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 Louis J. 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...
Health Care & Hospital Law, Administrative/Regulatory
SB 53 and the human touch: don't let AI outsource compassion
By Elana R. Levine
SB 53 underscores that while AI can support doctors, it cannot replace the human presence, judgment and empathy at the core of...
Contracts, Construction, California Courts of Appeal
Summer reading: A swimming pool case with a cold splash of reality
By Garret D. Murai
In Stronghold Engineering v. City of Monterey (2023), the California Court of Appeal held that a contractor's initial ...
Entertainment & Sports, Antitrust & Trade Reg.
Sports face antitrust showdown: 5 high-stakes cases in 2025
By Jill M. Manning
From tennis courts to NASCAR tracks, athletes and the DOJ are using antitrust law to challenge governing bodies over suppresse...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Civil Litigation, Business Law
Uber's assault on civil justice: a play out of the corporate intimidation playbook
By P. Christopher Ardalan
Uber is weaponizing federal RICO lawsuits against personal injury attorneys and medical providers in multiple states, a corpor...
Family, Alternative Dispute Resolution
10 ways lawyers can maximize family law mediation outcomes
By Dianna Gould-Saltman
Mediation isn't always successful in family law, but attorneys can significantly improve the odds with the right approach -- t...
Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports
How Taylor Swift is transforming artists' rights and ownership in the music industry
By Elizabeth Vulaj
Taylor Swift's fight to reclaim her master recordings has not only secured ownership of her own music but sparked a legal and ...
Family
Understanding California DVROs: The challenge of subsequent restraining orders
By Firdaus F. Dordi, Rosa Vaquera-Martinez
California's domestic violence law leaves unresolved questions about how courts should handle subsequent restraining orders wh...
Guide to Legal Writing, Appellate Practice
5 pointers for more persuasive appellate storytelling
By Hayley MacMillen
The fact section of an appellate brief should provide relevant details that allow judges to draw their own conclusions; avoid ...
When a law student submits a paper advocating white supremacy and violence, the only appropriate academic response is to fail ...
Evidence
9th Circuit to hear oral argument on scope of attorney-client privilege for mixed business/legal communications
By Alejandro L. Sarria, Bradley E. Markano
The 9th Circuit will hear oral argument in Epic Games v. Apple, a case that could clarify whether corporate communicat...