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California Pulse
Norton Rose Taps IP Pro As Partner-In-Charge Of SF Office
Sheppard Mullin Brings On Stroock Real Estate Pros In Calif.
Nelson Mullins Adds Seven From Lathrop In Dallas, LA Offices
Sidley Adds Ex-Allen & Overy Los Angeles Managing Partner
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BigLaw Firms Are Focused On Growth Going Into 2024
A primary concern for large law firms for the next year is how to continue to get bigger, whether that's through lateral hiring or combinations, even as the geopolitical and macroeconomic environments remain volatile, according to a report released Wednesday.
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Orrick Nabs SVB's Ex-Head Of Startup Banking
The former head of startup banking at the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank has joined Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP as a managing director of technology companies and fund relationships, the law firm announced Tuesday.
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9th Circ. Throws Out Tinder Age Bias Settlement Again
The Ninth Circuit held Tuesday that a revised $5.2 million settlement between Tinder and users accusing it of age bias still doesn't hold up, ruling that the class representative has a conflict of interest and failed to vigorously litigate on behalf of the proposed class before agreeing to the deal.
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Honda Wins Bid To Slash Most Atty Fees In Valve Defect Suit
The counsel behind the $1.4 million valve defect jury verdict for Honda drivers that the automaker called an "abject failure" does not deserve $5.6 million in fees and costs, a California federal judge has ruled, approving only $1.5 million.
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Epstein Becker Brings On Kelley Drye's Former LA Leader
Epstein Becker Green is expanding its labor practice, bringing on an employment expert who is the former managing partner of the Los Angeles office of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP as a member in its Los Angeles office.
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Bonus Wave Continues As Ropes & Gray Expands Top Tier
The wave of bonus announcements continued Tuesday as several more law firms followed suit in matching the prevailing year-end bonuses and 2024 associate salaries set by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, with Ropes & Gray LLP topping the list by adding a tier for associates from the class of 2015 and earlier.
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Over 90 Law Firms Agree To Disability Inclusion Proposals
Diversity Lab, the company behind the Mansfield Rule certification — which aims to ensure more attorneys from historically underrepresented groups win leadership positions and consideration for development opportunities — is recommending 10 new actions that law firms and legal departments can take to promote inclusion for people with disabilities in the legal profession.
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Wilson Sonsini Promotions Up Slightly With 20 New Partners
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC has elevated six women and 14 men to partner from its attorney roster effective Feb. 1, marking a small uptick from last year.
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Atty Says Fake News Sanctions Deserve Due Process Hearing
An attorney who was hit with nearly $270,000 in sanctions after he was found to have manufactured fake news articles in a bid to influence an arbitration between Chevron and Saudi oil heirs told a federal judge this week he should have received a due process hearing before being slapped with the penalties.
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Inside The Peaks And Valleys Of Law Firms' 2023 Performance
Many of us have seen the recent headlines that law firm net income was up around 3% year-over-year through the first nine months of 2023, but what do those numbers mean when you really break them down at the high and low end?
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Calif. Bar Redoubles Bid To Suspend Girardi Son-In-Law
Days after a California bar judge expressed "concerns" over an attempt to discipline Tom Girardi's son-in-law David Lira amid a federal wire fraud case, and in response to a motion to abate filed by Lira, the state bar has continued to push for his temporary suspension as the criminal case proceeds.
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Calif. Panel Issues Draft Opinion On Reporting Atty Misconduct
The California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions released a draft opinion Monday intended to help judges decide when to report attorney misconduct to the State Bar of California, laying out a host of hypothetical scenarios and detailing whether reporting is required.
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Sidley Austin's Woodbridge Work Not Free Speech, Panel Told
An attorney for the liquidation trustee for the defunct Woodbridge Group told a California appellate panel Monday a lower court erred in tossing the trustee's claims that Sidley Austin aided Woodbridge's $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme, saying Sidley's transactional work in the case is not protected by the First Amendment.
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Signature Resolution Welcomes RE Pro To Panel Of Neutrals
California-based Signature Resolution added a real estate professional with 30 years of experience to the firm's panel of neutrals, the firm announced Friday.
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Pomerantz To Lead Comerica Investors In Card Oversight Suit
Pomerantz LLP was appointed lead counsel for a proposed class action alleging Comerica and some of its executives misled investors about the company's oversight of vendors and fraud prevention measures for a debit card program used to distribute federal benefits.
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Orrick Hit With Another Suit Over Data Leak
Law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has been hit with another proposed class action lawsuit connected to the data breach the firm experienced in March, where the personal identifying information of almost half a million people was exposed.
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Boies Schiller, Clifford Chance Latest To Join Bonus Parade
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and Clifford Chance LLP are among the latest firms to release their year-end bonus and 2024 salary figures, matching the prevailing scales set by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
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Girardi Courtroom Profanity Is Proof Of Competency, Feds Say
Prosecutors have asked a California federal judge to find disbarred attorney Tom Girardi, 84, competent to stand trial following a dementia diagnosis, citing a moment during a September cross-examination in which the attorney lashed out against the prosecution as proof of "his appreciation of this case and the allegations lodged against him."
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Investment Manager Pimco Promotes Atty To Global GC
Investment management company Pimco will promote an in-house attorney who has more than 15 years of experience in private practice and previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice to serve as its global general counsel starting Jan. 1.
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Hogan Lovells Tax Ace Returns To Winston & Strawn In LA
Winston & Strawn LLP is growing its tax team, announcing Monday it is welcoming back a tax expert, most recently with Hogan Lovells, as a partner in its Los Angeles office.
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ABA Schools Dominate Calif. Legal Education, Study Finds
American Bar Association-approved law schools churn out the majority of law degrees in California, but those schools remain the priciest and present barriers for some groups, and their student populations are less diverse than those at unaccredited law schools, according to a new study from the State Bar of California.
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How Trauma-Informed Lawyering Can Help Clients Heal
The story of an Olympic gymnast-turned-lawyer illustrates the emotional and psychological challenges that trauma survivors can face, how these challenges can play out in litigation, and how people who have experienced trauma can bounce back.
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Former Clerks Say Justice O'Connor Still Worth Emulating
BigLaw attorneys mentored by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who died Friday after a lengthy battle with dementia, say she'll be remembered as an incisive jurist who always put facts and practical considerations above abstract ideological commitments, as well as a deeply gracious and down-to-earth woman who never let her dedication to the law overshadow her zest for life.
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Gibson Dunn Helps Vindicate LA Reporter After Protest Arrest
Three years after a reporter with the Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate was tackled by sheriff's deputies and arrested while covering a protest, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP has helped secure a $700,000 settlement that the firm is hailing as a win for press freedom.
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2023 Associate Bonus And 2024 Salary Tracker
Large law firm associates are feeling the cheer this year with a round of both bonuses and base pay raises announced by market leaders starting in late November.
Expert Analysis
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work?
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.
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How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes
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.
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Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge
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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Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law
With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.
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Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know
The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly?
Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.
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Yada, Yada, Yada: The Magic Of 3 In Legal Writing
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Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.
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How Firms Can Stop Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data Security
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In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.
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5 Life Lessons From Making Partner As A Solo Parent
Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage?
Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.
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Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career
Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.
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Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use
ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.
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Opinion
We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds
Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.
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Law Firms Cannot Ignore Attorneys' Personal Cybersecurity
Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.
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Why Writing CLE Should Be Mandatory For Lawyers
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Though effective writing is foundational to law, no state requires attorneys to take continuing legal education in this skill — something that must change if today's attorneys are to have the communication abilities they need to fulfill their professional and ethical duties to their clients, colleagues and courts, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona.