Apple's technology expose that information, alleges a proposed class action lodged in California state court.    

  • August 21, 2026

    11th Circ. Ruling Could Help ERISA Suits Survive Until Trial

    The Eleventh Circuit's decision to reopen a suit from a former Royal Caribbean worker claiming 401(k) participants lost millions on underperforming target-date funds could make it easier for plaintiffs to get to trial in cases accusing companies of retirement plan investment picks that violate federal benefits law, attorneys said.

  • August 21, 2026

    The Race Is On To Confirm Trump's Judges By Year-End

    President Donald Trump nominated 11 judges this past week, meaning 19 nominees are now in the pipeline. But how many can the Senate confirm before the end of the year, given that it will mostly be absent and consumed by the midterm election? 

  • August 21, 2026

    Ex-Google Engineer Wins Partial Acquittal After IP Theft Trial

    A California federal judge acquitted an ex-Google software engineer of espionage charges Thursday while upholding his trade secret theft conviction, ruling that although trial evidence showed his trade secret theft was "ad hoc, disorganized and feeble," such evidence isn't enough to prove he intentionally colluded with the Chinese government.

  • August 21, 2026

    Kirkland Guides Cloverleaf In Nvidia Stake For AI Buildout

    Nvidia has made a minority investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure to support digital infrastructure development across the U.S., the companies said Friday, in a deal advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

  • August 21, 2026

    Groups Say HHS Left Migrant Children Without Legal Help

    Former legal services providers for unaccompanied migrant children have told a California federal judge that the Trump administration could be violating an injunction requiring the government to maintain legal representation for the minors, alleging that thousands are now unrepresented after the providers' contract expired last month.

  • August 21, 2026

    Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

    The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 21, 2026

    9th Circ. Keeps Order To Improve ICE Site Amid Feds' Appeal

    The Trump administration must continue to address the "severe and inhumane deficiencies" a California federal court identified at an immigrant detention facility in the Mojave Desert, the Ninth Circuit has ruled, finding it unlikely to prevail in detainees' constitutional challenge.

  • August 21, 2026

    Foley & Lardner Adds Chief Information Officer From Fenwick

    Foley & Lardner LLP announced Thursday the hiring of James McKenna, formerly the chief information officer at Fenwick & West LLP, to operate in the same role at the firm.

  • August 21, 2026

    Insurers Owe No Coverage For $40M Retirement Plan Deal

    Three excess insurers owe no coverage for a $40 million settlement that a church retirement plan administrator reached to resolve claims of self-dealing, a California federal court ruled, finding the claims were connected to wrongful prior acts.

  • August 21, 2026

    Calif. High School NIL Limitations Survive Antitrust Challenge

    A California federal judge has tossed a lawsuit by high school athletes challenging the state's limits on name, image and likeness opportunities, saying the plaintiffs have not adequately defined a relevant market or pled antitrust injury.

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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