Constitutional Law
Private unions and the limits of First Amendment claims
By Arthur Liou
While Janus v. AFSCME struck down agency fees in the public sector, longstanding precedent makes clear that private-s...
LA Fires, Contracts
Army Corps cleanup mistakes and the boilerplate that could burn homeowners twice
By G. Andrew Lundberg
Homeowners who signed onto the Army Corps' "free" Los Angeles wildfire debris cleanup, whether unknowingly or with no alternat...
Constitutional Law
California's leadership on gun reform is at a sensitive place
By Jenna Myers Karvunidis
The tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk underscores the urgent need for California to expand the "sensitive places" doctrine, usin...
Compelled speech on campuses and in workplaces undermines true free expression, and recent legal and policy reforms aim to ens...
Books
Family, power, and justice collide in Tim Reuben's gripping new legal thriller
By Richard Thompson
Tim Reuben's new novel, "Tequila," blends Succession-style family drama with John Grisham-like legal thrills, delivering an au...
Labor/Employment, Contracts
When comedy collides with corporate caution
By Lou Shapiro
Jimmy Kimmel's suspension from ABC over his controversial monologue about Charlie Kirk has sparked fierce debate, highlighting...
Tax
Joint ventures in opportunity zones: What the new rules mean for investors and developers
By Phil Jelsma, Ulrick Matsunaga
Opportunity Zones are now permanent but with sharper rules and penalties. Joint ventures that don't rewrite their playbooks ri...
Insurance, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
How law firms can pay less for malpractice insurance
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
Law firms can potentially reduce malpractice insurance premiums by strengthening internal risk management, focusing on core pr...
International Law
Ramskells, the Witness: The cat who guards international law
By Scott M. Gordon
At the Peace Palace in The Hague, a towering black cat sculpture called The Witness watches over the courts and law library, b...
Government
Legal frameworks take center stage at National Security Panel
By Kevin Lombardo, Matthew May
Attorneys stress early legal alignment for aerospace and defense startups amid rising regulatory complexity, warning that choi...
Health Care & Hospital Law
2026 premiums to increase for Covered California as subsidies expire
By Alice Hall-Partyka
Without renewed federal action, nearly 90% of Covered California enrollees could see average premium hikes of 66% -- threateni...
Torts/Personal Injury
Short memories and bad optics: The coming tort reform challenge
By Brian S. Kabateck, Shant A. Karnikian
Corporate campaigns targeting a few flashy or unscrupulous plaintiff lawyers are being used to discredit the civil justice sys...
The Supreme Court's growing reliance on its "shadow docket" to issue major, often precedent-shaping rulings without full brief...
Judges and Judiciary, Government
Meet Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Rinard
By Lawrence P. Riff
Jeff Rinard, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County's new Chief Strategy Officer, is spearheading innovation, project manage...
Technology, Constitutional Law
Charlie Kirk and the cancer of social media
By Douglas E. Mirell
In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Utah Governor Cox and other lawmakers are spotlighting social media's harmful alg...
Technology, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Sanctions and bar referrals show real consequences for AI
By Benjamin T. Ikuta
The California Court of Appeal sanctioned and reported to the state bar an attorney who relied on generative AI to draft appel...
Technology, California Supreme Court
Can AI forecast California Supreme Court rulings?
By Kirk C. Jenkins
Early this summer, I ran an experiment in which I gave ChatGPT-4 and ChatGPT-5 only the oral argument transcripts from the cou...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Bilingual mediation: More than words
By Patricia Garcia, Dalila Corral Lyons
Bilingual mediators who speak both the language and culture of non-English-speaking parties can build trust, reduce misunderst...
U.S. Supreme Court, Government, Constitutional Law
When independence dies, power moves to the president
By William Rothbard
President Trump and his conservative Supreme Court allies are challenging long-standing legal protections for independent fede...
Immigration
2025 travel ban disrupts visas, business and global mobility
By Yvonne Toy
President Trump's latest travel ban halts visas from 19 countries and curtails them for 32 more, upending business operations ...
Evidence
Litigating the gray areas of attorney-client privilege: A risky business
By Gretchen L. Jankowski, Jennifer M. Oliver
Courts are increasingly scrutinizing the "primary purpose" of communications with in-house counsel, a...
Criminal, Constitutional Law
Political violence and the erosion of civility in America
By Lou Shapiro
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination in Utah underscores failures in event security, the dangers of polarizing r...
Technology, Insurance
Will today's insurance policies cover tomorrow's AI risk?
By Richard DeNatale
As AI transforms the way businesses operate, the insurance industry faces a pivotal question: Will existing policies respond t...
Criminal, Constitutional Law
The impact and limits of McCoy v. Louisiana, 7 years on
By Richard LaFianza
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's opinion in McCoy v. Louisiana reshaped the limits of attorney autonomy -- but seven year...
Ediscovery
SB 940 and the future of arbitration: A new era of discovery in California
By Steven J. Cologne
SB 940 expands arbitration discovery rights by granting parties nearly the same discovery tools available in trial court proce...
Intellectual Property
Trade dress and the checklist trap for lawyers
By Antonio R. Sarabia II
Lists bring order to legal analysis, especially in trade dress law -- but too many can cause judges and lawyers to miss the fo...
Insurance, Entertainment & Sports
Post-House insurance takeaways for college athletes
By Frank N. Darras
June 2025's $2.8 billion House v. NCAA antitrust settlement, approved by Judge Claudia Wilken, formalizes compensatio...
Criminal, Constitutional Law, Civil Rights
Accentuate the objective: Rethinking bias in California's courtrooms
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
California's CCP §231.7 and the Racial Justice Act adopt an objective "reasonable person" standard to evaluate peremptory stri...
Law Practice
Why every attorney in California needs to speak Spanish in 2025
By Michael A. Sanchez, Giancarlo Mendez
If law firms can't serve clients in Spanish, they're not just losing business -- they're denying nearly half the city equitabl...
Evidence, Criminal
Pitchess in play: Unlocking police files when the law won't
By Czarmaine Majan
Even after California expanded public access to certain police misconduct records, Pitchess Motions remain indispensable for u...
