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California

  • June 24, 2025

    Ex-NFL Player Says Indicted Adviser Defrauded Him For Years

    Retired Carolina Panthers defensive lineman Mike Rucker and his wife unknowingly invested in a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by their longtime financial adviser who is now under criminal indictment in North Carolina, according to a state court complaint they filed accusing him of mismanaging their money for decades.

  • June 24, 2025

    No New Trial For Convicted Crypto CEO Linked To Abramoff

    A California federal judge Tuesday declined to acquit a cryptocurrency company founder convicted of fraud and money laundering in a case that also involved disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, calling the defendant's assertions that the court wrongly blocked evidence showing Abramoff had conspired against the company "laughable."

  • June 24, 2025

    Apple Users Who Lost Cert. In Storage Suit File New Case

    A group of Apple customers from New Jersey and Illinois who were denied class certification last year in a suit alleging the company falsely markets the storage capacity of 16-gigabyte iPhones and iPads preinstalled with the iOS 8 operating system filed a new proposed class action Monday in California federal court.  

  • June 24, 2025

    Calif. AG Asks 9th Circ. To Undo Limits On Pay-For-Delay Ban

    California enforcers on Monday asked the Ninth Circuit to overturn a district court's decision that a state law restricting "reverse payment" settlements between brand-name and generic-drug makers cannot be used to regulate deals that were struck outside the Golden State.

  • June 24, 2025

    Faulty Comparisons Doom Nordstrom 401(k) Fee Suit

    Nordstrom dodged a proposed class action claiming it saddled its 401(k) plan with excessive fees and used forfeited plan funds to offset its own contributions, with a Washington state federal judge saying inaccurate data and flawed comparisons to other plans couldn't sustain the case.

  • June 24, 2025

    Another Musk Case, Another Judge Recusal

    A California federal magistrate judge on Tuesday became the latest federal judge to recuse from a case involving Elon Musk, this time stepping down from handling his lawsuit challenging OpenAI's now-abandoned transition to a for-profit enterprise.

  • June 24, 2025

    Judge Slams Feds' Grant Terms In Sanctuary Funding Fight

    A California federal judge said federal grants that condition funding on states' cooperation with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown flout a court order blocking the administration from withholding funds from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit their cooperation with federal immigration officials.

  • June 24, 2025

    D&O Insurer Must Cover Investor In Merger Dispute

    A directors and officers liability insurer had a duty to defend and indemnify a venture capital investor in a now-resolved lawsuit over the sale of a company immediately after a merger, a California federal court ruled, finding a dilution-of-shares exception in an exclusion applicable.

  • June 24, 2025

    Apple Assails 'Fundamentally Unfair' App Order At 9th Circ.

    Apple urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to nix a district court's "unduly punitive" mandate blocking it from charging any commission on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems, arguing an Epic Games injunction redux goes far beyond the original order and attacks conduct that's not illegal under California law.

  • June 24, 2025

    ByteDance Can't Arbitrate Pay Bias Suit, Calif. Court Says

    A California state appellate court has rejected TikTok parent ByteDance Inc.'s bid to make a former employee arbitrate pay discrimination claims against it, saying that an underlying arbitration agreement was unenforceable for requiring her to arbitrate claims while preserving all the Chinese internet technology company's rights and remedies.

  • June 24, 2025

    Greenberg Traurig Adds Hogan Lovells Tech Litigator In SF

    Greenberg Traurig LLP is boosting its intellectual property team, announcing Tuesday that a technology litigator from Hogan Lovells is joining its San Francisco office as a shareholder.

  • June 24, 2025

    Trump Admin Must Release NIH Funds Amid Appeal

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday denied the Trump administration's request to stay a recent order that it resume processing National Institutes of Health grant applications and releasing funds, warning that even one more day of delay would lead to irreparable harm.

  • June 24, 2025

    Anthropic Can Train AI On Books But Faces Trial On Pirating

    A California federal judge said artificial intelligence firm Anthropic can use books to train its LLM under the principle of fair use, but said the company would go to trial against a group of authors over the storage of millions of pirated books.

  • June 24, 2025

    Pot Dispatcher Can't Upend Co-Worker's $400K Wage Deal

    A California appeals court has upheld a $400,000 wage-and-hour settlement between a cannabis delivery driver and The Highest Craft LLC, finding that a dispatcher whose claims are also covered under the settlement failed to show the deal was unfair or insufficiently investigated.

  • June 24, 2025

    Father Sues Truck Manufacturer Over Son's Death From Heat

    The father of a delivery driver is suing truck manufacturer Morgan Olson LLC in Michigan federal court, alleging that its trucks are defectively designed with cargo compartments without any climate control and that the high temperatures in the trucks led to his son's death.

  • June 24, 2025

    Pillsbury Adds Goodwin Venture Capital Ace In San Francisco

    Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP continues adding to its investment funds team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Goodwin Procter LLP venture capital expert as a partner in its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices.

  • June 23, 2025

    Deep-Sea Mining Co. Beats Investors' Accounting Fraud Suit

    A California federal judge has tossed an investor suit accusing deep sea miner The Metals Co. Inc. and its top brass of flawed accounting related to a strategic partnership, saying the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead the challenged statements were false or that the defendants acted with knowledge of wrongdoing.

  • June 23, 2025

    Judge Lets Trimmed Crocs Shrinkage Suit Proceed

    Consumers who sued Crocs Inc. claiming their shoes shrank under normal heat and exposure to the sun saw their claims partially trimmed by a California federal judge, who said the buyers haven't pointed to specific ads that say the footwear is made for sunny days.

