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California Pulse
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When Can Attys Decide To Drop Clients? ABA Says It Depends
Lawyers can drop clients at will as long as doing so won't harm the client's legal objectives or needlessly drive up costs, according to new guidance by the American Bar Association — but the guidance also notes that "getting out of a matter can be a lot harder than getting in."
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Eversheds Sutherland's New US-Based Leaders Start Roles
Eversheds Sutherland started April with new leadership in the U.S. as former global energy sector co-head Lino Mendiola III began his term as the firm's global co-CEO and U.S. chief executive, and former global board co-chair Adam Cohen stepped into the role of U.S. executive partner.
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23 Firms Remain GCs' Top Picks Despite Referral Drop
Even as corporate legal departments become more selective in recommending outside counsel to their peers, 23 law firms have managed to earn top marks for building trust and relationship management, according to a report released Wednesday by BTI Consulting Group.
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Signature Resolution Moves Into Central Calif. Via Partnership
The alternative dispute resolution center Signature Resolution in expanding into Central California by partnering with Bakersfield-based Common Ground Resolutions.
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UC Regents Face Trimmed Suit Over Antisemitism At Berkeley
A California federal judge on Monday trimmed two Jewish advocacy organizations' lawsuit accusing UC Berkeley and its law school of tolerating antisemitism, allowing the suit to go forward on their claims the university was "deliberately indifferent" towards Jews on campus.
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Willkie Becomes 3rd Firm To Reach Deal With Trump
After issuing a string of executive orders in recent weeks targeting BigLaw firms, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP had agreed to provide $100 million in pro bono legal services for certain causes and to refrain from what Trump has called discriminatory diversity hiring practices.
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Sanctioned Firm Ordered To Pay Fees In California Patent Row
Days after attorneys from Texas patent firm Ramey LLP were ordered to pay over $60,000 for practicing in California without a license, a San Francisco federal magistrate judge has ordered them to pay attorney fees in a pair of suits deemed to have been litigated in bad faith.
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BCLP Names New COO And Chief People Officer
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP has hired Newmark Group's former chief human resources officer as its chief people officer and shifted its chief financial officer to also serve as its chief operating officer, the firm announced Tuesday.
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Crypto Co. OKX Taps Ex-NY Regulator Linda Lacewell As GC
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX said Tuesday that Linda Lacewell, former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, has joined the company as its general counsel, a month after the firm agreed to a $504 million deal with federal prosecutors over compliance failures.
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Hunton Andrews Names New Office, Practice Group Leaders
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP announced Tuesday that it has appointed several attorneys to key leadership posts, including new leaders of its Miami and Richmond offices.
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Atty's Fraud Sentence Upheld In Long-Delayed Ruling
A California lawyer who was convicted for his role in a pump-and-dump scheme has lost a motion filed in Massachusetts federal court in 2018 seeking to vacate a four-year prison term.
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Fox Rothschild Names Office, Practice Group, Dept. Leaders
Fox Rothschild LLP announced Tuesday that it has installed new office managing partners in four cities, added co-chairs to its taxation and wealth planning department, and brought on an aviation practice group co-chair as part of the firm's standard leadership rotation.
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Former EBay, PayPal Exec Joins Fintech Co. As CLO
A former legal leader at eBay and PayPal and LendingClub Bank parent company LendingClub Corp. has joined healthcare-focused fintech company PayZen as its top attorney.
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Approach The Bench: Judge Tymkovich On New Judgeships
When Tenth Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich testified before Congress recently about the need for more federal judges, it had been about 10 years since he'd made a similar request of Congress, which hasn't expanded the federal bench since 2002.
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How Lewis Brisbois Is Addressing Associate Pay Delay
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP has hired two new staff members and is working to refine its process for determining discretionary bonuses and merit pay after the firm notified a portion of its associates this week that those payments would be delayed.
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Wilson Sonsini Adds Antitrust Attys From MoFo, K&L Gates
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC is expanding its antitrust team, bringing in two new partners — a Morrison Foerster LLP trial attorney in San Francisco and a K&L Gates LLP litigator in Chicago.
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Goodwin Grows Private Equity Practice With New SF Partner
Goodwin Procter LLP announced Tuesday that a former Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP attorney who handles complex transactions in the technology, fintech and healthcare industries has joined its private equity practice as a partner in San Francisco.
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Winston & Strawn Adds Goodwin Transactions Ace In LA
Winston & Strawn LLP is boosting its transactions team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Goodwin Procter LLP private equity expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office.
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Supermicro Taps Ex-Norton Rose Atty As GC After Co. Review
California-based Super Micro Computer Inc. has tapped a former Norton Rose Fulbright attorney to be its new general counsel just months after accelerating its search for a legal leader following an internal review.
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Public Storage CLO Saw Comp Fall For 3rd Straight Year
The chief legal officer at self-storage real estate investment trust Public Storage saw his compensation drop for the third consecutive year, as he earned around $2.4 million in 2024 compared to approximately $4.9 million in 2021, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Feds Seek 10 Years For Ex-Girardi CFO's 'Brazen' Crimes
Los Angeles federal prosecutors said Girardi Keese's former head of accounting should spend 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to assisting Tom Girardi in siphoning clients' settlement funds and what the government called a "brazen" side fraud to steal from the firm's operating accounts.
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Disbarred Fraudster Gets 25 Years For $18M Hemp Scam
A disbarred attorney with a history of investor fraud was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a scheme in which he solicited more than $18 million from investors by claiming to own a hemp farm that didn't exist and overhyping an edibles company.
