California Pulse


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    Cooley Life Sciences M&A Atty Joins Goodwin In California

    Goodwin Procter LLP expanded its life sciences industry group with a new partner who focuses on public mergers and acquisitions from Cooley LLP.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry kicked off September with a busy week of attorney moves and law firm real estate trends. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    Quinn Emanuel, McDermott Hit By Data Breaches

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and McDermott Will & Schulte LLP both recently suffered data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents law firms in the U.S. have suffered in 2026.

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    Greenberg Traurig Adds Ex-Federal Prosecutor In Los Angeles

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has announced that a longtime federal prosecutor joined the firm's Los Angeles office as a litigation shareholder after nearly two decades with the U.S. Department of Justice.

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    Federal Judge Warns Threats Imperil Judicial Independence

    U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida told Law360 that judges and members of the bar need to educate the public on the judiciary's important role in American democracy to combat increasing threats, speaking following the release of two reports this week that warn of safety concerns for judges and that defiance of court orders is undermining the federal judiciary's independence.

  • Ex-IRL App CEO Says Prosecutors Ignored Ethics Breaches

    The co-founder of defunct social app IRL is fighting fraud charges by claiming that the U.S. attorney's office prosecuting him is conflicted because an attorney who formerly defended IRL in an SEC investigation and is now with the office pushed for him to be charged — and he is disputing prosecutors' denial of impropriety. 

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    Webcor's GC Used Business Fluency To Land The CLO Spot

    Over the past 12 years, Patrick Kirby has gone from outside counsel for Webcor to assistant general counsel, general counsel and chief legal officer at the commercial general contractor — and he says there's a factor to consider in landing a promotion that he says likely applies for many of his peers.

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    How A Partner-Only Law Firm Uses AI To Replace Associates

    Lawyers Michael Pierson and Joel M. Ferdinand asked a simple question when they decided to launch their own firm: What would the elite law firm of the future look like?

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    Akerman Hires Consumer Protection Law Ace From Steptoe

    Akerman LLP announced on Monday it has welcomed a former Steptoe LLP attorney who brings vast experience helping clients navigate a unique, complicated landscape involving Golden State consumer protection laws and regulations, including matters related to Proposition 65.

  • ABA Outlines Attys' Duties To Clients With Intellectual Limits

    Attorneys have the same obligations to clients with decision-making limitations, should abide by those clients' decisions regarding their representation and must work to maintain an ordinary client-lawyer relationship as much as possible, the American Bar Association said in an opinion released Wednesday.

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    Cohen Milstein Launches On West Coast With LA Office

    Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll LLP announced that the firm has opened an office in Los Angeles led by an experienced consumer protection attorney who will be relocating from Washington, D.C., to lead its expansion into the West Coast market.

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    Ex-Munger Tolles Partner Launches Calif. Litigation Boutique

    Weeks after announcing her departure from Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, one of the firm's former partners announced Wednesday that she has launched a litigation boutique based out of the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, California.

  • Calif. Bill Regulating Atty AI Use Heads To Newsom's Desk

    A bill regulating attorneys' and arbitrators' use of generative artificial intelligence has unanimously passed the California State Legislature and is headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.

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    Determined To Expand, Law Firms Face Tight Office Market

    Law firms are finding new ways to expand their office space, since finding sufficient space is proving to be a challenge in desirable areas such as Manhattan, where the top-tier office market has now fully recovered.

  • Ex-Warriors GC, DEI Exec Say Bias Complaints Led To Firings

    The Golden State Warriors' former associate general counsel and its former vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion allege they were unlawfully fired in retaliation for speaking up about enduring a workplace marked by gender and race-based discrimination.

  • Judges Say Social Media, Political Rhetoric Endanger Them

    Increased access to social media and personal data via the internet, a larger number of high-profile cases, and inflammatory comments made by politicians have led to a rise in violent threats against judges and concerns about their safety, according to a recently published report.

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    Massumi & Consoli Matches Milbank Associate Pay Scale

    Associates at Massumi & Consoli will see salary increases of $10,000 and $20,000 this year, the firm confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Tuesday, matching the pay scale set by Milbank LLP in June.

  • The Top In-House Hires Of August

    Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at Anthropic, Zillow and ConocoPhillips. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from August.

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    Meta's In-House Legal Moves Blur Line Between Risk, Error

    Ahead of the company's $17 billion settlement over claims its content harmed children, Meta's in-house lawyers drew criticism from a federal judge last week over their handling of privilege claims and damaging internal research. But attorneys and academics differ over whether the moves reflect legal missteps or defensible efforts to manage litigation risk.

  • Gordon Rees Elevates 73 Attorneys To Partners Nationwide

    Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP recently promoted more than 70 attorneys to the partnership level in 32 offices around the U.S., a record number of elevations for the firm.

  • Coblentz Patch Adds 4 Attys From Shuttered Carr McClellan

    San Francisco-based Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP has grown its corporate and litigation practices with the addition of four attorneys from Carr McClellan PC, which ceased operations in early August.

  • Eve Legal Says AI.Law Doc Drafting Patent Is Invalid

    California legal tech company Eve Legal wants out of a patent lawsuit brought by Ohio-based rival AI.Law, telling a San Francisco federal judge that the patent is insufficient, covering little more than using ordinary artificial intelligence tools to draft legal documents.

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    Skadden Adds Ex-Global Banking And Finance Head At Orrick

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP has expanded its finance team in Palo Alto, California, with the addition of the former global banking and finance group head at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

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    4 Boutiques Launch Global Insurance Firm For Policyholders

    Four insurance law firms that exclusively represent policyholders have joined forces to create a global firm operating in eight countries, including the U.S., the U.K., France and Spain, saying in an announcement Tuesday that it is the largest policyholder-side law firm in the world.

  • Whistleblower Atty Award Cut To $5.4M After 9th Circ. Remand

    A California federal judge cut fees and expenses to $5.4 million for attorneys representing a whistleblower in her suit against Academy Mortgage Corp., after a Ninth Circuit remand deemed the previously awarded $8.6 million to be too high.

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Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

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