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California Pulse
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Ogletree Continues West Coast Hires With Jackson Lewis Atty
Labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has landed a seasoned litigator from Jackson Lewis P.C. with extensive experience in ERISA and employment law matters, the firm announced Monday.
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How States' 'Perry Mason Moment' Led To $17B Meta Deal
A recent landmark $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. may have never happened if it weren't for a quick-thinking trial attorney and his close-knit team of lawyers representing 29 states, who worked together to swiftly shift strategies midtrial.
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Calif. Judge Charged Over Fatal Crash With Bicyclist
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office charged Kings County Superior Court Judge Kendra Weber with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter, alleging she struck and killed a bicyclist.
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Orrick Hires CFO From Paul Hastings, Tech Leader From KKR
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has two new C-suite executives, both of whom will be based in New York.
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Legal Ops Pay Stagnates As Big Company GCs See Increases
A company's size has always influenced pay for in-house lawyers, but a new study shows a significant difference for general counsel and chief legal officers, with their median base salaries running 90% higher than their counterparts at smaller organizations. Meanwhile, compensation for directors of legal operations was flat.
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Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers
Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.
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California Wildfire Litigator Joins Sterlington From Buchalter
Sterlington PLLC announced Monday that an experienced litigation attorney with a niche practice focusing on matters related to wildfires has joined the New York-based firm from Buchalter PC and will work remotely from Sacramento, California.
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What Happens When The Only Lawyer In Town Retires?
Many rural attorneys, often the only lawyer in town, work until they die or simply close their practices when they retire. But small to mid-sized firms looking to expand into rural markets could help to make succession planning a real possibility for these solo practitioners.
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First-Gen Students Pressured By Earlier BigLaw Recruiting
Students who are the first in their families to attend law school have been thrown a new challenge at the beginning of their legal journeys, as BigLaw accelerates their recruitment timelines.
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What Summer Associates Learned From Working At Firms
From learning how to come back from mistakes to cross-team collaboration, this year's summer associates came away with lessons that will help them succeed in their future careers. Here's what they want law students to know as they begin their own journeys.
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The 2026 Summer Associate Experience: AI Led The Way
Summer associate programs give law students an up-close look at changes unfolding in the legal industry, and a new Law360 Pulse survey found artificial intelligence use and pay have reached new heights.
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Sullivan & Cromwell Adding Kirkland Private Equity M&A Attys
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP announced Tuesday that four private equity mergers and acquisitions attorneys are moving to the firm from Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
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Man Cops To Bombing Calif. Courthouse Over Gun Seizure
A California man pled guilty on Monday to setting off a bomb at a Santa Barbara County courthouse in 2024 as retaliation for law enforcement officers taking away his firearms.
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Disney Taps Warner Bros. Atty As Corp. Transactions Lead
Disney has expanded its corporate transactions legal team with the addition of Warner Bros. Discovery's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, according to an internal memo.
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State Farm Attorney Sanctioned $999.99 For AI Hallucinations
An attorney for State Farm who filed several motions citing nonexistent cases and fabricated quotes generated by AI software must pay a $999.99 sanction, a Los Angeles judge ruled, an amount one cent below the threshold that would have triggered a mandatory notice to the State Bar of California under state law.
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One County, One Lawyer: Legal Deserts Take A Human Toll
Divorce is often hard, but it is harder still when there’s just one lawyer in town. The story of one divorcing couple in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula illustrates the financial costs and emotional pain of living in a legal desert, and it helps explain why lawyer shortages are spreading throughout rural America. This story introduces Law360 Pulse’s special series on legal deserts.
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Morgan & Morgan Plans $1B In AI Spending, Unveils Platform
Personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan formally announced Monday that it has been running a proprietary artificial intelligence platform over the past few years while also committing to spend at least $1 billion on AI and technology improvements over the next decade.
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K&L Gates Hires 6-Atty Pillsbury Team In California, Texas
K&L Gates LLP announced Monday that it recently added six attorneys from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP to bolster its corporate, intellectual property, litigation, and labor and employment practices.
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Jackson Lewis Removes Ex-Atty's Bias Suit To Federal Court
Jackson Lewis PC has moved a former associate's suit accusing the firm of refusing to accommodate her temporary work restrictions following her medical leave to California federal court, saying state court wasn't the right venue for dispute.
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Attys Must Arbitrate $8 Oil To Fight $625K Sanction: 9th Circ.
Class action lawyers slapped with six-figure sanctions for suing Walmart Inc. based on erroneous purchase information can't yet challenge the discipline, the Ninth Circuit ruled, suggesting they may first need to arbitrate grievances over an $8 bottle of avocado oil.
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ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost
With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.