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Ex-Workday Atty's Bias Claims Axed, Stock Dispute Kept Alive
A California federal judge tossed a Black ex-Workday attorney's claims that he endured race and disability bias that culminated in the software vendor sending police to his house to conduct an unnecessary wellness check, but the judge allowed the attorney pursue claims that he was shorted on stock options.
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Perkins Coie DQ'd From Facial Recognition IP Suit
Perkins Coie LLP has been disqualified from defending Jumio Corp. in a patent infringement lawsuit involving facial recognition technology, with the San Francisco federal judge who signed the order citing the firm's prior general corporate and intellectual property representation of plaintiff FaceTec Inc.
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Firms Look To Build Ties With Clients Amid Lateral Churn
The departure of a key partner from a law firm in many cases can mean the departure of a major client in tandem, a vulnerability law firms are increasingly looking to address through strategies to build stronger institutional relationships with their clients.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can 1st-Year Attys Manage Remote Work?
First-year associates can have a hard time building relationships with colleagues, setting boundaries and prioritizing work-life balance in a remote work environment, so they must be sure to lean on their firms' support systems and practice good time management, say Jenny Lee and Christopher Fernandez at Kirkland.
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5 Ways To Lead Lawyer Teams Toward Better Mental Health
Attorney team leaders have a duty to attend to the mental well-being of their subordinates with intention, thought and candor — starting with ensuring their own mental health is in order, says Liam Montgomery at Williams & Connolly.
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How Your Summer Associate Events Can Convey Inclusivity
As law firms begin planning next year's summer associate events, they should carefully examine how choice of venue, activity, theme, attendees and formality can create feelings of exclusion for minority associates, and consider changing the status quo to create multiculturally inclusive events, says Sharon Jones at Jones Diversity.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Negotiate Long-Term Flex Work?
Though the pandemic has shown the value of remote work, many firms are still reluctant to embrace flexible working arrangements when offices reopen, so attorneys should use several negotiating tactics to secure a long-term remote or hybrid work setup that also protects their potential for career advancement, says Elaine Spector at Harrity & Harrity.
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What I Wish Law Schools Taught Women About Legal Careers
Instead of spending an entire semester on 19th century hunting rights, I wish law schools would facilitate honest discussions about what it’s like to navigate life as an attorney, woman and mother, and offer lessons on business marketing that transcend golf outings and social mixers, says Daphne Delvaux at Gruenberg Law.
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4 Ways To Break Down Barriers For Women Of Color In Law
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Female lawyers belonging to minority groups continue to be paid less and promoted less than their male counterparts, so law firms and corporate legal departments must stop treating women as a monolithic group and create initiatives that address the unique barriers women of color face, say Daphne Turpin Forbes at Microsoft and Linda Chanow at the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession.
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Opinion
We Need More Professional Diversity In The Federal Judiciary
With the current overrepresentation of former corporate lawyers on the federal bench, the Biden administration must prioritize professional diversity in judicial nominations and consider lawyers who have represented workers, consumers and patients, says Navan Ward, president of the American Association for Justice.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Retire Without Creating Chaos?
Retired attorney Vernon Winters explains how lawyers can thoughtfully transition into retirement while protecting their firms’ interests and allaying clients' fears, with varying approaches that turn on the nature of one's practice, client relationships and law firm management.
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Why I Went From Litigator To Law Firm Diversity Officer
Narges Kakalia at Mintz recounts her journey from litigation partner to director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the firm, explaining how the challenges she faced as a female lawyer of color shaped her transition and why attorneys’ unique skill sets make them well suited for diversity leadership roles.
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For Asian American Lawyers, Good Mentorship Is Crucial
Navigating the legal world as an Asian American lawyer comes with unique challenges — from cultural stereotypes to a perceived lack of leadership skills — but finding good mentors and treating mentorship as a two-way street can help junior lawyers overcome some of the hurdles and excel, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Coping With Secondary Trauma From Pro Bono Work
As the need for pro bono services continues to grow in tandem with the pandemic, attorneys should assess their mental well-being and look for symptoms of secondary traumatic stress, while law firms must carefully manage their public service programs and provide robust mental health services to employees, says William Silverman at Proskauer.
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How Firms Can Benefit From Creating Their Own ALSPs
As more law firms develop their own legal services centers to serve as both a source of flexible personnel and technological innovation, they can further enhance the effectiveness by fostering a consistent and cohesive team and allowing for experimentation with new technologies from an established baseline, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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Modernizing Legal Education Through Hybrid JD Programs
Amid pandemic-era shifts in education, law schools and other stakeholders should consider the wide geographic and demographic reach of Juris Doctor programs with both online and in-person learning options, and educators should think through the various ways hybrid programs can be structured, says Stephen Burnett at All Campus.
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How BigLaw Can Mirror Small Firm Attorney Engagement
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BigLaw has the unique opportunity to hit refresh post-pandemic and enhance attorney satisfaction by adopting practices that smaller firms naturally employ — including work assignment policies that can provide junior attorneys steady professional development, says Michelle Genet Bernstein at Mark Migdal.
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Ditch The Annual Review To Boost Attorney Job Satisfaction
In order to attract and retain the rising millennial generation's star talent, law firms should break free of the annual review system and train lawyers of all seniority levels to solicit and share frequent and informal feedback, says Betsy Miller at Cohen Milstein.