California Pulse


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    Ferguson Braswell Hires COO To Support Texas, Calif. Growth

    Texas-based Ferguson Braswell Fraser Kubasta PC, which now goes by the name FBFK Law Firm, said Monday that the firm has hired its first chief operating officer to help support its growth efforts in its home state and California.

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    Alphabet CLO's Pay Drops $1M To $29M In 2025

    The president of global affairs and chief legal officer and secretary of Alphabet Inc. saw his pay drop by $1 million last year after the company discontinued a bonus program for senior executives, the tech giant disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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    DLA Piper Litigator Joins Atkinson Andelson In California

    Atkinson Andelson Loya Ruud & Romo PLC announced that the firm has added a former DLA Piper litigator as a partner based out of the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, California.

  • Justices Deny Ramey Appeal Of Sanctions In Google IP Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review $255,000 in sanctions on embattled attorney William Ramey and a client for bringing what a California judge said was a frivolous patent suit against Google, turning down his appeal arguing the decision used the wrong legal standard.

  • Akin Can't 'Recast' Appeal As Good-Faith Effort, 9th Circ. Told

    A European winemaker slammed attempts by a U.S. importer and its Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to "recast a frivolous appeal as a good-faith effort," saying they should have to pay monetary sanctions for pursuing what the Ninth Circuit called a "self-indulgent" appeal of a valid arbitration award.

  • Calif.'s High Court Seeks Stronger Rules On False Statements

    California's Supreme Court has rejected the State Bar's proposed rule changes in response to threats and violence against the judiciary — asking for a redraft saying lawyers who make false and reckless statements against judges and judicial officers may be disciplined even if the lawyer "reasonably disagrees with a ruling."

  • After SEC's EDGAR Restrictions, Shareholders Launch POE

    Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow said Friday it has launched a new database that allows shareholders to publicly post exempt solicitations related to their shareholder proposals after a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission policy reversal this year.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Shutts & Bowen's work on a data center company's stock offering and Robbins Geller's lead counsel spot in an investor class action lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from April 10 to 24.

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    Munger Tolles Gains Traction With Summer Associate Revamp

    Since Munger Tolles & Olson LLP announced plans to overhaul its summer associate program, the firm this week said applications have increased by more than a third and nearly all the selected law students have accepted the positions.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Butler Prather LLP, Bowen Painter LLC and Cannella Snyder LLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Fluor Corp. can be held liable for a veteran's state-based injury claims stemming from a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

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    Kirkland Litigator To Lead Watstein Terepka's New LA Office

    A former Kirkland & Ellis LLP general litigation partner has moved his practice to boutique firm Watstein Terepka LLP to lead its new Los Angeles office.

  • Ex-Workday Atty Ends Bias Suit Following Settlement Talks

    A former in-house attorney for human resources giant Workday has agreed to drop what remains of an employment discrimination suit he launched against his former employer in 2023.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The legal industry had another action-packed week as BigLaw firms shifted leadership roles and new figures revealed lateral hiring trends. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

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    DLA Piper Clears Vote To End Verein, Unify Leadership

    DLA Piper announced Friday that firm partners on both sides of the Atlantic have "overwhelmingly approved" a plan to dissolve its Swiss verein structure effective May 1.

  • 'Cheap' Judge OKs $19.5M Snap Deal Fees But 'No Bentleys'

    After warning counsel who negotiated a $65 million securities settlement with Snap that he is "notoriously cheap," and in a tentative order gave a "haircut" to their $19.5 million fee request, a California federal judge talked himself out of the trim at a hearing Thursday but quipped, "No Bentleys."

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    Jones Day Adds Labor Attorney From McDermott In SF

    Jones Day has added a former McDermott Will & Schulte partner who advises leading companies on a wide range of labor and employment matters as a partner in its labor and employment practice in its San Francisco office, the firm has announced.

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    Private Equity MSO Deals Heating Up In Legal Industry

    Private equity is driving a surge in managed services organization deals with U.S. law firms, with the focus on consumer-facing practices like personal injury for now and the potential to one day reshape how even BigLaw firms do business.

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    LegalZoom CLO Saw Comp Plunge Nearly $14M In 2025

    The chief legal officer of LegalZoom.com Inc. earned about $887,000 in total compensation in 2025, a steep drop from the $14.8 million she earned the prior year, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

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    Orrick Hires Former Head Of Meta Youth Safety Policy

    Orrick announced Thursday that it hired the former global director of youth safety policy and leader of global youth litigation strategy at Meta Platforms Inc. amid growing U.S. focus on keeping minors safe online.

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    Robinhood CLO Earned $11M In Compensation Last Year

    The top in-house attorney at financial trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. earned nearly $11 million in total compensation in 2025, increasing his total pay by more than $2.3 million from the previous year, according to new documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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    Morgan & Morgan Taps Seyfarth Atty For Employment Push

    Morgan & Morgan PA has added a Seyfarth Shaw LLP attorney to lead and build a California employment division for the injury law firm.

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    DoorDash Alum Built Streamline AI To Fix Legal Dept. Chaos

    After Kathy Zhu created the legal operations department at DoorDash in 2019, she tested generic tools, contract lifecycle management systems and other legal-specific products. But nothing solved her real pain points: managing the chaos of hundreds of requests while maintaining visibility into her legal team's workload.

