California

  • July 17, 2026

    9th Circ. Rekindles Idaho Logging Review Dispute

    The Ninth Circuit revived a conservation group's suit against the U.S. Forest Service over an environmental review of an Idaho logging project, ruling that the group should have been allowed to raise an argument it had not raised during an earlier administrative process.

  • July 17, 2026

    States Ask To Join Fight Against DOD Wind Project Blockage

    Nearly 20 states have told an Oregon federal judge they want in on a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's decision to block land-based wind projects in the U.S. from moving forward.

  • July 17, 2026

    Conagra Can't Undo $25M Pam Spray Lung Disease Verdict

    A California state court judge denied a request Friday by Conagra Brands to reverse a jury's first-of-its-kind $25 million verdict finding it liable for causing a man's debilitating and rare lung disease known as bronchiolitis obliterans through his use of Pam butter-flavored cooking spray, but said it was a "close call."

  • July 17, 2026

    Calif. Judge Orders Feds To Improve ICE Facility Conditions

    A California federal judge has said the Trump administration must take steps to improve conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center East and West, finding a class of immigrant detainees likely to prevail in litigation claiming people have been subjected to inhumane and intolerable treatment.

  • July 17, 2026

    AGs Have 'Significant Concerns' With DOJ's Live Nation Deal

    A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general asked a New York federal judge Thursday for a peek into the negotiations behind the Justice Department's controversial midtrial settlement with Live Nation, voicing concerns the deal isn't in the public interest and saying they need details as they seek a breakup.

  • July 17, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB Ax Of Treadmill Patent Claims

    The Federal Circuit on Friday backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that claims in a Woodway patent on its line of Curve treadmills were invalid, finding the company misinterpreted how the board analyzed key patent language.

  • July 17, 2026

    The Biggest Trade Secret Rulings Of 2026: A Midyear Report

    The Federal Circuit issued two of the year's most consequential trade secret rulings within days of each other, wiping out Insulet's victory in a wearable insulin patch pump case while reopening a software company's path to potentially larger damages in a dispute with Ford Motor Co. Here, Law360 highlights the biggest trade secret decisions so far this year.

  • July 17, 2026

    BakerHostetler Adds Reed Smith Debt Finance Atty In LA

    BakerHostetler announced it has hired a Reed Smith LLP partner with over a decade of legal experience in its Los Angeles office, saying he will advise borrowers and lenders on complex private equity, private credit and other financing transactions.

  • July 16, 2026

    Meta Gets 'Bricked' Device False Ad Suit Trimmed, For Now

    Meta Platforms Inc. can, again, trim a proposed class action alleging it deceptively sold Meta Portal video-calling devices the company later "bricked" by dropping software support, a California federal judge ruled Thursday, while refusing to toss an unfair competition claim and giving the consumers another chance to rework the complaint.

  • July 17, 2026

    How A 'Revolutionary' Charlotte Courtroom Advances Justice

    In the second of a two-part series on the Virginia Revival Courtroom in the Charlotte federal courthouse, judges, architects and a trial consultant explain the strategy behind designing a space they see as more conducive to justice.

  • July 17, 2026

    States Stepping Up Merger Work In First Half Of 2026

    Federal enforcers reached a number of merger settlements in the first half of 2026, while state attorneys general stepped up their independent enforcement efforts, taking on Nexstar's planned purchase of rival broadcaster Tegna and Paramount's deal for Warner Bros. Discovery.

  • July 17, 2026

    Top Gov't Contracting Decisions Of 2026: Midyear Report

    The U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit courts decided several consequential cases impacting contractors this year, including weighing whether contractors can immediately appeal district court denials of their immunity claims and clarifying what a successful protester needs to challenge an agency's decision to continue a contract during a bid protest.

  • July 16, 2026

    Quinn Emanuel To Rep OpenAI In Apple Trade Secrets Fight

    OpenAI has turned to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to represent it in Apple's suit claiming that the artificial intelligence company worked with former Apple employees to misappropriate confidential information and speed up its consumer hardware business, according to the case docket.

