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Special Reports


Judicial Profile

Judge Tracey Blount recalibrates for criminal docket

Tracey M. Blount
Los Angeles County Superior Court

2026-04-16

MCLE

Xactimate is not the law: How insurers use one software program to underpay wildfire claims

Apr. 15, 2026

In California wildfire claims, insurers rely on Xactimate...

By Barret Alexander, Shant A. Karnikian

Using AI to parse the logic of a legal opinion

Apr. 8, 2026

From opinion to syllogism: How AI rapidly breaks down Sup...

By Marc D. Alexander

When going low no longer works: Strategic civility as the new power play in family law

Mar. 27, 2026

In family court, the sharpest move isn't shouting--it's s...

By Noel E. Guth


Today's News

Probate, Ethics/Professional Responsibility


A judge allowed key malpractice claims against estate attorneys to proceed while trimming parts of the complaint, as a dispute over an $8 million trust and a...


Probate, Ethics/Professional Responsibility


A judge allowed key malpractice claims against estate attorneys to proceed while trimming parts of the complaint, as a dispute over an $8 million trust and a...


Real Estate/Development


The 215-lawyer Firm strengthened its Southern California presence with a group from Resch Polster & Berger, boosting real estate, litigation, and tax cap...


Torts/Personal Injury


A federal judge declined to pause a wrongful death case against OpenAI, ruling that parallel state proceedings won't resolve all claims tied to a chatbot's a...


Litigation & Arbitration


A Los Angeles judge denied UCLA's request to pause a Rose Bowl lease lawsuit, ruling the school must continue litigating despite its appeal over arbitration.


Securities


A federal judge is considering whether Google investors can pursue class claims alleging the company misled markets about ad auctions, inflating its stock be...


Columns

Tax, Alternative Dispute Resolution

Even when a mediation ends with a binding term sheet, the possibility that it becomes the only agreement should make you think...


Employees required to report unsafe or illegal practices in good faith are left unprotected when those same reports become the...


What was once experimental is now embedded in litigation practice, raising a question for litigators: does AI improve advocacy...



Verdicts & Settlements

Wrongful Termination of Contract Pinner Construction Co., In... $27,329,125
Breach of Contract Webcor Construction, LP v. ... $20,000,000
Retaliation Christian Tetrault v. Capit... $13,975,466
Wage and Hour Erica Morris, Yolanda Orteg... $11,350,000
Wage and Hour Esmeralda Castanon, and Joh... $8,250,000
Invasion of Privacy Taliah Mirmalek, on behalf ... $3,850,000
Wage and Hour Nadia Tuliau, an individual... $3,600,000
Retaliation Christine Jones v. County o... $2,670,000
Police Negligence Marlen Medina v. County of ... $2,500,000
Wage and Hour Benjamin Zermeno, on behalf... $2,038,000

On the Move

Buchalter

Apr. 10, 2026


David Menninger joined Buchalter as a special counsel in Los Angeles. The move was April 3, 2026.

Menninger, a former deputy federal public defender and federal judicial clerk at both the district and appellate levels, brings an insider's perspective to complex, high‑stakes cases involving fraud, tax, money laundering, and immigration‑related charges. His record includes a high‑profile jury acquittal that garnered national media attention, a not guilty verdict in a category where such outcomes occur in only 0.03% of cases, and many pretrial dismissals of indictments, as well as post‑conviction work that compelled the government to vacate a wrongful murder conviction.


Details

Buchalter has 600 attorneys in 15 offices including Los Angeles, Napa Valley, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco. Among the law firm’s key practice areas are Commercial Finance, Corporate, Health Care, Litigation, Insolvency and Financial Law. The firm’s website is buchalter.com

Featured Content


Community News

The volunteer-run project run by an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati features first-person narratives from AA...




Daily Appellate Report

Civil Procedure, Fees and Costs

Zand v. Sukumar

Pro se litigant's misuse of the doctrine of voidness as an all-purpose excuse to disregard basic principles of finality rendered his appeal frivolous.


Immigration, Criminal Law and Procedure

U.S. v. Gonzalez-Reyes

Previously removed alien failed to collaterally attack predicate removal order because state rape conviction was a categorical match for federal generic definition of that offense.


Civil Procedure

Walton v. Victor Valley Community College District

Excluding curable declaration defect to grant summary judgment was an abuse of discretion.


Criminal Law and Procedure

People v. Espiritu

Defendant's objection at voir dire, which did not raise the potential presumptive invalidity, did not result in forfeiture of the issue on appeal.