Bill Essayli lost his acting U.S. attorney title. Does it matter? Celine Castronuovo and I talked to several former prosecutors—including a fmr Los Angeles first assistant—about what’s next: news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/e...

Court-appointed specialists who aid defense lawyers are cutting costs & refusing assignments after 4 months of unpaid work. W/ no end in sight to the shutdown, lawyers are telling courts they can't get the experts their clients need. w/ @maiaspoto.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Edison opened applications today for Eaton Fire survivors to get rebuild $$ and other damages in exchange for agreeing not to sue. Read here about their updated offer, which continues to offer a flat $10k for smoke-damaged standing homes news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/e...

Bill Essayli was disqualified from his role as acting US attorney in the Central District of California but can still supervise prosecutions as first assistant. "The court shares Defendants’ concern that this result appears to ‘be little remedy at all.'" news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/e...

Hundreds of Eaton Fire survivors have organized to demand Edison International strengthen its compensation program for those impacted by the wildfire. "We need to be seen as actual human beings and not numbers, not just another tragedy." news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/e...

Los Angeles's US attorney Bill Essayli’s pattern of yelling at career attorneys to pursue MAGA-aligned cases despite their warnings of insufficient evidence has contributed to an exodus, @benjaminpenn.bsky.social and @maiaspoto.bsky.social report news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Nearly six months out from the Los Angeles area wildfires, toxic smoke damage is still making it hard for some victims to move on. Investigations and lawsuits are mounting against insurers. My latest on California's mounting insurance and climate crisis: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Our deep dive into newly disclosed data shows online retailers largely get the biggest payouts in deals cut with cities to share sales tax revenue, but car dealers have the most deals. And fleet fuel companies are making out pretty well, too. news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-re...

I reported on the future of the bar exam: news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/s...

"I want people in this situation to know they can push back,” former Allred, Maroko & Goldberg client Ashley Kostial said. “Going into mediation, having a settlement, having an NDA, doesn’t have to be further trauma for the victim.” news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/g...

As the Trump administration’s deportation efforts ramp up, unions are increasingly on the frontlines with workers in protest despite limited options and evolving court precedent. Elias Schisgall and I looked at rapid response, bargaining efforts: news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...

This was around 8 am at the federal building in Santa Ana CA before Michael Avenatti’s resentencing—National Guard is stationed outside and said they’ve been here all night, and windows are boarded up

Ex-lawyer Tom Girardi, who stole millions of dollars from clients, gets seven year prison sentence for wire fraud. He made his victims "feel that the entire legal system was on his side," Judge Staton said. "And they were not wrong." news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/t...

The California Bar systematically failed to provide accommodations on the February bar exam, violating the rights of test takers with disabilities, a coalition of disabled examinees said in a letter. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

We looked at the contracts between the California Bar and the vendor that used ChatGPT to write bar exam questions: news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/a...

Each time you ask an AI chatbot a question, it sends a request to a data center and strains an increasingly scarce resource: water. A 🧵on our investigation into how the data centers that power AI are increasingly being built in highly water-stressed places: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

New: Tom Girardi, the ex-lawyer who stole millions from his clients, is hospitalized for 'liver dysfunction' on eve of key hearing to determine whether he's medically fit for a prison sentence: news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/t...

California State Bar Executive Director Leah Wilson to retire in July, after bar exam takers called for her resignation over February test disaster news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

ChatGPT was used to develop 29 of 200 California February Bar Exam questions, the State Bar said in a new report to state justices. They want the Supreme Court to approve a score boost after the test broke down in February. No paywall: news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

L.A. residents trust their state trial court more than any other arm of government, but they're mixed on whether the court is doing a good job news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/l...

New: The Orange County, Calif. judge who shot and killed his wife in August 2023 was found guilty of second-degree murder after a retrial. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

NEW Businessweek feature: The US gives permission to pay people with disabilities below minimum wage. Biden tried to end program. Employers urging Trump preserve it say they've gotten private signals he will. Based on 1000s of pages of records & 150 interviews: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

New: A California State Bar lawyer who worked on admissions left the agency last week. It's the first departure of a high-ranking staff member involved in the chaotic February 2025 Bar exam. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Rep. Darrell Issa targeted Marbury v. Madison at a Federalist Society conference, saying it’s time to consider whether to “rein in” the 1803 decision at the core of judicial power. His bill to limit district judges’ injunction power gets a floor vote in days news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/r...

