California

Once living in US illegally, immigrant now looks forward to paying $50K in taxes on law practice

After many years of living in the United States without legal permission, a California attorney admitted in 2014 after state lawmakers passed a bill allowing him to join the state bar is looking forward to paying U.S. taxes on his new law practice. The tally: Not quite $42,000 in federal…

Feb 25, 2016 2:50 PM CST

Suit claims Quinn Emanuel didn’t comply with fee agreement

A lawsuit filed last week claims Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan overbilled for its defense of a home sales executive who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The suit (PDF) filed in San Francisco on Feb. 19 claims Quinn Emanuel violated a fee agreement for the…

Feb 25, 2016 6:15 AM CST

California inmate paroled after court required state to pay for sex-change surgery settles her suit

A former California inmate who won a federal court order requiring the state to pay for gender-reassignment surgery—but was released on parole last year before the surgery was performed—has settled her civil rights suit. Under the pact, the state will pay about $500,000 in legal fees for Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, 52,…

Feb 24, 2016 12:55 PM CST

Three generations honored claimed oral promise of lifetime rental, but now woman, 97, faces eviction

Harry Truman was president when Marie Hatch moved into her California home and the landlord, her friend Vivian Kruse, told her she could live there until she died. When Kruse predeceased Hatch, her daughter honored that promise. And, when she passed on, so did Kruse’s granddaughter, reports the San Francisco…

Feb 22, 2016 5:00 PM CST

County gave feds OK to unlock killer’s iPhone, but it never installed feature allowing remote access

Amidst the hoopla over Apple Inc.’s resistance to a federal court order requiring the company to cooperate with efforts to unlock an iPhone linked to a December work-related shooting in San Bernardino, California, there has been little media focus on the government’s basis for seeking access. The iPhone 5C in…

Feb 22, 2016 3:40 PM CST

Squire Patton to acquire 50-lawyer California firm with international expertise

Squire Patton Boggs announced Monday that the 1,500-attorney firm is merging with a 50-lawyer boutique headquartered in California. Though Carroll Burdick & McDonough is U.S.-based, three of its five offices of are located overseas. On its website, the firm prominently features its global litigation management and international expertise—its attorneys speak…

Feb 22, 2016 12:10 PM CST

DOJ says Apple is ‘not above the law,’ moves to compel compliance with iPhone order

Saying that Apple has repudiated a federal court order and made misleading statements about what the impact of compliance would be, federal prosecutors on Friday filed a motion to compel the company to unlock a killer’s iPhone. Apple is “not above the law,” the Department of Justice said. And, contrary…

Feb 19, 2016 5:20 PM CST

Accused Gwyneth Paltrow stalker is acquitted in jury trial

Accused of stalking actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 66 letters he sent her between 2009 and 2015, a 66-year-old Ohio man was acquitted by a California jury Wednesday. Dante Michael Soiu had been committed for mental treatment following a 2000 trial for stalking Paltrow, in which he was found not guilty…

Feb 18, 2016 4:40 PM CST

Los Angeles sues developer for $20M, says building was unprotected against fire caused by arson

Corrected: The city of Los Angeles filed a $20 million lawsuit Thursday against the developer of an apartment building then under construction that was burned to the ground in a massive 2014 fire. Taxi driver Dawud Abdulwali, 56, has been charged with setting the Da Vinci Apartments fire. However, the…

Feb 18, 2016 2:55 PM CST

Apple opposes judge’s order to unlock killer’s iPhone, says FBI is misusing the All Writs Act

Apple is opposing a Los Angeles federal judge’s order requiring it to help the FBI unlock the cellphone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym on Tuesday ordered (PDF) Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance,” including disabling an auto-erase function that kicks in after 10 failed…

Feb 17, 2016 8:42 AM CST

Trial begins in 10 ‘Grim Sleeper’ slayings

More than 30 years after the first death in the case, a 63-year-old California man accused of being a serial killer is facing trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Lonnie David Franklin Jr. is convicted in the Los Angeles case. In addition to 10 murder counts for slayings…

Feb 16, 2016 1:20 PM CST

Burberry sues Penney over plaid products, faces unrelated customer suit on outlet store price tags

It has been a busy week for Burberry in the American legal system. On Tuesday, the British luxury goods seller known for its trench coats and cashmere scarves sued J.C. Penney Co. in federal court in Manhattan over claimed misappropriation of Burberry’s iconic plaid “check” pattern. Although the pattern has…

Feb 12, 2016 2:45 PM CST

Sirhan denied parole in 1968 slaying of Robert Kennedy, for 15th time

For the 15th time, the convicted slayer of Robert F. Kennedy was denied parole on Wednesday by California’s Board of Parole Hearings. Pressed to express remorse, Sirhan Sirhan, 71, told the board he didn’t remember shooting Kennedy in 1968, just after the Democratic presidential candidate had delivered a victory speech…

Feb 11, 2016 2:05 PM CST

Judge refuses to block law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to provide abortion information

Crisis pregnancy centers in California have so far failed to block a California law that requires them to provide information about state-funded abortion services. The anti-abortion pregnancy centers have filed several First Amendment challenges to the law, the New York Times reports. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Houston became…

Feb 11, 2016 5:45 AM CST

Lawyer postpones boat and retirement to fund college for 26 kindergarteners

A California lawyer postponed purchasing a boat and retirement to spend $1 million on something he considers more important—college for a kindergarten class. On Monday, the 26 children in the Rio Vista Elementary School school class presented thank-you cards to attorney Marty Burbank and his wife, Seon Chun-Burbank. However, it…

Feb 10, 2016 4:00 PM CST