Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Creative uses of the 'high-low' agreement
By Brian S. Kabateck, Serena J. Vartazarian
The “high-low” agreement is an often underutilized and misunderstood tactic, typically used in a jury trial to reach a settlem...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Law Practice
When duties of candor and confidentiality collide
By Shawn Shaffie
The State Bar recently released Formal Opinion Number 2019-200 to address how an attorney must proceed carefully in balancing ...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Law Practice
Professional responsibility: Client is overbilling tempting, but treacherous
By A. Marco Turk
Former associate justice of the Supreme Court Potter Stewart (1958-1981) advanced a very simple but elegant description of eth...
Government, Letters
DA race language mirrors impeachment debate
Using provocative language reflective of the impeachment debate in Washington, prosecutor Richard Ceballos — who was denied th...
Real Estate/Development, Tax
Can Section 1031 exchanges and opportunity zones be successfully combined?
By Phil Jelsma
Although they are generally distinct sections with their own provisions, there is one possibility in which Section 1031 exchan...
Effective Jan. 1, 2020, civil litigants will have the option of stipulating to the exchange of initial disclosure.
Administrative/Regulatory, Government
The hazy legal landscape of cannabis
By Fredrick S. Levin, Daniel P. Stipano
In January 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole memos and directed prosecutors to pursue marijuana related ...
Banking, Corporate, Law Practice
Paths to privacy on the road to real estate transactions
By Genevieve M. Larson, Kelina M. Smith
Finding efficient solutions for high profile clients
Civil Rights, Civil Litigation
Should it matter why personal data is stolen in a breach?
By Anita Taff-Rice
Facebook is in the news again for a data breach, but this time it happened in a low-tech way. An old fashioned thief stole har...
Labor/Employment
California employers: Dos and don’ts of dress codes in 2020
By Darcey M. Groden
While Senate Bill 188 specifically contemplated hair textures and hair styles associated with African-Americans, employers sho...
Thanks to the internet, prospective litigants now have the additional option of “opting out” of dispute resolution by jury tri...
Criminal, Civil Litigation
AB 218: Overdue recognition of childhood abuses
By Raymond P. Boucher
In enacting Assembly Bill 218, the California Legislature finally recognized what survivors of childhood sexual abuse suffer t...
Administrative/Regulatory, Government
California’s new internet of things law is a step in the right direction
By Ashley Thomas
The new law is the first of its kind and will attempt to establish cybersecurity standards for connected devices where none ha...
Civil Rights, Government
Proposed rule will make combating fair housing discrimination much harder
By Nadia Aziz, Matthew F. Warren
Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the federal Fair Housing Act with the goal to “guarantee a basic American ...
Government, Labor/Employment
Pension reform options for California public agencies
By Che I. Johnson, Lars T. Reed
California’s pension plans are dangerously underfunded, the result of overly generous benefit promises, wishful thinking and a...
Senate rules of procedure for impeachment trials
By Charles S. Doskow
Like a suitcase you had forgotten you had that falls from the top of a closet and hits you in the head, we have now become sud...
Constitutional Law, Government, U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court, Donald Trump and the rule of law
By Erwin Chemerinsky
The cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s financial records should be easily resolved ...
Alternative Dispute Resolution, Civil Litigation
Some thoughts on arbitration in the wake of AB 51
By Michael H. Leb
On Dec. 6, a coalition of business trade associations filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in the Eastern D...
Being a crime victim is traumatic. As a result, it is not surprising that most crime victims are dismayed to hear that a defen...
I am compelled to say that to be shy is not to be rude. The traits are mistaken for one another.
Making sense of IRS Form 1099 in legal settlements
By Robert W. Wood
IRS Forms 1099 match income and Social Security numbers. Most people pay attention to these forms at tax time, but lawyers and...
In my last column I endorsed Judge Curtis A. Karnow’s view that law professors are “disconnected” from the real world of law p...
Even close clock watchers may not have noticed that the giant clock atop the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles i...
Corporate, Law Practice, Securities, Tax
The top 10 legal issues for startups
By Roger Royse
Startups are confronted with business and legal challenges from the day they are born, often exacerbated by the lack of a lega...
On Dec. 5 the House passed a bipartisan bill that for the first time expressly prohibits illegal insider trading. The Insider ...
Most Americans don’t enjoy filing or paying, but they do it anyway, and they pay up. If they can’t pay, they get in line and s...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Law Practice
Professional responsibility: Rules regarding lawyer advertising
By A. Marco Turk
The floodgates protecting truly professional conduct of the legal profession were opened on June 27, 1977, the day the U.S. Su...
A different approach to achieving a “just, speedy, and inexpensive” determination of every action
By Sidney Kanazawa
When our polarized citizenry and courts cannot agree on common facts or law, it may be surprising to hear that Rule 1 of the F...
Law Practice
Recruiting the right law student for your externship opportunity
By Laura Riley
Regardless of the approach, it is important for the schools and the interested students to have a clear understanding of what ...
This is the third installment for the Daily Journal of histories for trial lawyers. Today’s subject is Edward Williams. When W...