California Pulse


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    Weil Names New Corporate Leaders After Dept. Chair's Exit

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP has named two longtime private equity and mergers and acquisitions partners as the next corporate department co-chairs, promising to expand the headcount and breadth of the practice group after the former head left for Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP last week. 

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    AI Could Help State Courts Run More Efficiently, Panelists Say

    Artificial intelligence can help state courts operate more efficiently and ease workload strains by automating repetitive tasks, according to participants in a Wednesday panel discussion organized by the National Center for State Courts.

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    Getting To Court Can Pose Barrier To Justice In Rural America

    In rural areas of the U.S., many people live great distances from courthouses and other legal services, creating major barriers to accessing justice and taking a toll on residents, lawyers and legal personnel.

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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.

  • 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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    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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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Expert Analysis

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    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.

  • Legal Marketing Conference Highlights Pivotal Time For Firms Author Photo

    The Legal Marketing Association's recent annual conference underscored how advances in artificial intelligence and shifting client expectations are causing law firms to evolve into more structured, data-driven businesses that place greater emphasis on strategy, implementation and measurable results, say Maria Aronson and Gina Rubel at Furia Rubel.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Build Relationship Habits Author Photo

    Meaningful relationships are foundational to business development, and they can be deliberately fostered through a set of habits for authentically, intentionally and consistently connecting with clients and colleagues — starting with people you already know and like, says Matthew Moran at V&E.

  • Legal Leaders Are Asking The Wrong Questions About AI Author Photo

    Artificial intelligence is already woven into everyday work for attorneys, so beyond questioning whether AI was used and approving such tools, legal leaders need to create a shared foundation for what good AI use looks like on their team, says Alex Denniston at Factor.

  • In-House Leaders Can Turn Contract Data Into Growth Insight Author Photo

    A company's contracts contain final, negotiated commercial commitments that reveal important growth, revenue and strategy insights, but for organizations that aren’t making two key structural changes, the information tends to remain within the legal department — untranslated and unused, says Shimane Smith at NerdWallet.

  • PE's Path In UK Legal Market Offers Playbook For US Firms Author Photo

    The U.K. offers 14 years' worth of data on private equity's involvement in the legal market, demonstrating for U.S. firms what worked, what didn’t and why, and illustrating several lessons about operational readiness, cultural fit and timing, says Tom Lenfestey at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • 8 Mistakes That Derail Law Firms' Sector Strategies Author Photo

    When firms attempt to deliberately organize their expertise, client relationships, business development, and thought leadership around specific industry verticals – sometimes called industry sector programs – several missteps commonly arise, but with discipline and alignment any firm can successfully grab market share, say Heidi Gardner at Harvard Law School and David Harvey at Harvey Global Consulting.

  • Making Legal Cents: A Strategic Plan For Lateral Partner Hires Author Photo

    Firms of all sizes are accelerating lateral hiring of experienced partners because investing in senior expertise can pay off big — but for such an investment to work, firms need a disciplined strategy for vetting candidates, supporting their integration, and ensuring they'll generate real returns, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

  • As AI Rewrites BigLaw Hiring, Mid-Law May Snag Edge Author Photo

    Similar to the way the transfer portal changed how many NCAA men’s basketball teams are built, artificial intelligence use in the legal industry is changing BigLaw’s lateral hiring market and creating a field where midmarket firms that develop their talent will hold an edge in the legal profession's next era, says Michael Ott at Ice Miller.

  • 5 Firm Structure Changes To Adequately Address Atty Burnout Author Photo

    While wellness programs, flexible schedules and mental health resources are meaningful steps toward addressing burnout in the legal industry, a more effective approach must involve a redesign of law firm incentive structures, says retired attorney Jason Ward.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Be An Industry Expert Author Photo

    Although taking the time to fully invest in a client and its industry is a big ask, it is well worth it for attorneys to understand the pressures, trends and constraints of a client's industry in order to build enduring business relationships, says Nonnie Shivers at Ogletree.

  • Talking Mental Health: Fostering Cultures Where Women Excel Author Photo

    Sylvie Rodrigue at Torys discusses why authenticity is essential to women's career growth, why burnout is not the result of a lack of resilience, how the legal industry can better support women's mental health needs, and how firms can address gender gaps in senior roles.

  • How Clients Can Make The Most Of Law Firm Partner Moves Author Photo

    Outside counsel’s lateral career moves can create uncertainty and disruption for companies, but if managed strategically, in-house legal teams can leverage partner mobility for more complete service, better pricing and stronger relationships with their law firms, says Theodore Edelman at GCE Advisors.

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