Section 998 pitfalls to avoid
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, Constitutional Law
Animus at the intersection of labor law and property law
By Glenn Rothner
Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid appeared to many court watchers as an effort to wedge the round peg of labor law into the square...
The top-down approach to conservatorship reform has been tried for nearly 15 years with very little success. Perhaps it is tim...
Technology, Law Practice
Apologetic AI might be heading toward big legal troubles
By Lance Eliot
Apologies are being increasingly emitted by AI systems that are becoming integral to our daily lives. Some believe that machin...
Labor/Employment
Legislature extends a lifeline to California workers with Senate Bill 95
By Ronald L. Zambrano
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 95 into law on March 19, he threw a critical safety net under thousands of California workers...
It feels good when the courtroom feels like home.
Let’s say that you need to reach something important or valuable on a high shelf. You can’t find a stepladder and you decide t...
Law Practice
How the post-pandemic California legal community moves on
By Richard H. Lee, Tyler Sanchez
While the pandemic forced the legal industry out of its self-imposed doldrums, it is neither realistic nor desirable that all ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
The [limited] right to keep and [absolutely no] right to bear arms
By John W. Dillon
On March 24, the 9th Circuit sitting en banc affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a Second Amendment lawsuit challenging...
A recent California Supreme Court ruling provides defense bar with powerful argument for pretrial release
Labor/Employment
Hero pay makes its way across the state of California
By Charles Thompson, Bryce Farrington
On March 19, San Francisco Mayor London Breed signed the “COVID-Related Hazard Pay Ordinance.” The ordinance became effective ...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Stemming discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the legal profession
By Carolina Bravo-Karimi, Jenny Solano
If ever there was any doubt, the summer of 2020 proved that covert and overt racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia and w...
California Courts of Appeal, Appellate Practice
Is the 3rd District slacking? Let the CJP do its work first.
By Kevin K. Green
A distinguished appellate lawyer recently filed an unusual disciplinary complaint against three justices of the 3rd District C...
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Uncharted territory: post-trial fee-shifting motions
By John D. O’Connor
Modern American litigation now features an increasing number of cases in which a prevailing party may by post-trial motion rec...
Tax
Navigating lemon law and consumer settlement tax issues
By Robert W. Wood, Ira Rheingold
Should successful plaintiffs pay taxes on legal fees they never receive? It sounds like a silly question, especially in consum...
Government, Administrative/Regulatory
COVID relief will spur False Claims Act enforcement
By Jim Zelenay Jr., Nick Hanna
2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw an unprecedented number of new FCA cases filed -- over 900.
Labor/Employment
Be prepared for potential new COVID-19 standards coming soon
By Colin Calvert
As part of his administration’s efforts to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, President Joe Biden issued an executiv...
Tax, Labor/Employment
New stimulus bill is much needed assistance to local restaurants
By Phil Jelsma
The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially tough on the restaurant industry — as of Dec. 1, 2020, more than 110,000 bars and re...
Securities, Corporate
Pandemic as a catalyst for purpose: ESG investing trends
By Sara L. Terheggen
Amidst all of this, investors plowed capital into funds focused on environmental, social and/or governance, aka ESG, factors, ...
A recent piece in this august newspaper proposed abolishing the peremptory challenge to prospective jurors.
Ninety-nine years ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote for a near-unanimous Supreme Court that when government regula...
Data Privacy, Administrative/Regulatory
New agency poised to clarify California privacy law
By Lindsey Tonsager
Appointments to the board that will lead the California Privacy Protection Agency include five individuals with deep backgroun...
Labor/Employment
SB 973: California’s new requirement to report employee pay data
By Emily Burkhardt Vicente, Christy E. Kiely
Wednesday is the deadline for certain California employers to submit their annual report on pay, hours worked, and demographic...
Tax, International Law
Considerations for making charitable gifts abroad
By Helen S. Cheng, Steven J. Chidester
Before gifting to foreign charities (through checks, credit cards or Venmo), consider that charitable giving outside this coun...
Intellectual Property, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Trade Secrets: Is litigating infringement worth it? What can be done instead?
By Daniel B. Garrie, Gail A. Andler
Court records are generally available to the public. That is, everything discussed in the case can be accessed and inspected b...
From a short list of highly qualified candidates, Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to reshape the political leadership of the state...
Criminal
We need to take action on criminal justice and mental health
By Winston A. Peters
After three decades in practice, I have seen too many mentally ill and legally incompetent individuals languish in jails, whic...
Health Care & Hospital Law
A world without COVID: What we’ve lost and what we’ve kept
By Craig B. Garner
For many of the planet’s 7.8 billion inhabitants, there will never be a world without COVID-19.
Constitutional Law, Civil Litigation
Quest to reform libel laws continues in recent dissent
By John H. Minan
A dissent in a recent D.C. Circuit case challenges the continuing legitimacy of the infamous New York Times v. Sullivan Ruling.
On August 1, 1939, 250 state and local law enforcement officers, on a hodge-podge of boats, raided four gambling ships anchore...