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California Pulse
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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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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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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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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.
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Law Firm Leasing Marks Record In Second Quarter Of 2026
The second quarter of 2026 was a record quarterly high for law firm leasing, with 7.3 million square feet of office space leased from April to June in the U.S. legal sector, according to a new report from commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
The legal industry had another busy week as Law360 released new diversity data exploring the representation of women and people of color at U.S. law firms. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
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Jay-Z Can't Undo Buzbee's Win In Rapper's Defamation Suit
A California state appeals court has refused to revive claims that Texas attorney Tony Buzbee defamed and extorted music superstar Jay-Z by roping him into a sexual abuse suit against Sean "Diddy" Combs, saying the case was properly thrown out under California's free speech statute.
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Ex-Immigration Judge Sues For Retaliatory Termination
A former immigration judge in California has sued Attorney General Todd Blanche, claiming she was fired after raising concerns about a spring 2025 directive ordering her and her colleagues to grant every motion to change venue filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys.
Expert Analysis
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The Augmented Lawyer: AI Exercises For Junior Attorneys
As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly adept at handling entry-level legal tasks, firms and organizations must consider new ways to train and mentor junior attorneys to prepare them for leadership in an AI-integrated profession, say attorneys at KXT Law.
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Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Embrace LinkedIn
Attorneys who recognize LinkedIn as a powerful professional platform can gain significant competitive advantages in business development via strategic content creation, meaningful industry discussions and consistent visibility within target markets, says Agatha Mouillet at Horvitz & Levy.
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Guidance For Attorneys As Tariffs Reshape Legal Hiring
As law firms and in-house legal departments grapple with the uncertainty of evolving tariff policies, attorneys at all career stages should consider how to lean into these shifts to best position themselves for long-term opportunities, says Rena Barnett-Matthews at Attorney Career Coach.
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How Firms Can Plan For Succession Of Admin Professionals
Many law firms are familiar with the need for attorney succession plans, but it’s also essential to plan for the succession of administrative professionals — from human resources personnel to finance leaders — to ensure continuity of critical day-to-day operations, say Eryn Carter and Travis Armstrong at the Association of Legal Administrators.
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Series
Expanding The Reach Of A Legal Nonprofit
I co-founded the Legal Mentor Network with the goal of providing free legal mentoring to law students and early career attorneys, and the experience has highlighted how nonprofits can grow with the help of strong sponsorships and volunteers who all operate from a positive place, says Chrystal Mauro at the Legal Mentor Network.
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How 1Ls Can Plan For Sped-Up Summer Associate Hiring
The ever-earlier recruiting of summer associates sets high stakes before new law students may even realize, but 1Ls can better land a good 2L summer fit if they hit their first semester focused on the hiring timeline and ready to ask important questions about their would-be firms, says Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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How GCs Can Help Build A Geopolitical Command Center
In the face of sustained regulatory and economic uncertainty, general counsel can help businesses move from reactive to proactive management by building a clear, cross-functional geopolitical command center that monitors and coordinates responses to a wide spectrum of issues, says Lars Faeste at FTI Consulting.
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For Some Lawyers, Building A New Practice Makes Perfect
Leaving an established law firm to start a boutique business of your own requires not only vision and resilience but also a solid business plan to help mitigate risks and increase your chances of unparalleled personal and professional success, says Rebecca Palmer at the Rebecca L. Palmer Law Group.
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Beyond Billable Hours: The Unseen Labor Of Women In Law
The legal profession has a critical role to play in reducing attrition of women lawyers by addressing the disproportionate burden of the mental load — the often-unseen work of managing tasks and anticipating needs in both personal and professional realms, says Michelle Browning-Coughlin at Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law.
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10 Key Strategies For Successful Lateral Partner Integration
To help ensure new partners and practice groups are successfully integrated, firms should embrace specific structured practices that recognize each lateral's distinct value, personalize their integration plans and proactively address transition complexities long after onboarding ends, say Elizabeth Kennedy at NewEdge BD and Erika Steinberg at CMO2Go.
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How Firms Can Manage DEI Commitments Amid Headwinds
By recalibrating how they structure and communicate their inclusion efforts, law firms can reduce legal exposure and preserve their values, says Angela Vallot at VallotKarp Consulting.
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Key Ingredients For Effective Law Firm Strategic Planning
As the legal industry faces political turmoil and economic uncertainty, the time is ripe for firms to revisit their strategic plans, ensuring they contain a few essential elements — from accountability systems to broad-based input — to achieve sustainable growth and profitability, says Joe Calve at Calve Communications.
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AI-Powered Biz Development Can Democratize Rainmaking
As fluency in artificial intelligence becomes a competitive imperative in the legal industry, the next generation of rainmakers likely won’t be defined by their Rolodexes or club memberships, but by their ability to leverage AI business development tools effectively, says Jessica Aries at By Aries.
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How Law Students Can Effectively Use AI In Their Job Search
Law students can use artificial intelligence tools strategically throughout the job application process to review materials, prepare for interviews and navigate employers’ use of similar tools, but there are several key missteps they should be careful to avoid, says Lauren Wong at University of San Diego School of Law.
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An After-Placement Plan Maximizes Legal Content's Potential
Before landing a published quote, feature or interview, law firms should articulate the content’s purpose and develop a strategic plan for repurposing it to ensure they’re aligning public relations efforts with measurable business outcomes, says John Hellerman at Hellerman Communications.