California Pulse


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    The 2025 Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders

    Check out our Prestige Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their financial performance, attractiveness to attorneys and law students, ability to secure accolades and positive legal news media representation.

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    What It Takes to Stay Elite As Legal Market Shifts

    The law firm market has undergone unprecedented change in recent years, allowing for more upward mobility for some firms yet presenting risks for the longtime stalwarts of prestige. Here's how law firms navigate those shifting dynamics.

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    These Firms Are The 2025 Prestige Leaders

    Clients gravitate towards firms with sterling reputations, and so does exceptional legal talent. Here are this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders — the 100 firms the industry recognizes for their prominence, power and distinction.

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    Ropes & Gray Names 21 New Partners, Keeps 1-Tier Structure

    Ropes & Gray LLP has announced that it will stick to its unique one-tier partnership structure and is promoting 21 attorneys from four offices to partner as of Nov. 1.

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    Latham Adds Gibson Dunn IP Transactions Ace In SF Bay Area

    Latham & Watkins LLP is expanding its corporate team, bringing in a Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP intellectual property transaction expert as a partner in its San Francisco Bay Area offices.

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    How GCs Can Keep The 'Essence' Of Their DEI Efforts

    While shifts this year in federal diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines may have changed the way corporate legal teams track and share demographic information — including for their external counsel — a panel of in-house attorneys who spoke Monday said their work on the issue continues.

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    Katten Names Real Estate Finance Atty As New Leader In LA

    Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP has promoted a longtime real estate finance attorney to be the new head of its Los Angeles office.

  • Spiro Can't Be Witness And Musk Atty, Twitter Investors Say

    Elon Musk's informed written consent does not mean that Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP partner Alex Spiro can serve as both his lead counsel and witness in the trial over a class of investors' allegations that Musk tried to tank Twitter's stock, those investors told a California federal judge on Friday.

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    Paul Weiss, NFL And FIFA Defender, Launches Sports Practice

    Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, whose attorneys have represented the National Football League and FIFA, and have helped lead multibillion-dollar transactions on the acquisition of sports teams and businesses, has launched a formalized sports practice, the firm announced Monday.

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    Goodwin Elects PE Pro As Incoming Managing Partner

    Goodwin Procter LLP has elected private equity partner Joshua Klatzkin as the firm's next managing partner to take over next year from Mark Bettencourt, who has held the role since 2019, the firm announced Monday.

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    Squire Patton Brings Back Corporate Ace In San Francisco

    A transactional attorney who started her legal career at Squire Patton Boggs LLP more than 20 years ago has rejoined the firm as a San Francisco-based partner.

  • LA County Commits An Added $828M For Sex Abuse Victims

    Los Angeles County Friday said it has tentatively agreed to shell out an additional $828 million to settle hundreds of cases alleging childhood sexual abuse that occurred in county facilities, an amount that follows a $4 billion settlement announced earlier this year.

  • Workday Says Ex-Atty Doesn't Have A Valid Fraud Claim

    A former in-house attorney for Workday Inc. cannot pursue his claim alleging the company made fraudulent promises about his compensation, Workday has told a California federal judge, saying the attorney is trying to impermissibly repackage a breach of contract claim into a tort claim.

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    Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

    The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Robinson & Cole's handling of a $146.5 million healthcare transaction and Munger Tolles' defense of OpenAI in a trade secrets suit lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from Oct. 3 to 17. 

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Caldwell Cassady & Curry PC and Miller Fair Henry PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Texas federal jury found Samsung must pay nearly $445.5 million for infringing four wireless communication patents.

  • MGA Fights New Trial On Damages In Doll TM Case

    Toy maker MGA Entertainment wants to appeal a California federal judge's decision calling for a new jury trial to consider whether to award punitive damages to hip-hop moguls Clifford "T.I." Harris and Tameka "Tiny" Harris over a line of dolls called L.O.L. Surprise O.M.G.

  • UC Law School Can Drop Hastings Name, Appeals Court Says

    California is allowed to drop Serranus Clinton Hastings' name from the University of California's San Francisco-based law school, a state appeals court has ruled, backing a trial judge's decision to toss a lawsuit filed by the former chief state Supreme Court justice's descendants and various school alumni.

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    How Frost Brown, Gibbons Merger Plans Took Root

    The proposed tie-up of Midwest-based Frost Brown Todd LLP and Northeast middle-market peer Gibbons PC is being praised as a smart combination in an increasingly competitive middle market where consolidation pressures are driving an increase in merger activity.

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    AI Offers Class Action Firms An Edge — At A Price

    Generative artificial intelligence is helping smaller class action firms gain an edge over well-monied BigLaw competitors, but litigation attorneys say the advantages come with several catches.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    This was another action-packed week for the legal industry as law firms expanded their operations and hired C-suite executives. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.

  • Privacy Compliance Needs 'Kindergarten Rules,' Atty Says

    Panelists at a Los Angeles conference on the intersection of technology and entertainment tackled the issue of privacy and data laws Thursday, with one participant telling the crowd that helping clients avoid legal entanglements in those areas involves applying "kindergarten rules."

  • Judge Shields Migrants From ICE After Courthouse Arrests

    A California federal judge on Thursday barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining two asylum-seeking mothers without notice and a hearing, ruling the agency's courthouse arrest tactics likely violate due process.

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    Kendall Brill Adds Ex-Prosecutor Who Quit Over Plea Deal

    Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP has added a former federal prosecutor in California who resigned earlier this year after her objection to a proposed plea deal for a convicted sheriff's deputy, the firm has announced.

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    Keesal Young Litigator Moves To Frost Brown In SF

    Frost Brown Todd LLP announced that an experienced litigator who spent over 20 years with Keesal Young & Logan has joined the firm's San Francisco office as a partner.

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Expert Analysis

  • Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs Author Photo

    Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.

  • Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities? Author Photo

    While involvement in internal firm initiatives can be rewarding both personally and professionally, associates' billable time requirements don’t leave much room for other work, meaning they must develop strategies to ensure they’re meeting all of their commitments while remaining balanced, says Melanie Webber at Fisher Phillips.

  • Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets Author Photo

    Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents Author Photo

    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.

  • General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together Author Photo

    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.

  • How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers Author Photo

    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.

  • A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy Author Photo

    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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    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter Author Photo

    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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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job? Author Photo

    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.

  • Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law Author Photo

    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.

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    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.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    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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    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    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.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    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.

  • Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge Author Photo

    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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