U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law
Nominal damages sufficient for Article III standing; dissent warns of ‘major expansion’ of courts’ role
By Anna McLean, Michael A. Lundholm
The U.S. Supreme Court addressed the question whether nominal damages for a past violation of legal rights satisfies the redre...
Law Practice, Family, California Courts of Appeal
Incivility ruling has implications for divorce litigators
By Franklin R. Garfield
As the court held: “Trial judges deciding motions for attorney fees properly may consider whether the attorney seeking the fee...
U.S. Supreme Court, Intellectual Property, Constitutional Law
Supreme Court tackles role of administrative judges on PTAB
By Darren M. Franklin
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that has the potential to upend thousands of decisio...
Environmental & Energy
The future of water rights in California: water futures trading?
By Willis Hon
At the end of last year, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the “Merc”) began allowing trading of water futures through a new fu...
Law Practice
Embracing remote working also opens the door to new cyberthreats
By Anita Taff-Rice
Law firm reliance on technology has opened the door for things more sinister and new cyberthreats targeting law firms may be p...
Criminal
Liability for use of deadly force under California, federal law
By Sunny H. Huynh
Negligence Claims Under California Law Encompass a Broader Spectrum of Conduct Than Excessive Force Claims Under the Fourth Am...
The United States is a democracy, and the majority should govern.
It is often said that picking a jury is the most important part of the trial. In the case of the Minnesota v. Chauvin, the sec...
Real Estate/Development, Land Use, Government
City attorneys: generate revenue, prevent crime and reduce blight
By Ryan Griffith
Neighborhood Law Programs are a way to get young lawyers experience to deal with nuisances that senior attorneys do not have t...
Criminal, California Supreme Court
The unknowable weight of separateness
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
The separation of powers doctrine has been described by the courts as both “important” and “fundamental.” But how important is...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
CLA issues its first advisory opinion on ethical screens
By Neil J Wertlieb
The California Lawyers Association recently issued its first formal advisory opinion tackling the practical issue of what cons...
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
Appellate Adventures, Chapter 19: "How do I prepare for oral argument?"
By Myron Moskovitz
Starring ace trial lawyer Flash Feinberg and his trusty sidekick Professor Plato.
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Settling successfully: Guidance for crafting proper 998 offers
By Charles M. Kagay
These days most lawsuits settle in the trial court and therefore never go up on appeal. Code of Civil Procedure Section 998 is...
U.S. Supreme Court, Labor/Employment, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Ruling: Agreements can’t bar access to public injunctive relief
By Glenn A. Danas
The tension between the definition of public injunctive relief — a remedy that inures primarily to the benefit of the general ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
High court should take opportunity to restore the right to exclude
By Damien M. Schiff
A fundamental aspect of private property is that the owner can choose whom to let onto the property and who to exclude as a tr...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Ethical billing: avoiding scum and villainy
By Brandon Krueger
To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi, in the hands of unscrupulous and unethical attorneys, legal billings can be a wretched hive of s...
Corporate, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Arguments on California’s corporate board gender mandate
By Jen Rubin
California’s groundbreaking gender parity law for public company boards is the subject of two legal challenges, one of which c...
Law Practice, Law Office Management
What is your law firm really worth?
By Daniel O'Rielly, Dena Roche
In our practice advising California law firms, one of the questions we hear most often from our clients, in some form or anoth...
Law Practice, Alternative Dispute Resolution
When does it make sense and how to get a special master?
By Daniel B. Garrie, Gail A. Andler
Special masters are nominated by counsel or appointed through a court, arbitrator or other decision-making body with a mandate...
Letters, Judges and Judiciary
Judicial Council survey confirms people with disabilities underrepresented on the bench
By Peter A. Lynch
People with disabilities who make up 20% of California’s population are not being proportionately appointed to the California ...
If both the common and legal meaning of “gift” are the same, why are gifts given during marriage not always a gift? Because in...
On Feb. 26, Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Sherwin’s motion, and entered an order vacating the court’s earlier decision dire...
Toby Ord whisks us in and out of environmental ethical puzzles with the speed of a Formula One racer — that exhilaration and ...
Civil Litigation, California Supreme Court
California Supreme Court poised to consider anti-SLAPP catch-all framework
By Ryan G. Baker, Scott M. Malzahn
Later this term, Geiser v. Kuhns will present the court an opportunity to clarify what must be shown to establish anti-SLAPP p...
Labor/Employment, Civil Litigation, California Supreme Court
Premium pay for meal break rounding violations after Donohue
By Kacey R. Riccomini, Arthur F. Silbergeld
The California Supreme Court last month determined that the practice of rounding meal period time was impermissible under stat...
Law as code is bandied around as a crucial determiner of the future for lawyers and the practice of law. Depending upon which ...
Technology, Data Privacy
Apple’s ‘Privacy Nutrition Labels’: Standardized approach to privacy notices?
By Andrew Scott
The reality is that consumers just do not have the bandwidth to spend the time reading the notices. Even if consumers spent th...
Does the military really want women in its ranks?
Demystifying COVID-19 health order enforcement
Government, Environmental & Energy
Key priorities for Biden’s Department of the Interior
By Richard M. Frank
The U.S. Department of the Interior plays an outsized role in California natural resources law and policy. Two examples: The f...