LA Judge Faces Ethics Probe Over 'Bizarre' Comments

By Lauren Berg

California's judicial ethics watchdog announced Tuesday it is looking into misconduct allegations against a Los Angeles judge whose "extreme and bizarre" comments led a state appeals court to reverse a $10 million sexual harassment verdict.

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Edison Blames LA County, Others For Exacerbating Eaton Fire

By Gina Kim

Southern California Edison filed a cross-complaint in California state court on Friday against several public and private entities, including Los Angeles County and the city of Pasadena, alleging they are also at fault for exacerbating the damage left by the devastating Eaton fire that sparked in January 2025.

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Microsoft Warns Google Play Store Deal Invites Antitrust Harm

By Lauren Berg

Microsoft Corp. urged a California federal judge to reject the proposed Android app distribution settlement in Epic Games' antitrust suit against Google, arguing that the deal would essentially erase the court's injunction requiring Google to open up its Play Store to Microsoft and other competitors.

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Plaintiffs Atty Who Disclosed Uber MDL Docs On 'Thin Ice'

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal magistrate judge warned plaintiffs attorney Bret Stanley of Johnson Law Group during a hearing Tuesday that he's on "thin ice" after Uber argued he should be sanctioned for allegedly repeatedly using discovery in multidistrict litigation over sexual assault liability to litigate other cases against Uber.

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XAI Seeks To Block Calif. GenAI Training Data Disclosure Law

By Rae Ann Varona

XAI has urged a California federal court to block the Golden State from enforcing a new law imposing training data disclosure requirements on generative artificial intelligence system developers, saying the law unconstitutionally forces it to reveal its valuable trade secrets to its competitors.

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GoodRx Users Denied Nod For $32M Deal In Data Sharing Row

By Allison Grande

A California federal judge refused to sign off on a $32 million deal to resolve a proposed class action accusing GoodRx of illegally sharing users' sensitive health data with fellow defendant Criteo and other advertisers, faulting the parties for failing to provide a detailed analysis of the strength of each claim.

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Law360 Names Firms Of The Year

By Kevin Penton

Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 48 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, achieving milestones such as high-profile litigation wins at the U.S. Supreme Court and 11-figure merger deals.

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Willkie Accused Of Aiding $735M Fraud In Buyout Deal

By Katryna Perera

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP on Tuesday was accused of aiding a $735 million fraud carried out by an investment manager to secure financing for a 2023 take-private transaction involving Franchise Group Inc., which was then used to pay off the manager's personal debts.

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Ex-Girardi Keese Atty To Take Plea Deal In Chicago Case

By Rae Ann Varona

Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin will take a plea deal in a case accusing him of helping Tom Girardi violate court orders and covering up the theft of client funds, according to a minute entry entered Friday in Illinois federal court.

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Justice Jackson Slams Fee Waiver Ban For Indigent Prisoners

By Brandon Lowrey

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday rejected three pro se indigent prisoners' bids to file petitions to the court without fees and permanently barred them from seeking fee waivers from the high court, decisions that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called "foolish" in a passionate dissent.

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Justices Ask If Hawaii 'Vampire Law' Violates 2nd Amendment

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of a Hawaii law that makes it illegal for people to bring firearms onto private property open to the public without the owner's express permission.

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Justices Won't Hear Audi, VW Bid To Limit Calif. Jurisdiction

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear Audi AG and Volkswagen AG's bids to limit when foreign manufacturers, whose products are sold through a U.S. distributor, are subject to specific personal jurisdiction in American state courts for product liability and personal injury claims.

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Lyft's 'Priority Pickup' Service Fails to Deliver, Suit Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

Lyft tells passengers they can get a faster pickup for a premium price but frequently fails to deliver on that promise, a customer says in a proposed consumer class action filed Tuesday in California federal court.

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Applied Materials Settles Patent Fight On Eve Of Calif. Trial

By Adam Lidgett

Chipmaking equipment company Applied Materials has settled its lawsuit in California federal court that sought a finding that it didn't infringe a pair of technology patents that had also been at issue in a $4 billion patent case where a jury cleared Samsung of infringement.

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Brief

Sandisk Inks Deal To License Memory Patents

By Adam Lidgett

Computer technology company Sandisk has been granted a license to a portfolio of patents owned by a flash memory technology company, a move that came just after the parties agreed to end a patent dispute in California federal court.

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Netflix Revises $83B Warner Bros. Deal To All Cash

By Al Barbarino

Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have revised their $82.7 billion merger agreement into an all-cash deal, a move that could ease shareholder concerns over the prior stock component's susceptibility to market fluctuations.

