California Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary
California Supreme Court Historical Society grant honors Selma Moidel Smith
By Kathryn Mickle Werdegar
The funds may be used to defray the travel expenses of law students and graduate students needing to access archival materials...
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Labor/Employment, U.S. Supreme Court
For life not eternity: What’s next for pay history?
By Eve I. Klein, Jennifer A. Kearns
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the 9th Circuit’s pay history ruling for improperly relying on the vote and opinion...
Government, Labor/Employment
Bill aims to rein in the dark side of forced arbitration
By Eric B. Kingsley
There were rumblings in the past, but now the full force of the U.S. House of Representatives is coming for forced arbitration...
Civil Litigation
Presenting life care planner’s testimony while navigating Sanchez
By Brian S. Kabateck, Brian Hong
It’s a scenario that many trial lawyers dread: Your life care planner is on the stand. Just when she’s about to get into the d...
Bankruptcy
Will dealing with cannabis businesses leave you bankrupt?
By Charles D. Ferrari
If your business deals with cannabis, you no doubt are hoping the answer is no. However, as the saying goes, "be careful what ...
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Justice demands transparency in third-party litigation funding
By Lisa A. Rickard
Given the size of the third-party litigation funding industry and its impact on our justice system, a little transparency isn’...
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Seeing through the Litigation Funding Transparency Act of 2019
By Matthew Harrison, Amy Geise
The Litigation Funding Transparency Act offers no sound policy basis and runs contrary to basic tenets of relevance governing ...
Environmental & Energy
50 years after the Santa Barbara oil spill, why are we still fighting this battle?
By A. Barry Cappello
Fifty years ago, an oil drilling company failed to put proper safety measures in place causing one of its oil platforms to rup...
California Supreme Court, Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Lawyers should be watching high court Monster Energy case
By Jennifer J. Hagan
For years, it has been standard practice for lawyers to give the “thumbs up” on settlement agreements by signing “Approved as ...
Tax
Losing your passport to Internal Revenue Service is now possible
By Robert W. Wood
Traveling abroad might be a luxury or a necessity, depending on the circumstances. But now you can add tax problems to the lis...
Intellectual Property, U.S. Supreme Court
Are Patent Office attorney fees awardable under Section 145?
By Ben M. Davidson
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the question of whether applicants who have appealed the decisi...
Administrative/Regulatory, Government
Consumer privacy across the Atlantic: GDPR vs CCPA
By Mary Race, Christine Lyon
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 echoes concepts found in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, ...
Law Office Management, Law Practice
Planning is critical in managing the risks of partner departures
By Daniel O'Rielly, Dena Roche
For any California law firm, addressing the challenges that arise when a partner or practice group departs the firm is a criti...
Many, if not most, directors and officers liability policies contain allocation clauses. Commonly, these clauses provide that ...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Law Practice
Dishonest Attorneys Face Severe Consequences
By Shari L. Klevens, Alanna G. Clair
In recent years, courts have shown little hesitation in imposing severe sanctions on attorneys if the court determines that th...
We are living in the Information Age, where technologies continuously and rapidly evolve and the law struggles — and often fai...
California Supreme Court, Government, Labor/Employment
Right to purchase ‘airtime’ is not a vested right
By Isabel C. Safie
In an unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs in Cal Fire Local 2881 v. CalPERS have no vest...
Intellectual Property, Civil Litigation, U.S. Supreme Court
Don’t hold your breath after copyright ruling
By Jessica Bromall Sparkman, Rod S. Berman
The U.S. Supreme Court says that a copyright owner cannot initiate a lawsuit until it obtains a certificate of copyright regis...
Banking, Securities
A brief history of the law of initial coin offerings
By Roger Royse
The initial coin offering was the natural next step in the evolution of applications for blockchain technology. The only probl...
California Supreme Court, Civil Litigation
What a court can consider when ruling on anti-SLAPP
By Gregory M. Smith
The California Supreme Court recently ruled on what a court can consider when ruling on an anti-SLAPP.
Liability for injuries to employees of an independent contractor
By Garret D. Murai
As every law student and lawyer knows, while there are the rules, there are the exceptions to the rules, and then there are th...
Criminal, Government
Who’s afraid of judicial review? A response to the LA Times
By Eric Siddall
On March 2, the Los Angeles Times editorial board attacked district attorneys as craven politicians out to maximize punitive s...
The impact of military service can manifest itself on the lives of everyone in a veteran’s family in countless ways. Military ...
Environmental & Energy, U.S. Supreme Court
Clean Water Act cases head to the high court
By Davina Pujari, Sean G. Herman
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases involving whether the act regulates discharges of pollutants to groundwater.
California Courts of Appeal, Civil Litigation
Arbitration proceedings not a protected activity under anti-SLAPP
By Jennifer J. Hagan
Most lawyers familiar with arbitration understand that it is not a judicial proceeding, but it might come as a surprise to lit...
The OJ Simpson “trial of the century,” already distant enough in the past to be the subject of fictional revision, offers a fe...
Corporate, Tax
Selling a business triggers taxes for owners, company or both
By Robert W. Wood
Are you selling a business, or perhaps helping a client to sell a business? In any of these circumstances, it pays to think ab...
The typical appellate court decision names the judges who decided the case and specifies which is the author and which two are...
The phrase “on the internet” became a running joke with patent attorneys after the dot com boom; today it might be “machine le...
Constitutional Law
Public access, environmental preservation and property rights
By Jeremy B. Talcott
In the battle between desire for public access and environmental preservation, respecting property rights is the best solution