California

  • July 17, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Office-To-Resi Woes, Prefab Housing Wins

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney reactions to the structural issues at the old Pfizer building in New York, a Big Law partner's view of manufactured housing in light of the new federal housing law, and new tactics in data center development as certain states clamp down.

  • July 17, 2026

    Calif. Air District Can Be Sued Under Clean Air Act, Judge Says

    A federal judge ruled Friday that the Clean Air Act allows a coalition of environmental groups to sue an agency that controls air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley even though it is a government regulator.

  • July 17, 2026

    Spokeo Reaches $10M Settlement In Right Of Publicity Row

    Spokeo has reached a $10 million preliminary settlement with a group of plaintiffs from nine states alleging their right to publicity was violated by the company through teaser profiles that used their private information to help sell subscriptions to the platform, according to a motion filed in California federal court.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Says OMB Can't Change Grant Terms After Award

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Friday the Trump administration cannot rely on a shift in policy to retroactively change the terms of already awarded grants in order to justify canceling them.

  • July 17, 2026

    Amazon Seeks To Escape Pay, Promotion Bias Suit

    Amazon urged a Washington federal court to toss a proposed class action alleging it paid women less than male colleagues and limited their career opportunities, arguing the lawsuit is short on details and many of the claims belong in New York or California rather than the Evergreen State.

  • July 17, 2026

    Meta Avoids Workers' Bid To Block Allegedly AI-Tainted Cuts

    A California federal judge Friday denied a group of current and former Meta employees' bid to swiftly block the company from disturbing the benefits of certain employees it allegedly selected for termination using artificial intelligence, but requested more information on how Meta selected four employees on company-sponsored employment visas.

  • July 17, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Review Reversal In $18M Penile Implant Case

    The full Federal Circuit said Friday that it won't review a panel decision that mostly undid a California federal jury verdict that awarded $18.3 million to International Medical Devices Inc. in a trade secret case about penile implants.

  • July 17, 2026

    Disabled Patron Sues Calif. Cannabis Shop, Landlord

    A Los Angeles County shopping center and a cannabis dispensary within it have been sued in state court over claims that the property's parking lot, pathways and entrance have obstacles that make it difficult and even dangerous for the plaintiff, who has physical disabilities, to shop there.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Open To TRO Blocking Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

    A California federal judge appeared open Friday to granting a group of states' bid for a temporary restraining order blocking Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying it appears the tie-up's anticipated market share presumptively violates the Clayton Act under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

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