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Cracker Barrel Workers Push Justices To Hear Collective Fight

By Benjamin Morse

Cracker Barrel servers urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up an appeal of a Ninth Circuit decision that only Arizona employees could opt in to a collective suit over tipped wages, rebutting the restaurant chain's arguments that a circuit split on the issue will resolve itself.

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Defense Industry Exec Gets 4 Years For Bribery Scheme

By Gina Kim

A U.S. Navy veteran who founded a defense contracting company has been sentenced in California federal court to four years in prison after admitting his role in a scheme where he bribed a former Navy employee with World Series and Super Bowl tickets for his help ensuring the company procured lucrative government contracts.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court wrapped up last week with a mix of deal litigation, governance fights and disclosure battles, including a proposed settlement over a contested medical device sale, a merits dismissal tied to a $2 billion biotech exit and dueling lawsuits over Paramount Skydance's pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

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FINRA Says Firms Ignored Red Flags About Overseas Biz

By Sarah Jarvis

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has accused a pair of broker-dealers of failing to investigate red flags related to underwriting foreign customers' transactions and of not disclosing certain compensation, while the firms separately sued the regulator in Illinois federal court for overreach they claim blocked them from underwriting engagements.

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FINRA Fines Cetera $1.1M For Supervision Failures

By Sydney Price

Cetera Advisors LLC and its related companies have agreed to pay the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority $1.1 million to settle claims they had insufficient supervisory systems and suspicious transaction reporting procedures.

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5th Circ. Urged Not To Transfer Google Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

Mobile analytics software company Branch Metric urged the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday not to transfer from Texas to California its case accusing Google of monopolizing mobile device search markets, saying the case has sufficient connections to the Lone Star State.

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FTX Trust Hit With Sanctions After Ch. 11 Donation Fight Loss

By Vince Sullivan

The FTX Recovery Trust is facing sanctions after losing its bid to claw back a $650,000 bonus given to an employee of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange that was earmarked for charitable purposes, with a Delaware bankruptcy judge saying the trust's efforts were harmful to all parties involved.

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9th Circ. Revives Malpractice Suit Against Bankruptcy Atty

By Rick Archer

The Ninth Circuit Tuesday reinstated a California woman's malpractice lawsuit against her bankruptcy attorney, but said the bankruptcy court needs to significantly narrow the permission to sue it granted to the debtor.

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SF Diocese's Ch. 11 Abuse Claims Not Covered, Insurers Say

By Clara Geoghegan

The Archdiocese of San Francisco knew or should have known about sexual abuse allegations against its clergy dating back decades, two insurance companies have argued in a California bankruptcy court lawsuit over policy coverage.

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Trump Admin Loses Bid To Toss Sanctuary Funding Suit

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge rejected the Trump administration's bid Tuesday to toss an amended complaint from dozens of sanctuary jurisdictions pushing back on the threat to withdraw federal funds over their immigration enforcement policies, finding the court already rejected some of the arguments and his "mind is unchanged."

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Judge Won't Toss Stanford Daily Suit Over Student Removals

By Britain Eakin

A California federal judge has declined the government's bid to dismiss a suit from Stanford University's student newspaper challenging the Trump administration's targeting of foreign students with pro-Palestinian views for removal, ruling that the paper and two students have standing to sue.

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Iranians, Sudanese Sue To Unfreeze Work Permit Processing

By Britain Eakin

Thirty-one Iranians and one Sudanese national have sued the Trump administration to force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process their pending work permit applications, alleging the agency unlawfully put them on hold under directives for nationals of travel-ban countries.

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Orrick Expands IP Team With Cadwalader, Kirkland Litigators

By Dorothy Atkins

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has beefed up its intellectual property litigation team with three new partners experienced in counseling technology and life sciences clients, adding two former Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP litigators in New York and a former Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner in Los Angeles.

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Massumi & Consoli Lands M&A Pro In Los Angeles

By Rose Krebs

Massumi & Consoli LLP announced Monday that it has added an attorney who previously operated his own talent management business for athletes and also spent time at Paul Hastings LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP to enhance its capacity to handle mergers and acquisitions.

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AG Watch: Calif. Fills Federal Consumer Protection Void

California's consumer protection efforts seem to be intensifying as federal oversight wanes, with Attorney General Rob Bonta recently taking actions related to buy now, pay later products, credit reporting and medical debt, consumer credit discrimination, and the use of artificial intelligence in consumer services, say attorneys at Cooley.

