California Pulse


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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Agnifilo Intrater LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a New York judge threw out the top two charges against Luigi Mangione concerning allegations he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

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    Calif. Bar Taps Judicial Council Pro For Director Role

    The State Bar of California has announced the selection of a longtime statewide courts administrator as its new executive director, following the departure of its prior leader amid the fallout from the bungled administration of the February 2025 bar exam.

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    Threat Hunting And Training: Law Firms' New Cyber Strategy

    Some law firms are taking new steps to stop cyberattacks before they occur, including the use of threat hunting, increased automation and updated training to prepare staff for today's more sophisticated bad actors.

  • Calif. County Deputy DA Loses Free Speech Retaliation Suit

    A California federal judge has tossed a retaliation suit from a former Santa Clara County, California, deputy district attorney.

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    Jackson Lewis Lands 2 Principals From Stokes Wagner

    Jackson Lewis PC announced Thursday that it has hired two former Stokes Wagner attorneys as principals in two of its California offices to bolster the employment law services it offers its clients.

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    Goodwin Venture Capital Ace Joins Lowenstein Sandler

    Lowenstein Sandler LLP has added a Goodwin Procter LLP partner in Northern California, strengthening its emerging companies and venture capital group, the firm announced Thursday.

  • Industrial Laser Co. Coherent Embeds Eudia Legal AI

    Coherent Corp., a Pennsylvania-based tech company that specializes in manufacturing materials, networking components and lasers, announced Thursday a new partnership with California-based legal artificial intelligence startup Eudia.

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    Sheppard Mullin Lands 21-Atty IP Team From Ropes & Gray

    Continuing on efforts to grow its intellectual property group and build a nationally acclaimed patent litigation practice, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP announced Thursday that it is bringing in a 21-attorney IP team from Ropes & Gray LLP.

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    Litigation Spending To Keep Growing As Biz Risks Run High

    Companies are likely to increase their spending on litigation next year, some by over 10%, as legal disputes become more complex, more contentious and more high-stakes, according to a new report out Thursday.

  • Feds Want 3 Years For Girardi Son-In-Law's Chicago Contempt

    Tom Girardi's son-in-law should receive a three-year prison sentence for his admitted role in helping the once-celebrated plaintiffs' lawyer steal millions from Lion Air crash victims, federal prosecutors in Chicago argued Wednesday.

  • Ex-Calif. Judge Gets 35 Years For Shooting Wife To Death

    Former California state court judge Jeffrey M. Ferguson lost his bid for a new trial Wednesday and was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for shooting his wife to death at home in a drunken rage, with the presiding judge expressing sympathy for his "extraordinary" son who tried to save his mother's life.

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    Saul Ewing Lands Greenspoon Marder Enviro Atty Trio In LA

    Saul Ewing LLP is expanding its environmental team, bringing in a trio of Greenspoon Marder LLP litigators in the firm's Los Angeles office.

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    People Skills Helped This GC Grow Role At Grocers Group

    Leticia Espinoza was the first person in her family to go to college and join a specialized profession — an achievement she continues to expand on by becoming a lawyer, then a general counsel, a chief legal and human resources officer, and most recently over the summer, the chief administration officer at Heritage Grocers Group, one of the largest Hispanic and ethnic food retailers in the country.

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    CLOC President Exits To Launch Tech Venture

    The president of the board of directors for the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, or CLOC, a member-run organization for in-house legal operations professionals, stepped down on Wednesday.

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    Courts Told Head-In-The-Sand Approach To AI Can Backfire

    State courts might be inclined not to implement generative artificial intelligence tools or to ban staff from using them to avoid hallucinations and privacy breaches, but that strategy could backfire, a panelist told a court technology conference Tuesday.

  • UC Groups Sue Trump Admin Alleging Free Speech Violations

    A coalition of faculty, staff and unions affiliated with the University of California system sued the Trump administration in federal court Tuesday, arguing the suspension of $584 million in research projects along with threats to terminate billions more violates the law and is an attempt to violate their free speech.

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    Willkie Taps PE Head To Co-Lead The Firm In 2027

    Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP announced Tuesday that the nearly decade-long head of its private equity practice will step up to co-lead the firm as its joint chairman at the start of 2027.

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    California AG Bonta Names New State Solicitor General

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta has promoted a veteran attorney in the state's Department of Justice to become the state's new solicitor general.

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    Orrick Hires Ex-Chair Of Paul Hastings' Palo Alto Office

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced on Tuesday that it has hired the former chair of Paul Hastings LLP's Palo Alto office.

  • Stanford Tech Lab Partners With Cleary, Davis Wright, Vorys

    Stanford Law School on Monday announced the official launch of its Legal Innovation through Frontier Technology Lab, whose advisory board founding members include law firms and an artificial intelligence company.

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    These Firms Were The Top For Their Summer Associates

    Working as a summer associate is a rite of passage for many law students, and these training programs can boost aspiring attorneys' confidence in their career paths. Find out what students valued most and how they rated those experiences in a new survey from Law360 Pulse.

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    Summer Associates Remain On The Fence About AI In Law

    Most summer associates used generative artificial intelligence tools at their firms this year, but views on adoption were mixed. Students told Law360 Pulse the tools were useful for research and drafting, but voiced concerns over reliability, job loss and diminished writing skills.

