California

  • February 03, 2025

    Google Fights Uphill To Scrap Antitrust Verdict At 9th Circ.

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical on Monday of Google's bid to throw out Epic Games' antitrust trial win and injunction requiring Google to open its Play Store to rivals following Epic Games' partial antitrust loss against Apple, with each judge doubting that the Apple ruling is necessarily preclusive.

  • February 03, 2025

    Apple Seeks Bench Trial Win In Masimo's Trade Secret Suit

    Apple Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to issue a bench trial ruling that it didn't steal Masimo Corp.'s pulse oximetry technology for its smartwatches, arguing no actual trade secrets were at issue and that it used its own independently developed innovations to create the blockbuster product.

  • February 03, 2025

    DOJ Creates Multiagency Task Force Targeting Antisemitism

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it is putting together a multi-agency task force to investigate and prosecute antisemitic crimes, including harassment in schools and on college grounds, in response an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump.

  • February 03, 2025

    DOJ's LA Fitness ADA Suit May Be 'Inadequate,' Judge Says

    A California federal judge expressed doubts Monday about the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit alleging that LA Fitness failed to accommodate patrons with disabilities and said the court so far finds the pleadings to be "inadequate" in arguing there is a "pattern and practice" of discrimination.

  • February 03, 2025

    Trump Names Head Of NLRB's Los Angeles Office Acting GC

    President Donald Trump appointed the director of the National Labor Relations Board's Los Angeles office as the agency's acting general counsel Monday, allowing William Cowen to occupy the seat left vacant by the ousters of Biden-era general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and the most recent acting general counsel, Jessica Rutter.

  • February 03, 2025

    Red States Back Trump On Birthright Citizenship Limits

    Iowa and 17 other Republican-led states backed the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday in urging federal judges on both coasts to allow enforcement of President Donald Trump's order limiting birthright citizenship, contending the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause has been misconstrued to spur "illegal immigration."

  • February 03, 2025

    Faulty LA County Wildfire Alerts Probed By Congress

    A group of U.S. House of Representatives members from Los Angeles County launched an investigation Monday into false-alarm evacuation warnings accidentally sent to nearly 10 million people during last month's deadly wildfires, saying the incident "raises serious questions" about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mobile alert system.

  • February 03, 2025

    Baby Sock Co. Inks $3.5M Deal In Investor's FDA Approval Suit

    Investors suing digital baby monitoring device manufacturer Owlet Inc. have asked a California federal court to preliminarily approve a $3.5 million deal to settle claims the company misled investors about approvals required from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its "smart socks."

  • February 03, 2025

    OpenAI, Microsoft Aim To Ax Musk's For-Profit Change Suit

    OpenAI and Microsoft have urged a California federal court in separate motions to dismiss Elon Musk's antitrust and breach of contract lawsuit claiming OpenAI lied by telling investors it would always be a nonprofit artificial intelligence research organization, calling the allegations "conclusory" and lacking factual backing.

  • February 03, 2025

    PharmacyChecker's Legality Weighed In 9th Circ. Appeal

    Judges on the Ninth Circuit went back and forth with lawyers on both sides of online drug comparison site PharmacyChecker's antitrust suit against LegitScript on Monday, questioning the latter's claims that PharmacyChecker's entire business is illegal because it facilitates the unsanctioned importation of foreign pharmaceuticals.

  • February 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Church's Copyright Feud With Ex-Member

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday gave new life to a copyright dispute between a Washington religious group and a former member who said he had the legal right to use the spiritual teachings of the group's founder, with an opinion noting the case's "strange bedfellow" mix of intellectual property law, estate law and religious writings.

  • February 03, 2025

    Visa Brass Hit With Derivative Suit Over DOJ Claims

    Visa's executives and directors were hit with a shareholder derivative suit in California federal court accusing them of allowing the company to understate the regulatory risk it faced by engaging in anticompetitive actions that forced would-be competitors in debit card transaction processing into unfavorable contracts, which are currently the center of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice last year.

  • February 03, 2025

    Child Porn Victims Urge 9th Circ. To Revive Claims Against X

    Child sex trafficking survivors urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to revive allegations that X Corp. defectively designed its platform and knowingly benefited from sex trafficking when it refused to remove pornographic videos of the 13-year-old boys, arguing that X isn't shielded under Section 230.

  • February 03, 2025

    Fired SpaceX Workers Want To Know Where Musk Was

    An attorney representing fired SpaceX workers urged a California federal judge Monday to reconsider a previous judge's ruling that the retaliation case does not belong in state court and to allow her clients access to records about CEO Elon Musk's past movements to prove the location from which he directed the company.

  • February 03, 2025

    Ex-Fox Sports TV Host Accuses Executive Of Sexual Assault

    A former on-air Fox Sports host and reporter has sued the network and executive Charlie Dixon in California state court alleging he sexually assaulted her in his hotel room in 2016.

  • February 03, 2025

    YouTuber Rips 'Popular Monster' Singer's Defamation Suit

    Falling In Reverse vocalist Ronnie Radke's defamation suit against a YouTube personality over a critical video titled "This Guy Sucks" has no leg to stand on, the YouTuber has argued, because the video in question only put forward opinions on previously known controversies and sexual assault allegations without asserting them as factual.

  • February 03, 2025

    NCAA Settles College Baseball Coaches' Wage-Fix Suit

    The NCAA and a group of Division I volunteer baseball coaches have reached a settlement "in principle" to end a proposed antitrust class action that challenged the organization's since-repealed "uniform wage fix" bylaw that prevented volunteer coaches from getting compensated market value for their services.