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AI-Driven Harassment Poses New Risks For Employers

Two recent cases show that deepfakes and other artificial intelligence‑generated content are emerging as a powerful new mechanism for workplace harassment, and employers should take a proactive approach to reduce their liability as AI continues to reshape workplace dynamics, say attorneys at Littler.

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Why 2026 Could Be A Bright Year For US Solar

2025 was a record-setting year for utility-scale solar power deployment in the U.S., a trend that shows no signs of abating, so the question for 2026 is whether permitting, interconnection, and state and federal policies will allow the industry to grow fast enough to meet demand, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

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Navigating Privilege Law Patchwork In Dual-Purpose Comms

Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to resolve a circuit split in In re: Grand Jury, federal courts remain split as to when attorney-client privilege applies to dual-purpose legal and business communications, and understanding the fragmented landscape is essential for managing risks, say attorneys at Covington.

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Goldstein Poker Pals Got Money From Firm, Witness Says

By Jared Foretek

A former office manager at Thomas Goldstein's law firm Tuesday told the jury in his tax fraud trial in Maryland federal court that hundreds of thousands of dollars in wire transfers sent to the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer's poker counterparts were classified as business transactions in documents used by the firm's tax accountants.

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McDonald Hopkins Forms Practice Group For Law Firm MSOs

By Emma Cueto

Midwestern firm McDonald Hopkins LLC announced Tuesday that it has launched a practice group focused on handling deals between law firms and prospective private equity investors, which the firm said is a natural extension of its work on litigation funding deals and private equity investment in other professional services.

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Ex-DOJ Attys Describe Fallout From Trump Takeover

By Stewart Bishop

Former federal prosecutors who resigned or were fired from the U.S. Department of Justice over the last year spoke Tuesday of their dismay over political interference at the department by the Trump administration, but largely expressed confidence that the DOJ could recover in time.

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Shooting Of Indiana Judge, Wife Prompts Call For Vigilance

By Lynn LaRowe

The shooting of an Indiana Superior Court judge and his wife over the weekend has prompted the chief of the state's highest court to urge all jurists in the Hoosier State to "remain vigilant in your security."

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Lindsey Halligan Out As US Atty As Judge Criticizes 'Charade'

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that Lindsey Halligan's 120-day term as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is over, the same day a Virginia federal judge criticized "this charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading" in a role in which she was not lawfully serving.

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Supreme Court Rules Mandatory Restitution Is Punitive

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Supreme Court held in a unanimous opinion Tuesday that restitution is a criminal punishment subject to the Constitution's ban on increasing punishment retroactively.

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Feature

John Roberts Welcomes John Roberts To Supreme Court

By Jeff Overley

U.S. Supreme Court advocates have tips galore for staying calm at a debut argument, including diligent preparation, mindful breathing and treating the event as a conversation. But a Proskauer Rose LLP attorney benefited Tuesday from a distinctive development: the chief justice's introductory jest about the two of them not being related.

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Justices Ax 6th Circ. Abortion Order Amid Loper Bright Outcry

By Jeff Overley

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday erased a Sixth Circuit decision allowing abortion-related conditions on family planning grants, a victory for Tennessee officials who accused the circuit of flouting the high court's landmark rejection of judicial deference to regulators.

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NJ Justices Sharply Limit Attorney Liability To Nonclients

By Carla Baranauckas

The New Jersey Supreme Court adopted a formal framework on Tuesday for determining when attorneys owe a duty of care to nonclients, affirming that estate lawyers generally cannot be sued for malpractice by disappointed heirs without clear proof the lawyer was engaged to benefit them directly.

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AI Firm Countersues Legal Publisher For Breach Of Contract

By Adam Lidgett

Artificial intelligence startup Alexi Technologies has accused Fastcase Inc. and its owner of weaponizing the legal system after the legal research firm filed a lawsuit in November claiming the AI company breached a former business relationship.

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Justices Set Time Limit To Ax Judgments, Ending 11-1 Split

By Jeff Overley

Almost every circuit court has wrongly allowed litigants to vacate invalid judgments regardless of how long ago the judgments became final, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, endorsing one circuit's outlier interpretation of a decades-old procedural rule.

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Brief

Supreme Court Security Gets $30M Boost In DHS Bill

By Courtney Bublé

The consolidated U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding bill for fiscal year 2026 released early Tuesday morning includes $30 million for the security of U.S. Supreme Court justices.

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