California Pulse


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    ABA To Assess Aggressive BigLaw Campus Recruitment

    The American Bar Association's policymaking body on Monday approved a resolution sponsored by law students seeking reprieve from increasingly early BigLaw recruitment drives and clarified rules regarding client confidentiality and prosecutorial responsibility, some of the first votes taken on day one of its annual meeting.

  • Judge Denies Bid To Oust Kirkland From Trade Secret Feud

    A California federal judge has denied a healthcare software company's attempt to disqualify Kirkland & Ellis LLP from representing Commure Inc. in a trade secret lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiff failed to prove that information it disclosed during a prospective client consultation was materially harmful enough to warrant disqualification.

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    What To Know About Initial Rollout Of NextGen Bar Exam

    The NextGen Bar Exam, which is replacing the uniform bar exam across most of the United States, has been successfully administered for the first time in nine jurisdictions July 28-29 and was canceled in Washington state due to technical difficulties.

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    Legal Workplaces Create More Stress For Female Lawyers

    Female lawyers report being more stressed out than their male counterparts, and the reasons they give for that stress largely revolve around structural workplace factors, according to an American Bar Association report released Monday.

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    McGovern Weems Adds Name Partner, West, From Dechert

    The New York firm formerly known as McGovern Weems LLP announced Monday that it has hired another name partner, the former head of Dechert LLP's enforcement and investigations team.

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    Cleary Adds Litigators From White & Case, Orrick

    Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP said Monday that it has added two partners to its litigation practice in Washington, D.C., and California, one from White & Case LLP and the other from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

  • Law360 Names 2026's Top Attorneys Under 40

    Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2026, our list of more than 160 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.

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    ABA House Of Delegates Resolutions To Watch

    The American Bar Association is holding its annual conference in Chicago this year, and next week the organization's policymaking body will be tackling a wide range of topics, like student loan reform and establishing a commission to fight antisemitism.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Bass Berry and Potter Anderson's work on an investors' suit against Cars.com leads this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from July 17 to 31.

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    NetApp's Admin And Legal Chief Earned $6.6M Last Year

    The chief administrative officer for NetApp Inc., a data management and software company, earned a total compensation of $6.6 million in fiscal year 2026, according to a recent securities filing.

  • Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Two Texas personal injury firms lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions for their work securing a $604 million verdict against a freight broker and logistics company for their roles in a deadly 2021 highway collision.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry ended July with another busy week as firms doled out associate bonuses and BigLaw shops expanded their bench of talent. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Lionsgate Studios GC Sees Pay Rise $1.75M To $4.5M

    Lionsgate Studios' top attorney received a roughly $1.75 million raise to $4.5 million after leading the entertainment company's separation from Starz and guiding transactions around its hit Michael Jackson biopic, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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    ABA Eyes Nixing School DEI Standards To Sway Trump Admin

    The American Bar Association is poised next week to eliminate the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards, a controversial move that it hopes will allow it to remain an accreditor despite an uncertain outcome in the face of a Trump administration increasingly wary of the association's role in legal education.

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    Former Calif. Assistant US Atty Joins Hueston Hennigan In LA

    An experienced trial lawyer who most recently spent nearly a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Central District of California has joined Hueston Hennigan LLP's Los Angeles office as of counsel, the firm announced.

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    Kaufman Dolowich Hires O'Hagan Meyer Partner In LA

    Kaufman Dolowich has hired a Los Angeles labor and employment lawyer, who is joining as a partner to defend employers in complex litigation, the firm recently announced.

  • Law Firm Real Estate Report

    Florida was a hotbed of law firm office activity in July, with at least five firms either opening new locations or moving teams to new spaces.

  • Advocacy Group Says Law Firm Fellowship Program Biased

    A legal advocacy group said Thursday it had lodged U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges against a nonprofit and law firms including Jones Day, White & Case and Morgan Lewis, claiming Muslim and Middle Eastern students were getting unlawful preference in a fellowship program.

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    Vinson & Elkins Sees AI Usage Uptick After First Hackathon

    Vinson & Elkins completed its first artificial intelligence hackathon in June, called the V&E GenAI Cup, to generate more staff excitement about AI and gather new ideas for projects.

  • 9th Circ. Vacates Orrick Win In Stock Transfer Deal Dispute

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday reversed a lower court's finding that Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP can't be held liable in a battle over a stock transfer agreement gone awry, ruling that California law does allow a party to the transfer to pursue equitable indemnity in the case.

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    DOJ Suit Shows Bar Battles Have Reached New Fronts

    The legal effort seeking to outlaw mandatory bar associations has made little progress in the courts recently. But some lawyers say the challenges have made it easier for the Trump administration and some state legislatures to oppose legal regulators.

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    Former Zoom, EBay Atty Joins Cardlytics As CLO

    The new chief legal officer at Cardlytics Inc. sees data privacy and increasingly complex government regulations as among his biggest challenges when he joins the company on Monday next week.

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    Why This Skadden Alum Took A 'Leap Of Faith' In-House

    For more than 30 years, Joseph Yaffe worked in BigLaw at Latham & Watkins and Skadden, including as head of the latter firm's Palo Alto office. Just this year, he stepped into not only his first-ever chief legal officer position, but also his first job in a corporate law department. Here, Yaffe explains his decision to join Cowboy Space, the venture created in 2024 by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt.