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    McGuireWoods Adds Tax Atty As Firm Makes PE 'Top Priority'

    McGuireWoods LLP announced Wednesday it has hired a seasoned tax adviser to private investment funds as a San Francisco partner.

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    Simpson Thacher Adds Another Kirkland Finance Alum In Calif.

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP has hired another former Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner to join its recently formed capital structure solutions practice in the San Francisco area, where she'll focus on banking and other finance matters, Simpson Thacher announced Wednesday.

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    Law Firms Saw Double-Digit Lateral Hiring Growth In 2025

    Lateral hiring increased by 16% in 2025 from 2024, with similar growth for both associates and partners, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association for Law Placement.

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Expert Analysis

  • 6 Strategies For Navigating Legal Leadership Transitions Author Photo

    Amid uncertainty in the legal job market, attorneys who are considering a transition to a leadership role must fundamentally reimagine their approach to value creation and develop a new set of skills, say Stacy Bratcher at Cottage Health and Michael Watkins at Genesis Advisers.

  • The Augmented Lawyer: Crafting Responsible AI Policies Author Photo

    As the legal industry increasingly looks to impose responsive guardrails for artificial intelligence use, firms and organizations’ internal use policies, outside counsel guidelines and vendor contracts can address confidentiality and data retention concerns in several ways, say attorneys at KXT Law.

  • 6 Ways To Build Pro Bono Culture If You Lack Dedicated Staff Author Photo

    Firms can develop a strong pro bono culture without hiring dedicated professionals through strategies like demonstrating active involvement by leadership, tailoring volunteer tasks to individual professional development needs and building trusted partnerships within the legal aid community, says Stacy Zinken at Paladin.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Extend Your Content's Life Author Photo

    Attorneys often limit the impact of their thought leadership by letting their content languish after initial publication, but through four easy strategies for retooling existing content, they can maximize its reach and further their business development goals, says Jillian McKenna at Verrill Dana.

  • Why Law Firm Leaders Should Care About Student Debt Crisis Author Photo

    ​​​​​​​As the student debt crisis evolves under changing federal policies, firms that proactively address the burden will have significant advantages in recruiting and retaining the best young lawyers, says Brian Kabateck at Kabateck.

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    Talking Mental Health: Encouraging New Attys To Find Joy Author Photo

    Rudene Haynes at Hunton discusses her experiences as a hiring partner, common sources of stress that newer attorneys face and steps that law firms can take to protect their attorneys' mental health and encourage personal life fulfillment.

  • Fla. Bar's Cyber Incident Response Plan Sets Precedent Author Photo

    The incident response plan developed by the Florida Bar's cybersecurity and privacy committee might not seem all that consequential, but it's a long overdue framework that could go a long way toward protecting the highly sensitive data law firms handle — and could even set a model for other professional organizations to follow, says Chris Boehm at Zero Networks.

  • Why Attorneys Should Write About Justices' Minority Opinions Author Photo

    Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s searing dissents this past term serve as a reminder for attorneys to analyze U.S. Supreme Court minority opinions in their thought leadership for three key reasons, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.

  • 3 Business Development Lessons From Mozart's 'Magic Flute' Author Photo

    Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” offers a useful framework for attorneys to build relationships and develop new business, inspired by Prince Tamino’s curiosity, courage and consistency, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • 5 Ways Legal Teams Can Use KPIs To Quantify Their Value Author Photo

    As in-house legal departments are increasingly expected to do more with less, developing a thoughtful framework to measure key performance indicators can help them both maximize and demonstrate their contribution to business success, say co-founders at New Era ADR.

  • Series

    Defining The Culture For A Legal Nonprofit Author Photo

    We co-founded The International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators to connect leading trial lawyers, litigation experts and academics, and our experience has shown that embracing opportunity, responding fearlessly to market realities, and relentlessly defining the organization’s culture have all been integral to success, say Stéphane Bonifassi, Lincoln Caylor and Elizabeth Ortega.

  • 5 Emerging Themes Shaping Lateral Partner Moves This Year Author Photo

    A few key trends have arisen in partners’ lateral movements in the first half of 2025, reflecting a legal market defined by macroeconomic uncertainty, shifts in firm structures and rising scrutiny of firm affiliations, say legal recruiters at Macrae.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Be A Mentor Or Mentee Author Photo

    Mentorship is a powerful tool for business development when both mentors and mentees approach their relationships with strategic purpose, ensuring professional success while supporting broader business goals, say Angela Liu at Dechert and Jessica Lewis at WilmerHale.

  • 4 Biz Dev Steps For Attys Who Don't Know What They Want Author Photo

    Junior attorneys are increasingly expected to start building books of business while they are still figuring out their long-term career goals, but a few pointers can help young lawyers develop business even when they’re uncertain about their future direction, says Lana Manganiello at Practice Growth Partner.

  • Protecting Client Funds From Cyberattacks Author Photo

    As cyberattacks on law firms continue to escalate, bar associations, law firms and individual lawyers must all take steps to protect client funds in attorney trust accounts — from imposing cyber hygiene mandates to reimagining malpractice coverage — because once that money is gone, it’s generally gone for good, says Michael Epstein at The Epstein Law Firm.

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