  • February 03, 2025

    Exec Cops To Crashing Drone Into Plane Fighting LA Fires

    The former president of Skydance Media's video game division has admitted to crashing his drone into a water-scooping airplane that was fighting Los Angeles' deadly and destructive Palisades Fire last month, according to a plea agreement in California federal court.

  • February 03, 2025

    Utah Court Urged To Preserve $8.3M In Messner Reeves Funds

    Several companies from Florida, New York and Utah have urged a Utah federal court to order Messner Reeves LLP to preserve $8.3 million purportedly locked away in an escrow fund, saying the law firm appears to be breaking a business loan agreement by dissipating the funds to unknown entities.

  • February 03, 2025

    Tesla Says Judge DQ Bid In Crash Suit Arrived On Time

    Tesla Inc. has doubled down on its bid to disqualify a California federal judge from an accident case over his prior law firm's work, rejecting the plaintiff's argument that the automaker filed the motion too late.

  • February 03, 2025

    CFIUS Head Under Biden To Join Latham

    The former head of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States under former President Joe Biden will join Latham & Watkins LLP next month, the firm said in an announcement on Monday.

  • February 03, 2025

    Relief In Tribal Casino Fight Would Be Uncommon, Court Told

    An Oregon tribe at the center of a dispute over the federal government's decision to approve a land-into-trust application for the state's first off-reservation casino says any attempt to void the process is moot, telling a federal court that an unfavorable ruling in the case would be unprecedented.

  • February 03, 2025

    DC Judge Joins RI In Blocking Trump Funding Freeze

    A D.C. federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing a freeze on federal spending while a group of nonprofits sue over the move, ruling the pause appears to "suffer from infirmities of a constitutional magnitude."

  • February 03, 2025

    Buchalter Adds Former Federal Prosecutor In Sacramento

    Buchalter PC has expanded its white collar team, bringing in a former federal prosecutor most recently with Downey Brand LLP as a shareholder in its Sacramento office.

  • February 03, 2025

    Calif. City On The Hook In Contractor Wage Fight, Panel Says

    The city of Long Beach, California, could be required to foot the bill for arbitration awards rendered against an oil company subcontractor in workers' wage lawsuits, a state appellate panel ruled, saying an arbitration decision holds as much weight as any other court order and can trigger liability for indemnity.

Expert Analysis

  • Marketing Messages Matter In State AG Consumer Protection

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    Attorneys general interpret marketing claims far more broadly than many companies may realize, so to mitigate potential risk, businesses should be vigilant about all consumer messaging, including communications that may not traditionally be considered advertising in the colloquial sense, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • How White Collar Defense Attys Can Use Summary Witnesses

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    Few criminal defense attorneys have successfully utilized summary witnesses in the past, but several recent success stories show that it can be a worthwhile trial tactic to help juries understand the complex decision-making at issue, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Cos. Must Brace For New PFAS Regulations And Litigation

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed adding over 100 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the Toxic Release Inventory — and with increasing scrutiny of PFAS from the states and the plaintiffs bar as well, companies should take steps to reduce risks in this area, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Opinion

    6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

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    Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Reviewing 2024's State Consumer Privacy Law Enforcement

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    While we are still in the infancy of state consumer privacy laws, a review of enforcement activity this year suggests substantial overlaps in regulatory priorities across the most active states and gives insight into the likely paths of future enforcement, says Thomas Nolan at Quinn Emanuel.

  • What May Have Led Calif. Voters To Reject Min. Wage Hike

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    County-specific election results for California’s ballot measure that would have raised the state’s minimum wage to $18 show that last year's introduction of a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers may have influenced voters’ narrow rejection of the measure, says Stephen Bronars​​​​​​​ at Edgeworth Economics.

  • AV Compliance Is Still A State-By-State Slog — For Now

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    While the incoming Trump administration has hinted at new federal regulations governing autonomous vehicles, for now, AV manufacturers must take a state-by-state approach to compliance with safety requirements — paying particular attention to states that require express authorization for AV operation, say attorneys at Frost Brown.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Netflix Dispute May Alter 'Source' In TM Fair-Use Analysis

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    ​The Ninth Circuit’s upcoming decision in Hara v. Netflix​, about what it means to be source-identifying​, could change how the Rogers defense protects expressive works that utilize trademarks in a creative fashion, says Sara Gold at Gold IP.

  • Why State Captive Audience Laws Matter After NLRB Decision

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    As employers focus on complying with the National Labor Relations Board's new position that captive audience meetings violate federal labor law, they should also be careful not to overlook state captive audience laws that prohibit additional types of company meetings and communications, says Karla Grossenbacher at Seyfarth.

  • How Litigation, Supply Chains Buffeted Offshore Wind In 2024

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    U.S. offshore wind developers continue to face a range of challenges — including litigation brought by local communities and interest groups, ongoing supply chain issues, and a lack of interconnection and transmission infrastructure — in addition to uncertainty surrounding federal energy policy under the second Trump administration, say attorneys at Liskow & Lewis.

  • What Bisphenol S Prop 65 Listing Will Mean For Industry

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    The imminent addition of bisphenol S — a chemical used in millions of products — to California's Proposition 65 list will have sweeping compliance and litigation implications for companies in the retail, food and beverage, paper, manufacturing and personal care product industries, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • The Malpractice Perils Of Elder Abuse Liability

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    Recent cases show that the circumstances under which an attorney may be sued for financial elder abuse remain unsettled, but practitioners can avoid these malpractice claims altogether by taking proactive steps, like documenting the process of evaluating a client's directives under appropriate standards, says Edward Donohue at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

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