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2 Former BigLaw Attys Open SF Litigation Boutique
Two former partners at Greenberg Traurig LLP and Levin Law PA have launched a new boutique focusing on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and cybersecurity in the San Francisco Bay area, they announced this week.
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Anti-Trans Care Push Continues Despite Big Proxy Losses
While conservative investor groups filed at least six shareholder proposals focused on transgender care coverage for minors during the 2025-2026 proxy season, all have been overwhelmingly defeated — with the most recent coming this week at Nike Inc.
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Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches
Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.
Expert Analysis
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The Augmented Lawyer: Countering 4 AI Efficiency Myths
Perceived efficiency gains from artificial intelligence can create unsustainable workload expectations for in-house legal departments, so general counsel must proactively educate executives, reframe assumptions and tie legal judgment to business outcomes, say Karineh Khachatourian at KXT Law and Catie Cambridge at Docsum.
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Series
Notes From A Partner-In-Charge On Lateral Hiring Strategy
In regional recruiting, firms that stand out to laterals can articulate a clear vision that connects local insight with global opportunity, demonstrate a culture that is lived rather than stated, and offer genuine room for growth, says Jason Novak, leader of Norton Rose's San Francisco office.
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Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Team Up With Marketing
There are several ways attorneys can engage with resources already at their fingertips in the form of their in-house law firm marketing departments, which can help you gain some visibility, earn kudos and build a solid book of business, say Ada Kase and Liz Lindley at Jaffe PR.
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Biz Dev Impostor Syndrome May Actually Be Good Judgment
Attributing lawyers’ sense of unease with business development to self-doubt or weakness may misidentify an important source of discomfort — a keen intuition that an ask isn’t yet appropriate for the relationship — and lead to advice that ultimately backfires, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Handle Unproductive Feedback?
Maggie Potter at Segal McCambridge offers advice for associates who receive unproductive criticism from superiors and tips for gently pushing back with an eye to growth and efficiency.
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How To Prep As Private Equity Starts Investing In Law Firms
Law firms eyeing legal services organization models, which allow outside capital to support nonlegal business functions while preserving lawyer ownership, can prepare for the expansion of private equity investment in the area by balancing commercial objectives and compliance imperatives, say attorneys at Rivkin Radler.
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What Legal Leaders Can Learn From Marine Corps Principles
The small-unit leadership principles that are foundational to the U.S. Marine Corps experience — from tight feedback loops to top-down tactfulness — offer a blueprint for addressing leadership gaps that persist in the legal profession, says Edet Nsemo at Tucker Ellis.
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Venture Capital Practices Can Improve Law Firm Lateral Hiring
As law firms pursue increasingly ambitious growth goals in a competitive market for talent, they should consider supplementing traditional lateral hiring due diligence with practices inspired by the venture capitalist framework, says Henry O’Connor at Jones Walker.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2026
After a pivotal year for the legal industry, lawyers and their clients face an evolving litigation finance landscape in 2026 that will be shaped by developments ranging from new policies governing patent lawsuits to the reemergence of appellate monetization funding, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Think Like A Waiter
To convert casually interested restaurant patrons into satisfied, repeat customers, a good waiter relies on four service-oriented habits that proactive attorneys can borrow to cultivate lasting client relationships, say attorneys at Maynard Nexsen.
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6 Strategies To Set Up New CCOs For Success
As demand for chief compliance officers rises among a growing range of complex issues, organizations looking to hire and retain top-notch CCOs can adopt a series of strategies including defining success metrics and allowing the CCO to build a team, says Cara Bain at Major Lindsey.
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Making Legal Cents: How Firms Can Navigate 2026 Trends
From the adoption of artificial intelligence infrastructure to increasing client attrition, a number of trends will likely define the legal industry in 2026, and law firms will need to strategically lean into these shifts to gain a competitive advantage, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.
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Series
Notes From A Partner-In-Charge On Integrating Lateral Talent
When done thoughtfully through three strategies, bringing laterals into the fold can propel growth and create significant business opportunities that enhance the law firm's cultural fabric, says James Sullivan, leader of Alston & Bird's New York office.
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The Augmented Lawyer: Drafting As AI Alters Admin Of Law
As generative artificial intelligence tools become embedded in mainstream legal practice, they are reshaping the administration of law itself, from how experts document and validate their work to how joint defense teams operate, demanding a new level of contractual clarity and operational discipline, says Karineh Khachatourian at KXT Law.
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How Attorneys Can Plan Now For Biz Dev Success In 2026
As the year winds down and the pace of work slows, attorneys should reflect on what did and didn’t work to generate business in 2025, and start mapping out their 2026 business development plan now to set themselves up for success, says Ezra Crawford at Crowell.