On this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, host Jack Needham talks with Buchalter partners Philip Nulud and Jonathan B. Wilson about how AI is reshaping M&A. They cover the questions buyers and their counsel should now ask in due diligence, including whether AI was used to develop code or other IP, who owns the training data, and whether the target has an AI governance policy. They also discuss how reps and warranties are evolving to address AI risk, the confidentiality pitfalls of public-facing AI tools, and the unsettled questions around protecting AI-generated IP.

Guests on this episode:

Philip Nulud is a partner in Buchalter's Los Angeles office, where he chairs the firm's Luxury Brand Industry Practice and co-chairs its Internet Law, E-Commerce & Social Media Industry Practice. For nearly two decades, he has helped clients protect and monetize their trademarks and other intellectual property, focusing on the fashion, apparel, retail and consumer products space. His clients include apparel brands, couture fashion houses, streetwear brands, footwear manufacturers, licensing agencies, retailers, celebrities, athletes, influencers, and beauty and wellness companies. He has handled thousands of domestic and international trademarks and advises on patents, copyrights, licensing, marketing and advertising, social media influencers and domain names.

Jonathan B. Wilson is a partner in Buchalter's Atlanta office and a member of the firm's corporate practice group. In more than 34 years of practice, he has represented startups and Fortune 100 companies in corporate finance and governance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, product distribution, intellectual property, computer software and litigation management. His IP licensing work includes trademark, patent and software licensing, OEM and white-label agreements, and IP-related joint ventures. He has served as general counsel or chief legal officer of two publicly traded companies. He was the founding chair of the American Bar Association Public Utility Section's Internet Industry Committee, which he led for more than a decade, and later founded the section's Renewable Energy Committee. He is the author of "The Corporate Transparency Act Compliance Guide" (Matthew Bender, 2023) and "FinCEN Reporting for Residential Real Estate" (2025).

In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, discover how Joshua White, CEO and founder of Laurel Employment Law, is challenging traditional law firm practices by emphasizing company culture, technological adoption, and a business-oriented mindset. This episode explores the potential for law firms to operate more like innovative startups, emphasizing fun, optimism, and data-driven strategies.

Main topics:

Transition from traditional law firms to a culture-driven, entrepreneurial approach The importance of defining company values rooted in optimism and authenticity Incorporating AI and data to optimize legal workflows and improve efficiency Building a law firm that attracts talent by fostering a positive environment Lessons from the tech industry on running a competitive, innovative business The value of cross-industry experience in transforming legal practice

Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to Josh White's background and law career 01:30 - Transition from litigation to corporate strategy at Bamco 02:55 - How Bamco became a leading brand in promotional products 04:04 - Key legal challenges during rapid company growth 05:09 - Motivation for starting Laurel Employment Law 06:14 - Critique of traditional law firm models and industry issues 07:21 - Why legal departments aren't typically run like innovative companies 08:02 - The competitive advantage of running law firms like businesses 09:28 - Addressing law firm culture and lawyer happiness 10:34 - Creating an environment of fun, authenticity, and radical optimism 11:25 - Practical steps to embed a positive culture from day one 12:21 - Leading with enthusiasm and managing serious work with a light touch 13:23 - Embracing failure and learning through experimentation 14:29 - Hiring for optimism and authentic cultural fit 15:58 - The importance of personal transformation and moldability 17:02 - Reversing the cultural shame around mistakes 17:44 - Examples of fostering a serious yet fun work environment 19:20 - The role of data and AI in modern legal practice 20:34 - Building a tech-first, data-driven law firm 22:43 - The future of AI and continuous innovation 24:07 - Differences between law firms and tech companies 26:38 - The influence of successful tech industry practices on legal services 28:22 - Is a startup mentality essential for law firm success? 29:26 - The value of experience outside traditional legal environments 30:46 - Customizing law firm culture to match personal values 31:43 - Practical advice for building unique, authentic legal businesses

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In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, host Jack Needham sits down with Adam Silver, chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission, California's campaign finance and ethics watchdog. Appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, Silver traces the agency's roots to Proposition 9, the post-Watergate ballot measure that created the FPPC and some of the strictest campaign finance and ethics rules in the country -- rules his office is now charged with enforcing in the age of AI.

The conversation ranges from AB 2355, the surviving bill from a package of three targeting deepfakes and AI-generated campaign ads, to how the commission is exploring technology to flag potential campaign money laundering and warn public officials of conflicts before they happen. Along the way, Silver explains why the agency's priority is transparency before an election rather than penalties after it, and why the appearance of impropriety can damage public trust as much as the real thing.