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    What Summer Associates Learned From Working At Firms

    We asked this year's cohort about the most valuable lessons they learned during their summer associateship. Here's the advice they shared for those ready to jump into law firm life.

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    Potomac Law Group Adds Pair Of Litigators In San Francisco

    Two new litigators have joined a Potomac Law Group PLLC affiliate in San Francisco as partners — a business and civil litigator most recently with the Spaulding McCullough & Tansil LLP boutique, and a white collar defense and civil litigator with the Rogers Joseph O'Donnell LLP boutique.

  • 3 Law Firms Want Ford's 'Thermonuclear' RICO Suit Snuffed

    Knight Law Group LLP, the Altman Law Group and Wirtz Law APC have urged a California federal judge to dismantle Ford Motor Co.'s racketeering lawsuit accusing the firms of overzealous billing and conspiring to dupe unsuspecting clients in product liability and personal injury cases against automakers.

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Expert Analysis

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Negotiate My Separation Agreement? Author Photo

    Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey discusses how a law firm associate can navigate being laid off, what to look for in a separation agreement and why to be upfront about it with prospective employers.

  • DoNotPay Cases Underscore Hurdles For AI-Fueled Legal Help Author Photo

    Recent legal challenges against DoNotPay’s "robot lawyer” application highlight pressing questions about the degree to which artificial intelligence can be used for legal tasks while remaining on the right side of both consumer protection laws and prohibitions against the unauthorized practice of law, says Kristen Niven at Frankfurt Kurnit.

  • For The Future Of Legal Practice, Let's Learn From The Past Author Photo

    At some level, every practicing lawyer is experiencing the ever-increasing speed of change — and while some practice management processes have gotten more efficient, other things about the legal profession were better before supposed improvements were made, says Jay Silberblatt, president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

  • Why All Law Firms Should Foster Psychological Capital Author Photo

    Law firms will be able to reap great long-term benefits if they adopt strategies to nurture four critical components of their employees' psychological wellness and performance — hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism, says Dennis Stolle at the American Psychological Association.

  • A GC's Guide To Litigation, Inspired By Sun Tzu's 'Art Of War' Author Photo

    With caseloads and spending increasing, in-house counsel might find themselves called to opine on the risks and benefits of litigation more often, and they should look at five Sun Tzu maxims from the ancient Chinese classic "The Art of War" to inform their approach to any suit, says Jeff Golimowski at Womble Bond.

  • Mentorship Is Key To Diversity In The Legal Industry Author Photo

    Not only can effective mentorship have a profound impact on women and people of color entering the legal field, but it also benefits mentors and the legal profession as a whole, creating a true win-win situation for all involved, says Natasha Cortes at Grossman Roth.

  • ChatGPT Is A Cool Trick, But AI Won't Replace Lawyers Author Photo

    Generative AI applications like ChatGPT are unlikely to ever replace attorneys for a variety of practical reasons — but given their practice-enhancing capabilities, lawyers who fail to leverage these tools may be rendered obsolete, says Eran Kahana at Maslon.

  • Pro Bono Work Is Valuable In IP And Continued Learning Author Photo

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent elimination of a rule that partially counted pro bono work toward continuing legal education highlights the importance of volunteer work in intellectual property practice and its ties to CLE, and puts a valuable tool for hands-on attorney education in the hands of the states, say Lisa Holubar and Ariel Katz at Irwin.

  • Increasing Public Access To Legal Services: A Practical Plan Author Photo

    Recommendations recently issued by a special committee of the Florida Bar represent a realistic, pragmatic approach to increasing the accessibility and affordability of legal services, at a time when the disconnect between the legal profession and the public at large has widened considerably, says Gary Lesser, president of the Florida Bar.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Relay Shortcomings To Associates? Author Photo

    Michael Cohen at Duane Morris discusses the best ways to articulate how an associate is not meeting expectations, and why documentation of performance management is crucial for their growth and protecting the firm from discrimination suits.

  • 10 Principles For Effective Partner Reward Systems Author Photo

    Several forces are reshaping partners’ expectations about profit-sharing, and as compensation structures evolve in response, firms should keep certain fundamentals in mind to build a successful partner reward system, say Michael Roch at MHPR Advisors and Ray D'Cruz at Performance Leader.

  • Why Interdisciplinarity Is Key To Designing The Future Of Law Author Photo

    The legal profession faces challenges that urgently demand new solutions, and lawyers and firms can address this by leaning on other industries that have more experience practicing, teaching and incorporating innovation into their core business and service models, says Jennifer Leonard at the University of Pennsylvania.

  • Incorporating ADA Guidance Into Lawyer Wellness Movement Author Photo

    The Americans with Disabilities Act and rules of professional conduct may help the legal profession promote lawyer well-being by focusing on mental conditions' actual impact, rather than on associated stereotypes, says Alex Long at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

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    Ask A Mentor: How Can New Partners Generate Business? Author Photo

    Christine Wong at MoFo discusses how newly elected partners can prioritize business development by creating a strategic plan with the firm's marketing team and strengthening relationships with professional and personal networks.

  • 9 Writing Tips From The Justices' Opinions Last Term Author Photo

    Hidden in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinions from the last term are each justice’s talents for crafting choice turns of phrase, highlighting best practices for attorneys to jump-start their own writing, says Ross Guberman at BriefCatch.

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