On bats and rules for writing opinions, which I violate with agonizing regularity.

Even if Mark Twain never actually said, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over,” nowhere is this maxim better il...

Remedies to the military sexual assault situation require attention by both Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Even a presid...

For the past six years (2013-2018), I have counted the number and type of motions that were heard in Department 15. I then pre...

This is my first column for the year 2019. It picks up some themes from my last column in 2018. You might consider the two col...

It is all but certain that the USDA and FDA will play a role in regulating various aspects of slaughter-free meat, but the det...

Many civilian lawyers in California join the California State Military Reserve to serve and support the people of California.

Could last summer’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME, forbidding states from allowing unions to garnish wages of nonmember employee...

This, my last column for the year, leans toward the sentimental, but I hope not the maudlin.

The State Bar of California is embarking on a comprehensive review of the discipline system for bias, including racial, ethnic...

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced Joshua Groban as his choice for associate justice of the California Supreme Court.

On Oct. 17, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion ...

Over the years I have participated in so many panel discussions that I lost count. But the panel I was on last week made an im...

The U.S. government began regulating falconers and falconry practices in the 1970s. In 2008, the regulations were modified to ...

When the doors of this fifth principal courthouse opened six decades ago, it was heralded as the "Dream Courthouse" and the "C...

As of Jan. 1, 2019, veterans sentenced prior to Jan. 1, 2015 will have an opportunity to go back to court and ask for a senten...

The Indian Child Welfare Act, and potentially tribal sovereignty, suffered a significant setback last week when a federal cour...

This term the Supreme Court has a chance to overturn a decades-old decision that kept many property owners out of federal courts.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. For years, law enforcement agencies, social service providers, non-gove...

The new Rule 5.5 modifies former Rule of Professional Conduct 1-300, titled “Unauthorized Practice of Law.”

It does not always occur to attorneys to formally close the matter internally and to send a file closing letter to a client.

Take a look around you. Consider what is occurring throughout the country. An uneducated citizenry and one predominantly educa...

There are countless reasons why people who are sexually assaulted or abused do not report what happened: It’s painful. It’s em...

This article not a judgment on the merits of capital punishment or its appropriateness in these cases, which include defendant...

Earn MCLE credit reviewing a recent Supreme Court case dealing with a conflict waiver that didn't quite get the job done.

Given the requirement to promptly refund unearned advance fees, once the disputed funds are identified and segregated, lawyers...

In a case of first impression, a California Court of Appeal recently held that only trustees and beneficiaries under a current...

Walking into the inner sanctum of a judge’s chambers, I immediately felt a sense of awe. Sure it was filled with lots of diplo...

The affordable housing crisis in California is longstanding and well known. A recent California Court of Appeal decision addre...

If you stop by family court for an hour, you will see lawyered-up C-suite executives and self-represented day laborers sitting...