California

European Law Firm Field Fisher Waterhouse Opens First US Office in Palo Alto

A European law firm that focuses on technology and intellectual property matters is opening its first United States office in Palo Alto, Calif., this month. However, Field Fisher Waterhouse doesn’t expect to practice locally but simply offer its existing American client base easier access for representation in European matters, the…

Sep 4, 2012 9:24 PM CDT

Appeals Court Tosses Suit Claiming Law Professor Blacklisted Grad in Job Search

A California appeals court has affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed a Stanford law professor had blacklisted a grad who sought employment at law firms in the San Francisco area. The law school had asserted that the plaintiff, Usha Viswanathan, was “proceeding on nothing more than suspicion, speculation and…

Aug 29, 2012 12:30 PM CDT

Jury Foreman in $1B Apple-Samsung Case Owns Patent for Smartphone-Related Apparatus

A video interview by Bloomberg of the foreman of a federal jury in California that awarded over $1 billion to Apple Inc. in a patent dispute case last week is likely to be watched with considerable interest by legal counsel for the losing party, Samsung Electronics Co. Among other potential…

Aug 28, 2012 11:01 PM CDT

Ex-Client Sues Firm re ‘Massive Overbilling,’ Partner Says ‘Meritless’ Suit a Bill Dispute Tactic

A former client has sued a New York-based law firm in federal court for malpractice, accusing Wilk Auslander of “massive overbilling for needless work” while defending several securities class actions. In the suit (PDF), which was filed Monday in the Central District of California, ex-client Westport Capital Inc. and two…

Aug 28, 2012 7:57 PM CDT

Debt Collection Law Firm Sues Santa Clara and Clinical Law Prof for UPL, Seeks Fees Disgorgement

A law school’s pro bono legal clinic is improperly using a clinical professor’s law license to collect attorney’s fees, since the entity is not an attorney-owned law firm, a Los Angeles debt-collection law firm contends in a lawsuit. “Maybe what they’re doing is perfectly legal, but they won’t tell me…

Aug 24, 2012 12:03 PM CDT

Does ‘Esq.’ Mean Attorney? Suspended Lawyer Claims It Also Refers to Readers of the Magazine

A suspended California lawyer who claims the word “Esq.” has multiple meanings has failed to persuade an ethics review board he deserves to continue practicing law. The lawyer, John Mark Heurlin, is facing a recommended disbarment for holding himself out as a lawyer while representing himself. The Review Department of…

Aug 23, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Forklift Accident Sets Off Chain of Destruction That Delays Howrey Wind-Down

A bankruptcy trustee says a fatal forklift accident at a Washington, D.C.-area warehouse is delaying the wind-down of Howrey. In a report (PDF) filed Monday in bankruptcy court in the Northern District of California, trustee Allan B. Diamond says a chain of destruction resulted when a forklift hit a storage…

Aug 21, 2012 8:34 PM CDT

Tax-Free Ride Is Ending for Online Shoppers in California, Pennyslvania

As congressional support builds for a federal internet sales tax law, online shoppers in Pennsylvania and California will pony up to the taxman next month. Starting Sept. 1, Pennsylvanians will pay a 6 percent or more sales tax, depending on the county, for online items purchased from retailers with a…

Aug 21, 2012 6:16 PM CDT

Law Firm’s ‘Playbook’ Shows How Police Play Hardball at Bargaining Table, Paper Says

In what one California newspaper characterizes as a rare look behind the curtain of police pay negotiations, a law firm has posted a “playbook” of sorts. Upland law firm Lackie, Dammeier & McGill—which maintains the Web domain policeattorney.com and touts that its attorneys are “Former Cops Defending Current Ones”—has on…

Aug 17, 2012 12:03 PM CDT

Irritated Judge Chides Apple Lawyer for Witness List, Makes ‘Smoking Crack’ Comment

Ongoing tensions in a case between Apple and Samsung boiled over again Thursday in San Jose, Calif., when U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh chided a lawyer for Apple for trying to book too many witnesses. CNET reported on the exchange: U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told Apple’s lawyer Bill Lee:…

Aug 17, 2012 10:15 AM CDT

Fed’l Court Clerk Accused of Selling Confidential Info to Suspects

The FBI is accusing a federal court employee of leaking confidential files, including information that disclosed details of forthcoming raids on Armenian street gangs. Authorities believe district court criminal intake clerk Nune Gevorkyan looked at sealed indictments, then she and her husband Oganes Koshkaryan passed information on to targets, the…

Aug 16, 2012 11:03 AM CDT

Judge Fears Divulging State Secrets, Tosses Suit Alleging Spying on California Mosques

Saying state secrets may mean the sacrifice of individual liberties in this case, a federal judge in Los Angeles has tossed a lawsuit accusing federal authorities of spying on mosques in Orange County. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney compared himself to Odysseus navigating between a six-headed…

Aug 15, 2012 12:32 PM CDT

Parent Volunteer Sues Mom-and-Dad Law Grads Charged with Framing Her in Fake Drug-Possession Case

There’s new trouble for two married California law graduates facing criminal conspiracy charges concerning a parent volunteer at their son’s elementary school. Kent Wycliff Easter, 38, and Jill Bjorkholm Easter, 39, had already been accused by Irvine authorities of trying to frame Kelli Peters—who, the couple felt, had not properly…

Aug 13, 2012 10:09 PM CDT

Denied Parole After Fame from True-Crime Book, ‘Onion Field’ Killer of Police Officer Dies in Prison

Despite having committed a chilling crime, Gregory Ulas Powell might well have been granted parole were it not for a former Los Angeles police officer who became a best-selling author. Instead Powell died, at age 79, in a California prison hospice on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. Joseph Wambaugh’s true-crime…

Aug 13, 2012 7:28 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Flew Charitable Flights for Ill Children Dies in Cessna Crash

A southern California lawyer who flew planes to transport indigent patients died Friday evening when his Cessna 210 crashed in a residential Los Angeles neighborhood. M. Sean McMillan, who is listed online as a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, flew charitable flights for 20 years through an organization called Angel Flight,…

Aug 13, 2012 1:01 PM CDT