Letters, Law Practice, State Bar & Bar Associations
Nonlawyer licensing an ill-conceived idea
By John Smith
Just when I thought that I had heard everything imaginable in my 28 years of practicing family law, the State Bar is now consi...
It is unclear how SB 115 would affect a situation where a teenager decides to seek out his or her natural parents. By Peter J....
Environmental & Energy
Proposed CEQA bills would clarify law, protect public health
By Erin Chalmers
With all of the recent discussion about fundamentally altering the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, it is easy t...
Letters, Law Practice, State Bar & Bar Associations
Licensing nonlawyers equals nonsense
By Kenneth Brooks
What I see in the quest to license nonlawyers is my State Bar trying to save our standards of living rather providing access t...
U.S. Supreme Court, Law Practice, Intellectual Property
Back in state court: patent-based malpractice
By Jonathan W. Hughes
The high court's opinion in Gunn v. Minton appears to put an end to the fairly brief period of federal court "arising u...
Securities, Corporate
Restricted stock units present high wire act for companies
By Wendy Davis
Internal Revenue Code Section 409A governs these, and severely limits the ability of issuer to peg vesting to liquidity events...
Appellate Practice
Clear lesson for navigating the complex post-trial world
By Kasey J. Curtis , Paul D. Fogel
The lesson from a recent case is clear: when you enter the sometimes complex post-trial world, know the controlling rules cold.
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
Time to stop defying prison overcrowding order
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Gov. Brown's initial response has been to criticize the court decisions and to vow to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Bu...
U.S. Supreme Court, Tax, Corporate
Internet sales tax held constitutional
By Robert W. Wood
New York's Amazon sales tax - requiring tax collected at time of purchase by online sellers with affiliate programs - has been...
Letters, Family
Parental rights bill not a 'change' in the law, more like a clarification
By Cathy Sakimura
SB 115 does nothing more than give the courts an opportunity to look carefully at the facts of each case and, based on those f...
Government, Banking, Administrative/Regulatory
Treasury Department wary of virtual currencies
By Brian E. Klein
On March 18, the arm of Treasury responsible for combating money laundering, FinCEN, released interpretative guidance regardin...
Government, Family
Budget cuts lead to dysfunctional family law departments
By Franklin R. Garfield
Many divorcing couples now prefer to do their talking directly or through counsel under the auspices of a mediator rather than...
A second look at the Senate Bill 115 reveals that the amendment, however unintentionally, would expose women to unwanted pater...
U.S. Supreme Court, Intellectual Property
High court's 'first sale' ruling threatens market segmentation
By Andrew J. Thomas , Lisa J. Kohn
The U.S. high court acknowledged that its decision "will make it difficult, perhaps impossible, for publishers (and other copy...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Unstable clients with guns, the worst kind
By Wendy L. Patrick
The only thing worse than a difficult client is a difficult client with a gun. Whether or not you believe a threat, it is best...
Tips on how to have a successful mediation. ...
Erwin Chemerinsky discusses what should we look for at the gay marriage oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in which advoc...
UC Hastings law professor Rory Little on why liberals and and conservatives alike should embrace "standing" in the Prop. 8 sam...
Since U.S. business law is infinitely more developed than Chinese business law, being unprepared for the differences may have ...
The first Monday in April of 1996 was the last time my column appeared on April Fools' Day. Would it not be interesting to see...
It has been said that a hero is someone who "understands the degree of responsibility that comes with freedom." On Jan. 31, 20...
Why legalizing same-sex marriage is for the good of all
It seems little, if any, attention has been paid to the broader social implications of the outcome of the gay marriage cases. ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
Biometrics and Fourth Amendment 'overbreadth'
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
The U.S. and California Supreme Courts are in the midst of deciding whether law enforcement may constitutionally collect DNA s...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
Justices deal blow to warrantless dog sniffs
By Allison B. Margolin
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a firm blow to the admissibility of warrantless dog sniffs that take place in the area immediatel...
I am in the process of wading through a biography titled "Justice Stanley Mosk: A life at the Center of California Politics an...
International Law, Government
Failed economy, the biggest security threat to our country
By James P. Gray
Our annual budget deficit as a percentage of our gross domestic product, or GDP, is higher than those of Portugal, Italy, Gree...
Civil Litigation, Administrative/Regulatory
Whistleblower suits: 'qui tam' actions
By Daryn Pakcyk
The objective of this article and self-study test is to familiarize readers with qui tam actions.
Given the complexity of taxes, the education function tax experts serve can be of enormous value, even when there is no disput...
Letters, Labor/Employment
Pay gap a popular, politically correct myth
By Marc E. Angelucci
The so-called "pay gap" referenced by Jeffrey Lowe in his article "Equal pay bill a much needed fix,"is nothing more than a my...
There are growing bipartisan demands in Congress for President Obama to publicly release all the legal memos justifying target...