  • July 16, 2026

    Meta Staffers Fight Uphill To Block Allegedly AI-Targeted Cuts

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday he won't immediately block Meta Platforms Inc. from laying off most of the 26 workers who claim the company used artificial intelligence to target them, but said he'd take a closer look at four on work visas who could be irreparably harmed.

  • July 16, 2026

    Northrop's $75M LA Contamination Deal Gets Preliminary OK

    A California federal judge Thursday preliminarily approved a $75 million class deal struck mid-trial by Northrop Grumman and residents of a Los Angeles suburb who accused the aerospace company of contaminating their properties, a day after hundreds of the neighborhood's residents filed a similar lawsuit in state court.

  • July 16, 2026

    Paramount Beats Effort To Quickly Block $110B Warner Deal

    A California federal judge denied a preliminary injunction request Thursday from consumers challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery after challenging their attorney to cite more recent rulings beyond the 1960s-era U.S. Supreme Court cases he relied on.

  • July 16, 2026

    Apple, Amazon Face Bid To Revive Wash. Antitrust Suit

    Plaintiffs' counsel urged a Seattle federal judge Thursday to rethink dismissal of a proposed antitrust class action accusing Apple and Amazon of illegally restricting sales of iPhones and iPads, contending that attorneys at Hagens Berman couldn't have concluded from their client's "ambiguous" message that he wanted to get out of the case.

  • July 16, 2026

    Calif. Justices Put Kibosh On Appeal Strategy In Med Mal Case

    The California Supreme Court on Thursday clarified the state's final judgment rule and held that a voluntary dismissal intended to speed up appellate review of adverse trial court rulings in a medical malpractice case essentially forfeited the case for the plaintiffs.

  • July 16, 2026

    Fat Brands Execs Beat Investor Suit Over $47M Loan Scheme

    A California federal judge has dismissed former and current Fat Brands executives from a proposed class action accusing them and the restaurant group of falsely claiming to be cooperating with the government's investigations into allegations that its CEO orchestrated a $47 million loan scheme, causing stock prices to plunge when criminal charges were announced.

  • July 16, 2026

    Calif. Says AT&T Mustn't Make Move From Copper 'Disorderly'

    The California Public Utilities Commission has told AT&T that it's not pleased to hear that the cost of certain copper services has gone up "exponentially" as the state and the mobile behemoth duke it out in federal court and at the Federal Communications Commission over AT&T's desire to end legacy copper service.

  • July 16, 2026

    'Top Gun' Article Heirs Ask Justices To Review Similarity Test

    The heirs of the journalist whose 1983 magazine article inspired the original "Top Gun" movie have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their copyright lawsuit over "Top Gun: Maverick" and resolve what they call a circuit split over how courts should compare allegedly similar works.

  • July 16, 2026

    Albright Declines To Ship Tesla Dispute To California

    A Texas federal judge on Thursday refused to grant Tesla's request to transfer a patent infringement suit against the electric-car maker to California, finding that all the factors weighed neutrally, and that Tesla had therefore not shown a good reason to move the case.

  • July 16, 2026

    'No Time To Waste' On Google Antitrust Reports, Judge Says

    A California federal judge said Thursday there's "no time to waste" to begin monitoring a three-year injunction against Google in Epic's antitrust battle over Google's Android app store policies, saying he wants monthly reports now that the parties have agreed to accept the injunction terms he laid out.

  • July 16, 2026

    Tax Filers Seek Class Cert. In Google Privacy Suit

    Online tax return filers who alleged Google's tracking tool effectively eavesdropped on their confidential tax information asked a California federal judge to certify several classes in their suit against the search giant.

  • July 16, 2026

    Calif. Tells 9th Circ. AI Disclosure Law Helps Consumers

    The state of California has pressed the Ninth Circuit to affirm a district court's decision denying xAI's injunction request against a state law requiring artificial intelligence companies to disclose what's included in training their models, saying the law advanced "an important governmental interest" in providing transparency to the public.

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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