This article playfully maps appellate law practice to cocktail mixology, using creative drink recipes--each inspired by motion...
Names--whether of institutions, leaders, or individuals--carry lasting influence on reputation, authority and personal identity.
Torts/Personal Injury
Parental liability in the e-bike era: Classification law, enforcement and litigation risk
By Lem Garcia
California's recent e-bike laws read as a buyer-beware cautionary tale: Once a device is "out-of-class," it is a motor vehicle...
Asked whether AI will ever outperform experienced appellate lawyers, ChatGPT quickly responded: It may surpass humans in narro...
Cannabis, Administrative/Regulatory
California ABC declares Kratom and 7-OH illegal on alcohol-licensed premises
By Ralph B. Saltsman, Stephen Allen Jamieson
Kratom and 7-OH products have been on shelves for years, but as sales pick up, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace
Advanced Air Mobility takes shape through US regulatory initiatives - Part 2
By Robert Ehling
With clearer pathways for AAM certification and operation, at least enough legal infrastructure now exists to support a real-w...
Letters
Autonomous vehicles, ballot tricks, and the end of contingency law
By Bruce M. Brusavich
The Uber initiative is far more harmful than the 1975 Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), threatening the rights o...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Rights
Disparate impact discrimination liability built on 'foundation of sand' is crumbling
By Caitlin Moyna
The Civil Rights Act never created disparate impact liability, yet agencies embedded it across American life. President Trump ...
Real Estate/Development
California's 40-year-old habitability law is failing tenants
By Iris Maguire
Many view California as a leader in tenant protections, but its primary unsafe-housing statute remains frozen in 1985, trappin...
Intellectual Property
The NO FAKES Act is urgent, carefully crafted and constitutionally sound
By Jeffrey P. Bennett
The NO FAKES Act would close a critical gap by prohibiting the nonconsensual use of digital replicas of an individual's voice ...
Letters
The government's treatment of immigrants reflects a familiar injustice
By Jim Hoffmann
It seems we have a habit of breaking our bonds with our fellow man, and to what end? We call ourselves a Christian nation but ...
Labor/Employment, Class Action
Rescinding a release: Is payback necessary?
By Barry M. Appell
A new Court of Appeal decision confronts a first-impression question: What obligations remain when a class-action release is r...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Negotiation tactics from a toddler: Simple but effective techniques to help advance the conversation toward resolution
By Christianna Kyriacou Mantas
Think negotiation has to be complicated? A 3-year-old proves that clear goals, smart framing and persistence can win the day.
Litigation & Arbitration, International Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution
California International Arbitration Week: Global disputes are a local reality
By Laura Abrahamson, Jeffery Daar
The question is not whether you will encounter international arbitration in California; it is whether you will be ready when y...
Family
Why California should stop invalidating Mahr under 'promotion of divorce' doctrine
By Abbas Hadjian
California treats divorce neutrally, regulating its consequences rather than judging the decision, so courts should stop inval...
Law Practice
Feedback as fuel: Leveraging client surveys for growth and retention
By George Brandon
In today's competitive legal market, law firms that institutionalize structured, recurring client feedback as a strategic tool...
Technology, Intellectual Property
Litigation against AI platforms: Where it's been and where it's headed
By Zachary N. Zaharoff
While federal copyright disputes have drawn the most attention, they are only the beginning; practitioners should anticipate a...
Torts/Personal Injury
The injury gap between military service and civilian justice
By Yosi Yahoudai, David S. Allard
Military toughness helps in uniform but hurts in court, leaving veterans underrepresented and penalized in personal injury cla...
Judges and Judiciary, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
From tariffs to trust: Why lawyers must oppose efforts to normalize attacks on the judiciary
By Brian S. Kabateck, Shant A. Karnikian
Disagreement with court decisions is healthy in a constitutional democracy, but attacks on judges' loyalty or integrity erode ...
LA Fires, Constitutional Law
Ongoing fire litigation highlights who pays when government fails
By Michael M. Berger
Malibu, hit hard by the Palisades Fire, is suing state and local agencies for property damage, citing public nuisance and inve...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace, Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Biotech
The final frontier of drug development: Biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation in low earth orbit
By John E. Wehrli
Scientists and companies are using the microgravity of low Earth orbit to develop drugs in ways impossible on Earth, creating ...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace, Intellectual Property
Protecting the final frontier: Patent strategy in the 2026 US space race
By Melissa E. Patterson
As private and government activity in orbit expands, clarity in patent strategy is increasingly necessary, and recent U.S. pol...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace, Administrative/Regulatory
Sleepless in orbit: What's keeping Space GCs up at night
By Randy S. Segal
With regulation lagging innovation, geopolitics in flux, scarce resources, nonstop fundraising, and mission-critical stakes, s...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace, International Law
U.S. space export controls: Topics to watch in 2026
By Melissa B. Mannino, James K. Perry
America's commercial space surge is meeting a fast-shifting export-control regime, as new rules from the Bureau of Industry an...
Space Law/Aviation/Aerospace
Space race 2.0 - It's about the law
By Michelle L.D. Hanlon
If the 1969 space race was about who could get there first, Space Race 2.0 is about who gets to define what "there" means.
California Supreme Court weighs whether an unreadable arbitration agreement can bind workers
By Holly Williamson, Andrea Oguntula
In a 6-1 decision, the California Supreme Court considered whether an arbitration agreement that was nearly impossible to read...
Constitutional Law
Wolff v. Trump and the preemptive anti-SLAPP gambit: A tale of two statutes
By Krista L. Baughman
When a demand letter becomes a "claim": examining a novel offensive use of New York's anti-SLAPP law--and why the same strateg...
Military Law
LA supervisors lead justice reform for struggling veterans
By William M. Paparian
In Los Angeles County, too many veterans who fought for us came home broken--only to be met with jail cells instead of healing...
U.S. Supreme Court, Government, Antitrust & Trade Reg.
After Supreme Court tariff ruling Trump signals further executive action
By Selwyn D. Whitehead
The fat lady has not sung: At a Feb. 20 press conference responding to the Court's ruling, President Trump--after launching a ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Antitrust & Trade Reg.
Ideologically diverse coalition of justices joins textualist decision setting aside tariffs
By Mark Chenoweth
The Supreme Court's Learning Resources tariffs ruling proved Justice Kagan right -- a bipartisan majority used a strict textua...