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California Pulse
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Calyx Law Expands Into AI, Blockchain With New Partnership
San Francisco intellectual property and psychedelics lawyer Graham Pechenik announced Tuesday that he has transformed his nearly 10-year-old firm Calyx Law into a new partnership with Frank Gerratana, a Boston-based patent law veteran and former Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo PC member.
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Tom Girardi Sentenced To Over 7 Years For $15M Client Fraud
A California federal judge sentenced Tom Girardi on Tuesday to over seven years in prison for his wire fraud conviction, granting some leniency to the disbarred attorney on his 86th birthday by imposing a sentence below the guidelines in recognition of his age and ailing health.
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The Law360 400: A Look At The Top 100 Firms
A rebound in client work sent the nation’s largest law firms into growth mode last year, driving a wave of hiring, mergers and strategic moves that reshaped the top tier of the Law360 400. Here's a preview of the 100 firms with the largest U.S. attorney headcounts.
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Murchison & Cumming Personal Injury Atty To Join Signature
The alternative dispute resolution service Signature Resolution is bringing in a soon-to-retire Murchison & Cumming LLP personal injury trial attorney to join its panel of neutrals.
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Crowell & Moring Opens In Boston With Faber Daeufer Tie-Up
Crowell & Moring LLP and Faber Daeufer & Itrato PC announced Tuesday they have combined, allowing Crowell & Moring to open an office in Boston that builds on Faber Daeufer's strong presence in the city's life sciences community.
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Girardi's Dropped Pants Don't Sway Judge From Sentencing
A California federal judge ruled Monday she will sentence Tom Girardi this week for his wire fraud conviction, finding him mentally competent enough to potentially serve prison time following a bizarre hearing where the disbarred attorney made an appearance on the witness stand that culminated in his pants falling down.
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Third Round Of Fixes Sought In Botched Calif. Bar Exam
The California state bar's committee of bar examiners has approved two additional remedies in an effort to help applicants who failed the troubled February exam, including asking the state Supreme Court to approve a further scoring adjustment that would bring the passing rate up to about 63%.
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Ropes & Gray Gets 'Innovative' New Office In Silicon Valley
Ropes & Gray LLP has moved its Silicon Valley office to a new location in downtown Palo Alto, California, a move to strengthen its presence in the tech region, the firm announced Monday.
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Susman Godfrey Founder, 'Preeminent' Litigator, Dies
H. Lee Godfrey, one of the founders of litigation boutique Susman Godfrey LLP, died on Monday, leaving behind a legacy as a thoughtful leader who performed exceptional work as a trial attorney, firm leaders said.
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O'Melveny Adds Two CLO Experts From Orrick In NY And LA
O'Melveny & Myers LLP announced Monday the hire of a pair of former Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP attorneys who have worked together across multiple firms for nearly 15 years to its corporate finance practice, which the firm says has grown from three to 16 partners over the last five years.
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The Top In-House Hires Of May
Legal department hires over the past month included high-profile appointments at Adobe, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Duke Energy. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from May.
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Quinn Emanuel Focuses On Building AI-Positive Culture
While many in the legal industry may be apprehensive about generative artificial intelligence, leaders at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP are working to get the firm's attorneys excited about the technology and willing to experiment with it in their work.
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Bird Marella's Sanctions Win Upheld In $2.25M Fraud Dispute
A California appellate panel has affirmed Bird Marella's terminating sanctions win against Frontline Medical Associates, holding that a state judge did not abuse her discretion by finding Frontline committed fraud on the court in its suit alleging the firm tricked it into paying $2.25 million for legal services for one of the firm's clients.
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More Californians Face Legal Issues, But Get Less Help
The gap between the need for civil legal services for Californians and the help that is actually available has grown over the past five years, as has the income level of those affected by that gap, according to a new study from the State Bar of California.
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Akin Adds Federal Export And Security Head As Adviser
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is boosting its international trade practice, bringing in an expert in export enforcement with the U.S. Department of Commerce as a senior regulatory adviser.
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Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work
Susman Godfrey's selection as the head of multidistrict litigation against Microsoft and OpenAI and Benesch's work on an $800 million public offering on behalf of a longtime client lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight on Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from May 16 to 30.
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
Clement & Murphy PLLC leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a D.C. federal judge struck down President Donald Trump's executive order targeting WilmerHale.
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ABA Leader Says Silence 'Not An Alternative' On Trump EOs
While American Bar Association President Bill Bay says he's seen no shortage of criticism and even threats for publicly opposing the Trump administration's executive orders targeting law firms, he told attendees at an ABA ethics conference that being silent was not a viable alternative.
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The Path To $2B Merger Of Herbert Smith, Kramer Levin
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP on Sunday will go live with their planned merger, which will combine 2,700 lawyers and more than $2 billion in revenue from both firms.
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Fenwick & West Leases New San Francisco Office Space
Fenwick & West LLP will move to a new San Francisco office after signing a 50,000-square foot lease for office space in a 38-story Class A office tower owned by real estate investment trust Paramount Group Inc., according to an announcement from JLL.
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Thompson Hine Brings Ex-Troutman Real Estate Atty To LA
Thompson Hine LLP hired a former Troutman Pepper Locke LLP real estate transactions partner as a new real estate partner in Los Angeles, the firm announced May 29.
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Sidley Leaders On Firm's Active Lateral Hiring This Year
As of the end of May, Sidley Austin LLP has made 45 lateral partner additions so far this year, outpacing the vast majority of large law firms in lateral hiring as its new executive committee chair Brian Fahrney took the reins this spring.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
The legal industry ended May with another action-packed week as BigLaw firms expanded practices and attorneys took on new roles. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse’s weekly quiz.
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Calif. Justices Propose Tweaking Rules For Bar Examiners
The California Supreme Court has proposed changes to the administration of the state's troubled bar exam, circulating a slate of amendments designed to clarify the role of the Committee of Bar Examiners, including spelling out its duty to review and approve all questions used in the exam.
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9th Circ. Judge Warns Of 'Rule Of Law Recession'
On Thursday, Beverly Hills trial lawyer Paul Kiesel brought together a panel including a former U.S. Department of Justice senior trial counsel, a state attorney general, and former BigLaw associate Rachel Cohen, to discuss what Senior U.S. Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown called a "rule of law recession."
Expert Analysis
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together
It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.
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How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers
A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.
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A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy
Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.
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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter
Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job?
Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.
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Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law
Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.
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AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024
The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases
Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work?
Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.
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How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes
Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
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Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge
With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.
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Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law
With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.
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Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know
The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly?
Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.