Sacramento native Dena M. Coggins was confirmed May 22 by the U.S. Senate as a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of California, the federal court that covers Sacramento. Coggins will be the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge in the California Eastern District and one of the few Black federal judges in the country.

(Subscription required) Wrapping up a four-day visit to Los Angeles and San Francisco to meet with state officials and tech leaders, a European Union commissioner spoke to reporters on Friday about the governing body's recent efforts to regulate artificial intelligence before the upcoming European Parliament elections.

(Subscription required) The California State Bar’s top priority for next year is a sizable fee increase to heal a structural deficit that “can no longer be avoided,” bar leadership wrote in the preface to its 2023 annual report.

(Subscription required) The current pay ranges from $110 to $130 per hour. By comparison, the federal court system pays $172 per hour for panel attorneys to do this work. The State Public Defender's Office and county public defenders all offer more competitive pay. Compounding the problem is that today's young lawyers are typically saddled with debt and there is no mechanism for student loan forgiveness for working on a project panel.