Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
California Pulse
-
Husch Blackwell Launches Complex Torts Litigation Unit
Husch Blackwell LLP has launched a platform committed to providing tools to defendant companies facing complex torts litigation, dedicating more than 165 attorneys in over 30 states to the effort, the firm has announced.
-
Aligned Data Centers Atty Joins Montera As CLO
Data center company Montera Infrastructure has named a former Aligned Data Centers in-house attorney as its chief legal officer to build its legal department.
-
OpenAI Adds ChatGPT Configuration Tuned To Legal Work
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI, following the release of the latest model of its ChatGPT software earlier this month, announced on Thursday a legal-specific configuration to perform legal research, analysis and writing.
-
Seyfarth Shaw Adds Veteran Employment Atty In Century City
Seyfarth Shaw announced on Wednesday it has hired the general counsel of The Mancini Foundation, a nonprofit focused on mental health awareness and advocacy, to join the firm's labor & employment practice in Los Angeles.
-
Ford Says Quill & Arrow Can't Escape Lemon Law Fee Fight
Ford Motor Co. has told a California federal judge that Quill & Arrow LLP must face claims that it saddled Ford with high-priced legal bills for work purportedly handled by virtual assistants overseas or nonlawyers, saying the personal injury firm's "fraud factory" tactics cannot continue unchecked.
-
Brownstein Hyatt Grows In LA With Litigation Hire
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP announced it has hired a California litigation attorney who most recently served as of counsel at Salisian LLP in Los Angeles.
-
Apple Backs Its $132K Fee Ask Over 'Bad Faith' Subpoenas
Apple has urged a California federal magistrate judge to grant its $132,700 attorney fee request as a sanction against plaintiff consumers' lead lawyer in antitrust litigation claiming Google muscles out rival search engines, but said Apple's counsel doesn't want to disclose their "highly and competitively sensitive" negotiated legal rates.
-
Weil Names New Corporate Leaders After Dept. Chair's Exit
Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP has named two longtime private equity and mergers and acquisitions partners as the next corporate department co-chairs, promising to expand the headcount and breadth of the practice group after the former head left for Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP last week.
-
AI Could Help State Courts Run More Efficiently, Panelists Say
Artificial intelligence can help state courts operate more efficiently and ease workload strains by automating repetitive tasks, according to participants in a Wednesday panel discussion organized by the National Center for State Courts.
-
Getting To Court Can Pose Barrier To Justice In Rural America
In rural areas of the U.S., many people live great distances from courthouses and other legal services, creating major barriers to accessing justice and taking a toll on residents, lawyers and legal personnel.
-
Ogletree Continues West Coast Hires With Jackson Lewis Atty
Labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has landed a seasoned litigator from Jackson Lewis P.C. with extensive experience in ERISA and employment law matters, the firm announced Monday.
-
How States' 'Perry Mason Moment' Led To $17B Meta Deal
A recent landmark $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. may have never happened if it weren't for a quick-thinking trial attorney and his close-knit team of lawyers representing 29 states, who worked together to swiftly shift strategies midtrial.
-
Calif. Judge Charged Over Fatal Crash With Bicyclist
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office charged Kings County Superior Court Judge Kendra Weber with a misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter, alleging she struck and killed a bicyclist.
-
Orrick Hires CFO From Paul Hastings, Tech Leader From KKR
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has two new C-suite executives, both of whom will be based in New York.
-
Legal Ops Pay Stagnates As Big Company GCs See Increases
A company's size has always influenced pay for in-house lawyers, but a new study shows a significant difference for general counsel and chief legal officers, with their median base salaries running 90% higher than their counterparts at smaller organizations. Meanwhile, compensation for directors of legal operations was flat.
-
Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers
Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.
-
California Wildfire Litigator Joins Sterlington From Buchalter
Sterlington PLLC announced Monday that an experienced litigation attorney with a niche practice focusing on matters related to wildfires has joined the New York-based firm from Buchalter PC and will work remotely from Sacramento, California.
