Intellectual Property
Game Maker Fights Switcheroo That Made Toy Site a Porn Site
By Andrew Harmonn
LOS ANGELES - Santa Monica-based board games company Morning Star Games got a rude awakening late last week when it discovered...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR - I recently read Howard Privette's commentary regarding sentencing for securities fraud cases ("Sentenci...
VALLEJO - Solano County Superior Court Judge Robert S. Bowers' resume takes him from bartending in Aspen, Colo., to a top-secr...
SAN FRANCISCO - After two years of research, the state Supreme Court announced new guidelines Tuesday that will put significan...
FOCUS COLUMN - By Alan L. Friel - Not so many years ago, companies needed only to follow their own privacy policies to avoid r...
Judges and Judiciary
Respected Veteran S.F. Judge Can't Get No Consideration
By Donna Dominon
SAN FRANCISCO - Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer appears to be on a losing streak.
Trusts & Estates
Judge Orders Qualcomm Founder to Pay $100 Million Judgment
By Rebecca Beyer
LOS ANGELES - One of the founders of Qualcomm must pay more than $100 million in damages to the beneficiaries of a family trus...
An Orange County lawyer whose suspension was due to be lifted early next year has gotten himself into more hot water for quest...
Litigation
Web Site Collects, Dissects and Posts Cease-and-Desist Letters
By STEVE HARMON
LOS ANGELES - Though they're often signed "very truly yours," cease-and-desist letters are perhaps the least romantic of all m...
Discipline
State Judicial Performance Panel Removes Judge Hall From Office
By Jim Adamekn
The state Commission on Judicial Performance removed embattled Santa Barbara Judge Diana R. Hall from office Tuesday, finding ...
LOS ANGELES - Federal prosecutors have had little success getting indicted private investigator Anthony Pellicano to roll over...
Zoning, Planning and Use
San Diego Developer Wins $37.5 Million Jury Award
By Jim Adamekn
SAN DIEGO - A Superior Court jury has awarded $37.5 million to a San Diego firm that claimed the Irvine Co. attempted to illeg...
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday revised its controversial policy of pressuring companies to waive attor...
SANTA ANA - Karen Milam heard the news of a minister in trouble in the desert at 3 p.m., and quickly headed out to help him, d...
LOS ANGELES - A statewide coalition of advocates for youths with disabilities has sued state and county agencies for allegedly...
FORUM COLUMN - By Dylan Ruga - I'll have a thigh, a wing, some garlic sauce, and a piece of your trademark.
Bankruptcy Judge Will Retire for New Challenge
LOS ANGELES - A co-defendant in the wiretapping and racketeering case against one-time sleuth to the stars Anthony Pellicano i...
Transactions
Private Equity Betting on the Casino Industry Isn't Likely to End Soon
By Rick Kennedyn
COLUMN - By Rick Kennedy - If you like cash - and who doesn't? - the casino business is an attractive field to go into.
Law Practice
General Counsel Wades Back Into the Metropolitan's Waters
By Anne Marie Ruff
LOS ANGELES - Karen Tachiki is returning to familiar waters.
Judges and Judiciary
Plea Bargain Pulls Three-Strikes Off the Table, High Court Rules
By Itir Yakarn
A sharply divided California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state's famously tough three-strikes law doesn't apply to a m...
Judges and Judiciary
9th Circuit Is Overruled in Buttons Case
By kristinakg@kgmllp.com
WASHINGTON - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the murder conviction a San Jose defendant who argued that hi...
Government
Continuing Three Generations of Political Activism
By Linda Rapattoni And Hudson Sangree
SACRAMENTO - Politics have run in Dave Jones' family for three generations. He has vivid memories as a boy campaigning with hi...
FOCUS COLUMN - By Christopher H. McGrath and Oleg Cross - While headlines focus on the stock-option backdating scandals at man...
SAN FRANCISCO - Employment and securities class-action partner Jim Finberg is leaving his post at Lieff Cabraser Heimann &...
SAN FRANCISCO - Should nonprofit corporations that provide legal services be regulated like their for-profit counterparts?
Juvenile
Treat Emancipated Foster Kids as Well as Parents Treat Their Own
By Eric Berkowitzn
FORUM COLUMN - By Melanie Delgado and Robert C. Fellmeth - In the first part of this two-part exposition, we showed that today...
Immigration
Supreme Court's Stay Adds to Debate on Immigrant Deportations
By Sandra Hernandezn
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Supreme Court has stepped back into the immigration fray blocking a Pakistani man's deportation and ren...
SANTA MARIA - Criminal attorneys in Santa Maria can be forgiven if they didn't notice Judge James E. Herman's first day on the...
OAKLAND - Though John O'Toole is a lifelong peacenik and self-described "product of the '60s," his 25 years directing the Nati...