California Supreme Court
State Supreme Court may adopt a limited 'plain smell' exemption to the 4th Amendment
By Emily Green
State Supreme Court justices suggested they might adopt a limited exception to the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreas...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Del Norte DA should be disbarred, State Bar judge rules
By Saul Sugarman
A State Bar judge has recommended disbarment of Del Norte County District Attorney Jon M. Alexander after the first-ever trial...
A roundup of recent mergers and acquisitions and financing activity and the lawyers involved.
Litigation
Rare toxics trial set to start over lead in baby food, fruit juice and canned fruit
By Fiona Smith
It hardly ever happens - a trial over the state's unique toxics warning law. The high-stakes case scheduled to open Monday co...
Maybe you are one of the 140,000 people who snapped-up a copy of Sheryl Sandberg's new book "Lean In." But what about employer...
Administrative/Regulatory
FTC's new online advertising guidelines focus on Internet-dependent public
By Ben Armisteadn
In March, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines for online advertisements, the culmination of a two-year proces...
Perspective
Slew of recent appellate decisions address contract language impeding arbitration
By Ben Armisteadn
Several California appellate court decisions highlight the importance of drafting arbitration contract terms that the courts w...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Can a large punitive damages award insulate lawyers from malpractice claims?
By Ben Armisteadn
With the law unclear on whether punitive damages awarded in an underlying case can offset any alleged damages in a later malpr...
U.S. Supreme Court
US high court rules 'first sale' doctrine applies to gray-market goods
By Ben Armisteadn
In a 6-3 opinion authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, the U.S. high court found that Section 109(a) of the Copyright Act has no...
Silicon Valley lawyers continued Wednesday to digest the impacts of the SEC's decision to allow companies to disclose informat...
International
Lawyers to accompany Gov. Brown on China trade mission
By Andrew Mc Intyre
Seven California lawyers and three out-of-state attorneys will be accompanying Gov. Jerry Brown on his week-long trade and inv...
Chicago-based Vedder Price is making its first foray into California, opening an office in San Francisco, the firm confirmed o...
Government
SEC's San Francisco office leader headed to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
By Kevin Lee
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP will add the Securities and Exchange Commission's top leader in Northern California, Marc J. F...
Education
Former Albany dean to lead Thomas Jefferson School of Law
By Don Debenedictisn
Thomas F. Guernsey, a professor at Albany Law School and the school's dean in 2002-11, will become dean of San Diego's Thomas ...
A California man who in 2002 was wrongfully convicted of rape and kidnapping signed a contract on Wednesday with the Atlanta F...
Litigation
Court tosses suit against utilities over wood preservatives leak
By Fiona Smith
A federal appellate court Wednesday tossed a suit in which environmentalists claimed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Pacifi...
Litigation
Plaintiffs' attorneys agree to work together on major price-fixing case
By Craig Andersonn
It came down to the last hour, but Steve Berman, of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP changed his position Thursday afternoon an...
On the heels of several new application launches, Palo Alto-based online payment and invoicing startup WePay Inc. unveiled its...
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
In reversal, 9th Circuit denies immunity to officer who killed woman who stole car
By John Roemer
In a rare reversal in a wrongful death case, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday denied immunity to a Calif...
California Supreme Court
State Supreme Court poised to reverse arbitration ruling
By Emily Green
The state Supreme Court appeared ready during oral argument Wednesday to scrap a ruling from just two years ago on the controv...
Director of Business and Legal Affairs at Hankey Investment Co. LP Los Angeles ...
Polsinelli Shughart PC entered into a 10-year lease for 26,000 square feet of office space on the 23rd floor of 2049 Century P...
Litigation
Copyright suits alleging illegal pornography downloads could be in jeopardy
By Henry Meier
They've accused scores of defendants of illegally downloading pornographic videos. But a federal judge, skeptical of the lawye...
There are two types of employers: those that know they have been hacked, and those that do not. By Paul Cowie and Dorna Moini ...
A recent case out of the 3rd District Court of Appeal shows how a stubborn refusal to follow the rules on appealability can do...
The latest hazard for class-action plaintiffs arrived in the U.S. high court's decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, wh...
Administrative/Regulatory
Private enforcement under Proposition 65 drives progress
By Ben Armisteadn
Though some courts and commentators argue that Prop. 65 spawns "absurdly easy" lawsuits, that view discounts the significant i...
The International Academy of Trial Lawyers will honor Thomas V. Girardi at the organization's 2013 annual meeting Saturday at ...
The fate of a decades-long lawsuit regarding California prison conditions hinges on a rigid federal law that some legal observ...
Appellate Practice
Piece-rate pay ruling may help workers in Wal-Mart suit
By Laura Hautalan
An auto repair business that avoided paying workers for hours worked when they didn't have cars to service didn't meet minimum...