California Pulse


  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    Law firms deployed associate bonuses and expanded operations during another busy summer week for the legal industry. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

  • Customers Can't Depose Google, Apple CEOs, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit has denied a group of consumers' petition for writ of mandamus challenging a lower court's order rejecting their repeated requests to depose Google's and Apple's CEOs and several other executives in antitrust litigation alleging the search engine giant shut out competitors.

  • State Farm Attys Admit Filing Motions Full Of AI Hallucinations

    A law firm representing State Farm has admitted that its pretrial motions contained citations to nonexistent cases and legal quotes, errors that were seemingly "hallucinations" generated by AI software designed for lawyers and caught by the plaintiff's attorneys as they prepared for trial in a California state court case about fire damage coverage.

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    University Of California Head Atty To Retire After 2 Decades

    The University of California announced that the institution's top lawyer will retire in June after spending the past 20 years serving as its chief legal officer.

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    AI Drives Spike In Pro Se Filings But Not Courtroom Success

    Artificial intelligence appears to have led to a drastic spike in federal pro se litigation, according to scholars, but the technology isn't necessarily helping these self-represented litigants find success in court.

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    Latham Leads List Of Client Service 'All-Stars,' Report Says

    Latham & Watkins LLP, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP all delivered exceptional client service in a fast-changing, high-pressure era where "the business decision is also the legal decision," a new report by BTI Consulting Group says.

  • Women Sue Couple Over 'Rent-A-Womb' Surrogacy Scheme

    Five women have sued an Arcadia, California, couple and their attorneys in state court stemming from an alleged "rent-a-womb" scheme where the women were tricked into becoming surrogates.

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    AALS Task Force to Examine Accreditation, Bar Admission

    The Association of American Law Schools has announced the formation of a national task force that will examine issues related to the accreditation of law schools and the viability of alternative ways to earn admission to the bar.

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    Trial Firm Reid Collins To Award 3rd Set Of Associate Bonuses

    Texas-based trial boutique Reid Collins & Tsai LLP is planning to dole out a third round of bonuses for the year to associates, raising their total bonus pay to between $130,000 and $170,000 on the year so far, with another round expected later in 2026.

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    Kahana Feld Grows In California With Sacramento Launch

    Kahana Feld LLP announced that the firm has opened its seventh California office in the state capital of Sacramento, where it added an experienced litigation partner from Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP.

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    Synopsys GC To Step Down To Study Theology

    California-based electronic design automation company Synopsys said Wednesday its general counsel will leave that post by the end of 2026, or earlier if a successor is named.

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    Deal Reached In Class Action Over Botched Calif. Bar Exam

    A settlement has been reached in a proposed nationwide class action brought by bar applicants against the proctor of the botched February 2025 California bar exam, one month after the California State Bar settled its claims against the proctor.

  • Ogletree Says Equinox Owes $1.4M In Unpaid Legal Bills

    Ogletree said Monday that fitness company Equinox owes nearly $1.4 million in fees and expenses for the firm's work representing it in an employment matter in Los Angeles, according to a complaint filed in California federal court.

  • Calif. Subclass Added To Fox Rothschild Data Breach Suit

    A California resident seeking to represent a subclass of Golden State data breach victims on Tuesday asked to add a new California Consumer Privacy Act claim to a proposed Pennsylvania class action first filed against Fox Rothschild LLP in June, after prominent ransomware group Silent Ransom Group targeted the firm.

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    Kilpatrick Adds 3rd Reed Smith IP Litigator In San Francisco

    Months after adding two Reed Smith LLP intellectual property attorneys in San Francisco, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has hired another Reed Smith IP litigator to further expand its patent litigation team in the Bay Area.

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    OpenAI Employment Counsel Rejoins Munger Tolles

    An employment lawyer with OpenAI has rejoined Munger Tolles & Olson as of counsel in its Los Angeles office after a year with the tech company.

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    Mayer Brown, Scissero Partner On Structured Product Service

    Mayer Brown LLP announced on Tuesday a new partnership with the artificial intelligence-backed legal services provider Scissero that will center on the issuance of structured products.

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    Spa Fights 9th Circ.'s 'Swinging Dicks' Order At High Court

    The Ninth Circuit's rejection of a spa's religious objections to serving transgender customers is incompatible with several major precedents, according to a U.S. Supreme Court petition filed Monday in litigation that soared in prominence when dozens of circuit judges decried a salacious dissent.

  • CREXi Can't Stay CoStar Case For Quinn Emanuel DQ Appeal

    A California federal court rejected a bid Monday from Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc., or CREXi, for a stay in CoStar's copyright case while CREXi looks to undo the disqualification of its attorneys from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

  • Cannabis Clients Sue Atty Over Missed Deadline In $5.7M Suit

    Los Angeles cannabis entrepreneurs are suing their former attorney for legal malpractice in California state court, claiming that she caused the permanent end of their $5.7 million fire damage lawsuit against a landlord who they say allowed a "local transient" to start a fire on a neighboring property.

