Iloff v. LaPaille: A primer on what courts can and cannot do in statutory wage claim cases
By Maurice Mandel II
A recent Court of Appeal decision in a wage and hour case offers employment attorneys a comprehensive guide to statutory wage ...
Rising government risk exposes cracks in public liability funds
By Yosi Yahoudai, Arthur Dermendjian
As multimillion-dollar payouts for police violence, infrastructure failures and civil rights violations surge, California's pu...
Tech-savvy lawyering: Why attorneys must keep up with AI and emerging technologies
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
Artificial intelligence and other tech innovations are reshaping the legal profession. Lawyers who fail to stay current risk e...
Entertainment & Sports
Court losses mount for NCAA rules. What comes next?
By John H. Minan
A series of antitrust defeats has left the NCAA unable to enforce its own eligibility rules, fueling a bidding war for top ath...
California's hidden crisis: Mental Illness, addiction and the justice system
By Michael K. Wendler
California's jails are filled with people struggling with mental illness and addiction. At a recent Hoover Institution symposi...
Epstein's victims deserve more than document dumps and political theater
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
Jeffrey Epstein exploited more than 1,000 victims, according to a 2025 DOJ review. But like Shakespeare's Ophelia, they're hea...
Environmental & Energy, Constitutional Law
California justices wade into fish statute fight
By Alene Taber
California's highest court will decide in Bring Back the Kern v. City of Bakersfield whether a statutory duty to protec...
Criminal
Defending mentally ill defendants brings unique legal challenges
By Dmitry Gorin, Alan Eisner
Representing a criminal defendant with serious mental illness presents unique challenges--especially for private counsel, who ...
As global demand for digital creators surges, the O-1B visa offers non-U.S. influencers a powerful path to live and work in th...
In Paglia & Associates Construction v. Hamilton, a homeowner's critical Yelp reviews and blog posts about her con...
Litigation & Arbitration
Real-world mediation advice from general counsel
By David R. Shraga
General counsel bring unique insight to mediations based on what they've seen work--and fail. Recognizing what in-house counse...
Intellectual Property
9th Circuit's 'Top Gun' copyright ruling crashes and burns, costing heirs millions
By Timothy D. Reuben
Copyright law's reliance on judges to parse art yields predictably flawed results--evident in Yonay v. Paramount, whe...
New brain science reveals what happens when lawyers let AI do the cognitive work.
Torts/Personal Injury, Evidence
New law aims to combat pervasive spoliation of evidence in elder abuse cases
By Zachary N. Zaharoff
After years of attempts, California has amended the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act to let judges lower t...
Military Law
Department of Labor misinterprets VEVRAA, weakening veteran hiring requirements
By Eileen C. Moore
Federal contractors are supposed to give hiring preferences to veterans, but the Department of Labor lets them off the hook.
Health Care & Hospital Law
Trump administration's GenAI Medicare reviews raise legal concerns
By Selwyn D. Whitehead
The Trump administration is already deploying GenAI to second‑guess physicians' determinations of medical necessity for senior...
Administrative/Regulatory
What California's plastic bag ban reveals about regulating waste by material type
By Roberto Escobar
California's 2026 carryout bag law closes the thick plastic loophole but still relies on outdated material categories instead ...
Judges and Judiciary
Justice Roberts' incomplete 2025 State of the Judiciary Report
By William Slomanson
Chief Justice John Roberts' 2025 year-end report on the federal judiciary fails to address President Donald Trump's attacks on...
The IRS's new Trump Accounts could reshape early-life investing, offering families a flexible, long-term savings tool that ble...
Despite a sharp rise in civil filings, the Civil Division has eliminated trial backlogs in Department 1--thanks to judicial co...
Twenty years in California's criminal courts reveal a clear pattern: The system doesn't need radical overhaul--it needs practi...
Administrative/Regulatory
Iran's lessons for US oil policy in post-Maduro Venezuela
By Sanaz (Sunny) K. Soltani
Britain's control of Iran's oil industry in the 20th century was technically successful but politically catastrophic. The less...
Mergers & Acquisitions, Entertainment & Sports
Mega-merger of Netflix and Warner Bros. faces legal gauntlet
By Jackie Ward
Netflix's $72 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery tests the limits of antitrust enforcement in the streaming era--and revea...
Appellate Practice
As the (appellate) world turns: The 2025 appellate year in review
By Benjamin G. Shatz
From Supreme Court shifts to standout rulings, 2025 sparked plenty of appellate headlines--this column tours the year's top le...
Criminal, Constitutional Law
Bail realities and policy fictions: The truth about affordable bail
By Eric H. Schweitzer, Rick Horowitz
California's bail system crisis isn't the result of recent reforms--it stems from courts refusing to follow constitutional req...
Retired but not retreating, I reflect on titles, time, and a judicial legacy that--like the law itself--sometimes loops back c...
Civil Litigation
Preparing for the 2026 litigation surge: Proactive strategies for risk, costs and exposure
By Ashley R. Fickel, Zoey M. Surdis
Litigation is no longer episodic but operational, making proactive risk planning and litigation readiness a core business func...
Real Estate/Development, Land Use
Huntington Beach housing fight signals stronger state enforcement of planning law
By Mehdi Sinaki
By declining review in Kennedy Commission, the California Supreme Court let stand a ruling that sharpens a pivotal qu...
Our legal system often gets outcomes wrong not because the law is unknowable, but because humans are poorly equipped to judge ...
Administrative/Regulatory
ADA compliance meets street reality in risky crosswalk designs
By Yosi Yahoudai, Parham Nikfarjam
At the intersection of Saticoy Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park, a newly rebuilt crosswalk tells a troubling...