Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Taming professional liability trends and costs
By Louie H. Castoria
A 2017 survey of lawyers' professional liability insurers shows an upward trend in the average fees and costs incurred in defe...
Letters, Judges and Judiciary, Government
People can honestly, and in good faith, disagree
By John "Jack" Quirk
How do we get back to accepting that it is possible for persons honestly and in good faith to reach conclusions we do not share?
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
9th Circuit’s ‘Blurred Lines’ ruling will stifle future creativity
By Edwin F. McPherson
We wait, hoping, for the sake of the music industry, that the court will hear this case en banc, and ultimately do the right t...
Law Practice, Law Office Management, California Supreme Court
Clients are not law firm property, and neither are lawyers
By Daniel O'Rielly, Dena Roche
The California Supreme Court recently held that a dissolved law firm has no property interest in fees generated after dissolut...
Los Angeles residents will remember that in 2016, news agencies reported that anti-gentrification activists in the Latinx neig...
Absent a codified exception, party declarations in family law matters are now disallowed if there is no opportunity for cross-...
Real Estate/Development, Government, Environmental & Energy, Administrative/Regulatory
Takeaways from California land use conference
By Scott B. Birkey, David P. Waite
Argent Communications Group held its Fourth Annual Conference on California Land Use Law and Policy on March 5 in Los Angeles.
Government, Criminal
10 questions about the grand jury in Mueller probe
By David A. Katz
Defense attorney David Katz sheds some light on the secretive grand jury process.
International Law, Intellectual Property, Government, Antitrust & Trade Reg.
Next round of NAFTA talks may focus on IP protection
By Clark Zhang Ph.D., Vikram Iyengar
In April, the United States, Canada and Mexico will hold their latest round of negotiations to revise the North American Free ...
Judges and Judiciary, Immigration, Government, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Behind closed doors at the 9th Circuit
By Joshua M. Stein
The Oral Screening Panel is meant to help streamline the court's workload but often results in deportation decisions being mad...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Constitutional protection against temporary takings
By Michael M. Berger
A common sense conclusion lies at the heart of the Martins Beach case -- that is, the constitution does not distinguish betwee...
Letters, Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary, Government
To ignore integrity is to attack integrity
By Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
As Justice Anthony Kline reminds us, certain developments in recent years have threatened to make it more difficult for courts...
Civil Litigation, Education Law, Criminal, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal
New ground for California college students
By Alan Charles Dell'Ario
When she went to her UCLA chemistry lab on Oct. 8, 2009, Katherine Rosen didn't know her classmate was hearing voices in his h...
Probate, Family, California Supreme Court, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
High court can recognize broad aspirations of fertility patients
By Judith Daar
The 9th Circuit is asking the California Supreme Court to interpret the impact of a state law bearing on the parental status a...
Government, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
‘Scraping’ is just automated access, and everyone does it
By Jamie Lee Williams
If courts allow companies to use the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to block automated access by competitors, it will threaten o...
Law Practice, Judges and Judiciary, Government
Dangerous courthouses put employees at risk
By Eric Siddall
If a private landlord rented a commercial office space and the building was considered unfit to withstand an earthquake, we wo...
Civil Litigation, Criminal, California Supreme Court, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Preliminary hearings and issue preclusion
By Denis Binder
Does a finding of probable cause in a preliminary hearing preclude a subsequent false arrest claim? Courts are split.
Civil Litigation, Government, Contracts, Construction, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal
Ruling is a windfall to second-place bidders
By Michael J. Maurer, Dana M. Howard
A recent California appellate court opinion highlights the danger that the design-bid-build system can bring when it is not ap...
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
En banc review of 'Blurred Lines' case is warranted
By Elliot N. Brown, Moon Hee Lee
In a split decision, the 9th Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment after a jury trial that Pharrell Willi...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, State Bar & Bar Associations, Appellate Practice
5 things you should know about State Bar Court appeals
By Jennifer Teaford
The court follows different procedural rules from other appellate courts — and attorneys brought before the court for discipli...
Labor/Employment, Government
The Public Employment Relations board: a primer
By David G. Ritchie
In all, approximately 4,200 public employers within the state of California and an estimated 2.7 million public employees, are...
The widening gap between how the law is expected to be (and generally is) practiced, and certain events transpiring in our pol...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Ruling may lead to split on infringement by tweet
By Elliot N. Brown
The Southern District of New York disagreed the 9th Circuit about the so-called "server test."
U.S. Supreme Court, Tax, Criminal, Administrative/Regulatory
Justices rein in IRS obstruction prosecutions
By Nathan J. Hochman
By rejecting the government's expansive interpretation of the tax obstruction statute, the Supreme Court has required fair war...
Judges and Judiciary, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Criminal
Elected DAs shouldn't be so politically motivated
By Patrick Dixon, Mario Mainero
One wishes that the elected district attorney of a county were not so politically motivated as to skirt the ethical rules and ...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Disaster readiness: Ethics in a new age
By Heather L. Rosing
Even in light of a life-altering disaster, an attorney must act competently, preserve confidentiality, maintain confidentialit...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
The difficult decision to sue a client for unpaid fees
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
Some attorneys and firms make a principled decision to never sue their clients. Whether altruistic or risk-adverse, a law firm...
Thanks to a Court of Appeal case, family law attorneys can answer with more clarity questions concerning when a spouse’s separ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Securities, Civil Litigation
Federal securities statutes say what they say
By Alex G. Romain, Jenna G. Williams
This week, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act grants state courts the j...
Judges and Judiciary, Government, Criminal
Lawmakers must heed call to make more just bail system
By Peter P. Espinoza
During Monday’s State of the Judiciary address, Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye once again called on California lawmakers...