Highlights:

• The FPPC's post-Watergate origins and its role as the state's campaign finance and ethics watchdog

• AB 2355 and enforcing disclaimer rules for AI-generated or AI-modified campaign ads

• Using AI to flag patterns of possible campaign money laundering

• A tool to warn officials of potential conflicts between their financial disclosures and upcoming agenda items

• Why transparency before the election takes priority

• The legislation Silver's office sponsored to ban campaign contributions inside state buildings

In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, host Jack Needham sits down with Joshua Robbins, a partner in the Orange County office of Crowell & Moring, to talk about a different way of thinking about trial advocacy. A former federal prosecutor who began his career in international arbitration, Robbins explains how working in systems with limited discovery taught him to prepare for trial from day one, make more with less, and build cases around contemporaneous documents — witnesses that "don't forget and don't lie and don't have motives." The conversation ranges from the Tom Goldstein tax trial and what it reveals about juror skepticism toward polished performers, to the document-heavy Musk v. Altman verdict, to Robbins' experience teaching trial advocacy at UC Irvine School of Law. Along the way, he makes the case that the craft is less about courtroom theatrics than about narrative discipline: distilling business disputes into moral concepts jurors intuitively grasp, and knowing which evidence to leave out.

Highlights:

• Why early exposure to international arbitration and criminal prosecution shaped an evidence-first approach to civil litigation

• The Tom Goldstein trial: how jurors' built-in skepticism punishes testimony that reads as a performance

• Building cases on documents and letting witnesses narrate them — not the other way around

• The Miles Davis quote he cites: five or six key documents matter more than hundreds of exhibits

• The hardest skill to teach young lawyers: listening and reacting in real time instead of clinging to the script

Los Angeles County Superior Court announced Wednesday that a select group of its judges will begin using AI tools to help prepare and manage cases — a first for the largest trial court in the nation. We sat down with Shlomo Klapper, the founder and CEO of Learned Hand and the man behind that initiative, to find out what it means for judges, lawyers and the justice system when AI enters the courtroom.

A former clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and litigator at Quinn Emanuel, Klapper built Learned Hand around a simple argument: courts are under-resourced, backlogs are growing, and an incoming wave of AI-generated litigation is about to make things significantly worse. In this episode, he breaks down how the technology works, why tools built for lawyers don't translate to the bench, and what it will take to deliver on the promise of equal justice.

We also get into the hard questions — how Learned Hand addresses concerns about algorithmic bias, what safeguards protect the confidentiality of case materials, and what the rise of AI means for the future of lawyering itself.

Mid-size law firms are getting squeezed from both ends. Big law has the capital to invest in AI and the salaries to attract top talent. Boutiques can specialize tightly and move fast. So where does that leave everyone in the middle?

Melanie Chaney, firm-wide managing partner of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, has a front-row seat to that question. LCW has grown from 45 attorneys to 120 over the past two decades, and Chaney — just a few months into her tenure leading the firm — is candid about the challenges that come with that position in the market: recruitment, AI costs, and figuring out how junior attorneys develop their skills when the tasks they used to learn on are being automated away.

In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, she makes the case that mid-size firms still have a real value proposition — but that a long track record is no excuse to stop innovating.

About Melanie: Melanie L. Chaney is the Firm-wide Managing Partner of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, California’s leading education, public sector, nonprofit, and labor & employment law firm serving public agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofits. She brings decades of experience advising cities, school districts, and public safety departments on complex and high-stakes labor relations matters. Her practice includes collective bargaining under the MMBA and EERA, handling labor disputes before the California Public Employment Relations Board, and representing public entities in employment litigation in state and federal court. She also conducts workplace investigations, counsels agencies on personnel policies, and regularly provides training on labor and employment issues.

When Jason de Bretteville's client refused to take the easy off-ramp -- a dismissal that would have let everyone walk away quietly -- it set the stage for a sanctions ruling that may finally put teeth into a 30-year-old law. The court was blunt: widespread practice doesn't make a practice acceptable.

Jason is a partner at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth LLP, Chair of the firm's Litigation Department and Co-Chair of its Enforcement Defense and Investigations Practice. In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, he walks through the case that produced what may be the first-ever sanctions ruling against a plaintiff for filing a bare-bones placeholder complaint in a securities fraud class action -- and what it could mean for how the plaintiff's bar operates going forward.

Jason also explains the structural reasons this practice has persisted for three decades despite the PSLRA, what it would take for defense lawyers to routinely push back, and how AI is shifting the calculus for smaller firms competing against larger ones.

About Jason: Jason de Bretteville defends companies, financial institutions and executives in high-stakes civil and criminal litigation matters. When other legal teams see hurdles and complications or say it simply cannot be done, Jason finds the evidence and arguments that win. He is a tenacious litigator whose deep industry and regulatory experience, knowledge of the courts and ability to connect with judges and juries have earned him a reputation as a serious trial threat.