-
What Happens When The Only Lawyer In Town Retires?
Many rural attorneys, often the only lawyer in town, work until they die or simply close their practices when they retire. But small to mid-sized firms looking to expand into rural markets could help to make succession planning a real possibility for these solo practitioners.
-
First-Gen Students Pressured By Earlier BigLaw Recruiting
Students who are the first in their families to attend law school have been thrown a new challenge at the beginning of their legal journeys, as BigLaw accelerates their recruitment timelines.
-
What Summer Associates Learned From Working At Firms
From learning how to come back from mistakes to cross-team collaboration, this year's summer associates came away with lessons that will help them succeed in their future careers. Here's what they want law students to know as they begin their own journeys.
-
The 2026 Summer Associate Experience: AI Led The Way
Summer associate programs give law students an up-close look at changes unfolding in the legal industry, and a new Law360 Pulse survey found artificial intelligence use and pay have reached new heights.
-
Sullivan & Cromwell Adding Kirkland Private Equity M&A Attys
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP announced Tuesday that four private equity mergers and acquisitions attorneys are moving to the firm from Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
-
Man Cops To Bombing Calif. Courthouse Over Gun Seizure
A California man pled guilty on Monday to setting off a bomb at a Santa Barbara County courthouse in 2024 as retaliation for law enforcement officers taking away his firearms.
-
Disney Taps Warner Bros. Atty As Corp. Transactions Lead
Disney has expanded its corporate transactions legal team with the addition of Warner Bros. Discovery's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, according to an internal memo.
-
State Farm Attorney Sanctioned $999.99 For AI Hallucinations
An attorney for State Farm who filed several motions citing nonexistent cases and fabricated quotes generated by AI software must pay a $999.99 sanction, a Los Angeles judge ruled, an amount one cent below the threshold that would have triggered a mandatory notice to the State Bar of California under state law.
Expert Analysis
-
Tips For Attracting Stellar CLOs In A Competitive Landscape
Amid a rapidly changing regulatory environment and a fierce market for talent, companies hoping to attract the best chief legal officers must have a strong grasp of their roles’ biggest selling points, and any roadblocks that may prevent them from recruiting the strongest choice, says Heather Fine at Major Lindsey.
-
'Golden Handcuffs' May Be A Double-Edge Sword For Firms
As law firms increasingly use certain financial incentives to retain partners in a fierce lateral market, managing partners should consider the pros and cons of various deferred compensation schemes, says Tom Hanlon at Buchanan Law.
-
The 10-Min. Rule For Building A Business Development Habit
Many lawyers assume that becoming a rainmaker requires a significant investment of time and effort, but the truth is that building a consistent habit of business development can start with just 10 minutes of strategic outreach a day, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
-
5 Pointers For Firm Leaders Communicating Tough Decisions
Certain law firm decisions — such as whether to challenge an executive order — cannot be crowdsourced, but leadership can collaboratively communicate these choices using strategies that build trust, reinforce values and preserve cohesion, says John Hellerman at Hellerman Communications.
-
Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Create A Succession Plan.jpg)
Conversations around retirement and succession can be understandably difficult, but when attorneys make a plan for the transition early and effectively, they have the opportunity to not only keep work but also increase it, says Jillian McKenna at Verrill Dana.
-
Looking Under The Hood Of The $3,000 Billable Hour
.png)
In recent years, top-tier law firms have pushed hourly rates to unprecedented heights, with some partners commanding $3,000 per hour — but this eye-popping number doesn’t tell the full story, as there are numerous caveats and rigorous winnowing along the way, says Christopher Seck at Squire Patton.
-
How Law Firms Can Keep Nonequity Partners Happy
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.
-
Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Leverage Your Atty Bio
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?
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
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
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
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
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
“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.
-
Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Prioritize Connections
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.