  • June 23, 2025

    Ex-CEO Of CBD Water Co. Must Face Pump-And-Dump Case

    The former CEO of a cannabis-infused water company and a stockholder must face all claims made in a federal indictment accusing them of artificially inflating company shares so they could sell them for a profit, an Ohio federal judge ruled, saying the government has properly alleged a single conspiracy.

  • June 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Antitrust Counterclaims Against CoStar

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday revived counterclaims accusing CoStar of monopolizing commercial real estate information markets in the company's case accusing a rival of engaging in "industrial-scale" copyright infringement.

  • June 23, 2025

    Olaplex Cites Slack Ruling In Attempt To Curtail Investor Suit

    Hair care brand Olaplex is urging a California federal judge not to certify a class of investors who allege the company failed to flag a regulatory risk ahead of its initial public offering, arguing that "at a minimum" the proposed class should be narrowed under the rubric of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Slack decision.

  • June 23, 2025

    X Nears Deal In Contract, Antitrust Fight With Data Scraper

    A California federal judge overseeing litigation launched by X Corp. accusing data scraper Bright Data Ltd. of improperly accessing its servers granted the parties' request to stay the case after receiving a joint stipulation stating they'd reached a settlement in principle and were "working diligently" to finalize the deal.

  • June 23, 2025

    Mullen Auto Investors' $7.25M Settlement Gets Final OK

    A California federal judge has granted final approval to a $7.3 million settlement between Mullen Automotive Inc. and a class of its investors that alleged the company made misrepresentations about its revenues and order volumes to inflate share prices ahead of a merger.

  • June 23, 2025

    Ontrak Founder Gets 3½ Years In Novel Insider Trading Case

    A California federal judge sentenced Ontrak Inc. founder Terren Peizer to 3½ years in prison Monday, following a first-of-its-kind insider trading conviction on accusations that he based a $20 million share sale on material nonpublic information that his health technology company was about to lose its biggest client, Cigna. 

  • June 23, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs $26M Fraud Penalty Against Importer

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld a $26 million tripled fraud verdict against a pipe importer over allegations it made false statements on customs forms to avoid paying tariffs on some imports from China, rejecting the company's argument that the Tariff Act leaves no room to invoke the False Claims Act.

Expert Analysis

  • Calif. Digital Assets Proposal Provides Only Partial Clarity

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    Recently proposed regulations under California's Digital Financial Assets Law answer some important questions about the new regime, particularly regarding its interaction with the state's money transmission law, but many key compliance questions remain, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Opinion

    The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit

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    The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.

  • What Gene Findings Mean For Asbestos Mesothelioma Claims

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    Recent advances in genetic research have provided substantial evidence that significant numbers of malignant mesothelioma cases may be caused by inherited mutations rather than asbestos exposure — a finding that could fundamentally change how defendants approach personal injury litigation over mesothelioma, say David Schwartz at Lumanity and Kirk Hartley at LSP Group.

  • State Tort Claims May Help Deter Bribes During FCPA Pause

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    As the U.S. pauses Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, companies that lose business due to competitors' bribery should consider using state tortious interference suits to expose corruption, deter illegal practices and obtain compensation for commercial losses, says Jason Manning at Levy Firestone.

  • 4 States' Enforcement Actions Illustrate Data Privacy Priorities

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    Attorneys at Wilson Elser examine recent enforcement actions based on new consumer data privacy laws by regulators in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Texas, centered around key themes, including crackdowns on dark patterns, misuse of sensitive data and failure to honor consumer rights.

  • Series

    Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Birthright Ruling Could Alter Consumer Financial Litigation

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision about the validity of the nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship cases, argued on May 15, could make it much harder for trade associations to obtain nationwide relief from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement of invalid regulations, says Alan Kaplinsky at Ballard Spahr.

  • Signed, Sealed, Deleted: A Look At The California Delete Act

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    The California Delete Act, proposed Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform regulations, and California Privacy Protection Agency enforcement raise a number of compliance considerations — even for data brokers that have existing deletion processes in place, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: A Rare MDL Petition Off-Day

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    In an unusual occurrence in the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's history, there are zero new MDL petitions scheduled for Thursday's hearing session, but the panel will be busy considering a host of motions regarding whether to transfer cases to eight existing MDL proceedings, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.

  • Energy Order Brings Risks For Lenders And Borrowers Alike

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    A recent executive order directing the attorney general to submit a report next month with recommendations for halting enforcement of state laws the administration says are hampering energy resources presents risks for lenders and borrowers using state-generated carbon credits, but proactive steps now can help insulate against adverse consequences, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Customs Fraud Enforcement In The Age Of Tariffs

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    In the wake of the Trump administration’s new approach toward tariffs, two recent Justice Department developments demonstrate aggressive customs fraud enforcement, with the DOJ emphasizing competitive harm to American businesses, and signaling that investigations will likely involve both civil and criminal enforcement tools, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz and London & Naor.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles

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    Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Collective Cert. In Age Bias Suit Shows AI Hiring Tool Scrutiny

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    Following a California federal court's ruling in Mobley v. Workday, which appears to be the first in the country to preliminarily certify a collective action based on alleged age discrimination from artificial intelligence tools used for hiring, employers should move quickly to audit these technologies, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases

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    A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Series

    Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.

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