Jason served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California from 2001 through 2006. As a prosecutor, he tried seven felony cases to verdict, investigated and prosecuted significant crimes of violence and fraud, supervised teams of federal agents engaged in the detection and prevention of terrorist activity, and briefed and argued numerous cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Jason has secured favorable settlements and trial and appellate victories for clients facing civil and criminal allegations relating to securities fraud, white-collar crime and abuses of the False Claims Act and the FCP. He also has represented medical device companies, hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks, technology companies, consumer goods manufacturers, oil and gas concerns, and other companies in a wide variety of complex business disputes. When he is not litigating, he helps his clients optimize their compliance programs and navigate pre-litigation securities matters to minimize potential liability.

When Yakub Hazzard's team discovered that opposing counsel had improperly kept a privileged memo in a high-stakes Motown royalties case, it became a turning point. "That was like the game changing moment in the litigation where it went from the plaintiff seeming to have a lot of momentum to them being completely on their heels."

Now Chair of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, Yakub shares three cases from a long career that taught him essential lessons about entertainment litigation. From representing Berry Gordy and Motown in a dispute with legendary songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, to achieving one of the few published 9th Circuit decisions on copyright termination in a case involving the Ray Charles Foundation, these cases reveal what it takes to navigate high-stakes entertainment disputes.

Yakub also explains his early career moves, what it takes to represent elite clients effectively, and his concerns about the future of the entertainment industry and attorneys given the rise of artificial intelligence.

About Yakub: Yakub Hazzard is the Chair of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and former Co-Chair of the Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Hazzard specializes in litigating high-profile matters involving intellectual property, right of publicity, privacy, breach of contract, profit participation, commercial disputes, and other media & entertainment-related conflicts across a wide range of industries. He has also handled employment litigation matters for clients.

Vid Prabhakaran has a clear belief about AI in law: "We don't believe that AI is going to replace lawyers, but we do believe that lawyers who use AI in a sophisticated way are going to replace lawyers who don't." And when he hears partners argue that associates need drudgery work because it's foundational to their future success, he's blunt: "I think they're full of it."

As partner-in-charge of Davis Wright Tremaine's San Francisco office, Vid is navigating three major shifts: AI's impact on legal billing models, political attacks on DEI, and California's climate leadership in the absence of federal direction.

In this conversation, Vid explains how he's using AI to eliminate associate drudgery and refocus their work on strategic analysis—and why this shift will force law firms toward value-based pricing. He also shares how he's protecting inclusion programs amid political attacks, why his energy clients care more about regulatory certainty than climate politics, and what's at stake in California's climate disclosure battle. Plus: why data centers represent the energy industry's biggest wild card.

About Vid: Vidhya Prabhakaran is a veteran energy lawyer and the San Francisco partner-in-charge at Davis Wright Tremaine. He helps clients navigate regulatory complexities as California transitions to economically viable greener power sources. Vid advocates for companies throughout the industry who envision an efficient and reliable energy marketplace and seek to successfully invest in the state’s energy future. He has particular expertise representing clients before the California Public Utilities Commission and helping them achieve successful outcomes when trying to work with or around the large investor-owned utilities.

Vid has a long record of public service and commitment to social impact. Through constant mentoring and networking, he has helped sustain pipeline programs, boosted the ranks of diverse judges, and established pro bono partnerships with leading clients. His extensive list of honors includes the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's "Best Under 40" award, South Asian Bar Association of Northern California's Mentorship Award, the Minority Bar Coalition's Unity Award, and the Pro Bono Leadership Award from Legal Services for Children.

He has served as president of multiple organizations, including the Bar Association of San Francisco, the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California, the Yale Club of Northern California, and the California Conference of Public Utilities Counsel. He is the current president of the Energy Bar Association – Western Chapter.

In this episode of In the Counsel's Chair, Kristina Lawson offers a roadmap for attorneys considering a leap into public service — and explains why more lawyers should be willing to make it.

Kristina is the first female Managing Partner in Hanson Bridgett's 65-year history, overseeing more than 200 attorneys across eight California offices. She's also a former Mayor of Walnut Creek, current chair of the Bay Area Council, and a gubernatorial appointee to California's Medical Board.

In this conversation, Kristina discusses what convinced her to run for city council, how she managed a contested campaign while working full-time with a newborn, and which skills from legal practice gave her an advantage in office. She explains why she ultimately chose to leave elected office after one term and how she's continued advancing the issues she cares about — housing, affordability, community development — from the private sector.

She also shares practical strategies for balancing legal practice with public service and makes the case for why firm leaders need to value civic engagement as deeply as client work.

About Kristina: Kristina Lawson serves as the Managing Partner and Chair of the firm’s Management Committee at Hanson Bridgett. As the firm’s chief executive, she oversees all aspects of the firm’s strategic direction and management.

In addition to leading the firm, Kristina serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Bay Area Council, an organization of 300+ influential employers committed to working with public and community leaders to keep the Bay Area the most innovative, globally competitive, inclusive, and sustainable region in the world.

Kristina is a specialist in complex California entitlement, land use, environmental/natural resources, and municipal matters.