Labor/Employment
Businesses: prepare for AB 5 to rewrite worker classification law
By James C. Fessenden
Last week, the California Legislature approved a controversial new law that will reshape the way businesses evaluate their rel...
Environmental & Energy
New strategies for addressing major change in water law
By Christina Babbitt
With climate change at our doorstep, our state leaders know we don’t have time to wait until the next drought to create a more...
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Immigration, U.S. Supreme Court
Order is one step closer to eviscerating our asylum system
By Blaine M. Bookey
Over the last two years, the Trump administration has sought to rewrite longstanding laws and close our doors to asylum seeker...
Administrative/Regulatory, Environmental & Energy
Streamlining Napa’s winery permitting process
By Katherine A. Philippakis
Napa Valley’s wineries are among the most heavily regulated businesses in the world. In addition to the myriad state and feder...
Government, Labor/Employment
DOL may update overtime rate regulations for first time in 50 years
By Peter Brown, Lisa Charbonneau
Since its passage in 1938, courts have struggled to interpret the meaning of “the regular rate” and the correct measure of ove...
Family
Responding to discovery requests for documents in family law cases
By Sarah A. Thompson
So you just were served with a demand for production of documents. How do you respond?
Alternative Dispute Resolution, Government, Labor/Employment
Newsom should veto latest anti-arbitration legislation
By Ryan D. Derry
If signed into law, AB 51 will make it a misdemeanor for “a person” to require any applicant or employee to, “as a condition o...
Family, Judges and Judiciary, Letters
Domestic violence doesn’t just occur between husbands and wives
By Tara M. Flanagan
Sadly, LGBTQ partners and spouses “fall victim to domestic violence at equal or even higher rates compared to their heterosexu...
Civil Litigation
Can courts confirm awards by religious courts that conflict with secular law?
By Joshua J. Borger
The issue of this article is whether rulings of the batte din applying Jewish law can be confirmed without violating modern la...
Predictably, most of the movement seems to be directed to tax-free states like Texas, Florida, Washington or Nevada. But Puert...
Appellate Practice, California Courts of Appeal, California Supreme Court, Law Practice
On ‘published’ opinions
By Myron Moskovitz
The dictionary provides two generally accepted meanings to the word “publish.” It means “put into a book.” And it means “made ...
Constitutional Law, Government
Freedom of the press and the White House press corps
By John H. Minan
After a recent ruling, presumably, it’s back to the drawing board at the White House to devise clearer standards that meet pro...
Administrative/Regulatory
New statewide commercial cannabis regulations create opportunities for savvy investors
By Matthew A. Portnoff, Jordan Ferguson
The California regulatory regime remains complicated, but there are several trends that broadly apply, and for which savvy mar...
Government, Tax
Donor disclosure updates and new mandatory e-filing requirements
By Erin Bradrick
A monthly review of important developments affecting nonprofits.
Government, Education Law
The California Consumer Privacy Act and the education industry
By Michelle H. Donovan, Brandi A. Taylor
There are some unique challenges for companies in the education space, particularly as they work to operationalize compliance ...
Government, Transportation
Recent federal policy developments concerning autonomous vehicles
By Susan Lent, Diana E. Schaffner
This article provides an overview of recent developments in Washington, D.C. that may influence federal AV policy. These devel...
California Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, U.S. Supreme Court
Arbitration Wars: A report from the front
By Anthony J. Oncidi
For better or worse, California obstinately continues to go its own way on the issue of workplace arbitration. Two recent dev...
Constitutional Law, Criminal
Ruling preserves Pitchess statute constitutionality-- for now
By Naeun Rim
Using a common sense approach to the meaning of “confidentiality,” the California Supreme Court concluded that while Brady lis...
Law Practice, Legal Education
Feedback on legal externs’ written work
By Sophia D. Hamilton, Allison L. Wang
This is the fourth article in our series on externships. Previous articles covered the basics of law school externships (“Exte...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, State Bar & Bar Associations
Bar endorses attorneys consulting with firm in-house counsel
By Shawn Shaffie
Based upon a long line of California cases, a new ethics opinion acknowledges the potential dual benefits to both clients and ...
Constitutional Law, U.S. Supreme Court
All this over a two-bit gun case
By Charles S. Doskow
The 5-to-4 Republican majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has existed for some time now, and has been accepted as a political f...
An emerging phenomenon and a critical area of engagement
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Weak BATNA, strong BATNA: How do you manage it?
By Sean E. Judge
What do you do when you simply must settle a case?
Sometimes, a lawyer might be the first responder
In “Gods of the Upper Air” (August 2019), Charles King traces the vast and quite positive influence of Franz Boas, the towerin...
Taxes do not make a good spectator sport, but you can still sometimes learn something by the missteps of others. Reality stars...
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Limitations vs repose: a guide
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
Environmental & Energy, Law Practice
California may join other states with laws protecting cats’ claws
By Elizabeth Holtz
Scofflaws no more, street artists are nowadays quick to invoke the proverbial long arm when their original work is coopted, ex...