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    Kahana Feld Taps General Liability Chair To Run Texas Offices

    Kahana Feld has appointed the chair of its general liability practice group to lead its Texas shops in Austin, Dallas and Houston.

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    Wilson Sonsini Appoints Capital Markets Head As New Chair

    Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC has appointed a member of its board of directors and head of its capital markets practice as chair, the firm announced Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

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    RFP Reset: Focus On Execution, Not Just Expertise Author Photo

    Law firms that treat responses to requests for proposal as concrete evidence of staffing, budgeting, communication and project management discipline will be better positioned to win business from legal departments than firms that tout generic credentials alone, says LaResa Young at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

  • 3 Ways Firm Leaders Can Nurture AI Fluency Author Photo

    Lawyers can’t develop artificial intelligence fluency from continuing legal education courses, webinars or email updates, so firm leaders must foster conditions that are conducive to attorney learning if they want AI investments to deliver their promised return, says Adrienne Prentice at Keep Company.

  • The GC's 1st 90 Days: How To Build Trust With The CEO Author Photo

    During the early days in the general counsel role, establishing a CEO relationship that holds under pressure is dependent on earning access, communicating in business terms and advising candidly — all before a crisis arises, says Chaka Patterson, former general counsel at Adtalem Global Education.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Harness Client Trust Author Photo

    Clients stay with counsel not simply because their lawyers follow the rules, but because they feel safe, respected and heard, making trust essential to business development, especially in high-stakes matters where reputational risk runs high, says Derrelle Janey at Olshan Frome.

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    Legal Tech Talks: Summize GC On Operating Strategically Author Photo

    Lexi Lutz, general counsel of Summize, discusses how legal tech can make lawyers more proactive and less tied up in repetitive process work, so that they can spend more time acting as real business partners.

  • How Associates Can Use AI To Gain A Biz Development Edge Author Photo

    Junior lawyers can harness artificial intelligence to identify where they are gaining traction with clients and build a data-driven business development foundation long before conversations about partnership track begin, says Tigist Kassahun at Vinson & Elkins.

  • Law Firm AI Rollouts Depend On Buy-In, Not Bigger Budgets Author Photo

    Recent research demonstrates that the organizational qualities that make for a good associate experience, like strong leadership, are also strengths that prove critical to successful artificial intelligence implementation, say Cait Evans at Chambers and Partners, and Vivek Mohan and Meredith Williams-Range at Gibson Dunn.

  • Trump's EO Puts AI Agent Governance On GC Agenda Author Photo

    Section 4 of President Donald Trump's executive order promoting the advancement of artificial intelligence innovation and security establishes a federal baseline around AI agents, so general counsel cannot wait for enforcement to define the standard, says Camilo Artiga-Purcell at Kiteworks.

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    RFP Reset: Standardize Pricing Requests Author Photo

    To keep up with rising legal costs amid an industry overhaul fueled by artificial intelligence, legal departments can make outside counsel requests for proposal more defensible and cost-effective by making pricing requests uniform, requiring comparable fee templates and evaluating staffing assumptions, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Making Legal Cents: Create Marketing Clients Find Useful Author Photo

    The law firm marketing efforts with the best return on investment are things that actively provide value to potential clients: practical business guidance, uncluttered proposals that anticipate their questions and opportunities to participate in curated industry conversations, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

  • Law Firm Leaders Should Adopt Founding Fathers' Bold Ideas Author Photo

    To ensure continued success, law firm leaders helming their firms through the legal industry revolution should take inspiration from the Founding Fathers' bold decisions, such as James Madison's abandonment of the Articles of Confederation and George Washington's trust in junior officers', says Samuel Pond at Pond Lehocky.

  • The AI Ownership Question Firms Can't Afford To Skip Author Photo

    The artificial intelligence conversation among law firm leaders has advanced from adoption to governance and business impact, but it hasn’t resolved who maintains ownership and operational responsibility, which should be determined by the range of functions that AI touches, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Practice Authenticity

    Attorneys who demonstrate who they truly are and what they stand for by sharing the human impact of their results, earning the media's trust by providing accessible analysis, and providing hands-on aid to their communities can build stronger reputations than any advertising budget can buy, says Ray DeLorenzi at RebuttalPR.

  • Legal AI Adoption Tips And Takeaways From Dot-Com Bubble Author Photo

    Legal artificial intelligence is on a similar trajectory as the internet in the dot-com era, where several internet companies failed after the initial market frenzy, but even if AI company valuations take a hit and the industry goes through a major reordering, legal leaders should note that the technology itself remains genuinely transformational for the delivery of legal services, says Gabriel Buigas at Integreon.

  • Opinion

    Keeping PE Out Of Law Is Job For Courts, Not Capitols Author Photo

    Efforts by lawmakers in California, Colorado and Illinois seeking to bar private equity firms, hedge funds and other nonattorney investors from owning or financing law firms risk intruding on authority that state constitutions and the inherent powers doctrine have traditionally assigned to the judiciary, says attorney Felix Shipkevich.

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