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    Salesforce, Goldman Sachs Lag In Raising Say-On-Pay Votes

    Based on investors' say-on-pay advisory votes, California builder Tutor Perini did the best job at convincing more shareholders to approve their executive pay packages at this year's annual meetings, while Salesforce and Goldman Sachs did the worst job, according to a new study.

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    Ellenoff Grossman Explores Outside Investment Via MSO Deal

    Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP is exploring taking on outside capital via a managed services organization to invest in technology and expand headcount, a firm co-founder confirmed Monday.

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    Inside Lowenstein Sandler's Summer Associate AI Challenge

    For one day last month, summer associates at Lowenstein Sandler LLP paused their work to square off in a new kind of artificial intelligence training: the firm's inaugural "AI Draft and Detect Challenge," a competition highlighting the opportunities — and limits — of legal AI.

  • Google Is 'Last Bastion' Of Reviewers' Free Speech, Court Told

    A Connecticut law firm's efforts to force Google to unmask users who left potentially defamatory online reviews pose a question of "constitutional magnitude," a Hartford state judge heard Monday as the company tried to move a pre-litigation discovery bid to the West Coast.

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    Ballard Spahr Taps Longtime Litigator To Lead LA Office

    Ballard Spahr LLP announced Monday that an experienced litigation partner who has been with the firm for more than 15 years has been named the new office managing partner in Los Angeles.

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Expert Analysis

  • Series

    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.

  • Legal Tech Talks: WordSmith AI's CEO On Shifting Mindsets Author Photo

    Ross McNairn, founder and CEO of Wordsmith AI, discusses how the lawyers who treat legal work like an engineering problem and can deploy legal intelligence at scale will define the next decade.

  • Avoiding The Changing Pitfalls Of Firm Website Redesigns Author Photo

    BigLaw firms about to tackle a website redesign need to understand the fundamental changes to costs, timelines, vendors and technology since their last big update so their leadership teams can steer resource management decisions away from costly potential mistakes, says Stephan Roussan at Vertical Minds.

  • Public AI Disclosures Raise Stakes For AI Agent Oversight Author Photo

    Two recent reports shift the legal posture of every organization deploying artificial intelligence agents because they establish the foreseeability, for negligence liability purposes, of an AI agent becoming weaponized for data exfiltration, says Camilo Artiga-Purcell at Kiteworks.

  • How Firms Can Win Market For Unified Legal Client Services Author Photo

    Firms willing to develop a new operating model, where AI-powered legal tech is paired with deep industry expertise and a different incentive structure, can win over companies looking to consolidate their legal needs with a single provider, says Lana Manganiello at Practice Growth Partner.

  • 7 AI Training Tips For Law Firm Summer Associate Programs Author Photo

    Law firms trying to weave artificial intelligence into summer associate programs should build a program that isn't really about AI but teaches students how to think about using AI, with the goal of building judgment, understanding implications and leveling up in a way that's repeatable, says Zeynep Ersin at Seyfarth.

  • Series

    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Don't Obstruct Knowledge Author Photo

    Lawyers and firms should treat knowledge transfer as a business development function, using the sharing of context and institutional know-how to preserve continuity through change, strengthen relationships and create long-term competitive advantage, says Mark Wraight at Stinson.

  • How Private Equity Priorities Will Test The Law Firm Model Author Photo

    The biggest question about private equity moving into the legal sector is no longer whether it can financially succeed, but how law firms can contend with the unavoidable economic, institutional and ethical tensions introduced by external ownership without compromising their core professional commitments, say Kirsten Vasquez and Allison Rosner at Major Lindsey.

  • AI-Powered Search Demands New Legal Marketing Playbook Author Photo

    As potential clients use artificial intelligence tools instead of search engines when looking for counsel, it is a democratizing moment for specialized midsize firms and a compression threat for generalist big-firm brand positioning, says Ronn Torossian at 5WPR.

  • What Law Firm MSOs Can Learn From Accounting Co. Model Author Photo

    Private equity capital has been flowing into accounting firms for years, with investors developing creative structures to work within that field's specific ownership restrictions, and the framework developed by these transactions offers valuable insights for law firms looking for outside investment, says Russell Shapiro at Levenfeld Pearlstein.

  • Series

    Legal Tech Talks: StrongSuit CEO On The AI Gold Rush Author Photo

    Justin McCallon, CEO of StrongSuit, discusses how the potential for automation and insight generation with artificial intelligence is massive, but that in legal work, especially litigation, the margin for error is essentially zero.

  • How Leaders Can Foster Professional Growth With Feedback Author Photo

    When law firm leaders provide work product feedback by identifying errors instead of offering guiding input, they miss a key opportunity to treat feedback as a professional development and leadership tool, but several practices can help bridge the gap between intent and impact, says Janet Jackson at Well-Law.

  • Why Marketing Teams Are Vital For Law Firm AI Storytelling Author Photo

    Many law firms are using generic decks for multiple client presentations to articulate their artificial intelligence strategy, but in order to differentiate themselves, it's important to bring marketing teams into the fold to identify what's actually distinctive about how a firm uses AI, says Eric Greenberg at Cox Media.

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