The Recorder

14/08/2025

Willkie Farr & Gallagher has laid off at least five staff members from its San Francisco office in the wake of about 20 lawyers leaving the firm for Cooley after the firm’s deal with President Trump, according to sources familiar with the cuts. But even as it cut some staff, it doled out retention bonuses to associates to prevent other losses, sources said. https://loom.ly/qAfgdgc

Even as Willkie cut into its staff in the office, the firm began offering “generous” retention bonuses to first-year and second-year summer associates, as well as associates in the Bay Area, sources said.

13/08/2025

Six women cracked the top 20 on the annual list of highest-paid general counsel. Read the full story at https://loom.ly/Y28ePZM

12/08/2025

Lawyer Tells Judge SoCal Edison Looking to Sue Others Over Eaton Fire

At a Tuesday hearing, Southern California Edison attorney Douglas Dixon told a Los Angeles judge that his client planned to sue numerous government agencies that he claims share responsibility for this year’s Eaton fire.

12/08/2025

Gordon Rees Appoints 2 Northern California Managing Partners

Equity partners Mollie Burks and Alyson Cabrera will assume their new roles in February of next year.

12/08/2025

Trial Is Underway in California Governor's Lawsuit Against Trump Over Deployment of National Guard to Los Angeles

A federal trial is underway to determine the legality of President Donald Trump's federalization of the National Guard in Los Angeles to quell protests against local Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in June. The trial, which opened Monday in San Francisco federal court, coincides with....

12/08/2025

Disney and InterDigital Video Streaming License Dispute Fuels Global Litigation

The Walt Disney Co. and InterDigital Inc. have failed to reach an amicable video streaming license agreement, prompting InterDigital to take foreign and domestic action against Disney while Disney fights back with claims and counterclaims of its own.

12/08/2025

Epic Games Wins Partial Victory in Australian Court Against Google and Apple

The Australian court found Google and Apple ’s dominance of the app market had the effect of substantially lessening competition.

12/08/2025

Ex-DOJ Appellate Counsel Named Interim U.S. Attorney in California's Eastern District

Eric Grant, a one-time partner at litigation firm Hicks Thomas, is a veteran of the previous Trump administration.

11/08/2025

California Supreme Court Says Arbitration Forfeiture Law Has Wiggle Room

California's high court said a law requiring defendants to quickly pay neutrals or risk having claims against them thrown into court doesn't violate the Federal Arbitration Act. But a missed payment shouldn't automatically trigger a breach of contract in all cases, a majority held.

11/08/2025

Tom Girardi Attorney Charles Snyder Returns to Kendall Brill

Charles Snyder, one of Tom Girardi’s federal public defenders in his criminal trial last year, has joined Los Angeles boutique firm Kendall Brill & Kelly.

11/08/2025

Anthropic's Request to Pause Federal Copyright Case Pending Appeal is Rejected

District Judge William Alsup said the schedule for a Dec. 1 trial start remains on track and that while a jury may end up vindicating the AI company, “if Anthropic loses big it will be because what it did wrong was also big.”

09/08/2025

In Copyright Case, Startup Argues Use of Disney, Universal Characters to Train AI Models is 'Transformative Fair Use'

AI startup Midjourney refuted claims of federal copyright infringement alleged by Disney Enterprises Inc. and Universal City Studios Productions on Wednesday, arguing that the practice of training its AI image generator with characters from Disney and Universal franchises qualified as transformative...