California Pulse


  • Burke Williams Accused Of Botching Real Estate Fraud Case

    California Mid-Law firm Burke Williams & Sorensen LLP is facing legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claims in state court for allegedly dropping the ball on an ailing client's fraud and identity theft case by not providing adequate counsel at a damages trial and not communicating with his representatives.

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    Lewis Brisbois Accused Of Ignoring Racism, Unethical Billing

    A former national billing director of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP filed a lawsuit in California state court this week accusing the firm of ignoring racist conduct and sexual harassment by partners, and alleging unethical billing practices and even embezzlement.

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    Orrick Announces Numerous Leadership Changes

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced a number of leadership changes on Thursday as part of its annual rotation of leadership, with new managing partners in five offices and new leaders in seven different sectors and practice groups.

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    Littler Taps Gunderson Dettmer Exec For New AI Chief Role

    Littler Mendelson PC has brought on a former Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP executive to fill the new position of chief artificial intelligence officer.

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    How A Mid-Law Firm Boosted AI Use By Restricting AI Access

    It took limited access, enhanced training and a leadership endorsement for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP to convince nearly every attorney at the firm to get up to speed in artificial intelligence.

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    Pinterest's Legal Chief Saw Comp Double In 2025

    Pinterest's chief legal officer saw her total compensation double to $12.4 million in 2025, up from the $6.2 million she earned in 2024, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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    FanDuel's Former CLO Goes To Fintech Startup Airwallex

    Australia-based financial technology startup Airwallex will continue its expansion into the U.S. market next week as the company welcomes the former chief legal officer of FanDuel as its new compliance officer.

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    Morgan Lewis Adds Pillsbury Atty To Employee Benefits Team

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP announced on Wednesday that it had bolstered its employee benefits and executive compensation practice by adding a former Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP partner.

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    Peckar & Abramson Expands To San Diego With 4-Atty Hire

    Peckar & Abramson PC announced that it has launched a San Diego office after hiring a four-attorney group who specialize in construction law and government contracts.

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    BigLaw C-Suites Are Going In On AI And Innovation Roles

    Artificial intelligence and innovation chief roles have gained the most traction at the largest U.S. law firms over the last three years, while the chief knowledge officer title is decreasing in popularity, a Law360 Pulse analysis found.

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    Supermicro Lawyers Up After Founder, 2 Others Indicted

    Super Micro Computer Inc. has hired Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to conduct an independent investigation and assigned its general counsel to lead an internal compliance review after the company's founder and two associates were indicted last month for allegedly exporting banned technology to China.

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    ABA, State Bars Blast DOJ Proposal To Block Bar Probes

    The American Bar Association and a chorus of state and local bar groups have come out against a proposed rule that would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to pause and review state-level ethics complaints against its attorneys, calling the proposal "unlawful and unconstitutional."

  • $8.7M FCA Whistleblower Attys Award Too High, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit held Monday that a district court's award of $8.7 million in fees and expenses to attorneys representing a whistleblower who claimed Academy Mortgage submitted false insurance claims was too high, saying the case is not "exceptional," and the court didn't justify its lodestar multiplier of 1.75.

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    Simpson Thacher Hires 3 Attys For Sports Practice 

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced Tuesday that it has added three attorneys to its mergers and acquisitions team, two of whom will lead its sports, media and entertainment practice.

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    BakerHostetler Adds Davis Wright Privacy Pro In LA

    BakerHostetler announced Tuesday it has welcomed data privacy litigator Spencer Persson from Davis Wright Tremaine to its digital assets and data management practice group as partner, bringing in years of experience handling high-stakes privacy matters that will beef up the firm's privacy and digital risk class action and litigation team. 

  • Calif. Atty Apologizes, Blames OpenCase For False Citations

    A California attorney has filed a response to an order for potential sanctions over his alleged use of artificial intelligence, which resulted in false citations, saying the hallucinations appeared in a later draft after using OpenCase to perform a cite check.

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    Calif. Lawmakers Advance Bill To Curtail PE Role In Litigation

    A California bill to ban corporate investors from influencing litigation strategy is heading to the state Senate, backed by bipartisan support from the Assembly.

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    Latham Adds DLA Piper Real Estate, Data Center Pro In LA

    Latham & Watkins LLP is adding to its West Coast team, bringing in a DLA Piper real estate pro with experience in data center transactions as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

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    Clyde & Co. Adds Kennedys Insurance Expert To LA Office

    Clyde & Co. LLP has announced the continued upscaling of its U.S. operations with the addition of insurance litigation expert Shain Wasser from Kennedys as partner in its Los Angeles office, helping the firm strengthen its North American insurance and complex litigation capabilities. 

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    McGuireWoods Adds Seyfarth Shaw Labor Litigator In LA

    McGuireWoods LLP continues its West Coast expansion, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Seyfarth Shaw LLP labor and employment litigator as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

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    Lowenstein Sandler Hires CFO Formerly With Paul Weiss

    Lowenstein Sandler LLP announced Monday that it has hired a new chief financial officer with over 20 years of experience in the field from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP.

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    Mid-Law Led The Way On 1st Quarter Law Firm Mergers

    U.S. law firms announced 25 combinations during the first quarter of 2026, according to the Law360 Pulse Merger Tracker. Of those, the vast majority involved a midsize law firm acquiring a smaller firm.

  • Can State Courts Tame The 'Wild West' Of Judicial Security?

    As threats against local judges continue to ramp up, protection and incident tracking varies not only from state to state but county to county, making it difficult to draw the national judicial security landscape. Now, lawmakers are looking to use federal resources to even out disparities.

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    Law Firms Weigh ChatGPT As New Advertising Platform

    New advertising options on the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT have piqued the interest of some law firms, but most are still in a wait-and-see mode as a pilot ad program remains in testing.

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    Barnes & Thornburg Snags PFAS Expert From Venable

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP is beefing up its product liability and mass torts practice with the addition of a Venable LLP partner known for representing and counseling companies in environmental and toxic tort-related matters, including issues involving so-called forever chemicals, the firm announced Thursday.

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Expert Analysis

  • How Law Firms Can Keep Nonequity Partners Happy Author Photo

    Law firms that successfully manage two-tiered partnership do so by creating a culture that treats everyone with respect and by establishing financial incentives outside their base compensation to reward performance, says Carol Morganstern at Major Lindsey.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Leverage Your Atty Bio Author Photo

    If maintained properly, your firm bio can help attract potential clients and create authentic connections, so it's crucial to take steps to write an updated attorney profile that goes beyond a list of credentials, says Raychel Lean at Reputation Ink.

  • Ask A Mentor: How Can I Promote Thoughtful Use Of AI? Author Photo

    Eran Kahana at Maslon discusses how partners can encourage responsible use of artificial intelligence tools within their firms by learning to spot pitfalls common to AI-generated work product and championing firmwide procedures and trainings that address the risks of uncritically relying on this powerful but imperfect technology.

  • Making Legal Cents: Firm Culture Is The New Game Plan Author Photo

    Law firm culture is often dismissed as a soft factor — merely platitudes on a website that seem disconnected from the bottom line — but by intentionally embedding a strong culture into day-to-day operations, law firms can achieve sustainable success, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

  • 5 Questions Firms Must Ask For Successful Lateral Integration Author Photo

    To ensure that lateral partners effectively integrate their books of business, firms should design a structured transition plan based on a few fundamentals, from tracking the right data to implementing meaningful incentives, says Lana Manganiello at Practice Growth Partner.

  • Goldilocks Solution: Why The 4-Day Office Week Is Just Right Author Photo

    As law firms continue to wrestle with return-to-office policies, many are being pulled toward one or the other of two extremes: the rigidity of a five-day in-office schedule and the laissez-faire approach of a flexible three-day hybrid model — but a four-day in-office workweek may be the sweet spot, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • As Attys Adopt Generative AI, 3 Elements Should Be Cardinal Author Photo

    As the legal world increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence, lawyers and firms must develop and utilize strong prompting skills, keep a pulse on forthcoming tech evolutions, and remain steadfast to ethical obligations, say Michele Carney at Carney & Marchi and Marty Robles-Avila at BAL.

  • Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises Author Photo

    “No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Prioritize Connections Author Photo

    One reason business development in the legal industry seems so mysterious is because human relationships are so complex, but lawyers can reorient their thinking in two important ways to drive the process of connecting with new colleagues and contacts, say Jamie Lawless and Angela Quinn at Husch Blackwell.

  • Roundup

    Biz Development Tip Of The Month Author Photo

    This year, experts shared 12 actionable strategies on building business in today's competitive legal market, from prioritizing human connections to maximizing the impact of thought leadership.

  • Overcoming US Law Firms' Hesitancy To Enter Indian Market Author Photo

    Successful private equity exits with strong returns have solidified India's buyout market as an increasingly attractive destination for future investments, offering compelling reasons for the U.S. legal community to overcome its caution on the country's markets, says Vaishali Movva at Eimer Stahl.

  • Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Make A Plan For The Year Author Photo

    While firms are busy allocating resources and assessing client demand, individual attorneys should use the start of the year to slow down and create a personal business plan, which can be accomplished with a few steps, say Elizabeth Gooch, Teri Robshaw and Chris Newman at McDermott.

  • Series

    Talking Mental Health: Caring For Everyone As A Firm Leader Author Photo

    Reid Phillips at Brooks Pierce discusses how he manages the pressure of running a law firm, how sources of stress in the legal industry have changed over the past decade, and what firm leaders should do to help manage burnout and mental health issues among employees.

  • How Firms Can Use LinkedIn To Aid Marketing Efforts In 2025 Author Photo

    LinkedIn has several features law firms can use to showcase their capabilities and thought leadership to reach prospective and existing clients, including the Event and Live features, says Sofia Millar at Reputation Ink.

  • Talking Mental Health: Managing Emotions In Trauma Cases Author Photo

    Nikki Hurtado at The Ferraro Law Firm discusses what motivates her to represent victims of catastrophic injuries, how she copes with the emotional toll of such cases, and what other attorneys taking on similar cases can do to protect their mental well-being.

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