Orange County Judge who texted staff "I just lost it. I just shot my wife" on night of her death gets a mistrial. He argued it was an accident. The jury deliberated for almost two weeks and was hung at 11-1 in support of a second-degree murder conviction. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

The Orange County, Calif. judge who shot his wife and texted his staff, “I just lost it. I just shot my wife,” clearly murdered her, a prosecutor told a jury Wednesday, asking them to use common sense. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Orange County Judge Julian Bailey bullied people of color/women in his courtroom at least 10 times since 2014, new report says After complaints he tried to influence a prosecutor who saw outbursts, asking her privately if she thought he was racist & sexist news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Ninth Circuit case law is squarely on the side of San Francisco and Santa Clara, which sued the Trump administration to protect their immigration “sanctuary” policies, legal scholars told me news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/s...

After the Supreme Court weakened a key piece of the Voting Rights Act, voting discrimination cases are not just harder to bring to court but dramatically so, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis and experts who examined the findings. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/v...

Blue state AGs will seek a contempt order if Trump keeps defying court orders, Delaware AG Kathy Jennings said. “Many people have asked me, what if he ignores the judges, what if he doesn’t listen…that’s really an existential question for this country.” news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/a...

A Massachusetts federal judge has temporarily blocked prison officials from transferring a transgender woman to a men’s prison and halting her medical care news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/j...

An LA lawyer involved in the LADWP collusive lawsuit scandal should be disbarred, state bar judge says. Michael Libman tried to hack a judge and the lawyer who took over representing customers, saying “we’re gonna castrate them both.” news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/l...

If the federal government sends ICE agents to state courthouses, California’s Supreme Court is ready to intervene again news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Southern California Edison has three days to produce data from the four circuits closest to where the Eaton fire started, a judge ordered news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/e...

Los Angeles courts are largely moving ahead with hearings and trials as residents flee fires. 12 state court judges & 12 staff have lost homes. Jurors have had to miss court, prompting talk of a mistrial at least once. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/l...

This is from a study last year: Fires like the Palisades Fire are nearly *250%* more common now than they were at the start of the decade www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New: The partygoer asked an LA state judge to dismiss the case against Judge Mark C Scarsi over injuries at a 2023 student party at Scarsi’s home news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/p...

New: LA federal Judge Mark Scarsi, who presided over Hunter Biden's tax case, was sued over a 2023 student party at his property. A guest alleges a drunk partygoer injured him so severely the guest had to spend two weeks in the hospital. @bloomberglaw.com news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/l...

NEW: An AI company that produces training data for large language models gives workers little time to respond to hypothetical user questions about self-harm, sexual predation, and violence, a lawsuit filed today alleges. @bloomberglaw.com news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/a...

NEW: Prosecutors want Tom Girardi to be sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for the former legal giant’s conviction on four counts of wire fraud. Sentencing hearing is Dec. 20. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/g...

California bar applicants may receive moral character inquiries if they were disciplined over campus protests. Bar group says policy isn’t new. ACLU attorney said in public comments that assurances consideration will be politically neutral “ring hollow.” news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Legal aid orgs demanded that CA’s top court allow an option to electronically record some hearings. A lack of public court reporters has left low-income litigants in divorce, domestic violence, conservatorship & other cases often without a way to appeal. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/c...

Judge Victoria Kolakowski said political attacks on trans identity force her to juggle being a visible member of the community with her duty to be publicly neutral. “That is a problem that I have faced since my very first day. My existence is controversial.” news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Chase Strangio will make history Wednesday as the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court, but no similar trailblazer is likely to follow anytime soon on the federal bench. New w/ @maiaspoto.bsky.social news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Chase Strangio will be the first out trans lawyer to argue at the Supreme Court. U.S. has no openly trans federal judges, but a handful in state & local courts. Here’s what three of them said about representation on the bench (w/ @tianaheadley.bsky.social): news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...