Most lawyers cite authority for their arguments, and leave it at that. They assume that’s good enough to persuade, because jud...
Increasing scrutiny on private fund advisers
By Sara L. Terheggen
According to the SEC, approximately 35% of all SEC-registered advisers manage approximately $18 trillion in assets. In just 5 ...
Late tax returns incur penalties, and they can be big. Late payment triggers other penalties. That’s right, the IRS penalizes ...
Using documents at trial is not difficult. However, not knowing the routine for marking and admitting documents into evidence ...
Legal Education, Environmental & Energy
The latest attack on CEQA: The UC Berkeley enrollment fiasco
By Gary A. Patton
Before we undermine the integrity of our state’s environmental protection system, we should do a reality check on the UC Berke...
The tragedy of Alejandro Garcia’s murder is compounded by the fact that if we had an elected district attorney who enforced th...
Supreme Court justices have expressed unhappiness with the lack of clarity in the court’s jurisprudence surrounding this issue...
U.S. Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary
Race and politics in the Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings
By Kevin R. Johnson
With over nine years as a federal judge, Judge Jackson has more judicial experience than Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh...
Technology, Tax
Yes or no? Answering the IRS question on your tax return
By Robert W. Wood
In the tax world, a simple yes or no question can be a surprisingly big deal — if you answer wrong.
On July 17, 1944, a ship being loaded with bombs and ammunition near San Francisco Bay exploded, instantly killing 320 men and...
Understanding your client’s expectations, learning more about your client’s perceptions of the legal system and your client’s ...
Law Practice, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Managing the mayhem of multiparty mediation
By Robert S. Mann
Mutliparty cases present special challenges for not only the mediator, but also the lawyers, their clients and the insurance c...
Law Practice, Government
Bounties for enforcing public values are hardly novel
By Richard A. Schulman
What might be novel is that a state with opposing politics, i.e., Texas, decided to use the same system.
Government, Environmental & Energy
California must use authority to accelerate clean car future
By Scott Hochberg
California has its clean car authority back. Now the question is how aggressively it will wield that newly restored power to p...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Exchanging mediation briefs: The simplest path to success
By Robert M. Cohen
Had Vince Lombardi coached mediators and not football players, his famous proverb might sound something like this: “Great comm...
Law Practice, Alternative Dispute Resolution
Small and solo firms: Level the playing field through mediation
By Alice M. Graham, Jan Frankel Schau
By harnessing the power of mediation, the sole or small firm practitioner can drive home the options if an agreement is not re...
Insurance, Civil Litigation, California Supreme Court
High court declines to review whether COVID can cause property damage
By Rani Gupta, David B. Goodwin
On March 10, the California Supreme Court announced that it has declined to weigh in — for now — on the biggest brewing insura...
The Los Angeles DA’s epiphany that his blanket Youth Justice Policy was a mistake is little solace to the families of murder v...
Technology, Data Privacy
CPRA will give consumers tools needed to enforce privacy rights
By Anita Taff-Rice
The California Consumer Privacy Act, widely hailed as the most stringent consumer privacy law in the country, has produced a m...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
You Complete Me
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
In a recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court penned the latest chapter in what might be called “The Chronicles of Crawford.”
Law Practice, Civil Litigation
Man plans, and God laughs: The emotions of litigation
By Scott J. Nord
Over the past year, I have written about myriad litigation-related topics — yet, I have never written about the litigants them...
For countless law enforcement agencies, the scope of disclosures they are legally required to make often turns on what constit...
Law Practice, Criminal, Constitutional Law
Can journalists remain after declaration of an unlawful assembly?
By Daniel S. Roberts
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Senate Bill 98, media groups hailed its passage and reported that it “exempts media professi...
Law Practice, Appellate Practice
Trial court winners can become appellate court losers
By Myron Moskovitz
Trial lawyers juggle many balls at once — and the balls keep changing as the case moves along. Appellants’ lawyers are on a di...
Law Practice, Covid Columns
How the pandemic changed the legal landscape
By Brian S. Kabateck
With the threat of COVID not entirely behind us yet, it’s crucial now more than ever to embrace the changes the pandemic has b...
Tax audits are unnerving and can be expensive. Even if you end up with the coveted “no change” letter that is the stuff of leg...
U.S. Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the arc of history
By Jay Koh
Last month, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the Senate Judicia...
Torts/Personal Injury, Law Practice, Covid Columns, Civil Litigation
COVID-19 negligent exposure cases: Not a plaintiff’s paradise
By J. Kevin Morrison, Noah A. Phillips
While the factual circumstances underlying COVID-19 negligence lawsuits may be as novel as the virus itself and often present ...
Labor/Employment
Employment law’s future in the remote-controlled workplace
By Robert J. Hudock
Along with all the other social impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reshaped the workplace and much of employment...