Government
After Election, Litigators May Get Leverage but Not Results
By Aris Davoudiann
WASHINGTON - If the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives on Election Day, trial lawyers will have new leverag...
LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors across the state may be forced to adjust their public-records policy in light of an attorney general...
State Bar & Bar Associations
Bar Group Leader Says She Plans to Step Down
By Jim Adamekn
IRVINE - Donna Fouste, a leader among bar association executives in California and nationally, will retire after 15 years over...
A Bay Area lawyer was wrongly convicted of making a criminal threat when he unleashed an angry tirade against a bail bondsman,...
PLACERVILLE - Peering from a window in Judge James Wagoner's dark-wooded chambers, a visitor can look down on Main Street and ...
SAN FRANCISCO - Californians soon could prevent government from carrying out many of its current functions by passing a ballot...
Judges and Judiciary
'Larger-Than-Life' Judge Rode Motorcycles, Had Black Belt in Karate
By Donna Dominon
Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Robert L. "Bud" Ambrose, a 16-year bench veteran who rode motorcycles and had a black belt in...
Civil Rights
Ladies' Night Suits: The Latest Abuse of Consumer Protection Laws
By Eric Berkowitzn
FORUM COLUMN - By Julie J. Bisceglia - You want to treat your mother to a special brunch or dinner on Mother's Day, to show yo...
Zoning, Planning and Use
Changing Eminent Domain: Five Laws vs. Proposed Initiative
By Eric Berkowitzn
FOCUS COLUMN - By John C. Murphy and Bradford B. Kuhn - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have boarded...
LOS ANGELES - After an hour of sharp debate Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to add inv...
Constitutional Law
Congress Should Adopt Immediately a Federal Shield Law for Journalists
By Eric Berkowitzn
FORUM COLUMN - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The outrage of putting two reporters in jail for 18 months for keeping their sources con...
SAN FRANCISCO - Silicon Valley firms have a more diverse mix of attorneys than those in any of California's other major urban ...
SAN FRANCISCO - The founder of prominent plaintiffs' firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein is relinquishing his status a...
LOS ANGELES - The attorney for a Palmdale PONY League baseball player will try to persuade an appellate panel to toss out her ...
SAN FRANCISCO - When Superior Court Judge Anne Bouliane approved a $1.5 billion civil judgment against Bank of America two yea...
The courtroom of San Bernardino Commissioner Charles Bradley might seem a scene from bedlam, but the jurist is firmly in comma...
SAN FRANCISCO - Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow - well known for trying to get the words "under God" pulled from the Pledge ...
ORANGE - Dennis J. Keough thinks he has the best job in the world. ...
Judicial Profile
Jurist Is Combination of 'Mother Theresa, Best Friend, Sister'
By John Roemer
SAN FRANCISCO - To hear U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James tell it, those in her job are the most impartial and conflict-...
Judges and Judiciary
Clothes Could Make or Break the Lawyer, for Jurors at Least
By Eric Berkowitzn
FORUM COLUMN - By Karl Fleming - I was in the Dallas courtroom that 1964 day that Jack Ruby became headed to the gas chamber f...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Every Aspect of Arbitration Has Room for Collaboration
By Eric Berkowitzn
FOCUS COLUMN - By Richard Chernick - In Monday's Focus column, I addressed the concept of the managerial arbitrator, someone s...
Mergers & Acquisitions
When the Going Gets Tough, McAfee Goes Shopping for Startups
By Jennifer Hammn
COLUMN - Rick Kennedy - Stock options were once Silicon Valley's best friends as they allowed cash-poor startups to attract ex...
FORUM COLUMN - By Natasha Minsker - As the weeklong hearing on lethal injection in federal district court in San Jose highligh...
Immigration
Judge Won't Release Four Men Being Detained in Immigrant Class Action
By Sandra Hernandezn
A Los Angeles federal judge refused to release four men who are part of a class action that challenges the prolonged detention...
SAN FRANCISCO - Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe confirmed that licenses previously held by Coudert Brothers to operate in B...
Despite repeated warnings by a federal judge about the "dangers and disadvantages" of self-representation, one of celebrity sl...
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge in Sacramento Monday approved a deal resolving one of the nation's oldest environmental disput...
SAN FRANCISCO - City Attorney Dennis Herrera's request for a preliminary injunction against the Oakdale Mob street gang will b...
SACRAMENTO - Republican party activists have asked the Sacramento Superior Court to disqualify Jerry Brown from the attorney g...
SAN FRANCISCO - At the center of the recent debate about California's lethal-injection execution procedure is the constitution...