Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
What constitutes discipline-worthy conduct in California?
By Thomas M. Hall
Complaints have been filed against Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell demanding that state bar associations discipline or disbar ...
Labor/Employment, Constitutional Law
Cancel culture and civility codes: grounds for wrongful termination?
By Panda L. Kroll
California employers should be cognizant that their codes of conduct create an “ideological echo chamber” that runs afoul of s...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
A property-tax debtor’s right to notice warning of equity theft
By Christina Martin
To collect $1,200 plus interest, a Nebraska county took Walter Barnette’s land worth $25,000 and gave it to an investor. Walte...
Government, Criminal, Civil Litigation
Private citizen Trump faces a number of criminal and civil challenges
By John H. Minan
As a private citizen, Donald Trump faces numerous criminal and civil legal problems. Criminal investigations are ongoing by th...
Constitutional Law
Social media, cancel culture and the First Amendment
By Mari K. Rockenstein
The great deplatforming of January 2021 will likely be remembered as the turning point in the battle for control over digital ...
On March 9, 2020, I sat in Judge Mark Borenstein’s courtroom at the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles, waiting for the j...
An interview with Harvard professor Noah Feldman
By William Domnarski
Noah Feldman of Harvard seems to be everywhere, doing everything. In the law, he is, at the age of 50, the rope, ride and shoo...
Constitutional Law
Incitement: A history of speech promoting illegal activity
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Although the outcome of the impeachment trial in the Senate was preordained in that it was certain that there would not be a t...
Constitutional Law
The ‘fighting words’ exception and Section 230 reform
By Anita Taff-Rice
The U.S. has seen a number of violent acts perpetrated by criminals who were influenced by popular culture — Mark David Chapma...
Appellate Practice
Writs in the pandemic era of litigation
By Arezoo Jamshidi, Elizabeth A. Evans
Navigating the writ process can be tricky, as writs suffer from less direction than their appellate counterpart. Here are some...
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
Appellate Adventures, Chapter 18: “How Can I Win at Oral Argument?”
By Myron Moskovitz
Starring ace trial lawyer Flash Feinberg and his trusty sidekick Professor Plato
Criminal
9th Circuit adds to split on un-Mirandized statements and 1983 suits
By Dmitry Gorin, Alan Eisner
In a recent case, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit held that a plaintiff may assert a claim under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983...
Labor/Employment, Constitutional Law
Can employers fire employees for social or political speech?
By Joshua J. Borger
It’s difficult to dispute that the Trump administration led to an increasing tension on social issues. And, people took to the...
A federal judge in Orange County recently dismissed charges against four criminal defendants, citing an unconstitutional delay...
Using AI and chess-playing for thinking incisively about the law
By Lance Eliot
Lawyers in the act of practicing law can be envisioned as playing a type of game, ostensibly a variant of chess. It makes sens...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
When the show must go online
By Christopher David Ruiz Cameron
It's no secret that the growing use of Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms to conduct arbitrati...
Education Law
Time for school districts to plan to reopen or plan to go to court
By Christa H. Ramey
City Attorney Dennis Herrera's lawsuit against the San Francisco Unified School District is a first-of-its-kind case, and indi...
The creation of dictionaries has its own strange body of lore, far more exciting than one would think.
Judges and Judiciary
California judges announce an award for judicial outreach programs
By Richard L. Fruin, Thomas A. Delaney
The California Judges Association has established an Award that will be given every three years to an exceptional judicial out...
Insurance
‘Notice-prejudice rule’ ruling could provide new arguments
By Peter S. Selvin
The “notice-prejudice rule,” often applied in the context of occurrence-type policies, requires an insurer to prove that the i...
Real Estate/Development
California extends eviction moratorium and approves rental assistance
By Jon Goetz, Russell Morse
The California Legislature extended the state’s existing eviction moratorium and approved new rental assistance legislation on...
An uncredited quote says “no cowboy was ever faster on the draw than a grandparent pulling a baby picture out of a wallet.” An...
Criminal
Gascón’s success depends on gaining deputies’ trust, respect
By Richard Ceballos
Now I am not ready to jump on the Recall George Gascón bandwagon. I may be in the minority but I still want him to succeed. It...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Supreme Court to consider Article III standing for class members
By Anna McLean, Michael A. Lundholm
In TransUnion, LLC v. Ramirez, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to address an issue of critical importance to class action pra...
Government, Criminal
With a new day in DC for pot, are the feds not far behind?
By Julie A. Werner-Simon
America is fracturing as this past presidential election and the Jan. 6 melee at the capitol demonstrated. But we are not divi...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
ABA guidance on lawyers working outside their jurisdiction
By Alison Buchanan
Rule 5.5 prohibits a lawyer from establishing “an office or other systematic and continuous presence … for the practice of law...
Technology, Data Privacy
Prosecuted for paying ransomware ransom! How is that possible?
By Daniel B. Garrie, Gail A. Andler
As our world becomes increasingly technologically driven, the risk of cybercrimes rises exponentially.
Civil Litigation
Electronic notice of class action settlements: the highest-impact Rule 23 amendment
By Francesca Castagnola, Steven Weisbrot
When the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 was amended in late 2018, one of the amendments opened the door to using electroni...
Labor/Employment, California Supreme Court
Wage statement laws for airline workers not preempted
By David E. Mastagni
After receiving the California Supreme Court’s answers to its certified questions, the 9th Circuit held last week that airline...
Labor/Employment
Must employers pay for pre-employment drug testing time?
By Robin E. Largent
Pre-employment drug testing is a common practice by California employers, and one that has not been the subject of significant...